In 1976 one in four Australian households owned a copy of Neil Diamond’s album…
Hot August Nights.
So it’s really no surprise that Neil chose to come to Australia for the Thank You Australia Concert.
But what really made it such an astute move?
When one in four household owns a product that you sell then they obviously love what you’re offering, the Australian market loved Neil Diamond and he wanted to repay that loyalty.
Numerous times I’ve quoted an Ed Dale saying which is…
If you want to be successful online then you need to know where your market is hanging out, and go play in front of them
Even though Neil was a mega star at the time, he understood this principle and used it to full effect.
At the time no other Rock Star’s had the same foresight to launch in Australia because…
Australia didn’t have suitable venue’s available with the facilities capable of holding open air concerts.
That didn’t deter Neil.
He flew everything that he needed (including the stage) into Australia in two jumbo jets.
But it’s what Neil did an hour before the show where things get really interesting.
In fact very few people know this part of the story…
My business mentor (and client) Barry Bull was the marketing manager for CBS at the time.
We we’re sitting having a coffee just the other day when told me this story, so I’ll let him take over for a minute and tell it to you.
It was at that concert in 1976 that Neil taught me one of the most valuable customer service lessons that I’ve ever learnt.
Literally an hour before he was due to go on stage Neil Diamond put on a pair of roadies overalls, a cap with Crew written on it (his hair tucked up under it) and a pair of mirrored sunglasses so that no one could recognize him.
He then wandered off into the crowd for a good 15 minutes before returning.
What the hell was that about Neil I asked him?
I was getting a feel for the crowd and their vibe, looking at where the lights need to be set up so that they get the best view, and where I need to stand so that I can connect with them the most effectively.
I was blown away Beanie that he’d take those things into consideration, he knew that the most important people at that concert that night were the people that paid to see him perform, not himself.
As soon as Barry told me the story I said…
You know Baz if only business owners could grasp the importance of what Neil did that night, they’d be able to build massive word of mouth marketing for their own businesses via Social Media.
But they just don’t get it. Instead they’re so busy telling people things like….
- I just posted a photo.
- We have this special.
- We’re so excited about our latest product.
They never stand back and take into consideration how they can create the ideal experience for their customers, the kind of experience that those customers are going to want to tell everyone they know all about.
They forget the fact that the person looking for a solution to a problem that they can solve is the most important person for them to talk about, not themselves.
Instead they’re so busy using using Social Media as a broadcasting platform to tell anyone who’ll listen about how fantastic they are that they never take the time to look at what they’re doing through the eyes of their customers, like Neil did that night when he walked out into the audience.
The topic bounced back and forwards for a while as we discussed how we we’re going to incorporate stories just like this one into live training that we’re planning on running in the near future.
We then got on to the topic of Networking, which we both believe has become ineffective, stale and done to death.
So we decided on this format instead…
- Take a real story (that’s actually been proven to work)
- Extract the vitally important points out of it that most people completely miss.
- Break it down into action steps that you can take away and deploy immediately.
- Cross the principles that Barry used with Toombul music with the power of Social Media to make these strategies even more powerful and cost effective.
Stories like this one
If you add an emotional experience to a great retail offer, your customer just has to have it
Barry used that exact strategy above (creating a retail offer with an emotional experience) to turn a $30 product into $15,000 worth of sales in one day.
Not only that but he also got someone else to pay for the TV advertising that created the buying frenzy which had hundreds of people lined up outside of his store ready to buy the next morning.
How much difference would learning the exact steps that you need to deploy to implement a strategy like that make to your business?
At this particular training session you’ll also discover…
- The truth about Social Media Marketing, and how to leverage it to create effective marketing campaigns that consistently and reliable drive sales for your business.
- Why using the exact strategies that Barry used at Toombul Music years ago are just as (if not even more) relevant today as they were back then.
- Secret ways to transform physical products into and emotional experience your customers just have to buy.
- What never to post on your Social Media profiles because it’s just annoying the shit out of your customers and killing your organic reach.
- Slash your advertising costs by getting someone else to pay for some or all of it.
- What you must do immediately to find opportunities that everyone else completely overlooks.
If you’ve liked this post so far, then you’ll love this.
As I eluded to earlier Barry and Myself are going to start working with a select group of business owners here on the Sunshine Coast in a small group environment where we’re going to show you exactly how to implement strategies that’ll generate massive amounts of word of mouth marketing for your business, and a ton of sales in the process.
A word of warning though (by law I have to say this)
There’s no guarantee that your business will get the same results that Barry’s did. We don’t know you or your business, or if you’ll actually take what we show you and implement it.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, or for a magical button to push that’ll immediately fix all of your business’s problems, this group isn’t for you.
You (or someone within your business) will have to actually take what we show you and do some work to make these strategies work.
Another word of warning.
This is not Networking! In fact anyone that turns up with the networking attitude of trying to jam as many business cards as possible into as many people’s hands as possible will be promptly asked to leave and never return.
There’s plenty of other groups out there that operate that way, and we have no desire to become another one of them.
Now that’s out of the way.
There will however be plenty of opportunities to work collaboratively with and or for other businesses, it’s just going to be structured so that everybody get’s the maximum benefit from it.
We’re all about creating smarter more cost effective ways to reach your market and encourage Sunshine Coast Locals to become raving fans of your business.
And if I haven’t scared you off yet, then odds are you’re exactly the type of person that we’re looking to work with.
Why would I try and scare people off?
I very deliberately wrote the copy above to scare away serial networking pests and time wasters as neither myself or Barry have the time or patience to work with them.
We’re only interested in working with the genuine business owners out there looking for solid real world ways to grow their business and create a legacy like Toombul Music did which still gets talked about years after it’s doors were closed.
Given the fact that you’re still here reading, you’re obviously you’re keen to know more so.
Here’s what you need to do next.
At this stage we haven’t decided on an exact date that we’re going to launch this training, however it will be in the very near future.
UPDATE: All upcoming event details can be found on Beanies Facebook Page by clicking here...
We also haven’t really decided on a ticket price yet either, but we’re thinking they’ll end up being be around the $197.00 per event what can best be described as a mini workshop – collaborating {not networking, read more about that by clicking here} , but we want to make this as affordable as possible to get your started.
So here’s what we’re going to do for you.
Whilst we’re building momentum with this endeavour and building a solid base of dedicated business owners that are absolutely delighted with the results they’re getting from attending and taking action, in the process generating massive word of mouth marketing about it.
To be one of the first notified every time we set a new date click here head across to the Facebook Event page and subscribe.
Subscribing places you under no obligation to buy a ticket or come along to any of the collaborations.
All it does is give us an idea of how many people are interested in attending these events to learn strategies like…
How Barry turned a $30 product into $15,000 worth of sales in one day, and got someone else to pay for the TV advertising to promote and create the buying frenzy for him.
What we’re doing right now (getting feedback from the market) is another vitally important cost effective strategy that we’ll be sharing at another training down the track.
Far too many business owners spend large chunks of cash on promotions, products, ideas, etc that they later find out (when it’s all too late) that no one’s even interested in buying.
If only they invested some time and money in learning how to test their market first before spending a small fortune on a product that’s a dud.
At the moment Barry and I have an idea, which is to run these training sessions.
Now we could run out and spend thousands of dollars on booking a venue, advertising it on the likes of the tv, radio, newspaper etc, only to find out when push comes to shove that no one’s even interested in attending.
I very much doubt that would happen. I mean what business owner wouldn’t want to know how Barry turned a $30 product into $15,000 worth of sales in one day, and got someone else to pay for the TV advertising to promote and create the buying frenzy for him.
But hell stranger things have been known to happen!
Instead this is what we’ve actually done…
I’ve written this article that you’re currently reading the cost to produce it is my time to write it.
Just on a side note: It’s not some bullshit hey come look at us article that you’d usually see, it’s actually written all about you and what we can do for you.
It’s not just promotional crap either, so far you’ve learnt the main mistake that businesses are making on Social Media (talking about themselves) and how you should take Neil Diamond’s lead and look at your business through your customer’s eyes.
And now I’m teaching you how to test new products on your market to make sure they want to buy them without gambling huge chucks of your hard earned cash on trying to sell them what you hope they’ll want.
I use a tools called LeadPages which (it costs me about $40 per month) allows me to easily create the web pages that I need to test this campaign.
Then I run a Facebook ad (which you probably clicked on and landed you here) that I could literally spend as little as $1.00 on if that was all I wanted to pay.
So with a very minimal outlay (literally under $200.00) we’ll know exactly how much it’s going to cost us to reach and sell tickets to highly motivated business owners that are keen to come along and see what we have to offer.
Numbers for this training session will be limited to a maximum of 20 people maximum per event (we’re expecting a huge amount of interest due to the fact that there’s currently nothing else like this available) as we want to be able to spend time with all of the attendees and answer all of their questions in as much details as possible.
Last thing before we go, the image below says it all…