Many businesses are targeting the same customers even if they’re from different industries. That is a fact that Ken finds value in and which you must leverage in order to grow. Go through the steps on how you can do this through COOP advertising. Ken breaks down the ways you can reach out to different businesses and work together to get more customers. Heed the great tips and advice as you move your way to your fastest growth today.
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Fastest Growth Today
This is titled Fastest Growth Today: My Uncle Bill’s Lemonade Stand. It was 1955 and this is how the story goes. This is a great family story. My father was seven and my uncle Bill was nine. My uncle Bill had a lemonade stand out front on 101st in Talman, Chicago. My dad walks up and notices there are a couple of cups of lemonade already poured. He grabs a cup of lemonade and he walks away. My uncle Bill says, “Kenny, get over here. You owe me a nickel.” My dad says, “I don’t have a nickel. I’m your brother. I get free lemonade.”
At seven years old, he starts walking back to the house. My uncle Bill said, “That’s not going to happen.” He runs after my father. My dad starts running. Uncle Bill runs faster and can’t quite catch up to my dad. He’s about two feet away. He does reach, jump and breaks a glass mug on my father’s back and my dad starts to bleed on the shoulder. The seven and nine-year-old run up the steps of my grandpa’s house and my grandpa comes to the door. My dad is holding his shoulder. His white t-shirt is all bloody. If you can picture in the 1950s, all they wore were white t-shirts. They are Italian. My grandfather goes, “What is going on here?”
Identify the definition of your perfect customer. Click To TweetMy dad is blubbering. He’s crying, and uncle Bill is puffing his chest out and knows that grandpa is going to yell at him. My dad says, “Dad, Billy broke a glass mason jar on my back.” My grandfather turns to my Uncle Bill and says, “Is this true? Did you break a glass on your brother?” My uncle Bill goes, “Dad, he took a couple of lemonade and he hasn’t paid me.” My grandfather looks at my dad and says, “Kenny, did you take a glass of lemonade?” My dad says, “Yeah.” Grandpa says, “Did you pay for it?” My dad says, “No, I’m his brother. I get free lemonade. I’m family.” My grandfather looks right at my dad and says, “Can’t you see he’s trying to make a living?” He went into the house and left those two brothers go at it. What’s the point? My grandfather meant it. “Can’t you see? He is trying to make money.” Let’s get this blog into reality here.
Are there businesses now that are out there trying to make a living? They’re waking up every morning saying, “We’ve got to make more money. We’ve got to trim expenses.” They are grinding it and grinding it. Are there businesses out there trying to make a living going after your exact same customer, but yet they’re in a slightly different industry? What do I mean by this? Let’s take Joliet, Illinois where I had a home for seventeen years. Don’t the regular care doctors going after the same customer client as the dentist? Don’t the mortgage brokers target and go after the same people as insurance people? Don’t carpet cleaners that clean carpets in the average residential home go after the same customer or client that the people that clean ducts go after? Of course, they are. They’re in slightly different industries, but they’re going after the same customer. The title of this blog is Fastest Growth Today, not 1982, but right now.
Step one is, “Who exactly is your avatar? Who is your perfect customer? How old are they? Where do they live? Do they camp out in groups? Can you find them in places? What is the definition of your perfect customer? Who are you going after?” Step two is name six different companies in three different industries going after the exact same customer. By going into SEMrush, SpyFu or Google, you can find six different companies in three different industries going after your same customer. Step three is I want you to approach them with the identical email that I read. “Dear so and so. We were just shown by a growth consulting company that not only both of our companies are going after the same customer, but there may also be a mutual benefit to partnering on some of the co-op advertising. Would you be interested in exploring this with us? Your name.” There is no human way. If you find out who the decision makers are, who’s at the top, not the head of marketing, who lives and breathes and goes to sleep and anguish at those companies, that’s who you address the email to.
I would even follow up with a real piece of mail handwritten to their address with a real stamp that you lick so they open it. There is no way you send out six of those professional pieces that you don’t get a couple of answers back, “I’d love to explore that with you.” Now you get to have them back saying, “Sure, I’ll explore it.” What do you do now? Number one, I want you to swap audiences, right in the middle of episode 184 where I talked about what I did with a gentleman named Louie at Louie’s pizza. If you haven’t read that blog, I urge you to read it again.
Reach out and find mutual benefits. Click To TweetStep one is to swap audiences in a similar fashion that I described in detail in the previous blog. Number two is partner up. Host an event with them, host a Meetup with them and share a radio spot with them, which means both of your voices. You go to a recording studio, you say, “I’m so and so from this company.” She goes, “I’m so and so from this company,” then you record a cute commercial together. How about an ad swap on your websites? Meaning they get an ad block on your website and you get an ad block on their website.
How about swapping newsletter contribution? If you have a newsletter, let that person write in your newsletter. If they have a newsletter, have them let you come in and write for theirs. How about you rep their product for an affiliate commission? You’re already in those customers and they’re not so you add an arrow to your quiver and you start repping their products for a commission. It’s called quid pro quo. They, in turn, rep your product because they’re in customers you’re not in. It’s very similar to what I described on the previous blog except there are some money going back and forth. One of the most famous company duos that did this was IBM and Intel. IBM vowed for fifteen years they would not do a deal without Intel and Intel vowed for the same fifteen years they would not do a deal if it involves hardware without IBM. They were always seen together. This is episode 188, Fastest Growth Today. Who is out there with a lemonade stand just grinding it out and their customer, my father, Kenny is exactly your customer also? I hope this helps. Take care.
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