Q&A with America’s most expensive business consultant, Jay Abraham. Part I

Would you like to magically know what would be the highest price you could charge for your product or service and have people lined up to do business with you?

Would you like to know what headlines on your ads would attract the most readers? What sales pitches you make over the phone would have the most impact?

Or what messages in your literature would persuade the most people that you are the company to turn to? Would you also like to know which visual images of your products would draw the most attention among your prospects?

And which models you carry will generate the most business? It may sound like a pipe dream to be able to gather such crucial data, but, in truth, it’s pretty easy. Jay responds to some questions on how to do it — starting immediately.

Q: Sounds like an absolute “must.” What is it?

A: T-E-S-T-I-N-G. And by testing, I mean pitting your current selling approach against a new one to see which is most successful in bringing in business. For example, I have personally seen a single word change in an advertising headline make the difference between $50,000 in sales and $250,000.

By testing, you can literally become a marketing genius overnight. It can turn your business or professional practice into a money machine within a week.

Q: I’ve always been warned about too-easy solutions. Explain.

A: It does sound almost too simple. But remember, the truth is always simple. If you systematically subject your every business - or practice-building process to testing — from your ad headlines to sales presentations to what you say over the phone to reactivate an old customer or client — regularly comparing each against new approaches, you can’t help but maximize results and revenue.

Q: What specific testing methods should I use?

A: First, identify the key selling factors or methods you are currently using. Then be observant of methods people in other industries are using successfully to sell their product or service. Apply those ideas to your own situation, testing the new approach against the one you’re currently using.

Example:
Let me give you a wonderful example of how testing a new headline can lead to some amazing results. I had one client that sold gold and silver coins by offering bank financing. The client would put up one-third, the bank two-thirds. So the company ran an ad with the headline, “Two-thirds bank financing on Silver and Gold.” The ad did reasonably well, the client made a profit, the salesmen made a decent income and so they continued running the ad.

When I was brought in to consult I asked if they had tested any other headlines against the current one — just to confirm it was the best one. They said no. I said let’s test some alternatives and they agreed.

Result:
As a test against their headline, “Two-third bank financing on Silver and Gold.”, I wrote a headline that had essentially said the same message but expressed it in a different way. Mine read, “Gold is Selling for $300 an Ounce. Send Us Just $100 an Ounce and We’ll Buy You all the Gold You Want.” The body copy for both ads was the same, but the ad with the test headline out-produced the others over 400%!!! Why did it work better? Because it titillated the prospect with how little it would cost them to control a lot of gold — and the potential profit involved. The previous ad was pretty “flat” in its presentation of the benefit.

Lesson Learned: If you don’t test different headlines and different ways of presenting your proposition, not just in headlines, but copy, packaging, etc., you may be losing as much as 21 times the profit and the number of customers you can sell and resell.

In Part II, Jay will answer questions related to testing your price.

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