Sales Come First

Can you learn a lesson from a children’s entertainment group?

What if that group were one of the highest earning groups in the country, earning around $45m last year. Not bad for a bunch of guys in coloured skivvies.

But while you might think The Wiggles are paid for jumping around and singing songs for little kids (mine are crazy about them) take a second to peel back the layers and work out why they’re so good at it.

Looking at a model starting with a free offering and working up to a high end offering it goes:

Free to air TV shows. And while most would want top $ for being on TV, but I’m sure they’d do it for free because of what comes next…

- DVDs, books and CDs

- Live shows

- Merchandise in shops and from shows

- Wiggles World fun parks

So the kids see them on TV, buy the DVDs, books and CDs…then they buy all the Wiggles clothes and other merchandise…then go to the shows (where they also buy more merchandise).

And it gets even better because they’ve got spin offs from the other characters like the Dorothy the Dinosaur live show featuring the other characters, but not the actual Wiggles themselves. And what they do on TV goes back into the DVDs.

But here’s what gets me excited…

They’ve developed a system for doing this in different countries too, so now their success can go global with Wiggles franchises in different countries, cultures and languages.

Impressed? I sure am.

So what can you learn from this?

First, just about anything can be productised. Most children’s entertainment groups make a living when they get on TV. But the Wiggles have turned his model on it’s head. That’s the ‘freebie’ to get people involved.

And second, the system and model is critical. A bit of imaginative thinking can let any business grow exponentially just by thinking about how they can package themselves into a sellable form. Something that can be replicated, so you you don’t trade hours for $. And this means things like coaching and so on shouldn’t be out of the question.

I really like The Wiggles. They bring a sense of quite to our house. But I admire them more for how they make $45 million a year, even if they want to take a month off to sit on a beach.

All the best,

Hugh

If I was a plumber my house would be flooded. There’d be leaky pipes everywhere. Good thing that I’m not!

But then again as a copywriter I’ve been as guilty as the next person of neglecting my own business. And while I help my clients grow their businesses by targeting the right prospects and getting the message to market match spot on, I’ve been ignoring my own business.

But over the last couple of weeks I’ve had reason to take some time thinking about my own business and it seemed the ideal time to tell you what I’m doing and why.

Right now I’m generally targeting anyone and anybody. And this really isn’t the best strategy. So what I did was take some time out and realise that my ideal client is:

a) in business

b) wants to grow their business quickly, and

c) doesn’t want to fight with their competition. They want to leap frog straight to the top.

So if I go after these people I’m going to end up with clients who appreciate what I do, want to build whole systems (which means I develop a long term relationship), are as enthusiastic as me (or even more) and trust me to do ‘my thing’.

They get someone who’s going to help them get to where they want to go.

And I get people who are keen, appreciative and want long term relationships.

So, everyone wins, right?

OK. Cool so far.

But here’s the bit where it gets scary, but you have to do it…

…because if you don’t, the REAL money will keep eluding you.

You have to be prepared to let go of a lot of your clients and your prospects. Because if they don’t fit the mould of your ideal prospect then they won’t make you any money. Worst of all, they’re going to actually COST you money. Time and money talking to them. Time and money dealing with them. And yes it gets worse. Because you’ll have to adapt your product or offering to please everyone. And this means you don’t give the best value to people who ARE you ideal client.

Here’s an example. Say you have a product on time management. I’d say you could sell it for $17.

But what if it was Time Management for Managers? Probably get $37 for it.

And Time Management for Senior Managers Who Spend Most Of Their Time Travelling? Now we’ve got something worth $67.

Sure, you won’t sell it to the people who used to buy it, but you’re now selling it for more. And you’ve got a more tightly defined niche which makes it easier to find buyers. And of course since you’ve niched it down you can find out what your new market really wants and give it to them more easily. Plus you can target your language more specifically to them so you get an even better response.

Win-win, yes?

Better still, you won’t just be earning more money, but you’ll be happier working with the people you want to work with!

Over the next few weeks you’re going to see a few changes. My website’s being updated and my message will be far more targeted. So will my free offerings (although I’ll keep these articles going because I love helping people out with them). But I’ll be adding another free offering, and making more use of an offering I’ve currently got, but making it more a part of my overall system. And I’ll be writing more articles on it as I go. Don’t worry, I’ll explain what I’ve done when it all goes live because there’s lessons to be learnt from it.

All the best,

Hugh