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Memo From: Marlon Sanders
Re: Secrets of the Guru Business
Hello,
Marlon here.
It’s called the Guru Business.
But all Guru means is teacher. And we are all that to someone.
Still, some people make a living in the Guru Business and others
don’t.
Here are 3 secrets of the Guru Business.
==========
Secret one
==========
Keep people within your frame.
So some people say you should only be an affiliate and NOT have
your own products. You have to "sell your frame" so others buy
into it.
You’d point out that if you have your own products, you have
customer service, hosting, etc. That’s how you sell your frame.
If you get people to buy into your frame, you eliminate all other
competitors that operate or sell stuff outside your frame.
Unfortunately, most people go for the frame that sounds the
easiest and simplest, so if you aren’t willing to promise the
moon, you have a disadvantage to overcome.
That means you have to be 2X better than others at selling your
frame of truth vs. your frame of ease.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Are You Overwhelmed?
If you feel overwhelmed or things seem out of focus, then
Ockham’s Razor will put all that back in perspective for
you and give you a perspective you can ACT on. Plus,
learn how to suck out sales from info products month after
month WITHOUT big product launches.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
==========
Secret Two
==========
The money is in the back end.
Like ALL businesses, the money is in the back end. If you’re
new to this Game, what that means is that the money is in the
repeat business and larger dollar sales that FOLLOW the initial
sale.
Coaching, membership sites, seminars, workshops, DVD sets,
consulting.
These are where the profits are much more so than ebooks.
=============
Secret Three
=============
The way you stake your claim is by having students attribute
their success to you. And the way you get that is by having
a coaching program.
The problem with just selling low ticked info products as I’ve
done mostly over the years is people don’t attribute their success
to you, even though you may have been instrumental in it.
So I think a coaching program is an integral part of the Guru
Business.
Best wishes,
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing
PS: Ockham’s Razor is 200+ pages and I wrote it this year.
It’s 100% fresh, high quality content written ALL by me. NO
outsourced writers like some people do.
Brilliant…and the exact model I’ve used for several years now to do quite well.
One other lesson from you that I’ve cashed in on is this:
Let your AUDIENCE drive the product creation wagon. They know what they want next so just ask ‘em.
Listen to Marlon folks…he’s helped me make millions.
[Jim YES! You are so right on that one.]
Hi Marlon,
Thank you for sharing this blog post.
Fantastic blog as I always learn more new knowledge which is very powerful.
Looking forward to your next blog post
Zack
[Hey Zack, thanks for your comments!]
Thanks for the wake up call, Marlon.
I agree especially with the backend part of the ‘guru secrets’. Too bad I discovered this essential step of successful selling late in my life insurance career. Could have made thousands in commission instead of wasting time & money chasing after small change whereas the big money was aleady mine for the asking from existing clients.
I wonder why the trainers NEVER bother to tell us this vital part?
Warmest regards,
Andrew
[Andrew, the insurance business is a weird business. Why most companies don't have lead generation systems that are worth anything puzzles me.]
Hi Marlon,
I have a weird situation. I set up my first e-marketing WordPress Blog in April this year. [http://johnschmidt.name] I have about 99% visitors from Russia. Just a few visitors from USA. I do not know why things turned out that way. They even leave comments from time to time some foreign and some english. I do not expect you to fix this just wondered if I did somthing wrong.
I also did the permalinks change and that worked out but twitter will not recognize a redirect so the Tweetmeme in my blog always has a question mark [?] and it will not correct with a redirect. I han to take it out of my blog.
Best regards,
John schmidt
[John, that's weird about tweetme. I would contact a programmer about that. Try odesk.com. Weight loss in enormously competitive and you aren't niched on the topic. So it's going to be hard to get traffic. If you're in my produce/promote class watch the vid I did on how to come up with GREAT product ideas and it shows how to niche a broad topic like weight loss. I would niche it then run banner ads on the matching web sites. If I remember correctly, Ryan Deiss said it took him 1-2 years before he could advertise successfully on the weight loss topic. It's a very competitive market. You might want to start with a traditional niche.]
Nice content as always!! I’m very new to the on-line business, ive taken a lot of the ideas I’ve gatherd here to my off-line service business and it translates very well… I wanted to comment about what you said regarding selling lower cost items and perhaps not getting the credit for being instrumental in the success of other “Gurus” or experts. I have to admit that your stuff has been very helpful and I suspect after careful comparison to be the original in many of the srategies and content out there.
Thanks for the help and I really love your dashboards…
P.S. I’m going to apply an upsale to my existing customers, i’m shy about it but will DO
Hi Marlon
I hear you and this is a killer article.
Re point 3: I’m now doing 7 figures per year and that wouldn’t be possible without the help and advice I received from you.
So I’d advise everyone to listen to everything that Marlon has to say!
Cheers!
Lee McIntyre
Wow, I have totally missed the importance of the coaching program in the “Guru Formula”, but when you lay it out like that, it almost seems essential.
I frequently take apart ads,emails, salesletters and campaigns from $100million+ companies and a few marketing gurus (you included
, and I never thought a coaching program was a “must have”.
I guess the fact that I am such a hermit ( I’m great with people but prefer my alone time) kept me from seeing what I wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards.
That’s a valuable nugget. I guess I’ll say thanks even though you might’ve just given me more work ( decisions, decisions
Thank You & Keep bringing the heat
Joshua N. Rabon
Even though I’ve heard it a gazillion times before, it really struck home this time that the money is in the back-end.
I’m going to restructure some of my campaigns. Much Thanks.
Carl Willoughby
RawFoodDietForHumans.com/Lose_Weight.html
As usual, lots of good sense.
The only problem with coaching is that it takes time. It is therefore non-scaleable as there is a limit to the number of hours you can spend doing it. Most clients believe that they are buying time rather than outcomes. There is therefore a finite price that they are willing to pay, regardless of benefits you deliver, so you have a ceiling on what you can earn.
Coaching can make you a lot of money. However, that is an outcome of your success in helping clients to understand the potential benefits to themselves and then to experience those benefits in the form of real-world outcomes. That in turn drives the price you can charge and the word of mouth referrals that drive up numbers of clients.
Just my opinion.
Stephen
[Stephen, those are "negative branches" to use theory of constraints terminology. So the question is how quickly, simply and easily can you find yourself creatively overcome those negative branches? NOW with me I find that to be a fascinating question that kind of sticks in your mind]
Excellent email, as always. It was short this time, but still excellent.
Today, my whole business model is centered around the coaching model.
I have flagship products that drive people into my autoresponder sequence, and when they buy from me (one or two times), I upsell them the coaching.
As for learning from you, I must say that I learned a TON… plus I also made money with your products as an affiliate as well.
All the best,
Franck
The Body Guard Marketer.
PS. You are one of the rare marketer (don’t want to call you guru…) that get my attention in my inbox because I know that you are going to teach me something… or confirm that whatI’m doing already work.
Marlon: Short and sweet. Your Guru
“secrets” are right on. Thanks Ray
[Thanks Ray. Appreciate your post.]