Just how can we tell this?

Ivan Reffell from thebestof lets you in on the secret....

thebestof can calculate all the variable odds to produce a more favourable outcome for you.

Interested?

Have you ever wondered why some businesses are very successful and others a complete disaster. We all have the same information and opportunity in front of us, so what happens?

Well, in all probability it boils down to human intervention, or human error. As human beings we are all wired differently in terms of how much risk we are prepared to take. This can make very optimistic people not see impending disaster or very pessimistic people not see great opportunity.

In a nutshell, our odds are greatly improved just by having a second opinion, it sounds so simple but how many people even do this?

In our daily lives we are exposed to risk that is working against us, such as a flutter on the horses or a £1 spent on the lottery. The risk is so small that we are prepared to lose more often than we win. We are almost being programmed to expect loss and that makes us come back for more.

The gambling industry knows this. In Las Vegas they have worked out that for every $1 spent the punter will lose 5 cents. Because on average the loss is so small, people are prepared to keep going back. So what has this got to do with business?

We are we all sometimes guilty of this, maybe making such a small loss in certain areas of our business that we keep coming back for more but we’re still not sure how to turn the odds in our favour. Businesses that have the odds in their favour become successful and those who don’t, struggle or go under. At the moment it seems more are going under - how can we change this?

If we go back to the gambling theory, this 5 cent loss can be overcome. Certain individuals have come up with a system that allows them to change the negative outcome to a positive. Such people are card counters and they play poker. By memorising the bigger or lower playing card numbers that have been dealt beforehand they can predict what card number is coming up next and make a larger bet based on that probability. Good card counters turn the 5 cents loss into a 1 cent profit.

Not earth shattering on its own but much more so when the stakes are high or if you have a sales team all producing profit.

So let’s try and relate this to our business development. Most businesses grow by offering a service or product which another company pays for. Quite often the service or product we offer is already being used by our prospect so we need to establish how ours can be more beneficial.

For most businesses this becomes a major obstacle which many struggle to overcome. The odds are stacked against us; the % chance of a new company speaking to us and then using our service or product can be less than 10% and often is.

This often leads to businesses simply working on a scatter gun approach; if they get sales people out in the market and keep talking they can get some market share, pay the sales people commission, apply pressure and push, push, push. I know all about this because I have been unfortunate enough to be involved with companies working in this ‘unprofessional manner’.

The reality is it never changes the odds, it’s still only about a 1 in 10 chance of gaining a new customer.

So let’s get to the point.

Our probability of a positive outcome is different. Our odds are almost 70% in our favour of a positive outcome. We are like the card counter. Every part of our process for acquiring new clients is thought through and works in our favour.

We recently met with a new business and the client told us what he was going to enjoy about using our service before we offered him ‘membership’. Our service is a service he can get elsewhere but he wanted to ‘buy ‘ours.

So what have we done?

We have broken down every element of what helps people buy rather than sell a benefit. People buy to get away from negative situations rather than buy to gain a benefit that perhaps they already enjoy. If you present a benefit you end up selling, it’s far easier to allow people to buy.

Our business grows by using a process that works in our favour. We do not have sales people because we don’t sell. We have a marketing programme that gains interest and then a process of sharing information.

Our prospects are always told they have the option to stop our process at any stage. We allow them to join if they so wish and they do. Our major strength is that we work as a team. Our marketing is completely separate from client acquisition. 

We do not make knee jerk decisions and we understand that things do not happen overnight.

If you want to find out how we do it, we are happy to share our experiences with you, be prepared to make some changes that will change your outcomes for ever.