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• PEAK YOUR PROFITS: It is showtime!

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Are you willing to invest a few minutes, to help you generate a lifetime of results and profits? Thought so!

Okay, here’s a simple, yet powerful exercise. Take out a piece of paper and jot down these four words: Results, benefits, advantages, outcomes.

They’re not four distinct categories, instead they’re really interchangeable possibilities or thought-joggers.

Now, take three to five minutes and quickly write down, as many results, benefits, advantages, outcomes, that you, your people, your products and services deliver to a competitive marketplace on a daily basis. This is the kind of stuff that drives the acquisition, satisfaction and retention of prospects, customers, clients, decision influencers, network contacts, etc.

Here’s the evolution of the preceding exercise. When we created the Blackman & Associates brochure, the inside front cover featured my mission statement. Since our mission statement had been crafted years ago, I was merely “saving” the inside front cover for its insertion. With its inclusion, thankfully, finally, after 90 days of focused and exhaustive effort, this multi-page beauty would be done and off to the printer. Yet, I decided to get one more opinion, my Dad’s.

While Dad is a CPA and attorney, he’s also a talented marketer. So I sent him the brochure mock-up. And he declared, “Son, I’m proud of you. It’s beautiful. It’s a great piece. It’ll serve you well.” He then asked, “But, what’s the story with your mission?”

Somewhat surprised, “I asked, whatta ya mean?”

He said, “Well, it’s all about you. How does it help your clients or prospects? Why should they care about your mission?”

Now, a wee bit perturbed, I replied, “Dad, I’m tired. I just want closure on this project, so I can send it to the printer.”

He then asked, “How many copies do you plan to print?”

I tersely stated, “2,500. Why?

“Dad then calmly said something I’ll never forget, “Well, I think you’ll soon have 2,500 people who won’t care about your mission statement!”

Ouch! But, he was right! Okay, back to work. So I began to wonder, what’s the real impact I have upon clients, their businesses and their people? What do they tell me? What do they value? How am I helping them grow and prosper? As I wrote quickly, there was this remarkable transformation and series of ah-has. I now realized the opening inside cover should be all about impact on others, their achievements, successes or, the results, benefits, advantages and outcomes I help them attain.

Thankfully, my mission was replaced with the following: Get the results you want! To grow your business! To accelerate your career! To improve your life! Jeff Blackman delivers proven strategies for lifelong opportunities of growth and prosperity, motivates you to meet and exceed your goals, turns your new knowledge and skills into power and profit, customizes your game plan for success, energizes you to discover passion, purpose and fun, shows you how to hurdle your belief barriers, creates an atmosphere for meaningful action resulting in a lifetime of achievement.

So what happened next? The marketplace answered. Quickly. Dramatically! Clients, prospects and the bureaus and production houses that represent me, told me they loved the brochure. Not just its format, four-colors, spot varnish, and cool fold-out pages, but the language. Especially the language on the inside front cover. One person even exclaimed, “Hey, great inside copy. Most people usually put something lame, like their mission statement there. Who cares?!”

Then, it hit me. Well, if great language works in one place, it’ll work in multiple locations too. So I began to adapt the preceding prose into; our Web site, correspondence and conversations. Our clients have also begun to adapt their results, benefits, advantages, outcomes language for; signage, (internal and external), delivery vehicles, uniforms and advertising messages.

Take the time for you and your people to brainstorm and execute this simple exercise. Then get ready, to drive relationships, results and revenue. For a lifetime!

Would love to hear about your successes. So shoot me an e-mail. Sure am glad, Dad “slapped” me upside the head! Hopefully, I too, have politely “bopped your brain” to help you peak your profits!

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Jeff Blackman is a speaker, author, success coach, broadcaster and lawyer who lives part-time on Marco Island. His clients call him a “business-growth specialist.” Send an e-mail to jeff@jeffblackman.com or go to www.jeffblackman.com to subscribe to his free e-letter.