Automated Systems: Putting Your Sales On Autopilot

I love systems!  If I can create an automated system, I get to just sit back and watch the work happen automatically for me (A little like Tom Sawyer getting his buddies to paint the fence for him).

Systems and processes make my life so much easier!

I want to work smarter, not harder and an automated system allows me to do just that.  I'm going to show you the systems I use to put my business on autopilot.

Yes, I still answer e-mails, but this takes 80-90% of the work out of it.  This allows me to focus on what really matters; helping people, like you, accomplish their goals.  Without these things, you are almost guaranteed to fail.

Before I dive right in, I want to paint a picture for you of the old, outdated system for marketing your business.

It goes something like this… make a list of the top 100 people you know.  Call them and tell them how great you are and how awesome your product is!  Next, ask them for 3 other people they know who will want to hear how awesome you are… oh yeah, and how great your product is.

Once you have combed through your “warm” market, you may find yourself at the mall or Wal-Mart putting flyers on cars, while dodging the security guy…  Hopefully, you have never been through the pain of this process, but I have… it stinks!  That is when, through frustration and shame.

I decided there had to be a better way…  I started to read books on simplifying things.  I found two incredible books on automated systems that I highly recommend.

Book#1: Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less

The first one is “Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less,” by Sam Carpenter.  This book changed the way I view the world.  I now see almost everything as a system that can be tweaked and enhanced.  It is amazing the things you will “see” after reading this book.  In fact, I probably learned more reading this book, than I did collectively obtaining my MBA.

Sam has this knack for taking complicated ideas and breaking it down into very simplistic systems which give you control of the process.  After implementing his concepts, if done correctly, you shouldn't have to deal with chaos and “fire fighting.”

Mark Bauerlein does a great job of summarizing Work The System, he states, “Distraction, diversion, and overwork are the keywords of modern life, and to Sam Carpenter they add up to years of fruitless effort and unsatisfying outcomes.  Work The System maps a different strategy, a deep adjustment plan for making more minutes count, and freeing up more time for the meaningful things in life.”

Oh,by the way, because Sam is amazingly cool, he is giving you a .pdf copy of his book for free.  You can get it here  The book is about 200 pages and you could knock it out in 2-3 days.

Book #2: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere,and Join the New Rich

The second book was “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris.  In this book, Tim gives you a blue print to automation.  He allows you to dream of things you didn't think were possible.  He teaches you how to determine what is really important… things you must do… and then how to outsource the rest.  He also provides a few resources to outsource some of your “menial” tasks.

One of his suggestions is Brickwork India, but in my personal experience Online Jobs is a better resource.

John Jonas (creator of online jobs.ph) does a fabulous job of teaching you how to work with Filipino Virtual Assistants.  One of the major reasons is that Filipinos primarily all speak two major languages (Tagalog and English).

They also love American culture, so their level of understanding is much better.  Filipinos can probably tell you more about the NBA playoffs and American Idol than you know.  They are also incredibly loyal.  If you treat your virtual assistant well, s/he will work for you for a lifetime.  You can find his blog here

Another huge takeaway from the 4 Hour Work Week, for me, was his idea of selective ignorance.  He teaches you about a “low-information diet.”  Basically, taking control of what you allow to eat up your time.  He questions things such as… is it really necessary to watch the news every night when it is mostly negative.

Since reading this book, I have saved myself about 12 hours a week deleting time sucking activity.  In the last 10 years since implementing these changes, I have not missed out on a single thing.

If something major happens that I need to know about, I can  research that specific topic and learn what I need to in know in about 10% of the time… or better yet… I can have my VA research it for me and paraphrase it into bullet points.

I believe Blake Ross, Co-founder of Firefox, says it best, “The world is changing and our outlook needs to change with it, because old models don't cut it anymore. This book will cause you to question everything — read it!”

Old Conventional Thinking

In our conventional way of online marketing, we tend to focus on a specific website.  So, we put all our effort into driving traffic (or people) to a specific website where they will magically see the value in what we have and automatically buy.

Here is the problem…  99% of people do not make a purchase the first time they see your website.

In fact, studies have shown that typically people need 7 exposures before doing business with you.  So, what if we built a system that will allow you to stay in touch with them automatically?

Enter the CAPTURE PAGE…

You probably have seen something similar to this picture above.  In fact, you probably have opted-in to one yourself.

What this allows us/you to do is to “capture” or collect your prospects e-mail address (into your autoresponder) and after they hit submit the capture page will automatically forward to another webpage (typically a sales video or free .pdf report).

Makes sense right?

That way, we have captured their information and can continue to build a relationship with them.  So, how do we do this?

Typically this is done with two systems working together: a capture page and an autoresponder.  There are several autoresponders on the market such as Constant Contact, AWeber, MailChimp, icontact, GVO, OfficeAutoPilot (now called Ontraport), Infusionsoft and iContact.

My personal favorite is Aweber because of their deliverability, but if you are on a budget MailChimp will let you e-mail up to 2,000 people for free.  You can find a detailed review of all these autoresponders by Pete Williams: Click HERE

As far as landing page software (opt-in page) options, here are a few: Optimize Press, Leadpages, Instabuilder, Kajabi.  I personally use Leadpages because it is easy to use and loads very quickly.  Also, Leadpages website is actually faster than if I hosted it on my own server.  You also have the ability to split test from within Leadpages.  You can find a review of Leadpages from Lawrence Tam here.

Working Together

These two systems will allow you to build an e-mail list of prospects and begin to build a relationship with them.  Let’s face it, it took effort to get that traffic to your webpage, and you don’t want just one shot.  Remember, we are working smarter, not harder.

By utilizing these two systems, you can “capture” them automatically without doing anything.  Once you have their e-mail address, your job is to e-mail that person (from your autoresponder) 1-2X a day.

So, what exactly do you e-mail to them?

So many people get this part wrong.

If you don’t do this correctly, you will just annoy your prospect.  Not the greatest strategy to get a sale.  There are only 3 things you should be e-mailing to your list of prospects… period:

Tell inspirational stories

How To’s – Solves a problem

Answer questions

 

DO NOT!!!

Act desperate

Constantly hammer them to buy something

Act like a cheesy sales person

You need to be cool in your e-mails…

I have learned a lot from watching how Frank Kern and David Wood craft their emails…

No one wants an e-mail from someone constantly hammering them to buy something.  Think about it from your client's perspective.

When you check your personal e-mail, what are you looking for?  Are you looking for something from friends and family?  Maybe a funny or inspirational story will catch your attention?  Perhaps an answer to a question you have.

These are the things that capture your attention.  Remember, you are building a relationship with your prospect.  Your e-mail must stand out surrounded by the noise of all the other crappy marketers out there.

Ask yourself this… Would you open or delete this e-mail:

“Greatest Pill Ever That Fixes EVERYTHING on Sale Now for ONLY The Next 24 Minutes… Don’t Wait!”? 

My guess is you probably won’t.

However, if you “opted-in” to a capture page that promised to show you how to get internet traffic, you might open this one:

“3 simple steps I use to get free traffic to my website”

or

“Stay at home mom paid off her mortgage using these 3 simple traffic tools.”

Every e-mail you send must give value to your prospect.  Once you have delivered this value to them, simply bridge to what you are offering, showing them how this will solve their problem and direct them back to your website.

The process should look something like this (I know the graphic isn't the best… but hopefully you will get the idea)

Crazy Cat Example

Ok, so here is an of the wall example to demonstrate, let’s say you’re a cat lover and have opted in to a page for information on how you can be the best cat owner ever.

You take a look at my website, but the doorbell rang and you had to leave because your cat “accidentally” got into the neighbor’s yard and ate their pet parakeet while trying to drink out of the neighbor’s birdbath.

In the meantime, your son took over your computer and decided to check out his Facebook page…

I just lost my prospect.

Oh, wait, no I didn’t.  I have your e-mail.

So, three days later… after replacing a parakeet and giving your cat antacids (ok not really) you see an e-mail from me on the effects of fresh water for a cat.

You open up the e-mail and read about all the positive things this can do for your cat’s mood and health.  In the bottom of the e-mail, I include some information on where to purchase an automatic fresh water dispenser for cats.

Since you are too lazy to replace your cat’s water every day (or maybe the dog drools in it constantly), and you don’t want to replace another parakeet… you buy the water dispenser for $29.99.

You are happy, I am happy, the cat is happy, and your neighbor is happy.  A little bit of a crazy example, but you get the idea.

Put It All Together

Are you starting to see how these two systems could make your life easier?

There is more.

We talked about the importance of your capture page, autoresponder, and follow up e-mails, but what about the traffic itself?

How do you get traffic to your capture page?

Believe it or not, this is actually one of the easiest things to do.

However, it will cost you something.  It will cost you time or money.

This brings up a really good point.  You must have 3 very important things to make the economics work in your business.

Without these 3 things it is virtually impossible to make a profit.

These 3 things are:

Continuity (Residual Income)

Back End or High Ticket Sales

80-100% in Commission

If you current business structure has some but not all of these things it will be incredibly difficult for you to scale your business and become profitable.

In English, it will cost too much to acquire a new customer.

However, when you do have these three things working together… magic will happen.

Let me give you a real life example to explain…

My friend, Josh Schoenly, did this (names of products, time frames, % and pricing have been changed).

He developed an incredible real estate course that taught real estate agents how to find prospects for free on craigslist.

He sold this for $1,997.

In addition to this, he contracted affiliates to sell his product for a 20% commission of the $1,997 (silly affiliates)…

So he got to keep 80%.

At first, he was ecstatic.  His hard work had paid off and he was finally reaping the reward.  However, very soon, he started to get frustrated.

Why?  He was starting over from square one each month… and the contacts he had already bought… so you need to find more.

See how he couldn't scale?  He had to start over each month.

Now let’s use the exact same example, but instead of selling a course, he sold a monthly membership to a Craigslist mentoring group for $19.95/mo

At first, he was ecstatic.  His hard work had paid off and he was finally reaping the reward.  However, very soon, he started to get frustrated.

Why?  He was only making $19.95 on each person… and they seem to only stay a member for 2 months.

Also, the contacts he had already bought… so he needed to find more.

However, it was costing him $22 to acquire a new customer.  See how it is difficult to scale?

Now let’s use the exact same example, but now Josh has all three components…

He sold a monthly membership to a Craigslist mentoring group for $19.95/mo

Josh also developed several educational products that teach real estate agents how to get referrals with ease, easily find people who want to list their house, and market their business automatically.

Each one of these products sold in a range of $497-$1,997.

Also, because of the additional value and products you have your monthly subscribers are sticking around for a lot longer.

Do you see how each item fits together?

Also, each client is now worth a lot more, so it doesn’t matter as much that it costs $22 to acquire a new client?

Using this system, Josh has made more then $4 million dollars since 2010.  That is a real fact… I didn't change anything there.

Having all three is where the magic is at…

What Now?

So, maybe you are reading this and your current business model already offers all three of these things.

Fantastic!  Use these ideas to leverage what you are doing and put it on auto-pilot.

However, if you don’t currently have all three of these things, I believe my team can help you.

Remember, I don’t want to build all this stuff myself.

I want to leverage other people’s systems to make my life easier… this is exactly what our team has done.

Our team has pre-built capture pages, sales videos, passive monthly income (through our viral blogging system which attracts leads for you), additional high ticket educational products where you can make $200-$3,000 per sale, done for you traffic, and the tools to teach you exactly what to do to succeed.

So, literally the only thing you need to focus on is 3 very simple things:

Your mindset (spend 30 minutes a day developing yourself)

Getting traffic to  your capture page

Conversions (which by the way come from your daily e-mails

At this point, you might be thinking, “That’s great Michelle, but what is this going to cost me?”

Not as much as you might think. 

You really need 3 tools to get started (an example of what you build or use what I personally use)

The Viral Blogging System ($25)… Blogging is the life of your internet business… no matter what online business you have.  The VBS is optimized to be favorable in Google’s eyes and does all that cool SEO Magic that can be so scary.  There is also so much force behind this system it 100x more powerful than building a blog on your own.

Become an affiliate ($19.95).  You don’t have to do this, but you won’t be able to sell any of the products unless you do.  Oh yeah, by the way, we get 80-100% commissions on the educational tools. It's where the company makes money sense they don't make a cut from products sold in that network. Also that is the merchant allows for credit card processing.

Get an autoresponder.  I use Aweber ($19), (other alternatives are like GetResponse…)

So… if my math is correct, you get an entire business and system built for you for less than $65 a month. (you can build your own with an assortment of parts but this is a very good starting point to build a funnel, and marketing system)

In addition to this, our team also has some additional bonuses we are throwing in for you for free.

BONUS #1: A complete 8 step money making formula

BONUS #2: 24/7 access to our money making bloggers online community.

Sound good?  You can get started here

Oh, I forgot to tell you, the blog is audio and video too… so you don’t have to write if you don’t want to.

You can record audio or video… even from your smartphone and post it directly.  It is pretty slick.

AND you can have multiple blogs if you want to… just in case you have more than one business or would like to have a blog for your family too!

Regardless of what you choose to do, I would strongly recommend installing these simple systems into your business.

It will make you more efficient, profitable, and best of all automated!

Comment below and share this process of “Automated Systems”.

PS… A huge shout out to Lawrence Tam and Josh Schoenly for their teaching and guidance.