Valtimax Videos

Four Types of Income

Summary

There are four types of income available to your business. You must be intimately familiar with each type of income and create a strategy to maximize the most beneficial income type for you.

This video is a brief description of each income type and how you can leverage them to make a great living and live a great life®.

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Transcript

Hi. I’m Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and our time together today is going to be spent focusing on the four types of income in your business or professional practice.

Now the type of income that you earn in your professional practice is critically important regardless of whether you’re a doctor or a lawyer or you have a business like a corner store. The reason that it’s important is because you want to build equity in your business or your professional practice so that someday you can sell it.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible even in a solo or small practice law firm or a solo or small practice medical, dental, accounting group. You can build income or you can build equity if you focus on the right types of income.

So let’s talk about the four different types of income that are available to you in any business or professional practice.

Now each of these types of income is dependent upon labor intensity which means the amount of work required to attract the client and relationship need, how much of a relationship do you personally as the owner of your business, as the owner of your professional practice needs to have with the end-user, with the client, with the purchaser.

So we’re going to look at this through the lens of labor intensity and relationship need.

The first type of income is what I call ad hoc income. This is very transactional in nature. A client comes to you. They have an issue. They have a problem. You resolve the issue or problem. The client goes away. If you’re in a corner store setting, a customer comes see you. They buy something. They go away.

This ad hoc income is the least valuable because you only handle one transaction for that person and then they go away and the reason that it’s not as high end value as the other three types of income is because the labor intensity required to not only attract this client but to service this client is very high.

Also the relationship need for this client is very high as well. You have to develop trust from basically nothing. They don’t necessarily know you. They don’t like you. They don’t trust you yet. You have to start from ground zero when it comes to your relationship. So the labor intensity is high and the relationship need is high and that’s called ad hoc income.

Second type of income is called repeat income or income from repeat customers or clients. Now a repeat customer or client is somebody who comes to you for a second time to either buy a different product or partake in a different service.

So the only thing that you have in common from your last experience is you and the client. So the labor intensity is medium because you don’t necessarily have to do as much work because this is work that you’ve done in the past for this client. So the client comes to you and they come to you for repeat work again.

The relationship need is medium as well because they’ve done some stuff with you before. So they trust you a little bit and they’re coming back to you again. So there is a medium relationship need there as well. So repeat income definitely better than ad hoc income.

The third type of income is recurring income and this is the same client coming to you for the same exact thing over and over again. Recurring income is great because the relationship need is low because this client already trusts you. You’ve done this type of work for them in the past. The labor intensity is medium because you’ve done this type of work for this client in the past as well. So labor intensity is medium. Relationship need is low.

The final type of income and I’m going to talk over the people doing the landscaping outside. Final type of income is passive income and this is the best form of income.

The reason is because the labor intensity is low and the relationship need is low. So you don’t have to do any work to attract the client. They come to you automatically and passive income essentially is income that you don’t have to do any marketing to it. It just comes to you. Maybe somebody else on your team brings them in or they come in through an ad or they just show up out of the blue as a result of seeing you at a seminar.

So labor intensity is low. The relationship need is low. They have a relationship with somebody else on your team so you don’t have to actually do the work. You don’t have to actually do any attracting. They have a relationship with someone else who works with you. This could be a referral situation to a really high quality referral. Somebody brings the other person to your office. You sign them up right there.

Passive income is fantastic. No work required, no relationship needed. That’s the ultimate and that’s what builds the most equity in your business.

Now really quickly, why does passive income, recurring income or repeat income build more equity in your business or professional practice than ad hoc income? Because you actually have something to sell.

You have a relationship with these clients. You have a relationship with these customers that you can sell to someone else at some point in the future. With an ad hoc business, all you have is your processes, your systems. It’s all goodwill. You don’t have anything beyond that.

When you have relationships and you have the processes and systems, then you really have some significant equity built up.

I’m Dave Lorenzo and for more great information just like this, you can find me at Valtimax.com. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

Niche Marketing is Not Specialization

Summary

Niche Marketing is a terrific way to grow a business quickly.

Many business owners confuse niche marketing with specialization.

These are two completely different concepts.

Focusing on a niche with your marketing is about targeting your message to an individual group or audience. This is a MARKETING strategy.

Specialization is about organizing your entire business around a specific area of expertise.

For more on this difference, watch our video.

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Transcript

I’m Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and today we’re going to talk about niche marketing and I’m going to discuss one of the really important questions that I get all the time when it comes to focusing on a market niche for your marketing.

The question is, “How does niche marketing differ from specialization?” and this is a great question because when we talk about niche marketing, all we’re talking about is focusing on specific messages for specific target audiences. We’re not talking about limiting your business or your professional practice to one particular area.

So if I said to a lawyer, “We’re going to focus on the target market of affluent individuals who need their wills and their trusts written up and you’re going to target your marketing to that audience even though only half of your practice is made up of trust and estates work and the other half is real estate work,” I’m talking about your marketing. I’m not telling you to abandon your real estate work.

You see, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to match your message to the target audience. So your marketing is niched.

Specialization is something that’s completely different. In Florida for example, lawyers are not allowed to market themselves as specialists unless they have board certification. So we don’t ever use the term “specialist” when it comes to the law.

We use the term “specialist” a lot in the medical field and you can be a specialist in the medical field but I will give you some examples of folks that I’ve met and worked with who have really leveraged the specialization angle while still maintaining a regular practice.

For example a surgeon, a surgeon who doesn’t have a full surgery calendar may choose to be a general practitioner and set up a concierge medical practice where he takes only a few patients every week or every month. That can be very, very effective and it can augment his surgery.

Now, if you’re a surgeon who has a very busy calendar, you’re not going to want to do this but you’re a doctor. You can be a general practitioner as well as a surgeon. If you’re an ear, nose and throat doctor and you also want to see patients on a part-time basis as a general practitioner, you can do that provided you have the office staff to handle it. We’ve helped people set up these types of practices but they’re specialists and they have to do two types of marketing.

The first type of marketing is in their area of specialty. The second type of marketing is in the secondary niche which is their general practice or concierge practice.

So think of it this way. A niche focus or a niche if you’re a fancy person, a niche focus is specific to your marketing. You’re matching your message to your market and it’s always a good idea to do that. Everybody should do that.

Specialization should only be done when we determine that there’s enough demand for the area of expertise that you have and that’s your whole practice or your whole business.

So specialization versus niche marketing, two different things. I want you to make sure that you always match your message to your market when it comes to marketing.

This is Dave Lorenzo. I look forward to speaking with you again soon. If you would like more information just like this, you can visit me at Valtimax.com. Have a great day.

Database Equity

Summary

Think about these three questions for a moment:

• Do you want to improve the value of your business?
• Do you want to sell more products and services to existing clients?
• Would you like more referrals?

If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, you must become a database marketing expert.

This video is a good place to start.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and today we’re going to talk about database equity.

You may be wondering what database equity is. Well, everyone who comes into your business or who meets with you and is a potential client for your services should go into some sort of database and you should be communicating with those folks regularly. You may have heard me talk about newsletters or greeting cards, birthday cards, thank you gifts, those sorts of things.

We have all sorts of programs and systems designed to keep in touch with people and that’s one of the things we provide for our clients.

Well, the folks who we’re keeping in touch with, those are people in our database and your past clients are phenomenally valuable. When we talk about database equity, we talk about your ability to go to your database of past clients or referral sources and extract additional business from them in exchange for the value you can provide.

We’re making the assumption that all money you receive is the by-product of value creation. So you’re exchanging value for their money.

So it’s OK as long as you have something of value to go back to these folks and say, “Hey, I can solve this problem for you,” or “I can provide you with this service that’s going to give you great pleasure and I want to do that.”

Database equity is your ability to go back to the folks on your list and either sell them something new or work with them in a new way.

Everyone needs to build that database and here are the reasons why.

Number one: You can sell more products and services to those folks. So if you’ve done their will, you can do a Durable Power of Attorney later on or you can update the will later on.

If you’re a doctor and you’ve solved an issue for them in a specific area, they had pain in their knee and you’re an orthopedic surgeon. Now when they have pain in their shoulder, they can come back to you and you can continue to educate them on things that they can do to keep healthy as they get older.

Number two: It’s a phenomenal way to keep in touch with people and to sell them additional products, additional services. Also your database can provide you with referrals. As long as you keep in touch with them on a regular basis, they should be referring people to you because you provided them with a great experience.

Number three: The folks in your database should be promoting your products and services to others. Now that’s different from referrals because these people can be evangelists out there talking about you, providing you with fantastic brand recognition, fantastic word-of-mouth in the community.

Finally: Your database can be used to help you influence other people in the community toward causes. So if you have a cause that’s near and dear to your heart, you can go to your database and make the case as to why that cause should receive their time, their money or their attention.

Now the other thing you can do – and I think I touched on it but I want to make sure I’m clear – is you can introduce people in your database to other folks who have goods or services that may be valuable to them.

So if you’re a car dealer and you have a great database, you can introduce your database, the folks in your database, to a fantastic detailer; if you don’t have a service department, a fantastic mechanic. If you are a women’s clothier, you can introduce your clients to a great dry cleaner. These are services they need and your endorsement will not only help that person but you’re providing your clients, who you care about, with a great experience for another service.

Database equity is phenomenal and if you’re not keeping track of the clients or customers that come in and out through your business each and every single day, you’re missing out on an opportunity.

When you go to sell your business, those relationships will have value and they will enable you to get a higher price when your business actually comes to an end and you want to sell it.

My name is Dave Lorenzo. If you would like more great information just like this, you can visit me at Valtimax.com. I look forward to seeing you there.

Crackerjack Marketing Offers

Summary

If you want to improve your marketing results you must make powerful compelling offers to your audience.

Confused about how to create an offer that is irresistible to your prospective clients?

This video provides you with a step-by-step guide to crafting an offer that will take your relationship with your prospect to the next level.

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Transcript

Hi. I’m Dave Lorenzo and today we’re going to talk about Cracker Jack marketing. That’s right. We’re going to talk about the free prize inside Cracker Jack marketing.

I call it Cracker Jack marketing because when I was a kid, I used to get boxes of Cracker Jacks. You open it up and you dig through looking for the prize and that was one of the reasons why you bought the Cracker Jacks.

Well, we’re not doing anything with Cracker Jacks and we don’t have any free prizes and stuff but we do have a two-step marketing program which I’ve discussed in the past and using a prize as a giveaway is a great way to do two-step marketing.

Now it’s not really a prize. It’s educational information. It’s a free report or something that you can use to entice people to give you their contact information. I’m going to explain to you what I mean by that.

Now, on your website, you should have a little opt-in box where people can put their name and their phone number and their email address and perhaps even their physical address in order to get your free report. The report can be something that gives them what they should do in the event that they have a specific type of pain that you can relieve.

So real estate lawyers for example who are working on alleviating home foreclosures can offer a free report, Five Things You Need To Know About Negotiating A Deal With A Bank When Your Home Is In Foreclosure, or you could give a free report away, Five Things You Need To Know In Order To Hire A Real Estate Lawyer, to negotiate your foreclosure settlement with your bank or Five Things You Need To Know Before Engaging A Realtor To Do A Short Sale. You get the idea.

The free report allows them to put in their name and contact information and then it gives you the opportunity to send them the report via email and you get their contact information. You call and follow up and see if they have any questions. They go from being a stranger to being somebody who you now know has an issue, a problem that you can solve.

So what types of tools, what types of free prizes do we give away? Well, I like to use free reports with lawyers. Free reports are great with doctors too. For retailers or other types of businesses, we’ve done everything from free reports to DVDs and videos that educate people on exactly how to use your product or service. Also lawyers and doctors can use DVDs, videos as well. CDs or audio programs are fantastic. I give away CDs all the time.

Books are great. If you’re at a speaking event and you want to give away a book, you can get people’s contact information in exchange for sending them a book later.

What you should never do is you should never offer a free consultation as a giveaway. Free consultations are horrible. I hate them. I know you’re going to tell me in some industries it’s an industry standard, CPAs, lawyers, so on and so forth. I don’t believe in it and you should never give away a free consultation as the “free prize” or incentive to get the contact information.

So, using free reports, DVDs and any type of CD, audio program, books, any type of information product is a phenomenal way to entice people to give you their contact information and to identify themselves as somebody who has a problem you can solve. You can do this when you speak. You can do this on your website. You can do it in a direct mail campaign. You can do it in an email campaign. There are lots of ways to give away information products, educational products in return for contact information that identifies people as prospects for you and your business.

I encourage you to explore the free prize inside, Cracker Jack style of marketing, immediately. You will be glad you did because you will be amazed at how it helps qualify the prospects who walk through your front door.

Marketing and Your Personality

Summary

One of the best ways to differentiate your business from everyone else who does what you do is through your personality.

It doesn’t matter if you are tall or short, fat or skinny, your personality can make all the difference in how your business is perceived.

This video will help you use the unique style and charisma to attract clients.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo, Chairman of Valtimax Consulting and today we’re going to talk about personality in marketing and I’m going to tell you that you have to be a person of interest. You have to be someone who people find interesting and the reason for that is that there are hundreds and hundreds of businesses out there that do what you do.

I don’t care if you are a pot-bellied pig farmer in Kansas. There are other pot-bellied pig farmers out there and they’re looking to sell their pot-bellied pigs to other people. So you have to be more interesting than the next guy and personality in marketing is a phenomenal way to differentiate you from everybody else.

So why is your personality and the personality of your business important?

Number one, it makes you magnetic to people. Customers and employees, they want to come and hang around with somebody they perceive to be an interesting person. You don’t have to be the most charismatic person in the world. People just have to perceive that you’re warm and approachable and they can develop a relationship with you.

One of the reasons why these videos, the videos that you see me doing, are not super duper edgy and high-production quality like you see on TV is because I feel this is a more personal way to connect with you. I hope that you feel the same way and that someday when we meet, you say to me, “I feel like I’ve known you for 10 years because I’ve been watching your videos.” If I look like a TV anchorman and I’m sitting behind an anchor desk on a fancy set, you might not feel that way about me.

So I want to make sure that my personality comes through in these videos and I don’t have a fancy studio here to distract you from what I believe is great content and our relationship.

Now if you have personality in your marketing, it’s easier for you to close deals because people already trust you. They already feel like they know you and when they come in to see you and they sit down with you, it’s like having coffee with an old friend.

Personality in your marketing differentiates you. Just like every snowflake is different, every person is different. So if you have personality, particularly your personality in your marketing, it makes you different from other people who do what you do. There’s nobody just like you and that’s a good thing and you want that to come through in your marketing.

Also the final topic or tip I will give you when it comes to personality in marketing is that people will look to you as a leader. If people see you out in front passionately promoting your product, passionately promoting your service, they will see you as a leader. You’re leading your business regardless of whether you’re an army of one or you’re a business of 400, 500, 600 people.

They see you out front. They look to you as a leader. People want to follow someone. They want to follow someone strong and powerful and if you’re out in front in your marketing, you appear to be a leader and people want to follow you.

So those are just a few of the reasons why personality, your personality, in marketing is really important. I encourage you to make every effort you can to inject some of your personality into the marketing of your business or professional practice.

I’m Dave Lorenzo and I look forward to seeing you back again at Valtimax.com.