A simple lesson that Russell learned from his carpet cleaner.
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Hey, everybody. This is Russell Brunson, and I want to welcome you to an amazing, beautiful outside day, and a new episode of “Marketing in Your Car”.
I just want to share. I had something that made me smile over the last day or so. I thought I would bring it up to you guys. As you know, we had a big, huge event out here in Boise for the last four days. It was awesome. People loved it. It’s some of the best stuff we’ve ever done, and I’m really proud of it.
One of the things we talked a lot about was funnels. We talked a lot about how to structure your funnel the right way, how to make a lot of money, and one thing I taught is that the concept of that amateurs focus on the front end, and smart business owners like you and me focus on the back end. How do we structure that? How do we put more of our effort over there? After that, I had a funny experience.
We’ve been getting our carpets cleaned for probably the last three years from this guy, and he’s a really nice guy. My wife always talks about him, but I’d never had a chance to meet him. So he was coming over to our house, and he was cleaning the carpet again. I’d say this is the sixth or seventh time we’ve hired him to clean the carpets. He’s made some pretty good money off of us. So I was talking to him, and he said, “Yeah, so you used to own CitySmart.com, right?” to which I said, “Yeah.” “City Smart”used to be, back before Groupon came out. When Groupon was only nine cities, we saw what they were doing, so we launched a Groupon here in Boise called City Smart, and we were growing it and everything, and then Groupon and Living Social came in and beat us out, unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun.
Supposedly we ran his offer on City Smart, and I asked him, “That’s interesting. How did it go for you?” and he goes, “It was horrible, the worst thing I ever did.” I said, “Really? What happened?” He said, “Well, I did it, and from that I ended up getting like, I don’t know, 150 customers. I went and cleaned the houses, and I made no money off of it. It was a complete waste of my time and energy.” I said, “Really? That’s interesting. So how did my wife meet you?” He goes, “Well she bought one of the things off of City Smart.” I was like, “Interesting,” and then I just kind of left it there, to see if he would pick up what I was laying down, and he totally missed it [laughs].
I just want for all of you guys who actually understand marketing and business to smile with me, because that guy didn’t realize that that little cheapy thing he’d run on City Smart, that at least us, if nobody else, at least us – we came in so far, and have hired him at least six or seven times since then, probably spent $1,000 or more with him, and we will continue to keep doing that, because he’s a nice guy and does a great job. I’m guessing those other 150 people we gave him – clients that we drove to him – I’m guessing a big percentage of those guys probably hired him to come back again and again. I would bet that if he looked at his stats from that City Smart promotion, it was probably the best thing that his business ever had – ever.
And that wasn’t even considering the fact that he’s a horrible sales person. If it wasn’t for my wife and the fact that when she meets somebody she likes, she just keeps hiring them over and over and over again, but he never follows up. If you look at one of my buddies, Joe Polish, he teaches carpet cleaners how to build these big businesses, and what he teaches carpet cleaners is that when someone comes in, get them on a continuity program where you go back every three months and clean their carpet. If he was to pitch us a maintenance fee, where we paid him ninety-seven bucks a month and then three times a year, he came and cleaned our carpets at a discount, we would have done it, and I’m betting out of those 150 other people, a lot of other people would have done it as well [laughs].
It just made me smile. It’s unfortunate, but it made me laugh, that someone like that, who got all of these leads from us was upset about the experience, whereas it’s exactly what’s fueling his business right now. I just want all of you guys to know, and I want to make sure all of you guys understand that I know [laughs] that amateurs focus on the front end. I would rather lose $20, $30, $40, $50 on the front end sale if it acquires a customer, because that customer, as you’ve seen with my wife and I and the carpet cleaning did buy, and we’ve continued to buy it over and over and over again.
So for you guys, think about your businesses. What are you being short-sighted on? What are you freaking out on because the front end is not quite right? What could you change around to make it a lot better for you and for your business?
I’m at the office. It’s a beautiful day. I’m excited. Remember, amateurs focus on the front end, and you guys, as people inside DotComSecrets and inside the “Marketing in Your Car” podcasts, you understand that we focus on the back end. That’s it for today, you guys. Have a great day, and we’ll talk to you guys all again, soon.