This morning I spoke at a Chicago meeting for hi-tech marketing folks, hosted by one of my fine estudiantes, Kelly Muldoon. In the audience, several people were “in transition” – i.e. looking for a job. (Merry Christmas!)
A woman approached me, she’d been recently downsized. Casting about for opportunities. Looked like she was hanging on by her fingernails. Asked me if I had any advice to give.
I’m there with order forms for Renaissance Club membership, which is $39.95/month. Kelly, meeting organizer and coaching program grad, is standing right next to us.
In that moment I’m asking myself how I feel about asking this woman for, so to speak, “her last forty bucks.”
How would YOU feel if you were in the advice business and someone asked you that question?
I’d spent the last 2 hours telling the audience everything about AdWords that I possibly could. Which is a really great start… but it’s only a start.
I could spend 5 minutes giving her a little more free advice.
My natural inclination would be to do just that. It would be “the generous thing to do.”
But I pause for a moment and consider:
IF I LET THIS WOMAN WALK OUT OF HERE WITHOUT BUYING ANYTHING, IT’LL BE LIKE SENDING A KID WITH A BROWN BELT IN KARATE INTO A KNIFE FIGHT IN AN L.A. BIKER BAR.
Because a 2 hour overview is not a thorough preparation.
Conversation inside my own head: Perry, you well know that nobody takes free advice seriously. If you were down to your last $40 and you were in her position, you’d spend the forty bucks. Perry, lead her in a *positive* direction. Don’t flinch. Don’t let her wander off into oblivion.
I say to her, “There’s a report in the Renaissance Club welcome packet called ‘How to get a new job anytime, anywhere, with no begging, no career counseling and no Monster.com.’ If you know how to do AdWords you can use the same approach used in that report to land AdWords clients.”
“Or you can use that method to find a new job. I know of no one who’s followed the instructions in that report who’s failed to predictably land interviews.”
The woman glances at Kelly. Kelly’s been on her own, managing AdWords accounts for 4 years. Only minutes before she’d described a dental client who was obtaining new customers worth $1000+ each for $68 Cost Per Acquisition. Kelly is selling her clients money at a discount. Good thing to be selling these days.
I say, “Kelly, if you’re an AdWords Ninja, you’ll NEVER go hungry. TRUE OR FALSE?”
Kelly nods her head emphatically. “TRUE,” she confirms. “If you know how to buy traffic better than most people, you’re in the business of selling money at a discount and you’re the last guy to get taken out.”
Q3 2009 was a record quarter for Google. Again. Say what you want about the economy, businesses need clicks and they’re willing to pay for them.
I reassure the woman: “If this isn’t a fit you can send the stuff back to me and I’ll refund your money.” Hey, that’s more of a guarantee than Google’s gonna give her.
She has contacts and potential clients in the industry she came from. She has friends who own businesses. What does she have to lose? She cautiously fills out the order form and hands it to me.
I hand her a copy of the book and thank her for trusting me.
QUESTION:
Do you believe in what you sell so much that you’d be brave enough to ask someone for their last $40? Does your product solve their problem? Does the ‘crash helmet’ you sell really protect people from injury?
For the right person, odds are your product does do its job. It’s worth the money.
If so, then you gotta have the mojo to step forward and… ask for the money.
And yes, I’ll repeat what I told her: There are businesses all over your town and across the world who need traffic. They don’t know how to buy it. You can practically walk down the street and find people who need more web traffic. They’ll waste a ton of money without your help.
When they show up, charge ’em. Master this game and you’ll be the last to go down in the Dojang.
Perry Marshall
Renaissance Club comes with the Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, 5 CD’s and 5 Special Reports including “How to get a new job anytime, anywhere, with no begging, no career counseling and no Monster.com.” Test drive R-club for $39.95.
http://www.perrymarshall.com/club
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
13 Comments on “In the Dojang, AdWords Ninjas get taken out last”
Perry,
I’m in a very bad situation myself, financially speaking. I’ve been doing adwords for many years, and I know I can set up campaigns for businesses and drive traffic to potential customers sites and generate leads and sales for future clients, but I still lack the confidence in my abilities, believe it or not.
I build my own affiliate web sites now and have been doing this for years, but taking that adwords consulting step has been a big fear for me (sacred-ee cat) and I know without a doubt that if I choose to do this, it will drastically change my life. And put me on the road to financial independence.
I talk to lots of people all the time and ask them if they ever used or heard of adwords, some have (never used, though) but most get that thousand yard stare and their eyes glaze over, and they say no what is it, how do you do it.
I feel sometimes, they think I’m pitching MLM, or trying to sell them something.
Most just don’t get it, yet. It seems to me that most people and businesses are not proactive, and everyone waits for the herd to start the stampede.
Then of course everyone joins the mad dash. I have seen this time and time again.
One thing I can say about myself, is that most of the time I usually stay ahead of the herd and get running before everyone else.
Maybe it will ctr for me someday, I can feel it.
Great stuff Perry!
Cheers,
Jim
Very powerful… It’s one thing to ask if you’d spend your own last forty dollars on your producct, but asking someone else to do it is an even bigger deal.
It’s a great feeling to have complete confidence in what you’re selling, and to know that it’ll help your customers.
Just a quick endorsement of the Guide Perry is talking about:
I’ve been laid off 5 or 6 times in the last 18 months (yeah, you stop counting after about the 4th time). I’ve never collected unemployment, and each time I found a job in about 3-4 weeks. The last 2 times I had to beat out 90+ other applicants to get the job.
The advice in Perry’s Guide on how to add a strong USP to my resume and cover letter made the difference in getting me an interview — both employers commented on it.
Thanks for the help!
And you’re right — it could be used for starting a consulting practice. That’s my next step. I’m tired of (not) working for other people.
Perry,
This is a great write up. Even if you know how to do a half decent job in setting up your adwords campaigns there is always going to be money on the table.
In my offline business I am able to reel in new prospects on a regular basis and I don’t even spend a great deal of time in my adwords account.
I used to have a day job and I make more money now in a month than I used to make in 8 months at my old job.
Love the post,
Chris
Congrats on also resisting the urge to hand over the goods “How to get a new job anytime, anywhere, with no begging, no career counseling and no Monster.com.” for free.
Handing that over for free is almost a guarantee it would not be acted upon.
I must have missed ‘How to get a new job anytime, anywhere, with no begging, no career counseling and no Monster.com’ when I joined the Renaissance Club.
Where can I find it now please?
It’s in the members area. If you have trouble, open a support ticket at http://www.perrymarshall.com/help
honestly, a great question that deserves an answer…Do you believe in what you sell so much that you’d be brave enough to ask someone for their last $40?
I know I have ‘shy’ away from them, ‘free’ gifts are the most expensive ones, and we actually doing the recipient a disservice.
Timely and good advice as always Perry!
And if ever anyone is still reluctant, all you have to do is simply “blame my accountant” – he’s telling you to charge because you are in business to charge…
Fear! Is a real thing.
What if you fear you are not really good enough?
How do you know if you are good enough to charge money?
Sorry. Perry for the chicken sh_t response to your brave email. But really HOW DOES ONE KNOW WHEN THEY GOT THE CHOPS TO CHARGE?
You’ve got the chops to charge when you would buy the same thing from yourself. When you can prove that your product delivers a result.
And hey…. if your product isn’t good enough…. find another product. There’s LOTS of them!
Damn, I was going to delete this email!
I’m thinking, “another Perry email? I have not read the last 16 he’s sent. When does that guy STOP?”
I read the first line. Then the next.
Then the next. You get the point.
Thank you for the boost, my friend.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
“…if you’re an Adwords Ninja, you’ll NEVER go hungry.”
Oh so true Perry…probably the quote of the year.
Being successful with Adwords is like learning to drive a stick shift, once you learn…it’s easy to drive an automatic. :)