George: Hello, Mike.

Michael: Hey George, how are you?

George: Great, yourself?

Michael: Let me start off by just explaining what I would say to you at the beginning. I don’t know how much I’ve told you yesterday when we talked on the phone about who I am and why we’re getting together today. So, let me just tell you quickly a little bit about what I do. What I do and what my consulting company does is I work with business owners, people like yourself, helping them to maximize their marketing success. Now, most of my clients, they’re small to medium size companies, similar to yours, with sales under $5 million per year. And I work in a unique marketing approach, different than a lot of marketing consultants. I look at all your marketing assets, the things that are sitting in your business that you don’t really realize are an asset and I find ways to leverage and optimize those. You already have these assets in place. So, because I’m trying to leverage existing marketing assets, you can often realize some pretty dramatic and profitable growth without having to invest a bunch of money or make a lot of significant changes in your business operation. So, what I’d like to do is, today, I’d like to take a look at your business and see where you and where you’re going and how you’re going to get there and see if there maybe some ways that I can help you grow your business. Does that make sense?

George: Yes.

Michael: Not every business that I talk to has these assets, but that’s why we’re talking today. We’re going to see if we can find some stuff that we can leverage and help you growth without dumping more money into advertising. First let me tell you another difference in the way we work. We work strictly on a project by project basis and depending on what we do, the fee for each one of these projects varies. But most businesses we work with fall into one of three different situations. Now, one, they’re either doing okay, but want to do better, or two, they’re kind of stagnant and there’s not much growth, and three, they’re declining in revenue. Can you tell me where you are now?

George: First one.

Michael: You’re the first one.

George: I’m the first one. My business is improving in sales and clientele base. I believe that it ought to be like probably double it. I’ve got lots of material that I also know they’re going to help. What I’m struggling to do is implement those ideas and execute those plans. I could listen to all those marketing materials. My thinking is that I’m kind of an individual, the quick start. I start things, but I don’t really follow through.

Michael: Well, that’s another thing that separates our HMA system is that our consultants do the implementation for you rather than just give you a bunch of material for you to do it yourself. So, we know that you’re busy operating your tanning salon business and you’re busy in the business and that’s why most business owners never really act on the marketing advice that they see in the books and tapes. So, that is one thing that separates our HMA consultant is that we actually implement them for you so you can do what you do best and that’s running the business.

George: Actually I devote my time to just marketing. I’m not in the business. I work on the business and at this point I have six employees that are working. I should say that my main business is real estate.

Michael: Is real estate.

George: Yes. I buy and sell, I buy and hold, I flip and that’s what I do and that’s where most of my time is going.

Michael: Well, we’re going to keep on track for this conversation today, we’re going to be talking about your retail tanning salon. Let’s get into it. You want to double the business. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that, but let’s take a look and let’s start with looking at what we call a USP, a unique selling proposition. And what I’m going to be looking for as I ask you some questions, I’m going to look for under promoted USPs. I’m going to look for the expertise about you and your staff experience, what makes you competitive compared to other tanning salons, looking at price differentiations, and things like that. So, I want to ask you, why should people do business with you? Why should they come to your tanning salon? Why don’t you tell me what is your business called? Tell me where it is located and how long its been operating. And then let’s get into why you think people should do business with you.

George: First of all, we’re offering unique services.

Michael: How long have you had it?

George: This business has been there from 2001. I purchased the business in 2004. Since that time, when I purchased that business, I was able to double the clientele, double the sales.

Michael: How many beds do you have?

George: Six total. I’m just about to put in another one.

Michael: And is it in a retail location? Where is it situated?

George: It’s in _____ and part of like residential area. Geographically targeted market that they go on vacation twice a year. They come to us just before the vacation to pre-tan. We deal with our clients on a personal level, help them really what they want to achieve and help them achieve that. We really care about them. We know most of our clients by first name, which is 2,000 clientele. When a person walks in he feels comfortable. What I want to say is the service that we are offering, we are making it for people, for clients, to feel that they don’t go to some place that just take their money. We’re offering them the expertise. Our staff is certified. And that’s what I think is the difference between the competitor and us. We’re kind of a small place that people come in and relax and have the best 20 minutes of their day.

Michael: What I hear you saying is where your other competition may treat people more like a number in and out rather than a person. When they come to your place, there are only six beds, you know everyone by name, they feel comfortable coming in, you’re a friendly service, kind of like a neighborhood feel.

George: Exactly.

Michael: And you feel like that’s why people come to you.

George: Exactly. Most of my competition in the area is big franchises. They are company operated with a manager who is running them. And those managers are on a salary base. Now, they have the system in place. I could see that they are able to get much more clientele and service more people because of the system they have in place and all the marketing. For me, it’s really a neighborhood and we have a relationship with the client.

Michael: How is your price compared to the competition?

George: I don’t want to be a price competitive business, but we offer better value. I match their prices. One of them is Tan Unlimited, close to where we are and their strategy is to get people in the door with a small membership or something and they give them one of those for them to use some of their basic _____. But they also get them in for one year with post-dated checks or a monthly withdrawal from their account. I am different in that I have like the same 24 _____ unlimited for a month, but there is no contract or no membership required.

Michael: How do you accept the money? Does it automatically charge on their card?

George: They come in and they pay for a month and the next month they might not come in and pay again. What they have is the first month is $39. Every month after that it’s $24.95 or some people come in and renew their unlimited month before or on the date that it expires.

Michael: What are your customers coming for? They’re coming in to tan…

George: Location is convenient to them and also they find a good bargain.

Michael: But why are they tanning? They’re getting tanned before they go on vacation?

George: That’s one reason.

Michael: To prepare them so they get burned. What’s another reason?

George: Another reason is throughout the year they just want to have a healthy looking skin like suntan. Another reason is that is a source of vitamin D and also I have people who are coming _____ disorder throughout the winter months. Sometimes they’ve been prescribed something from their doctors, sometimes they know when they come in there they feel the energy. I think the main reason is because I ask every person how was it after the tan and 95% it was _____ the main reason. The benefit is getting the healthy looking skin.

Michael: How about the safety issue of tanning? There’s a lot of negative publicity…

George: Those people that are coming in, they know it’s just something that’s _____. They never experienced it themselves.

Michael: Is it safe to come tan at your beds?

George: It is. It is much better. The number one reason is the UV light is no different than the UV that’s coming from the sun. Most negative publicity think…the sun’s been on the earth for a million years and everyone needs the sun. What’s not good is overexposure. If you overexpose yourself, you get chances of skin cancer and things like that. Indoor tanning…we control the exposure, so better to have indoor tanning than outdoor tanning just because we’re going to control it for just gradually increasing the timing. That’s how we help people not to burn from the first tan they go on vacation.

Michael: Wonderful. You talked about a lot of things that really do separate you from all the other tanning salons out there. Do your employees know this and understand this?

George: They go for training. Yes they do. But also I have a really _____ turnover like on the employees. Most of them are young students. It’s very hard to find a person who stays longer. Now, what I want to also say, two of my staff they’ve been with me for a year and a half now. They tell me they’re going to be with me for the rest of their work life.

Michael: What we’re talking about isn’t really communicated over to the customers or to potential prospects. Is that true?

George: Yes, exactly. I want to have a system in place, a referral system. I also want to have a marketing newsletter like direct mail. Also for them, we just did a mail selling proposition.

Michael: I see the piece that you sent me. They’re very pretty and everything, but they don’t really say much. They don’t have a reason why, a USP, a compelling reason why someone should come to your tanning bed. That’s got to be integrated all through your marketing, the way you answer the phone, the brochure that someone gets when they come in or take home with them. It could be posted inside the room where they’re tanning. This message has got to be drilled into all your customers and your potential prospects. Now, do you see if we could integrate that message to your existing customers and potential prospects how that can grow your business even more?

George: Yes, I could see. Below the logo, I have the fact, which says your daily oasis awaits.

Michael: I don’t have it opened right now. Your daily oasis awaits; that means nothing. That’s not succinct enough.

George: _____ selling proposition _____.

Michael: No it is not. But so you understand, if we get a selling proposition on your brochures, integrate it on the phone on an answering recording when no one is there, in the rooms, on your invoices; every time you touch a customer or a potential prospect how that could grow your business. That’s one way we can do that and that’s develop a strong USP that can be consistent through all the touches of your customers, like I just mentioned in the example. Number two, one thing that we do with a business, once we have that integrated, once we have that USP developed, then we would leverage that current marketing process. So, when I ask you these questions, what I’m going to be looking for is some other hidden assets in your business as far as when you have potential prospects to see if we can increase the sales of your business. Can you tell me about your current prospect to sales process? How are you getting your customers right now mainly?

George: Mainly by location.

Michael: They are walk-in trade?

George: Yes and drive by.

Michael: So, they see the sign and they come in. Let’s say ten people come in. What percentage will sign up with you? What would you say?

George: I would say 80% or more.

Michael: Eight percent. What happens to the other two percent who don’t buy?

George: What they want to do…some of them…is shop around.

Michael: They’ll shop around?

George: Yes. Go to some other place and they come back. But most of the time they stay, they come in. What I have is for new clients, I’ve got three tans for $9.99. Sometimes like one session is only $8 to $10. There is competition out there selling one tan for $12. My prices are really competitive. I don’t want to _____.

Michael: No, no you don’t. And that’s another benefit. When you have a succinct USP and a selling proposition, you can actually increase your price. Most people only compete on price because they have nothing else to compete on.

George: I don’t want to compete on price.

Michael: Yes, you don’t want to do that. Once we get a USP in place, you can start increasing your price because now you’re going to be selling the real value of why someone should come tan with you.

George: Exactly.

Michael: And people will pay more that.

George: What I was thinking is guaranteed tan in two weeks or less.

Michael: That’s not a bad idea. So, the two percent that don’t buy, do you follow up with those ones who walk out of there.

George: No, it’s hard to. If I’m there I make sure they stay and I do everything and I tell them…I really ask questions, what they want to really accomplish. In most cases I’m going to give them real value. Try us out. No obligation. See how you like it.

Michael: But you’re not going to get 100%. You’re going to let some slip by if you’re not following up for whatever reason. People may come in there, they may walk out. They have intentions to sign up with you, but they may get busy. There may be interruptions in their life.

George: Yes. It’s hard to take a name and address from the time they walk in.

Michael: If I can show you a way to capture their name or an email address or a way to contact them, do you see that maybe we may be able to get that one percent of two percent?

George: The way I capture them is I give them a free value.

Michael: So, you give them one free tan?

George: Sometimes I could give them _____. For them to get the free value, they have to give their name and once they’re in my system, I know I could mail to them directly. What I did at Christmas, I sent a Christmas card with a $10 gift certificate voucher in that card and wishing them a Merry Christmas. I got the return of 18% on those.

Michael: That’s very good, great. Even though it may not be a big increase, we could probably just by following up the people who walked out and come up with a way to capture their information, maybe even without having to give something away for free. We could increase your business even if it’s ten percent. It’s still a ten percent growth.

George: Yes.

Michael: Well, that’s capitalizing on the people who don’t buy. Now, let’s talk about your past, present, and prospective customers. I want to look at your customer base that’s not being worked or your inactive customers or cross selling opportunities with your business and also some backend opportunities. This is where we can really get a lot of growth in the revenue for your business.

George: I know just to reactive clients, that’s what I should concentrate on.

Michael: How long do they stay with you generally?

George: Most of them a year, sometimes just a month. If they stay one month, I know there is a problem with my services. I’ve got right now a unique customer base of 350 people that they come in month after month.

Michael: So, you have 350 people who are coming in monthly and what are they paying per month.

George: Average about more than $30-$35.

Michael: Thirty-five dollars a month.

George: Yes.

Michael: So, that’s $12,250 a month of regular revenue coming in.

George: Yes.

Michael: That’s pretty good.

George: I shouldn’t say that because in the summer it’s not that much.

Michael: What if we said you’re bringing in $8,000 a month?

George: Well, the sales for last month were about $13,000.

Michael: So, let me ask you this. That’s on just your tanning service. They come in and they use the beds to get tanned and they leave, right.

George: Yes. We should go to the _____ because that I could quadruple that side of the business.

Michael: And what’s that called?

George: _____.

Michael: Do you have an _____ onsite?

George: Yes, I do.

Michael: Are the customers using that right now?

George: Yes and I know she is busy probably only two hours to three hours a day.

Michael: So, what kind of service does she provide?

George: I think that brochure also. Facial care and women wanting manicure, pedicure, makeup…pretty much full range of _____.

Michael: Let me ask you this. You’ve got 350 customers paying ongoing on a monthly basis. How many of the customers in your database are not regular customers?

George: Inactive?

Michael: Yes, inactive.

George: I would say a thousand.

Michael: You’ve got a thousand inactive customers. Those thousand, when they’re inactive, are you doing anything, making any contact with them.

George: No. I know…that’s why I mentioned a newsletter or a selling proposition.

Michael: Absolutely.

George: I know that’s where I could double the business.

Michael: Double the business right there.

George: Also the people that used to purchase from me, they’ll purchase again. It is just they get busy and they come this month just because in March they have to go on vacation. They do not come after the vacation. Also, they need to keep that tan. They’ll come next year, tell me, last year I bought one of your specials. I probably should have _____ left.

Michael: That is your best source for additional business. You’re sitting on another $10,000 a month right there in that database. Don’t you think it would be important to consistently ask them to do business with you?

George: I know. I even contacted the _____. I wanted to do a…design a newsletter. Send them every two months with a selling proposition.

Michael: Sometimes all you need is a phone call and an invitation. There are services that I could help you out with that can make all those phone calls automatically within about three minutes of time once it is set up where you can give them a personal invite on their answering machine. There’s enough money in there, with a compelling offer, to getting them back into your shop and to start rekindling the relationship with them. I would feel competent that you can bring back at least 10 to 20% of those and make them consistent customers. Let’s look at alliance opportunities. I want to look for different relationships with other businesses, particularly in your database or right in your immediate location. Let me ask this. Who are your customers? Are they just all kinds of people or mainly young females? How would you categorize…

George: Seventy-five percent are females.

Michael: What ages?

George: Ages between 18 years to 30 years old; it is probably 60% of it.

Michael: Do they all live in the area?

George: Ninety percent live in geographic business.

Michael: A lot of the young kids are students. Is there a university in your area?

George: Not very close, but it’s probably five miles away. I don’t get many of them. There are other tanning places. Just in this city, which is 200,000 population, I think there are 30 tanning salons.

Michael: Do you know of any other businesses that have a similar type market who you can maybe do a promotion with?

George: Yes…well, any business…

Michael: Any local gems?

George: Yes. Some of them have tanning beds. They just have very basic equipment they provide to their members for free. I could target that market. Also what I was thinking was giving some free value like newspaper, radio stations; design a package for people that work let’s say in this…we have phonebook guide directory. There are probably let’s say 200 pages. So, if I go to them and give them just free value, two weeks unlimited, I think it’s something.

Michael: Absolutely, if you can get them in the door and make them happy. There are all kinds of opportunities. There’s probably four or five health clubs or Curves…where people are tanning or fitness centers or kickboxing or karate or dancing or whatever. They’re all over the place.

George: I should have some tanning proposition or something put to their type.

Michael: What you do is you contact the owners and you do cross promotions where you can set up alliances and have them promoting your tanning business to their customers. You can capitalize on their entire customer database and work out an agreement where you’ll either promote their services or you can pay them a small commission, or what have you.

George: I tried…it was actually a cross promotion with a fitness. I gave for their members 15% off if they come in and they’re members. I only have one person came in.

Michael: So, your offer wasn’t compelling enough. Fifteen percent off doesn’t mean much these days. You need to change the offer and try again, but not give up. But at least you tried.

George: I want to also have is something like for me to just talk to the owner and ask him, look can you put this here and I’ll promote your service, come up with something, how to display your services in my studio or you just put this thing here where people can drop in like cards or complimentary.

Michael: I’m going to give you one idea you can simply do. You can go to a local fitness center and you can say, look, I’ve got a thousand people on my database, you’ve got a thousand customers in your database, would you like to trade databases where you call and contact my customers with your offer and I call and contact your customers with my offer? You trade databases, but you have guidelines on what they can do with or without the database

George: There is so much about the privacy now in Canada that came in from January and I guess people really speak about it.

Michael: No, the Privacy Act, that’s only if you’re contacting people who are not on your customer list. If you’re working with the fitness center as a partnership and I think you’ve been doing it, I mean I may be wrong, unless the fitness center swore that their list wouldn’t be rented out or anything. But if the fitness center endorses you as a non-competing service and it helps and benefits their customers, I don’t think there’s any problem with that.

George: Shouldn’t be a problem if I come up with the right material and the right pitch. It probably should be something similar to…

Michael: So, do you see how setting up some joint ventures with some non- competing businesses helps? You could really get a ton of new customers as long as you can set one or two of these up. Do you see how that can grow that business a little bit?

George: Yes, I could see, Mike, if you come up with material.

Michael: We could do that. Maybe you’ve got media. Are you doing anything with the media? Have you gotten any kind of newspaper write up in your local media or any radio?

George: In newsletters have like advertising in it. Most of the time I actually don’t want to put coupons or something. I put a story…

Michael: You’re talking about advertising. Tell me about your advertising. Are you doing any advertising?

George: Yes, billboards.

Michael: You’re doing a billboard?

George: That’s one way.

Michael: Do you have a billboard up right now?

George: Yes, I have it right now for Valentine’s Day.

Michael: How much is that billboard a month?

George: $170.

Michael: A month?

George: Yes.

Michael: Where is it located?

George: On the front of the _____, on a traffic light…there is an intersection.

Michael: What does it say?

George: What I have right now is six tans and a sample of lotion for $28.

Michael: It has your phone number on there?

George: Yes.

Michael: Does it have the address?

George: The address is right there. They know where we are.

Michael: So, this is right in front…

George: Yes, it’s just in front of business quarter.

Michael: Okay, I’ve got you.

George: There is a karate…there is a variety store, there is a doctor’s office, pharmacy.

Michael: It sounds like you’ve got a lot of businesses right there in your mall. Have you ever done any kind of little partnership or put coupons or stuff on the counters of these businesses?

George: I placed business cards and also complementary tans.

Michael: Has that worked at all?

George: Not as much as they were expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting.

Michael: What other advertising are you doing besides a billboard, anything else?

George: Yellow Pages.

Michael: How much are you spending on your Yellow Pages?

George: $4,000 a year. Another $4,000 on _____, $8,000 a year.

Michael: Is that where you’re getting most of your new customers? Are you tracking that?

George: Most of them referred by friends.

Michael: Most of them are referral.

George: Yes.

Michael: So, you’re advertising. You don’t really know how effective it is.

George: In the Yellow Pages, I don’t really believe in it. Last year I did not pick out the same advertisement. I actually _____ this year with a selling proposition instead.

Michael: In the Yellow Pages?

George: Yes.

Michael: When you get a customer calling, do you ask them if they saw the ad in the Yellow Pages or how they heard about you?

George: Yes. Once they come in, it’s one of the questions, how did they hear about us.

Michael: How many times doe they say the Yellow Pages?

George: No that many. Overall, it’s not paid off. I’m not getting…

Michael: So, you’re losing money on your Yellow Pages.

George: Yes I am.

Michael: So, next year, you should stop your Yellow Page advertising and that $8,000 you can put into other marketing methods with a lot more power and a lot more results. So, that’s probably a good idea. I mean do you think next year you’re going to stop that?

George: Yellow Page, they just came and marked my new advertisement. It’s coming next month. Right now they’re on the website. The Yellow Pages has a website, right?

Michael: Yes.

George: I was thinking I would get lots of people from the website looking. Now, people go to the Yellow Pages online instead of hard book Yellow Pages. And I don’t really get…

Michael: We could optimize your website. If someone’s looking for tanning in your local area and they’re searching any of the major search engines, I can set your website up where you’ll come up.

George: When you pay Google?

Michael: Not even with paid. You can get listed in the natural search engines. That can be done, as well. You’re spending a lot of money on Yellow Page advertising right now that isn’t bringing you back any money. Now, what I was also wondering, the media has never done a story on you. If we created a unique story…

George: That’s where I wanted to concentrate. I was approached by this newsletter representative in the area who is sending 10,000 copies each month, asked me if I wanted to advertise. I said I don’t like advertising _____ story about my business. And we tried small. I’ll see how it’s going to come out. That’s what I wanted…

Michael: You can create a unique story around your tanning beds, something really unique that catches attention. You’ve got to come up with crazy ideas. What city are you located in?

George: Kitchener.

Michael: What’s the state?

George: Ontario.

Michael: So, you can say local Kitchener, Ontario businessman tans his cat. Do you know what I’m saying? You can claim that tanning your pets are good for you…something so crazy that the newspaper will come out and do a story on you. You’ve got to come up with crazy stuff like five kittens born in local Kitchener’s tanning bed. Do you know what I’m saying? Funny stuff that makes the news and you can send a press release out to the local papers and they’ll come out to your place and you build a story around it and, of course, they list the name of your company.

George: And that’s when I said that I want to have free value giving to this type of business; the radio, newspaper.

Michael: Ontario tanning expert shows you five reasons why you should tan before your next vacation, or five critical reasons why tanning beds are safer than outdoor tanning…things like that. The media looks for stories like that for the consumers and you could become in your local area the tan man, the expert on indoor tanning. You could literally become a local celebrity because the media is always looking for great stories. So, you need someone with creativity to position that for you and to show you how that’s doable.

George: I have got one idea, Mike, about creating, but really growing my aesthetic part business because I know that’s where I could concentrate. That publicity in tanning, not everyone wants to go indoor tanning, but every woman out there wants to look beautiful.

Michael: Well, that’s another whole business and that would be another whole hour on the phone, but I see what you’re saying.

George: That I’ve actually got an idea, romance get away for males when they purchase something for their _____. I’m going to have a limousine pick up for the woman, bring her to the spa, take her to a restaurant after the spa where her husband is going to wait for her. We’re going to have the dinner and the Champaign and everything hooked in together. I think to advertise it as we save marriages.

Michael: You saw that in the Dan Kennedy thing.

George: Yes.

Michael: That’s a great idea.

George: The guy with the restaurant?

Michael: Yes, you could do the same thing, the romance director.

George: Yes, the romance director, but what I want to have is not only the restaurant, but limousine pick up.

Michael: That’s an excellent idea. Also with your list and your database, direct marketing and direct mail and postcards and letters are very effective. You could really do a wonderful sales job selling someone on the benefits of tanning if you took the time and you created a great direct mail letter that could be mailed out to your non-active prospects and potential prospects. You could get with the travel agencies in your area, the companies who are booking travel, and you could create a report especially for the travel agencies on how to not get burned on your next vacation. They could send that out to all their customers who they’re booking vacations for who are going all across the world in hot sun climates. They could incorporate in their travel package pre-tanning before their trip. That would be a nice benefit.

George: I know I could specialize in this. Where I struggle is coming up with just the words, Michael. The ideas are there. I need a copywriter or someone when I go to design this to show the benefits and come up with it. That’s where I cannot really communicate that or write it. I heard the best person to write it up and everything is me, but it’s probably because of my English is a second language. I’m limited. That’s where I need someone who could come. I know that they’re out there. For sure they’re out there, those newsletter on tanning from the _____ or on any service. It doesn’t have to be tanning. I just have to change the name.

Michael: I totally understand. Some of the things we’ve talked about, I think we’re on the same page and you absolutely understand by having someone do these for you, then it’s basically money in the bank. You should easily be able to recoup your investment back and really grow that business to where you want it to go.

George: I understand that. So, for me it’s not really spending money. It’s investing money, let’s say 30% of an investment.

Michael: I have some open time in my consulting schedule for this month. If it’s something you’d be interested in doing, I think it would be a fun project. I’d love to work on this. You certainly don’t have to do all of these projects to grow the business to where you want because you do have a limited capacity. We maybe able to just implement three or four of these steps in the system to get you up to full capacity. Can you handle the growth if we can fill you up? Do you have all the employees and you can handle the growth and everything?

George: Well, if I can’t handle, I can expand.

Michael: So, you’d be willing to expand if the growth was there?

George: Yes. For me it’s going to be do I have everything I need from here except writing for whatever material stuff. I could take my time to mail them, put the system in action. I’ll act on everything that I have to, but to come up with writing the newsletter or writing the five benefits, I…

Michael: Well, I’m going to do all that for you.

George: And even those reports that are going to be kind of a _____ report, give those to the travel agencies with some voucher from our business…

Michael: Yes, absolutely.

George: Like a gift to their customers.

Michael: I’m going to do all that for you. But the first thing…I wouldn’t do any of that until the first project is done. The USP is critical. I won’t work on anything until that’s done.

George: Okay.

Michael: What I can do is I’ll make you an offer just like you make an offer to your new potential prospects. Instead of buying the whole thing at once, I’ll do the USP project. And if you like the USP, then we can move forward with other projects. The USP project isn’t necessarily going to bring you immediate money, but it’s got to be put in place because the next step, reactivating your customers is where the money really is. I think we can get a lot of growth just by contacting your inactive customers. But we can’t contact them without something to say and we can’t say anything until we develop and do the research on why your customers should come back and that’s the USP. Do you see?

George: Okay.

Michael: So, your growth in your company…it may not come right at the USP, but it’s a critical investment to do. Then once we have that, we can move on to step 2 and we’ll go from there. Is that all right with you?

George: Yes, it is Mike.

Michael: Why don’t I put together a simple agreement? I can email it over to you of what you can expect from me and what I’m going to expect from you. You’ll have to pay me for the USP up front before I get started and I’m ready to get going on it right away. There’s four steps in the USP process, so I’ve done a lot of the interviewing with you, but I also want to talk to some of your employees and I’ll also be doing some competitive analysis on your competition. They won’t know what I’ll be doing, but I’m going to document that for you and I’m going to show you some things…

George: I could tell you some of the names and probably websites.

Michael: We’ll do that. I think it would be a lot of fun.

George: Yes. Send the agreement. Are you going to have a bank account where I could wire the money?

Michael: Yes, I can give you a bank account.

George: Do you do Master Card?

Michael: You could put it on Visa or Master Card, either way.

George: Can I do it Canadian?

Michael: Is your Visa a Canadian Visa?

George: Yes.

Michael: I think they automatically convert it.

George: The rate is about another 12%.

Michael: You just give me your Visa and I just run it through and they convert it automatically.

George: For me it is probably going to be about $300 more.

Michael: You’re Canadian. I see what you’re saying. What I’ll do…why don’t we reduce the cost by $300 US.

George: Oh great.

Michael: So, we’ll reduce it down on your end.

George: That’s great.

Michael: Is that fair?

George: That’s fair, Mike. Thank you very much.

Michael: This has been a pleasure. I think you’re sitting on a lot of assets, there’s no doubt. Is your customer database all entered into a database right now?

George: It is in the…she knows the software design for _____ and they are based in Utah and it is a software, very smart. You could get from there everything.

Michael: Well, we can talk about it. Let me do this. Let me run now. I’ll put together a simple agreement. I’ll email it over to you. I’ll send you a way you can get me paid with your Visa, Master Card, and we’ll get going on a good USP for you.

George: Should I come up with some information for you like…

Michael: After we take care of the payment we’re going to set up another time to talk. It takes generally four to six weeks for me to develop a USP. During that time I will be asking you for some information that you’re going to have to get to me. You’re going to give me the names of your competitors for my competitive analysis and then I will need some names and numbers of some of your employees that I can talk to, as well.

George: I was thinking, now the business for the tanning business is April/May.

Michael: April and May.

George: If we use that, I cannot see my money until next year.

Michael: No, no, no. We can get going on this right away. We should be well into everything by the end of March, right at the beginning of April.

George: Great.

Michael: Okay.

George: Great.

Michael: I like to get on things fast. I like to give myself four to six weeks, but I maybe able to even go sooner.

George: Okay.

Michael: All right.

George: Thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for calling me.

Michael: You’re very welcome.

George: I appreciate it. If there’s anything I could do for you…

Michael: Let’s just have a great success with you and we’ll use it as a case study.

George: Okay.

Michael: The best thing you can do for me is just we’re going to work together as team and you’re going to follow my advice. You just look at me as a doctor and you’re the patient.

George: Yes. You’re the expert, I know, and I always want to have an expert on my team.

Michael: You’ve got it.

George: Thank you very much, Mike.

Michael: Take care.