The 8 Profit Activators in Action: Live Hot Seats With Joe Polish and Dean Jackson - I Love Marketing Episode #484

Joe Polish and Dean Jackson run through the 8 Profit Activators, the framework that has anchored the show since day one, then open the floor for real time hot seats with a man selling $6 million spots in a round the world power boat race, a Strategic Coach community builder, a business book marketer, and a painter trying to reinvent his industry. Here's what you're about to discover in this conversation: The $250 ad and a 24 hour recorded message that turned one Colorado carpet cleaner into $62,000 in his first year, and why a room full of skeptics at a 1990s trade show almost talked Joe out of ever teaching it to anyone else. Why Dean Jackson tells a man pitching $6 million national franchises in the first ever round the world power boat race that his entire business case is missing the one thing serious investors need to hear. The sticker Joe put on vacuum cleaners, that generated more referrals than any refrigerator magnet ever did (PLUS: the $2 bill he still says is the cheapest referral tool in marketing). Why Dean says the real Profit Activator 2 question is never "how do I get a lead," and what a directory of 100 outdoor wedding venues in Toronto has to do with landing every high paying client a party rental company ever wanted. What happens when a painter with almost 30 employees, no formal business training, and a mission to change how tradesmen get paid tells his whole story live on camera, and why Joe and Dean tell him he just delivered his own best marketing without realizing it. If you'd like to join world-renowned Entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network Event or want to learn more about Genius Network, go to www.GeniusNetworkEvents.com.   Show Notes: Where the 8 Profit Activators Came From Dean traces the framework back to his own journals, journal number six from 1997, where an early seven step version of the process first shows up. The original steps run from selecting a single target market through nurturing lifetime relationships, and Dean later splits "orchestrate referrals" out as its own step, bringing the total to eight. Joe and Dean point out that neither of them taught this process before living it. They build real businesses first (carpet cleaning and real estate) and use the Profit Activators as practitioners. The framework gets its name once I Love Marketing launches, and it has anchored the show for all 16 years since. Profit Activator 1: Narrow Your Focus and Select One Target Market Dean draws a hard line between selecting a market (deciding proactively who to pursue) and simply being selected (putting content out and hoping the right people find you). Most marketing advice pushes people to think wide. Dean argues for the opposite: pick one target market at a time and go after it on purpose. Profit Activator 2: Use Direct Response Offers to Compel Prospects to Call You Joe walks through the free recorded message ad he wrote with Gary Halbert: "How to have your carpets cleaned properly at the lowest possible price," and explains why the word "properly" is doing all the work. The exercise Joe and Dean run with clients asks two things: what would compel someone in your target audience to contact you, and where can you advertise to get the strongest direct response? Joe shares the headline he and client Jim Wolverton tested until it worked, "How to get the most thorough cleaning ever, or it's free," paired with a free room of carpet cleaning as the offer. Profit Activator 3: Patiently and Systematically Educate and Motivate Prospects Dean cites the research behind the framework: out of 100 people who inquire about anything, just over half eventually act, but only 15% do it inside the first 90 days. That means the same batch of 100 leads is worth roughly five times more after the 90 day mark, yet most businesses stop following up right around day nine. Profit Activator 4: Present Your Unique Service Offer<