I recently wrote a profile of Jay Leno for SellingPower magazine. That article pointed out that Leno isn’t just an entertainer, but also a consummate sales professional. Leno’s first job was in Sales (door-to-door, in fact) and he’s always been active in selling both his TV program and his numerous public speaking engagements. Most recently, Leno led the charge to sell his new prime-time program to NBC affiliates.
In the SellingPower article, I included a sidebar entitled “How to Sell Like Jay Leno.” The sidebar was intended for sales managers and had advice about setting up a sales team to encourage the kind of personable sales style — a combination of determination and likeability — that Leno uses.
Since Leno's new TV show looks likely to be a big success, I thought it would be fun to revisit that advice. You’ll have to find a copy of the magazine to get the full version, but here’s a shorter version, with a bit extra added (rule #6 is new):
RULE #1: Failure is never permanent. Leno wasn’t an overnight sensation. Some of his early performances on Carson’s Tonight Show were weak and he didn’t appear on television for years. But he kept honing his skills and eventually became a regular guest on Letterman’s show, eventually earning him a guest host gig on Tonight, which led to his current success.
RULE #2: Work is better than vacation. Leno is famous for spending his free time doing personal appearances that help his career. He seldom, if ever, takes vacations although he is quite generous in giving vacations to his staff. The truth is that, unlike people who see work as a way to fund other “fun” activities, Leno see work as something that’s fun all by itself.
RULE #3: Fake it before you make it. Leno has a history of sticking his neck out to further his career. For example, when Leno was just beginning to appear regularly on television, his career got a big public relations boost when he was selected “Best Face to Caricature” by the “American Caricature Association,” an organization that he invented.
RULE #4: Everyone is a potential customer. Unlike celebrities who remain distant from their public, Leno makes a point of being accessible. He invariably waves and smiles when he’s spotted in driving one of his many rare automobiles. When hired for speeches, he greets and shakes the hands of as many people as possible.
RULE #5: Give back to the community. One way that Leno builds his image as a likeable guy is to dedicate time to community service. For example, Leno has been known to fly at his own expense to Chicago or Detroit to do benefits for the homeless. While Leno’s generosity is clearly genuine, there’s no doubt that it helps his “brand” when people view him as a nice guy.
RULE #6: Be generous with your thank-yous. After the original article appeared, Leno personally called SellingPower publisher Gerhard Gschwandtner and thanked him for the publishing the article. He didn’t have to do that, but that gives you an indication of how Leno thinks. Leno truly is the nice guy he plays on TV — and that’s why he’s so successful.
We hear plenty of success stories, but no one wants to talk about their business failures unless and/or until they are wildly successful. If you've ever started a business, and it has been a failure, then you know
of what I am about to speak. If not, read on for an inside look at what the demise of a business taught me, a serial freelancer and entrepreneur.
Failure is a wonderful - yes, WONDERFUL - thing. In fact, I think everyone should fail at their first few businesses. Why?
Mainly, failure teaches you what NOT to do. Most entrepreneurs are stubborn by nature. If you have an entrepreneurial streak and are on to what you think is a wonderful idea, wild pigs couldn't stop you from forging ahead. Sometimes, in spite of dire market research, talking with business mentors and the warnings of friends and family, you just have to give it a try.
An example: For two and a half years, I ran an online business, EthnicHomeDecor.com. I was convinced that the business was a good idea because my products weren't mass produced, there was a built-in customer base and I could keep my overhead low by running the business from home. In spite of all of this, the business failed. I was crushed because I had put a lot of time, money and effort into the enterprise. After the business closed, I was despondent for a few months. However, after a while, I took the time to assess how and why the business failed because I already had an idea for another business and didn't want to repeat the same mistakes.
I learned three valuable lessons from this business failure.
a. Do in-depth market research: It's tempting to just "start now" when you get a great idea. And, technology makes it so easy. Thanks to the Internet, websites, brochures, e-mail campaigns, etc. are so easy to produce and distribute. Who wants to spend weeks or months doing in-depth market research when you can be up and running online in as little as a day?
BUT, I learned that using the Internet to research an idea saves me much more time - not to mention money - in the long run. And, you know what? I have discarded three or four business ideas since I started taking the
time to do this, because even though my heart said, "This will work," my head said, "Only a fool repeats the same mistake twice." I'm a lot of things, but fool I am not.
b. Erase regrets. It's human nature to feel scared to try again when you have previously failed. But, the saddest words in the English language to me are, "I wish I had …" After I got over the initial disappointment of closing the business, I realized that I'm glad I tried it. I would have always wondered if I hadn't. Could I have been in major retail stores by now? Would I have been the black Martha Stewart? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Now, I know. Looking back, I realize that when you examine "failure," you open the door to success.
c. Know your numbers: This is the most valuable lesson I learned from my business failure - and one that I hope every aspiring freelancer/entrepreneur takes to heart. It is the basis for the e-book, "The Small Biz Owner's Complete Marketing Kit!" which is marketing advice specifically geared for those who are serious about starting and/or growing a small business.
I hung on to EthnicHomeDecor.com probably a year longer than I should have. As I said earlier, entrepreneurs are a stubborn lot. I had an extremely successful business mentor (he had sold his staffing firm for millions), and one of the things he used to say to me was, "To know your business, you have to know your numbers. They will never lead you wrong."
In a sense you have to detach yourself from every other aspect of your enterprise. Numbers don't lie. You can't hope it will get better or disregard it and think it will get better. Doing financial projections is crucial for ANY business - freelance writing, running a retail store, operating an online shop, etc. You must, must, must have a handle on what's coming in, what's going out and what it's costing you to produce your product/service.
Take freelance writing as an example. Let's say that your goal is $4,000/month and your average bill rate is $40/hour. So, in a given month you need to average 5 billed hours a day to make your goal (calculated
using 20 working days a month). Working an average of 8 hours a day, that leaves 3 hours/day of non-billable hours. Presumably you would spend this marketing and performing back-end office functions (billing, running errands, doing follow-up calls, etc.).
Of those 60 non-billable hours a month, how many are devoted towards only marketing? Let's say, two-thirds, or 40. Of those 40 hours, what types of marketing are you doing to reach how many prospects to bring in what kind of money? Does the bulk of your income come from magazine articles, restaurant reviews, copywriting for individual local businesses, etc.? Do you reach your audience via email queries, e-newsletters, postcard mailings, cold calling, etc.? How much does it cost and how long does it take you to reach your prospects? As you can see, everything is a number - either in dollars or time. And, these are but a few of the questions you will have to ask - and answer - to get a handle on how you want to proceed. There are many, many more, depending on what your business is.
When I revamped InkwellEditorial.com and started to take on freelance writing projects again, I made myself do a business plan asking just these types of questions. Who do I want to target, how will I reach them, how many hours per day do I want to work, what types of projects do I want to take on, what amount of passive revenue will come from the website, from article writing, etc. Every freelancer should do this. If more did, maybe there wouldn't be so many starving writers. But, I digress.
Knowing your numbers will pay off in two major ways: 1) you can easily build on your success because you can fine tune what is working; and 2) you can cut out what isn't working.
Once you identify what is working, you can find ways to build on it. For example, if copywriting for neighborhood businesses pays more, then you can direct more of your marketing dollars to increasing this client base. If you find that while writing for magazines pays well but it takes too long to reach them and the lag time between work performed and payment received is too long, then you can spend less of your time targeting this market.
Another fabulous thing about knowing what is working is adding complementary products and services to an already successful client base. For example, if you sell art online, you might consider adding a line of t-shirts
with your most popular design on them, in addition to selling the art prints. If you are a copywriter, adding a line of cups, mugs, mouse pads, etc. with your witticisms emblazoned on them could be another revenue stream. The possibilities are endless and sometimes, your secondary revenue stream can grow to become your biggest income producer.
An article on the Wall Street Journal site, StartupJournal.com, "Selling T-Shirts Is Big Business on Web" illustrates this point beautifully. In essence, the entrepreneur featured wanted to turn his family entertainment newsletter into a successful online business. So, he designed a well-thought-out website with lots of interactive features. The article states, "Almost as an afterthought, he designed a T-shirt with his company's logo, a circus ringmaster holding a megaphone. Today the online and print newsletters have flopped. But the shirts are pulling in up to $3,000 per month …. All over the Web, bloggers, artists and entrepreneurs are unexpectedly finding that T-shirts are more reliable moneymakers than the original ideas that brought them to the Internet."
As you can see, you will never know WHERE to expand your efforts if you don't FIRST know what's working and what's not.
Back to my online store, EthnicHomeDecor.com: I remember the day I decided to close up shop. I had taken a weekend to go over my numbers in detail (this was right after tax season and my accountant basically bullied me into doing it). I had been avoiding it because, in my gut, I knew what the outcome was going to be and I was trying to avoid the inevitable. But, seeing everything in black and white made me face the fact that without a huge cash infusion, the business would not survive.
The numbers did give me some closure though. I did not second guess my decision. And sometimes, that is the biggest payoff of all.
