Mastermind Group Generates New Marketing Ideas

One of the most important roles I play as CEO of TopLine Business Solutions is to head up a Mastermind Group of 12 of the most successful Marketing and Business Development Consultants in the world. We get together every two weeks on a special two-hour teleconference and meet in person every quarter. Our purpose is to exchange ideas about what is working in real-life situations with our clients and what we can do to improve the results we get for them.

Our discussions are lively and the ideas come a mile a minute. Here is a comment I just received from one of our consultants in Northern California.

Martin,

I just wanted to share with you my thoughts on the conference call yesterday. I apologize for being late but am I ever glad that I called in. I think to date that was the best information that we have exchanged.

I used the calculator on a webinar this morning with my client in Southern Cal. I could hear his eyes light up when I showed him where his business is going. I think this is the most powerful tool yet, and makes the best argument for hiring us even over the original calculator. This truly shows their ROI if they bring us on board.

Also just listening to you speak got my juices flowing, I was driving during the call but also still had a ways to go after the call. Just thinking about some of the things you discussed and thinking about the different angles that you approach things, I had a major breakthrough for the client I have in Southern Cal.

It was like a fog lifted and I could suddenly see everything I needed to see clearly. I really wish I could handcuff myself to you at times and see things through your eyes. Meeting you has really been a life changing experience for me, and I could not be more grateful.

Thank you for everything!

Ed

What Ed was talking about is a brand new Excel-based calculator that with just three sets of numbers obtained from a prospect, you can very quickly demonstrate to them the advantages in bringing you onboard as a consultant. More importantly, it illustrates what the cost will be to them if they don’t engage you. It’s very powerful as I’m sure you could surmise from Ed’s comments.

Here are a couple of other comments from members of our group:

Martin, Once again you amaze me. Your dedication to all consultants and your willingness to continually offer amazing resources and expertise goes beyond anything I have seen in business. Thank you for another great resource.

Larry
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Martin as always your dedication to us is undeniable.

Thank you.

Andre

I could go on and on, but that’s not the point of this post. What I really want you to know is how ideas and strategies are developed for our consultants to use in marketing their services and in helping their clients improve their businesses. After all, those two areas dictate how successful a consultant will be and the size of their compensation.

Let’s reverse engineer the process. There are many ways to be compensated by a client. One of the most common ways is by a Retainer / Commission structure. In other words, a consultant will charge his or her client a modest retainer or monthly amount to cover their costs, pay for their time and get the client to have “skin in the game” to motivate them to take action on the strategies, systems and solutions the consultant creates for them.

Then the consultant takes a percentage of the additional gross revenues that they generate for the client as their “commission.” Of course the faster those additional revenue dollars are generated, the faster the consultant begins earning a commission. And the more effective the strategies, solutions and systems are the more revenue is generated and the larger the consultant’s share.

Working backwards then, in order for the consultant to generate the maximum amount of income for themselves in the shortest amount of time, they must produce the maximum amount of additional revenues for their clients in the fastest way possible.

Additional revenue is generated by optimizing or improving the efficiency and productivity of a business’s existing systems or by installing new systems that the business is not currently using. TopLine consultants use a proprietary 40-page Confidential Business Audit to determine exactly what systems are functioning at optimal performance levels and what additional systems can quickly, easily and cost-effectively be installed to bring about the desired changes and profit improvement.

Using the Audit, it quickly becomes apparent how little most business owners know about the operational aspects of their business and how much help they really need. And the best part is that they come to that realization themselves without any prompting from the consultant. The reality is, most business owners have never even considered some of the points the Audit raises, so they don’t have answers to many of the questions. And it’s at that point that their dependency on the consultant begins to solidify.

The purpose of the Audit is really two-fold: to gain information about the business and what can be done to move things quickly towards greater profitability, and to help the business owner realize how much help they need. And after 40 pages of in-depth and probing questions that realization hits them right between the eyes.

The Audit makes it possible for the consultant to uncover the areas in which the greatest impact can be made on the profitability of the business. And to do it, they use a very methodical, step-by-step process to determine exactly what they can do to achieve their desired results. The entire process flows smoothly from beginning to end, and with such simplicity that a seventh grader with a “C” average can do it.

Continuing in reverse order, before a consultant can conduct an Audit, they must have a client. That means they have to “sell” or “convert” a prospect into a buying customer. TopLine consultants use a very well thought-out presentation process called the No-Selling System). Using some basic numbers from the prospect’s own business and a step-by-step, “paint-by-the-numbers” process, a prospect is shown exactly what can be done to make significant improvements to his or her business. When they see the results of what the Business Optimization Calculator computes, “closing” the deal is practically a mere formality.

Now that brings us to the very first step in the process – getting a prospect. None of what I have just described could be possible without someone to make a presentation to. And that requires marketing – getting a message in front of potential buyers.

There’s an easy way and a hard way. We prefer that TopLine consultants use the easy way – and that is exactly what we teach. We don’t want our consultants out trying to “sell” people on using their services. We’d rather have prospects contacting the consultants asking about how the consultant can help them improve their businesses. We want our consultants maintaining control of the “selling” process.

“Positioning” rather than “prospecting” is a much more desirable position to be in, and it makes it so much easier to create a position of demand and enables the consultant to charge higher fees. The proprietary marketing systems that the TopLine consultants use enable them to do just that: create a position of expertise, scarcity and demand – all of which enable them to live a lifestyle that others often talk about but that few actually experience.

The Mastermind Group I mentioned at the outset is one of the key sources of input in each of the steps I described. These are some of the highest producing consultants in the business and are constantly coming up with new and innovative ideas that are then shared with the other consultants.

But they’re not the only ones who contribute ideas. All of our consultants are invited to regular teleconferences to share what’s going on in their world, what’s working and what they need additional help with. These meetings are some of the most fun, inspiring and idea-filled discussions you can imagine.

For more information on how you can be a part of a highly motivated and successful group of highly-paid Marketing and Business Development Consultants, visit our website at www.BusinessConsultantsWanted.com/letter.htm, or call Chad at 480-461-1866. He’ll make sure all your questions are answered and that you have all the information you need to make the decision that’s right for you and for us.

Best wishes for maximum success,

Martin Howey