For a Million $$$

Craig Garber is one of the folks I feature on occasion in my 7am Sales Training series on this site.

This however goes beyond sales training.

This is idea making:

When it comes to developing a new idea or product, most
people hit some sort of an invisible "wall" that stops them
dead in their tracks, and washes defeat over even the
strongest levels of enthusiasm before you can even get
started.

This happens simply because like love, you may be looking
for inspiration in all the wrong places. See, most great
ideas aren't really new ideas at all, they're just answers
to questions. And the more successful the product, the
more people were asking the question the product was the
answer to.

Make sense?

Here, let's look at a couple of examples:

In the 1920's, several publishers were having a hard time
selling books through mail order, at a profit. Customer
acquisition costs were simply too high, and unless there
was some kind of a huge back end product to offer, the
business just didn't make sense.

If these companies could somehow sell multiple books for the
same customer acquisition cost, then the business would
make sense and be profitable.

So, Harry Scherman, an ad man from New York thought to
himself, "Why not sell books on a monthly basis, like
magazine subscriptions?" And with that idea, the Book Of
The Month Club was born, as was their USP, "Don't miss the
important new books you want to read."

See, Scherman asked the question, "How can we sell more
books to the same customer so we can make a profit?"

And the answer to his question launched an empire.

How about this one: In 1913, James L. Kraft was a 29
year-old unemployed salesman who desperately needed to earn
a living. So he began peddling cheese door to door, and he
discovered a few things along the way.

For starters, the flavor of the cheese was inconsistent and
unreliable, because the packaging was so poor and
inadequate. Not to mention, it wasn't very clean and
sanitary.

But while Kraft was making his deliveries, he took notice of
the fact that the milk inside the bottles left on his
customers front doors, somehow managed to stay well
preserved, regardless of the temperatures outside.

So Kraft began tinkering with pasteurization and packaging,
and within a year, he nailed the formula down so that the
cheese he delivered was flavorful and consistent, as well
as sanitary.

Last quarter alone, Kraft Foods did almost $10 Billion in
sales.

But it all started with a question, "How can I sell fresher,
and better quality cheese?"

Next time you're looking for inspiration, ask a question you
need an answer to. And I mean that, literally.

Figure out the most pressing problems your customers have,
and ask the question of yourself that will give you the
solution to solve their problems.

Sit down with a yellow pad and a pen and write down the
question at the top of the page. Don't have anything else
going on in the background like e-mails or the television
or whatever -- just you and your thoughts.

You'll be amazed at the answers you come up with once you
put your mind to it, and... once you actually ask the right
questions.

Because remember, only the right question... gets you the
right answer.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Need hot leads who want to do business with you? Find
out how to get LOADS of 'em, right here, and... find out
how to write a lead-generation "free report":
http://www.kingofcopy.com/leads

Check out all the King's products at
http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

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