7 Business Lessons from Super Bowl XLIX

Great observations Dien. Yup.....calling a Pass Play when the "Tank" was guaranteed to make that last yard was the "dumbest" play call I've ever seen.

Reminds me of something that happened with my first business (Alarm Systems) One of my sales guys had gotten ONE store of a chain of 33, to have my biz install an alarm.

After it was installed and working fine....my sales guy got an appointment to meet with the Board to get the OK to install OUR Alarms in their remaining stores.

My sales guy apparently figured this sale was "In The Bag" so....he went to the meeting wearing Levi's and a Sports Coat and no tie.

Well, 2 of the Board members were women and thought that "if the Company Rep didn't consider dressing "properly" for a Board Meeting, maybe the Company would also be remiss in other things. ....so they gave the other stores to a competitor.

I could have "wrung his neck"! It's never "In The Bag" until it's "In The Bag"!

Also.....your #5 about "Ads Being Effective"; When I sold the Alarm Co and went to selling Biz-Ops I chose to create a Sales Funnel by offering "FREE" Preview Videos where I asked prospects to pay a "Refundable Deposit" of $20 for the Video.

My initial videos were so bad I didn't call them "Gorilla" Videos.....I called mine "Jungle" Videos. Just me sitting behind a desk talking and explaining what the biz-op was about and how the viewers could profit.

For Lighting I used 2 Clampon Flood Lights.... clamped on the back of 2 chairs.

And.....that video helped me sell over 300 Biz-ops at $795 each. When I later paid an Ad Firm to produce a "Professional" video.....it didn't get a fraction of the response that my "Jungle" video got...so I went back to my first video.

My first video came off as being "Sincere and Believable"! No fancy backdrop...no fancy music...no fancy graphics...just ME.

And my "Funnel System" of getting prospects to pay a "$20 Refundable Deposit" (If they didn't want to buy the Biz-Op.....I'd refund their $20)..... was touted by some of the "Marketing Gurus" as being "Genius".

Well.....I didn't care what the Gurus thought.....I found that MOST of the people who paid $20 for the video....DID NOT REQUEST A REFUND! So, the videos, shipping and Ad expenses were paid for by the "$20 Refundable Deposit".

Also.....
1) the initial Ads asked interested parties to "Call a FREE Recorded Message".....(Knowing they could get more info WITHOUT having to talk to a Sales Person, allayed their fears)
2) where they heard a 2 minute message asking anyone interested in receiving more info.....to "Leave Their Mailing Address at the Sound of the Beep"....
3) where I Mailed them a 4 page Sales Letter promoting the Biz-op and requesting the "$20 Refundable Deposit" for the Video...
4) whereupon I mailed my Videos with a Sales Letter and an Order Form for the Biz-Op (This was b4 PayPal)

Thus.....that was my "Sales Funnel" that helped me become "Independent".

Even though THIS is years later....I firmly believe that this SAME Sales Funnel could STILL be effective.....although I'd use PayPal nowadays.

Have a great day.....Don Alm