People make marketing too complex.

All marketing is simply about the relationship between the product and the customer. The example that I like to use is that when I buy drill bits, I am really buying the ability to make holes. If I could buy a laser gun where I could set the hole I want—1/8 inch and 2 inches deep—I’d buy that instead of a couple dozen drill bits. The laser would simplify my work. Once you have established the relationship, you make it easy for customers to buy the product.

Next is the reality that the easiest way to make money is to sell the same “stuff” in different locations and/or raise the price. A client had 60% of his business in six states. When he got a customer in another area, the sales stuck to his ribs—they had superior quality. Their website was very old and showed up on page 8 in Google. This is where we built a new website from open-source software—no purchase necessary, no update fees, and no consulting fees. Within two months, it showed in the growth. They made it to the first page in a search, and business grew nicely.

In marketing, you track results to see if the program is working and improve. We tracked this situation by taking baseline searches and then reported the improvement weekly. With this data, we also developed improvements.

They were reluctant to raise prices as their system was very cumbersome. We fixed it. They were able to raise prices, and we also tiered the price system to maximize profits.

The two easiest ways to make money are to sell the same “stuff” in other places and raise prices.

We can do all this—one group, Spector Solutions, and we only take on one or two clients at a time. We want to deliver value, or we don’t want to be there.