Direct Marketing Mentor

Why Is My Marketing NOT Working?And how can you make it work? That’s my room of creation.

Recently I spent 7 weeks writing ONE small advert with just 1000 words and images. A long time of course but it had to be perfect. (It’s still not complete 100% but neither is Gaudies cathedral)

I write around 2,000 pages of something each year. Some of it is poetry. Other bits are short stories and lots of it is direct marketing for my clients.

I also buy around 5 books a week. My delivery today is Friedrich Nietzsche. I have just ordered a vintage direct mail book. Last week I found a very old book on direct marketing. I have seen a new book I want and will order today. I devour books.

Each day I go into my room and like a surgeon I meticulously plan and create strategies and words that sell stuff for my clients.

Why am I sharing that almost useless information with you?

To let you know you need to study - read - devour and practice to become a master and frankly if you don't have time to do that you can do two things.

Let your office monkey play games with your business by creating money like marketing!

Or hire a Gorilla strength expert like myself (although I feel confident in saying I look nothing like a Gorilla not even in my pants!).

I can tell you this. Things have changed with the minds of buyers. The world of business has changed, its fast and instant.

Messages are not getting read if they bore the prospect to death or dare I say it … TOO LONG!

The noise is hard to cut through and with everything screaming for attention through endless advertising feeds, brilliant marketing has never been so needed.

This story is very typical.

John decided to set up his new business from scratch. He got a loan, he found an investor and had a great idea that he felt would sell truck-loads of the services and products he had spent years thinking about and months creating. John then got started.

He could have bought computers but decided to spend more and bought Apple computers after all they looked cool despite being more than three times the price (he spent a lot of time on Facebook after all it looks really cool on a MAC … DURBO).

He bought his desk and office furniture and could have had a cheaper desk and furniture but decided a real oak desk would look and feel more impressive not only to him but to his staff and too his impending customers.

He could have started with a small office – even from home – but decided to hit the ground running and lease a huge office in the city that would require a signature, a down payment and a hefty rent each and every month for the next seven years of the new lease (I could have shown him how to get that for almost ZERO).

He was ready to go … new logo, new letter heads, new cards (really expensive ones) and a state-of-the-art telephone system that would be able to successfully handle the huge amount of business that would clearly arrive from the day he opened the doors (hell there was so much stuff it look like mission control over in NASA).

The day arrived, the doors opened, his staff arrived, he welcomed them all and they sat at their desks, on their backsides wondering what to do. One newspaper advertisement went into the local paper the week they opened and they sat and waited. They waiting for phone calls – they never arrived. They waited for customers to walk in – they never arrived – they checked their emails – they never arrived.

So the staff spend day after day posting selfies on Instagram, on Facebook and using NIKE running App to measure how many feet and calories they would burn whilst walking back and forth to each others desks liking each others posts of photos of sandwiches with and without butter!

John just paid the wages and prayed! Just three months after everything started John had spent all of his available funds (well the funds loaned to him by investors and the banks) and was now in the business of sitting and waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did happen apart from two broken computers, lots of coffee had been drunk, lots of staring at his empty books and lots of sleepless night worried to death about what if it doesn’t pick up?’

John recalled the first morning walking into his new office, it felt really great. Head high, proud and a feeling of ‘I have made it’ would overcome him as he parked up his newly leased Range Rover, walked into his new leased office and switched on his newly leased Apple Mac Pro before taking off his new suite jacket and hanging it from his newly leased office furniture.

What went wrong he asked? As his Mac loaded he went back into his office to see how his staff were doing. All eight of them looked busy but he wasn’t sure with what as at this point NO customers had been nabbed. Two were chatting, the others were glazed into their screens … ‘Facebook he said to himself, that bloody Facebook!’

All John knew was he had to turnover around £17,300 each week to stay afloat in the city in his new leased office and his new leased life. John knew and felt in his heart everyone would need his services so marketing was something that never even crossed his mind – he felt people would just come.

One advert in the newspaper would be fine – it works! And of course a business page on Facebook. John had noticed that most of the big boys would now advertise – Facebook.com/KitKat or what ever their logo or brand name was. so he did the same. ‘No point creating a website when I can get a Facebook page for free’. According to the experts (apparently apparently apparently)

John thought a stack of business would be coming in through social media. So John set his social media up (that now had 19 likes … 7 were from his new office) and also ran with his one newspaper advert.

Now it was a case of waiting for the buying hoards to simply arrive, take the orders, sell the product, push out the services and bang – ‘I’m rich’ The customers didn’t come! Week one was a huge loss… yet lots of new posts on Instagram with toast, cleavage and putting lips Week two was a bigger loss. Week three was a total loss he felt he couldn’t recover from. Week four he couldn’t pay his staff or any of his leases.

With his heart palpitating, John needed help and needed help fast. It turned out that John had asked everyone he had interviewed if they knew about marketing. All of them had replied that they did know about marketing (what they say and what they do … Oh for the world of truth and hype). Susan had written letters for a bank (have you ever actually read one of those things?). Steven had created a small advert for a small local garage. Tom had written webpages for his previous employer (the local council) and most of them had done tiny bits and pieces with marketing from their previous jobs. Now had studied the art and science of Direct Marketing. He concluded if they know about marketing – they’ll do the marketing. Of course it’s never that easy!

John decided to call a direct marketing consultant for some advice. The consultant asked John a direct question.

“Do you have a marketing team?” “No, hmm, maybe, I think so” “Do you have a marketing plan?” “Well yes we ran an ad and we have almost 20 likes on Facebook …No then maybe” “What marketing have you done?” “We have created everything that the clients needs so they will come” “Have they come during this first five weeks?” “No but I thick the marketing worked and the messages are getting through” And the questions went on. No vision No outcome in mind No brand No tagline No uniqueness No edge No strategy No marketing budget No seeding No positioning No framing

No idea about anything and the money (someone else's cash) had been spent on making every looking so damned good! You see John had created what looked an amazing business from the outside and now he was a king over his own newly created empire.

The problem was this. NOT A SOUL was seeing his new business – no one! That meant No buyers

No customers No clients No cash flow

No money to pay for anything after just  weeks. Yet one thing is certain in business. You must have people or traffic that passes through your company and you must be able to convert that traffic. If you don’t have traffic and conversion – at some point you’ll be going out for a job and then have to carry the debts with you until they are paid over the next tens years or even more. Traffic means people on the street, people on the web, people via smartphones (73% of first contact is now via smartphone)… it means buyers!

And John well … He had his big car. He also had his big office. He even had his big team go experts. He even had a service that he thought would simply sell like crazy because – he thought it would. In total John had invested (someone else’s) £137,000 of loans and investors cash.

Unless he made changes – you know what would happen!

Nothing New In This Story! Over the past 14 years as a direct marketing consultant I have seen and heard this story so many times I have lost count. It’s a failure repeat and a failure pattern that most new businesses STILL fall into.

In todays marketplace you simply cannot afford mistakes as your competition are smart, savvy, switched on and ready to eat your back! It appears that MOST new entrepreneurs rarely create any kind of marketing plan never mind a big vision.

New and even established businesses come to me for advice in the same position as John above and are desperate for results.

The Man and His XK Jaguar . One guy came to me after spending an investors – £4.5 MILLION pounds to build a business. It was failing at all levels. He had even been out and bought a new XK Jaguar car to park outside his dying office yet he was trading in a loss month after month, year after year for nearly five years. When I asked him who was doing his marketing he told me a girl in the office that helps with everything threw together his advertising. (He ignored all of my advice – his business is now closed)

The Man and His Holidays. Another guy called me to share with me his business problems. He had been in business for just 7 months and had been on holiday 3 times in that seven months. His investor had given him just under £50,000 and expected a return. At that point his sales had been around £1,300 – AFTER SEVEN MONTHS – Yes I know what you’re thinking! He had invested zero into marketing. (He said he couldn’t afford to invest and didn’t want to close – his business is now folded and history)

I see this time and time again … One John after another John.

And one thing is a dead cert … If you have no big vision If you have NO strategy If you have NO angle If you have NO I.D Tag If you have NO branding or positioning If you have NO systems in place to serve your clients If you have NO perceptive value If you have NO marketing If you have NO real vision If you have NO budget built-in for marketing

You are dead, dying or wasting away until your business closes. You might scrape through but you’ll just scrape through, it’ll always be a struggle. Yet there are those that ask for advice, take advice and make changes.

Here’s a few results from some of my struggling clients – of course these are AFTER results.

• £2.4 Million in one campaign for a printing Co.
• $300,000 in a weekend for one property investor Co.
• £800,000 in 12 months for a company in the beauty business
• $100,000 in six weeks for an events organiser
• £15,400 in 3 days for a carpet shop £24,500 in one week for an online training company
• £1.2 Million a year for a trader 18 new cars sold in a single weekend
• Orders worth over £250,000 per month for a TV company
• 21 new clients worth tens of thousands of pounds for a letting agent
• 47 new clients worth over one million sales for a new start-up
• 400 new clients in four weeks for a hairdressing salon
• 53.4% growth from almost bankrupt in just 4 weeks
• 116% annual new growth

ALL OF THE ABOVE had been making the same mistakes as John in the story – All turned everything around by simply asking for help and investing into that help. One client recently invested $240 into one online strategy to make sales of just over $10,000!

Another clients recently had sales of five million in one month alone with an investment of just under $100,000 into marketing. The truth is you really don’t have to sit and wonder and scratch your head and cry and moan and struggle when it comes to marketing. It might be working for you but not well enough.

It might still be working for you but you still can’t get it all to the next level. It might not be working fort you at all and frankly you need help or you need to get a grip and go get a job.

You are NOT a Marketing Specialist So STOP Pretending You Are (get over it Mr.!)! Let me tell you about MENTOR PRO – It could be just what you are looking for. I believe it is. MENTOR PRO is 100% bespoke for you and your business. I come to you or you come to visit me at my office in Cheshire.

PROBLEMS: Find out what problems you have and need urgently solved RESULTS: I go over your current results CRITIQUES: Critique and review all of your marketing TEAM ADJUSTMENTS: Critique, review and train your teams to increase sales and response TAGS and MEME: Review and create if needed new MEMES and TAGS for your business NEEDS: I analyze your needs. DIRECTIONS: I tell you exactly what you should be doing. PROVEN: Everything I help you with is based on 30 years of business and decades of incredible results. In other words – we sit around my old large table and fix your problem… no need for guesswork anymore! For Gods sake grow up and get a grip - your wife will love you more for it (or your husband or your partner or whatever arrangement you have - they will love you more)

READ THIS… Stop playing games with your life and business … do what you do best and leave the marketing to ME! Benefits for your company - MARS ATTACK!.

• MORE sales
• MORE profits
• Measurable growth
• Brilliant teams in place
• Shortcuts – No More Guesswork
• Fast track To More Response
• Reduce Sales Team and Cost Reduce
• Company Cars Cost
• Reduce Mobile Phone Costs
• Reduce Commissions
• Reduce time loss
• Eradicate Hapless Marketing – Try-Everything-Anything-Waste

I have a beard. My beard gives me special powers to help you. The 2000 pages of words and 5 new books a week just help thats all.

I can give you...

• Site visits
• Marketing Autopsy
• Team Talks
• Potential Sales Presentations to Teams
• Inspiring Your Teams
• Motivating Your Team
• Campaign Overview and Analysis
• 37 Point Hammerhead Checklist
• OrangeJuiceBox Fact Finder
• One-on-one Marketing
• Segregation Campaign
• Balance and Allocation
• Data Harvesting and Management
• Leverage for Instant Sales
• Plugging The Holes
• Innovation and Invention
• Offline Models for Sales
• Online models for Sales
• Positioning
• Branding
• Tagline and meme
• Seeding
• Copywriting Sales Messages
• Perception
• Positioning
• Customer Retention and Returns Customer
• Loyalty and Profits
• Teams on Track Campaign Setting
• Message To Market Goal and Targets

And so much more from my bearded face of nearly 30 years in business. Shall we work together (I don't sleep with you on the first date)

This will work for you ...

• ANYONE in business – companies – large or small
• ANYONE wanting to get a new business fast-tracked into profit
• ANYONE that wants to over-haul and transform their marketing from the ground up
• ANYONE that wants their marketing to have more edge
• ANYONE that can see the need for a more coherent and powerful message Is MENTOR PRO for you? I

know for a fact you DON’T want to be one of the people that go bankrupt in the UK every minute otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this page. I know for a fact you have a marketing problem that needs solving fast or again – you wouldn’t be reading his page. I know also you won’t want to be another John at the top of this page and again that’s why you kept reading this page.

You really don’t have to be.

SURVIVE: You’ll discover how to survive and turn around your business by at least 54% in 4 weeks or less (or how about how to create a cash windfall of £15,400 in hours?). I can share with you those very same strategies that created extremely fast turn-rounds.

THRIVE: I’ll show you how to go beyond survival and teach you and your team how to thrive despite a desperate economy ( If you like the idea of realistic, fast and rock-solid growth – I’ll show you how it’s never been more possible).

LEVERAGE: I’ll reveal for you real-world business tactics and strategies that can increase any failing business using the simple power of leverage.

CREATE: You’ll discover many new ways to generate new services or products ( and if you have the capability of more, I’ll show you more)

GROW: Despite the huge loss of businesses in this roulette market place you’ll discover how to grow in ways you will probably never see yourself (like a business person that came to me recently and we created 5 new products from one product)

If you want me to train your team … (beards are not a requirement for any of them) Your team will discover how to:

• THINK ABOUT MARKETING DIFFERENT Your team will discover how to:
• THINK ABOUT BUSINESS DIFFERENT Your team will discover how to:
• THINK ABOUT COPY WRITING DIFFERENT Your team will discover how to:
• THINK ABOUT SUCCESS DIFFERENT And of course, why should you listen to me?

One of the World’s most respected direct marketing writers and experts said this about me

Alan … you bring to the marketing landscape one of the most brilliant, sensible and realistic minds on this planet. You live in the present and your advice is so practical and helpful that you wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself. But the truth is that few people have the marketing insight that you demonstrate on a regular basis… Jay Conrad Levinson, GMarketing.com And …

I started my first business when I was just ten years old I had successful (and sometime not so) brick and mortar businesses for nearly twenty years I have had great success with real online adventures for over thirteen years I have made many of my clients MILLIONS in new sales I have created massive client rushes for clients I eat, breathe and study EVERYTHING about marketing and people I am a recognised expert (not a instant online wanna-be)

Today I charge £1,200 for one hour consulting and rising (my clients pay for premium information and mentoring) I take NO-RISKS with your business, margins or profits.

Would you like to have a FREE 20 minute strategy meeting with myself at my office or over Skype?

Do you qualify? If you can say yes to …

• YES We have a marketing budget we would like to optimize
• YES we are open to new ideas and new directions
• YES we will trust you as an expert to innovate and invent for our company
• YES we are open to commission with an advance payment
• YES we are willing to have full, open and frank discussions
• YES we know what we want but are not sure how to get there
• YES we have marketing teams in place but frankly we are not sure they know exactly what they are doing
• YES we have done a lot of marketing but feel it isn’t working
• YES we’d love to come over and spend 30 minutes talking about possibility
• YES we have all of our business in place, are trading right now and are ready to make changes If you said
• YES to most of the above MENTOR PRO is for you.

Ready?

Here’s what you need to do next. It's easy … Click here and send me some details about you, your business and your needs or problems that you need solved. Don't forget a phone number I can get you on.