Did you ever notice how about every 3 to 5 years along comes another energy savings scam? We’ve all seen them, put this device on you electric panel and you will save 35%.
Install this on your motor and you will save 20%.
In fairness there are a lot of good products that do save a substantial amount of energy, but I am speaking specifically about a scammer that came out somewhere between 2002 and 2005.
At the time I owned a manufacturing company that manufactured panel mounted surge protection products and commercial and industrial power factor correction equipment and we sold all over the world.
Around 2005, everywhere you looked there were a overzealous marketers selling power factor correction equipment that you could install on your electric panel and save 35% on your electric bill as long as you used their patented sizing equipment.
Scam alert!
Their patented sizing equipment was a joke, capacitors with light switches that was not safe for anyone to use.
Worse than that, they were selling through people who weren’t in the electrical industry, which was downright dangerous.
One fateful afternoon, I ran across one of those marketers and saw him installing one of these sizers on a live 480 volt panel.
I could tell he had very little experience and sure as hell wasn’t an electrician and told the owner to stop him before he shorts something out or worse, he kills himself.
Well apparently that upset the marketer and he went back to tell the company that I ruined his sale.
Then it happened.
That evening I start to get bombarded with call by the owner of the “scam” company.
His name was Steve.
I won’t tell you his last name but it rhymes with wish and you catch it in the sea.
I’m a big boy and can take most anything, until he implied on his website, that one of our products was a knock off of his products.
Now I’m not going to get into specifics, but let’s just say our two PE’s would have argued the case as good, if not better, than I could.
So I did what anyone would do, I got my attorney involved but the problem was the phone calls from Steve kept coming.
I got a call from Steve on a Friday afternoon and I was so pissed that I wanted revenge.
I know it’s not very Christian of me to seek revenge, but I’m human.
So that night I wrote a book and completed it in a single night.
It wasn’t a big book, only about 35 pages but I titled it, Energy Savings Without Getting Scammed.
I wanted to expose any scam I could think of that existed in the electrical world especially the one being perpetrated by Steve.
I advertised the book using Google AdWords and made the book available for free.
The amazing part was the book was downloaded over 30,000 times in 6 years.
The best part was the people who were downloading the book were in my target market.
I was averaging over 400 new targeted leads each and every month from a book that I wrote in one night.
To this day I can’t calculate the return on investment but I can tell you this, for every $1,000 I spent with Google I was making back $10,000 in profit.
Needless to say, the scammer was gone in a few years and I was no longer being harassed. What I learned from this experience was one of the most powerful lessons anyone can learn in marketing.
Before I go into the lessons learned I want you to understand how I went to market at the time because it will be easier to understand how it applies to you.
In 2005 we manufactured products for commercial and industrial customers and sold those products through distributors.
Our average distributor would purchase around $250,000 in product per year with some purchasing over 3 million.
I was always looking for the next great distributor so we could sell in another city, state or country.
Here’s what Energy Savings Without Getting Scammed taught me about marketing.
People are seeking for answers.
Your prospects are looking for answers and if you give them honest answers, they will see you as an expert.
I provided the answers to the questions they had and it saved them from making a huge mistake and investing with a scammer.
You don’t have to be the only expert.
There can be lots of experts.
Your prospects only need to know that you are an expert and they will seek you out.
You can have the best product or service in the world but if your prospect doesn’t know it, how will they find you?
Your message must be easy to understand.
The reason my book was so easy to understand is that I wrote it so a 3rd grader could understand it.
Had I wrote it in engineering lingo no one would understand it.
I made it easy to understand which not only appeals to the layman but to the engineer as well.
Although I did get some comments from engineers that some of my analogies were off a little, but that was after they purchased from us.
I had a call to action.
The call to action at the end of the book let them know if they were reading the book and had other questions, I would be happy to take their call and discuss them.
I spent hours with people on the phone but it made me millions.
My prospects knew I was sincere.
Any prospect who read the book, or spoke to me, knew I was sincere and that I wrote the book to stop them from making a big financial mistake, which they appreciated.
I saved them massive amounts of pain and anguish and the embarrassment of being associated with a scum bag and I did it for free.
There was no requirement for them to ever buy from me, or ever talk to me, for that matter.
The information was provided to their benefit.
If, and only if, they wanted to reach out to me they could, but it would be their choice.
Most importantly, they knew I wanted to help them succeed.
I wrote the book because I was pissed and perhaps I wrote it for the wrong reasons but I used it for good not evil.
That makes it sound like I’m some kind of super hero, which made me laugh, so I left it in.
Anyone who read the book knew that I was an expert and if they wanted to get into this business, they needed someone with their best interests in mind to help them succeed.
There is no better relationship in business other than when your coach or guide is solely focused on helping you make money and that’s still what I do today.
I find more joy in helping others make money than I do from making it myself, although I have had money and not had money and having it is a lot more fun.
It’s always easier to cry over a steak than it is to cry over a hot dog.
One of the best parts about marketing in 2019 is you don’t have to be a writer.
The same things can be accomplished with a smart phone.
If you want help with your marketing and how to clarify your message so you can bring in an endless supply of new customers, I can help you do that.
I can show you how you can use LinkedIn to get new customers and why I believe LinkedIn is the number one platform to do that right now.
On Thursday I am hosting a live webinar that will show you how to do just that.
You can sign up by clicking here.
To your lifelong prosperity,
David Mulvaney