The

Magic Word
“Add this word to your strategic plan
and change your fortunes”
by Ankesh Kothari

A Special Bonus Goodie for Simpleology Members

Thanks for getting curious about the magic word.

This report reveals the one word that has helped many people become successful. I’m sure
you’ve come across this word. And I’m also sure you’ve never quite really seen the power of one word
in such a light. Read this report well. Read this report twice. Because it can do nothing but help you.

01 | It isn‘t a lamb, it‘s a dog the magic word story

How 4 outcasts used the magic word and fooled the wise priest out of a feast.

02 | 4 real life case studies

§ How Joe Girard used the magic word to become the best car salesman
ever
§ How Peter Miserendino used the magic word to get himself booked for
the entire season at the high-end clubs
§ How BlueStar used the magic word to become famous instantly at a very
low cost
§ How Tony used the magic word to drum up more business for his dry
cleaning service

03 | Caveat: Misusing the Magic Word

How CDNow.com went out of business by misusing the magic word

04 | Magic Word tactics you can use

Action summary giving examples on how you can use the power of magic word
to increase profits
01 | “It isn't a lamb, it's a dog”
MANY YEARS AGO, there lived a priest in a remote village in Eastern Europe. He was
well known in the surrounding region as “the wise one.” One day he had to go to a nearby
village.

There was a jungle he had to pass through in the way. While he was crossing the
jungle, he found a lamb. He tied the lamb and carried it on his shoulders. It would make a
good dinner.

Nearby in the jungle were four outcasts. They saw the priest with the lamb and were
tempted to have a feast themselves. But they didn't have anything to trade the lamb with. So
they tried to trick the priest to give the lamb away to them for free.

The eldest outcast first went towards the priest and started laughing when the priest
saw him.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because you are carrying a dog on your shoulders."

"That‘s not a dog. That‘s a lamb."

"Ha, ha! The wise one is carrying an old dog on his shoulders."

And he laughed as he left. The priest took a good look at the lamb and convinced
himself that the outcast was a fool. And the lamb was indeed a lamb.

After 15 minutes, the second eldest outcast did the same thing: Crossed the priest‘s
path and started laughing as soon as he saw the priest. They had a similar conversation.
This time the priest took a longer look at the lamb and he doubted.

Yet another 15 minutes went by and then the 3rd eldest outcast made his way in
front of the priest. They too had a similar discussion. But this time, the priest had a much
longer look at the lamb than before and his doubt became stronger.

Before the hour was up, the fourth outcast and the priest had a similar meeting. This
time the priest took a look at the lamb and was convinced that it was a dog. He threw the
dog off his shoulders and started walking without the lamb.

After some time, the outcasts caught the lamb again and had a good feast.

--x--

Did you get the magic word from the above story? The magical word is:

“Repeat”
--x–

The four outcasts outsmarted the wise priest and got the lamb for free. Only because they
used the power of repetition. The outcasts followed up on the smart priest. And changed his

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mind. Imagine when outcasts can get a lamb for free, how much better you will do using the
repetition tactic yourself!

The outcasts tricked the priest. You don't have to trick your prospective clients.
"Repetition" is just a tool. And like any tool, it can be misused. It can be used to trick people.
Or to persuade people.

Repetition is a powerful tool to remove your customer's doubt. Use it fairly and you
will have loyal clients. Use it unfairly and you will have angry people calling you in the
middle of the night asking you to get them off your list.

Action summary:

§ Repetition is a doubt killer. Use it to help customers make up their minds.

§ Are you repeating and re-affirming the main message in a sales letter? Are you
following- up on your prospective clients? Send them messages that will help them
periodically.

02 | 4 Real life case studies

These four case studies will show you how four different entities used the power of
repetition to build their fortunes:

1. How did Joe Girard use the repetition tactic to become the world‘s
greatest retail salesman?

JOE GIRARD was born during the depression in one of the most deplorable ghettos in
Detroit city. Joe had a difficult relationship with his father. At a very young age, Joe started
shining shoes of people in saloons. He had a tough childhood. But even though Joe came
from a poor background and had a hard start, he became really successful.

How successful did Joe become?

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Joe Girard as the "World's Greatest
Retail Salesman" for 12 consecutive years.

People actually used to lineup to meet Joe, so that he could sell them cars. There
would always be a queue in front of Joe Girard‘s dealership on every Saturday morning. Joe
Girard sold more cars individually than most dealers sell in total. He sold an average of 6
cars everyday, throughout his selling career. He sold 13,001 cars during his selling career…
all at retail.

What's his secret?

He built and maintained relationships. Joe used to send 13 cards to all his prospects
and clients every year. One every month and one for Christmas. He created a place for
himself in the brains of his prospects and clients by keeping in touch with them.

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 He made sure that he was in peoples' minds when they had to buy a car. And that is
how he sold 6 cars a day, everyday.

Joe Girard followed up with his clients even when there was no reason to.

2. How did Joe Miserendino use the repetition tactic to get himself
booked in the high-end clubs

PETER MISERENDINO is an acoustic guitarist. He has some real talent. He recorded a

CD with 15 of his tunes and named it —Well Strung and Solo.“ The CD received some very
good reviews. But the good reviews alone didn‘t bring in many sales. So Peter started
hunting for live performance gigs.

Peter thought the best place to get live gigs and generate CD sales was at high-end
clubs and discs. To get booked at these clubs, Peter designed his own postcards and started
mailing them to the clubs. Peter did spend quite a bit of his money in getting the postcards
printed. He believed that first impression has to be good and so he paid extra money to
print the postcards in
4 colours.

Every postcard had a call to action too. Peter provided a phone number that the club
managers were supposed to call to book him for a night.

Peter mailed these postcards and within 3 days he started receiving some phone
calls. He was already getting bookings. But he still had a few nights free.

So Peter took the same postcards and mailed it to the same clubs again. And 3 days
after the second mailing, he received even more calls. Peter then mailed the postcards for a
third time. He got a similar response this time too, even though the club managers had
received the same postcard.

The third mailing made sure that Peter was booked throughout the season.

3. How BigStar used the repetition tactic to be perceived as a real and a

big company?

DURING THE INTERNET BOOM in 1999 and 2000, many companies tried to convert
brick and mortar business ideas into online ones. One such company was the BigStar. They
thought it was not possible to take on Blockbuster in the DVD and video business through
retail stores as Blockbuster has thousands of them. So they started selling DVDs and videos
through an online site.

BigStar was faced with two problems. People didn‘t think they were a real company.
And BigStar didn‘t have a big budget to advertise in the big cities to convince them
otherwise. They couldn‘t buy TV airtime. Nor could they buy billboard spaces in big cities
like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco.

So they came up with an innovative idea. They paid hundreds of businesses to paint
the BigStar logo and slogan on their trucks and vans. Being an online company, they
themselves didn‘t have any trucks. The DVDs and videos were shipped through UPS. Yet

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when people saw trucks with BigStar logos on them, they thought those were the BigStar
delivery trucks. They perceived BigStar as a real and a big company.

And as the hundreds of trucks were seen by thousands of people, BigStar became
well known really fast in the major cities and at an extremely low cost.

Frequency is important to become well known really fast. People repeatedly saw the
BigStar logo and thus remembered them.

4. How Tony used the repetition tactic to drum up more business for a
dry cleaning service

TONY HAD A MOBILE dry cleaning business. He would pick up the customers clothes
and return it back after cleaning. He used one simple process to earn more business. Tony
would select a locality. And then call on every house and get the owners name in any way he
could.

He would then buy #10 while mailing envelopes. He would stuff the envelope with
his brochure and a sales letter. He then used a post-it note and wrote a short but irresistible
offer on
the note. On Labor Day, he would write “Labor Day special.” Then he would personally go to
every house and deliver the envelope to the owner.

He did the same thing many times a year on festive occasions. Some of the specials
he had are:

§ Your Secret Valentine“

§ Independence day special“
§ Thanksgiving special“
§ Xmas deal“

The results were phenomenal. With the same promotion tactic, Tony and his wife
built 5 mobile dry cleaning routes in different localities.

03 | Caveat: Misusing the Magic Word

If you misuse the power of repetition, the results could be disastrous, as witnessed by the
following case study:

The CDNow Debacle

ONE OF THE OLDEST ecommerce websites on the web is CDNow.com. They have been
selling music CDs online even before amazon.com started selling them.

In fact, CDNow.com ruled the online ecommerce world before the millennium. Their
customers were intensely loyal with them and would come and purchase new CDs every
month, month after month.

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 CDNow.com made use of a very effective sales tool to keep in touch with their client
base: an email newsletter. They sent one email newsletter a month to their entire clients list
letting them know about the new CDs that were released that month. And the response from
that one email newsletter - sent every month regularly - was enormous.

CDNow.com became so successful that media giant Bertelsmann paid millions of

dollars to buy them over. The new managers saw how effective the CDNow.com monthly
emails were in generating sales. So they started sending the newsletter twice a month to
their client base. And the sales increased, making them happy.

After a few months, CDNow.com managers increased the frequency of the email
newsletters even further – and started sending the newsletter once a week. And the sales
increased even more.

And then, they started sending the email newsletters once every three days. And
CDNow.com went out of business!

Their clients got tired of receiving so many emails, and started ignoring them
altogether. And as a result, sales went down extremely fast in a short time.

04 | Repetition tactics you can use

COLLECT your prospective clients’ information. Build a database. And then follow up with
them. The more follow up letters you send, the more people will convert and become your
clients.

§ The low cost high impact repetition tactic: send a postcard with your offer and then
call the prospective to remind him about the offer. This combination of “postcard +
phone” brings the best results for the money invested.

§ Send the same sales letter to the same list of prospective clients. Some research
shows that you will receive half the response the second time. If you received 200
clients by mailing the sales letter for the first time, you will receive 100 if you mail
the same exact sales letter the second time. And 50 clients with the third mailing.

§ Follow up with a twist. Give a bonus or a discount during the second follow up
mailing and more people will become clients.

§ One easy thing you could do is to simply send one new testimonial to them every so
often. Different testimonials will convince them that your product will actually help
them.

§ Send “Thank you” notes to people. Send them season‘s greetings. Send them 13
mails a year, like Joe Girard used to. Constantly remind them about your existence.

§ Start a newsletter. Send useful information to prospects and clients on a regular

basis and stay on top of their minds. Show them a sample of your expertise and give
them a reason to buy from you.

§ Send a free goodie to your clients from time to time. This will build instant loyalty.
Your clients will become your diehard fans.

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 § Send updates to your clients. Let them know what‘s new with your product. Send
them success stories. Strengthen the feeling of loyalty your clients have for you.

§ Caveat: Find a balance in frequency of the number of times you should contact
them. Don’t contact them just once a year and expect them to remember you and
remain loyal to you. And also, don’t contact them every other day and force them to
start ignoring you.

Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. And enjoy the power of Repeat.

About the author: Ankesh Kothari

Ankesh Kothari helps small businesses build smashing brands on shoestring budgets. If you
want to gain an edge over your competition without wasting a lot of money, visit his website
http://www.BizTactics.com

Read what other marketers have to say about Ankesh:

“Some people run well. Some people draw well. Ankesh Kothari is a master story-teller. In
my business, I always need real life examples to explain marketing concepts and analogies
better. And I always turn to Ankesh as a resource. It's amazing to have not one but four or
five real life stories for every occasion. This is one resource I never want to be without.”

Sean D'Souza - CEO

http://www.psychotactics.com

“I found your website (http://www.biztactics.com) extremely intriguing and could not walk
away without registering to receive your newsletter.”

Juan G Tornoe
Market Research Director
-- Wizard of Ads, Inc.

“I read every issue of BizTactics.com word for word, and you should, too. Not only does
Ankesh get it - he respects your time by keeping it brief and to the point. One of the best
newsletters I've read. Period.”

Mark Joyner,
#1 Best-Selling Author of "MindControlMarketing.com

Enjoy the power of repeat

This report is copyrighted © 2003-2005 Ankesh Kothari