Nosebleedcity: Making Money Now

Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Roy Williams has settled a dispute with ex-girlfriend and former Miss Texas USA Brooke Daniels over a $76,000 engagement ring.

According to court documents, Williams mailed Daniels an overnight package that included the ring and a taped marriage proposal. Daniels refused the marriage request, and Williams filed a civil suit against Daniels on June 30 in order to regain possession of the ring.

Since Williams’ relationship with Daniels was not far enough along for her to feel comfortable accepting his marriage proposal, the price of the engagement ring ended up far exceeding its actual value. In order to protect readers from making the same type of financial mistakes as Williams, I present a list of ten things nobody should ever pay for.

10. DVDs: Most DVDs cost $20. A RedBox rental is $1 per night. You’d have to watch a movie 20 times to justify buying it instead of renting it. With Netflix’s instantly streaming movie service, it’s even harder to justify buying a DVD, especially because so many movies that come out aren’t even very good.

9. CDs: I’m not even going to get into the whole “Are you stealing from the artists by pirating music, or helping them by weakening the record companies?” debate; I’m just going to point out that rarely is every single song on a CD likable, so it makes more sense to use a downloading service to only pay for the songs you actually like.

8. Dressing at restaurants: Seriously? If I order wings and the restaurant charges me for blue cheese dressing to dip my wings in, that is the last time I eat at the restaurant. Dressing is supposed to go with the food. Charging for dressing at a wings place is like charging extra money to put cheese on a pizza.

7. Dogs: They’re expensive enough to provide food and vaccinations for, so why add to their cost by actually paying to obtain them too? This is the 21st century. Go to Craigslist, and respond to one of the 42 bazillion postings from people giving away newborn puppies for free.

6. Cell phones: Between free upgrades every two years and warranties that cover your phone if it breaks before then, you can find a phone that has all the capabilities you want for free. There are plenty of free phones with email and Internet, the money shelled out for iPhones is simply spent to indulge the inner child and play with all the apps.

5. Books: As if libraries already didn’t render buying books an inefficient use of money, Amazon now refunds you fully if you return a Kindle book within a week of buying it. If you know you’ll have time to finish the book in a week, you can treat your Kindle like a library.

4. Anything at a gas station other than gas: Whatever it is you’re considering buying inside a gas station, chances are it’s stale and overpriced. And those hot dogs are probably older than the person ringing up your purchase.

3. Movie theater candy: Those boxes of candy you pay $4 or more for at the movie theater are usually a dollar apiece at a local store. And they fit perfectly in the pocket of your jeans. It’s a no-brainer, really.

2. Sex: If your skills are so weak you have pay to get some action, you deserve whatever oddly-colored sores or warts you wake up with the next morning. By the way, what do Elliot Spitzer and Auburn have in common? They both “pay for play.”

And the number one thing that no one should ever pay for…

Roy Williams: He’s missed 15 starts the past three years, turns 30 this year and has amassed 1,000 receiving yards only one season in his career, but he’s due $9.5 million next season and is likely to be released whenever the lockout ends. With plenty of younger receivers available, teams should avoid the underachieving Williams like a sumo wrestler avoids carrots.

Rick Cesari (@cesaridrtv) is a regular guy who did what every businessperson is supposed to do and talks about doing but rarely does. He spotted a trend, turned it into an opportunity and created millions in sales. And now, he’s sharing his stories, insights and experiences in his book, Buy Now: Creative Marketing That Gets Customers to Respond to You and Your Product.

I received a review copy from Rick’s team and also had the opportunity to chat with Rick and ask him a few behind the scenes questions. I found him to be extremely engaging and fun to talk to; he was full of ideas and stories that made it hard to hang up!

How Rick Cesari’s Story Changed Direct Marketing

Rick’s story begins like many of ours. He went to college and got a summer job as a lifeguard. One of the ways he could make extra cash as a lifeguard was to sell suntan lotion. This is where he learned to use a winning formula to make extra money: Present a problem, offer a solution and then explain how his product was better than anything else out on the market today. It wasn’t just a winning formula for selling suntan lotion, it was a winning formula for selling some of the most successful products of the last 30 years.

In the late 1970s, Cesari got involved with real estate. Rick produced real estate seminars that ended up making more money for the real estate gurus than their real estate strategies ever did. And when Ronald Reagan deregulated television in 1982, this changed everything. Before 1982 advertisers could only purchase 8 minutes of advertising an hour. But after deregulation, they could purchase an hour of advertising time! Cesari knew he was on to something. He would use the lessons he learned by selling suntan lotion and real estate to revolutionize direct response marketing.

Buy Now is a terrific combination of real life case studies and lessons in direct response marketing. Just because you have no intention of creating an infomercial doesn’t mean that you have nothing to learn from this book. In fact, the core principles behind each and every example such as SoniCare Toothbrushes or the OxyClean brand has something wonderful to offer for every entrepreneur, business owner or sales and marketing professional.

Take the Time to Test for Increased Profitability

Here is a terrific example from Chapter 14 titled, “The Offer Is King.” If you think that the price level drives the offer, you would be wrong. Selling product is more about the offer than the price. Rick recommends having a variety of different offers to test. “You will always be tempted to test an offer that makes YOU the most money upfront. That’s not smart and it’s not accurate.”

Cesari goes on to share a powerful story of a piece of exercise equipment that was in the $200 price range. Of course they had a payment plan. First they tried three payments of $79. They couldn’t break even. Then they tried six payments of $39 – that did even worse. Finally they did something completely different. They offered a trial payment of $14.95 for the first 30 days. They used the increased call volume to research other price points and actually settled on $700!

As it turned out, when the consumers saw the $200 price tag, they assumed the machine was low quality – and didn’t buy. But once they had it in their home, they were able to justify a much higher price.

Another of my favorite sections is the discussion about why everything is priced at $19.95 and $39.95. Would you believe that this isn’t true – it just seems that way!

After running many tests, Cesari found that consumers see product price in terms of $20 increments; $19.95, $39.95, $49.95 and $59.95. In fact, when tested, consumers see very little difference between $29.95 and $39.95. The same is true at the $49.95 and $59.95 price points. Consumers just didn’t see that much of a difference in price – but you bet your bottom line will. This section alone can change your profitability almost immediately!

Who Should Read This Book

Buy Now is an ideal book for sales and marketing people, business owners and inventors. This is a book you will want to read with pen and paper by your side. My copy already has plenty of dog-eared highlights and underlines. The Cesari Direct website contains a video with a quick introduction to the book by Rick himself.

Cesari’s focus on the basics of tripping customer emotions and focusing on benefits that resonate with customers will inspire you to look at your marketing a whole new way.

From Small Business TrendsRead Buy Now and Get Profit Making Tips From a Direct Response Marketing Master

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Friday, July 29, 2011

Making Money Now

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