Dan S. Kennedy - No B.S. Direct Marketing

Contents

Table of Contents

What Kind of Breakthrough Results Should You Expect from Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses?

I have been meaning to write to you for a long time, to thank you for changing my life. Quick background: when I was 20 years old, I served a two year Mormon mission in the Philippines. Having seen all the custom sports uniforms made there, when I came home I started a business selling custom team apparel to high schools and colleges, in 2006, with $200.00 of capital, sleeping on the floor of my brothers living room. Also, with zero business experience and no one in my family with any, I went to BYU and majored in Entrepreneurship. I was named BYUs Entrepreneur of the Year, yet I graduated knowing nothing about marketing and selling. Graduated. Married. Still with a struggling business. While looking for answers at Barnes & Noble, I came across your book,No. B.S. Guide to Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses.It blew my mind.

Then I bought everything of yours I could afford. My business went from $50,000.00 a year to $2.5 million in just five years. I am now in the process of selling my company to a big player in the industry for a multimillion-dollar sum plus they want to bring me on as an executive at four times the salary Ive been paying myself! You ARE The Millionaire Maker!

Steve Rosenback, Garb Athletics

Dan has literally eliminated the B.S. in explaining great ways to make more sales.

Tom Hopkins, from his introduction to Dans No B.S. Sales Success book (Tom Hopkins is world-renowned as a master sales trainer. www.TomHopkins.com)

It was Kennedy-style marketing that fueled an exceptional restaurant business. We received 64 Peoples Choice Awards, I gathered over 63,000 customers, I had 6 to 14 different promotions going on simultaneously* each month (*a Renegade Millionaire lesson I learned from you), we grossed over $6.5 million a year with about $1 million in profits. An independent restaurant valuation firm analyzing the business for its sale said that, less than 5% of the 945,000 food service establishments in the U.S. employ the advanced techniques and get the outstanding results Nakama has enjoyed as a direct result of its marketing. They stated that my restaurant was three times more successful than comparable restaurants because of my marketing. Ultimately, I sold the business. Im beginning a new journey as an entrepreneur and a coach.

Becky Auer, www.profitcatapultbusinessschool.com

My friend Dan Kennedy is unique, a genius in many ways. I have always admired his ability to see the vital truths in any business and to state these realities with straight language and clear definitions. His approach is direct. His ideas are controversial. His ability to get results for his clients is unchallenged.

Brian Tracy, from his introduction to Dans No B.S. Business Success book (Brian Tracy is one of Americas most sought after speakers and the author of dozens of business books. www.BrianTracy.com)

Publisher: Entrepreneur Press

Cover Design: Andrew Welyczko

Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

2018 by Entrepreneur Press

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ISBN: 978-1-61308-385-7

I n the first edition of this book, back in 2006, before the recession, before the explosion of social media and the importance given it as a marketing medium, before all sorts of new media demanding business owners attention, I wrote: most small-business advertising and marketing stinks. I said: monstrous sums are wasted and opportunities lost. My position hadnt changed by the time of the second edition in 2013. As more and more and more ways to deliver advertising and marketing messages have been created and popularized, the effectiveness of it has declined and the intelligence governing it has sunken to new lows. Now, as I write this, 11 years after the first edition, businesspeople are more the advertising victims than ever: confused and overwhelmed and hollered at, told that they must do this, that, the other thing, more and morejust to get the same results. Or less. I am here to mute the noise. To guide you to clarity about a relatively short list of fundamental principles and strategies that can prevent you being lost in a deep, dense forest of media demanding your attention, time, and money.

There is an old story about the motorist caught in the densest fog imaginable, unable to see anything but the tail lights of the car in front of it, so he stayed very close, grateful for the guiding lights but fearful of falling back and having to navigate on his own. Suddenly, the car in front came to a dead stop, and he rammed into the autos rear. He jumped out, enraged, yelling at the driver hed been following about the stupidity of making a sudden stop in such impenetrable fog. The guy said, Im sorry, but I always come to a stop when pulling into my garage.

Modeling can be a powerful, efficient, and profitable strategy, but only if you choose the right model.

We can begin with the radical, challenging idea that just about every thing you see BIG business doing is wrong for youif you run a small business, a private practice, a service enterprise, or even a midsize, growth company. Big companies have different objectives, agendas, and constituencies to satisfy, and CEO egos to salve, as well as different resources and depth of resources than you do. If you study them at all, you must time travel to examine what they did in their journey from start to small and ultimately to big, not what they do now. If the rabbit emulates the lion and sits on a rock, doesnt move, and roars loud and often, all the rabbit accomplishes is making it easier for predators to find him and eat him. A mouse using a lion as his model is a fool indeed.

Its also worth noting that, very often, the bigger a company grows, the dumber it gets. This is the result of having more and more people in it spending somebodys money other than their own and being safely distanced by bureaucracy from direct and immediate financial consequences from their decisions and from where rubber meets road, on the store or showroom floor, face to face with customers, clients, or patients. These people are insulated from reality and very vulnerable to charlatanism prevalent inside ad agencies, social media agencies, and other shovel sellers. In the great Gold Rush, more money was made by the sellers of shovelsmules, mining equipment, and tools, and mapsthan by those actually searching for the gold. Its dressed up differently today, but the truth is unchanged.