I’ve been in Nashville for just over 24 hours now. I arrived yesterday for Robin Robins’ Business Building Bootcamp.
We started out kind of slow. This morning I felt like I was having a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. It was like one endless stream of infomercials. Had I bought everything that people tried to sell me today I would have spent several thousand dollars.
I already bought the Technology Marketing Toolkit and the Managed Service Million Dollar Blueprint. I came here to learn, not to be sold to.
I was considering not even bothering to go to the rest, but the afternoon sessions were inspiring, informative, and exactly what I was hoping for.
One of the more inspiring speakers was Keni Thomas - a local country singer who has a very interesting story. He was an Airborne Ranger team leader who was on the mission that inspired the movie “Blackhawk Down”. Holy Cow! What a story! Here’s the video for the song he performed at the end of his talk.
Ok where is the rest of the updates………. You will need to tell me more. Glad that you had a great time after waking up from the nightmare. Talk with you soon
I went to two of these. The first seminar was to sell me the toolkit and the million dollar blueprint. She was a good salesman promising to make me wealthy just trying her methods. I went home with my “kits” excited to get rich, purchased a great list from one of her recommended sources and started printing out these great letters.
They are long winded, 6-8 page letters compelling the reader to get motivated to act on this message I’ve sent them. After 120 days, 3 letters a month, I got nothing. Not even one phone call.
I showed my materials to several marketing experts, asking “What am I doing wrong” and they all basically told me the same thing: You will never get this type of advertising read. First, the messages are dated and the techniques are old. They are too long and the biggest problem is getting the letters opened (most of them end up in the trash cans of the recipients.)
In a telephone seminar I attended while a member of this group, Robin admitted this herself (”Yeah, mail doesn’t work. It sits on a desk for 6-8 weeks and then it’s thrown in the trash.”) I was like “WHAHHHHHHHT? Why are you telling us to do this stuff it it’s a waste of time and money?”
The pitch is like losing weight while sitting on your arse with those infomercials. The “secret” is not in any of the lead in pitching. What you find out from the members is it’s a lot of hard work, networking and meeting people and selling your services through personal relationships.
Save the cash and join a BNI or other B2B group. It will be cheaper and provide more solid performance that what’s being sold here.
Hey PC Guy, it’s Robin Robins…yes the REAL one, not one of my staff. You are welcome to be critical of my marketing systems, but I do take issue with you saying that I said mail doesn’t work. I’ve NEVER said that. I use “long winded” letters very successfully as do my clients. If anything, I’ve suggested that you don’t rent a cold list and start mailing…that’s one of the last things you do. Instead I recommend you do a number of other less expensive tactics FIRST before going down that route. Again, I have NEVER said that mail sits on a shelf for 6-8 weeks and then gets thrown out.
I have also NEVER said you didn’t have to do work like the “infomercials.” In fact, I have a statement on my web site that warns folks that this is NOT a simple, easy, get rich quick tactic, and if you are looking for that, you shouldn’t enroll in my program: http://www.toolkitlive.com/warning.php
Generating revenue, growing a business and getting people to pay you money is NOT a simple thing and does require that you get a number of things right.
Again, you are more than welcome to post your feelings about what I do and how my material doesn’t work — but please make sure you are posting true and accurate statements.
Thank you.
Sorry Robin - I didn’t notice you sitting there in the queue. I quite agree - those “long winded” letters work. Thanks for all the help!