Dear subscriber,
Once upon a time…
there was an old ranch owner named Hank.
Hank owned a small ranch in Montana. The Montana Wage and Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his workers and sent an agent out to interview him.
“I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent.
“Well,” replied old Hank, “There’s my ranch hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 a week plus free room and board. Then there’s the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90 percent of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.”
“The half-wit, that’s the guy I want to talk to,” says the agent,
“That would be me,” replied old rancher Hank.
***
Ah yes, such is life for many a small business owner.
You know, of all the types of industries, farming’s gotta be one of the most (if not the most) unforgiving gigs out there.
Think about it, you could do everything right, be incredibly disciplined, work hard, be persistent, do everything by the book, dot every ‘i’, cross every ‘t’, and then BOOM! …. a cruel and heartless bitch named Mother Nature comes along and screws you over!
God bless the farmers. They sure do need it.
So why the farming theme, Kelvin?
Gosh, I thought you’d never ask.
Well, dear subscriber, you see, the way I go about selling my wares is very similar to farming.
I’ll explain. Actually, no.
I won’t.
I’ll let a salesman who is far greater than Papa Maverick elucidate. A man whose bag I’m not worthy to carry. I’m talking about a man so good at selling that his sales achievements are in the Guinness Book of Records. I speak of the late great Joe Girard. AKA the greatest car salesman to ever grace a car lot.
The great man himself also likened selling to farming.
In his book, How To Sell Anything To Anybody, he said this:
“I have a total system for selling that is a lot like farming. With my system, you do a lot of things that are like planting seeds. You do that all the time, and then you begin to harvest – all the time! And every time you harvest a sale, you plant something else. You plant and plant and harvest and harvest – all the time – through every season. There is nothing like it. I guarantee it.”
He’s right.
If you’re always planting seeds, it gets to a point where you’re always reaping.
Awrite, listen up.
You see, every email you shoot out to your list is a seed planted.
I hope that analogy is clear cuz I’m not planning on breaking that down. That should be clear.
Aw, screw it. I hate to see anyone get left behind.
I’ll break it down.
Geez, Kelvin, you really are a sweet guy.
I know, I know, I’m patient to a fault.
Now listen up before my patience runs out.
Every action you take to spread the word about your business, that’s planting a seed. As the great Joe Girard advised, you should always be planting seeds, so you eventually are always reaping.
Now, if you are consistently planting seeds (good) but aren’t reaping the harvest you want (no good), then it’s time to channel your inner farmer.
You see, a smart farmer would check the quality of his seed and the quality of the soil.
Back to the analogy.
Your seed is your sales and marketing messages, and your soil is your target market.
Always be improving the quality of both.
Okay, now some of you may have good soil (a list of qualified prospects), but your seed (your sales messaging) is lousy.
If you know that’s the case, then…
… ignoring this: The Maverick’s Email Playbook may not be wise.
Your friend,
Kelvin
Email marketing Maverick