Prepare For a Disaster

By Scott Bywater

Ever since I was a kid, I was a bit of a sports nut. I was into cricket, tennis, soccer and even made the Teal Cup Squad for the Northern Territory Football team before moving to Coffs Harbour
when I was about 15 years old.

Anyway, one of the things I have discovered is most of the great coaches walk into the game with more than one plan in their head. They have a plan to go by if their team gets off to a flying start. and a different plan if their team starts getting hammered early on in the game and it’s looking like a disaster.

They have already thought about every obstacle to their potential success: what will they do if a key player is injured during the game? How will they handle it if one of the opposition teams top players starts firing on all cylinders? But while conventional “positive thinking” tells us we should just keep staying positive no matter what, in reality the best approach is putting the positive power of negative preparation to work.

1. Starting out the year, we need to consider how we will handle things if we achieve our objectives early and get off to a flying start? How will we capitalize on this? How will we leverage our momentum to take advantage on everything? On the other hand, what will we do if things start out slowly? What’s your back up plan? What’s your second back up plan? And your
third?

For instance, if you are hedging on a particular marketing campaign getting you a bundle of new clients, what will you do if it doesn’t? You will need back-up strategies like:

-The web site lead generation strategy
-The fake cheque letter
-The joint venture program
-The special report program
-The “convert more customers program”
-The “get more referrals” program.

To name a few. In a nutshell, by using negative preparation, even if one thing doesn’t work, you’ve got plenty of proven back up plans to put in place to ensure you don’t end up getting crushed like so many other businesses.

2. Secondly, when you are selling in print, you need to take negative preparation into account. For instance, whenever I create a newspaper or magazine ad, direct mail piece, internet copy or a brochure, I write down all the reasons I can think of which would hold someone back from responding to my offer.

By identifying the “negatives” I can hit them between the eyes in the copy and cover every single objection which might hold somebody back. I go through an advanced way of doing this and the results you get from following this process will prove to you this approach is one of the most powerful selling strategies there is.

Apply the power of negative preparation and you’ll get far greater results than you ever thought possible, despite the economic uncertainty. And make sure you send me a note and tell me about the success you have as a result. Success is a matter of how fast you apply a strategy and start enjoying the results.

Make it happen – despite the obstacles in your path.

About the Author: Scott Bywater is a direct mail copywriter and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

Source: http://www.isnare.com