Graham McGregor: 'Acres of diamonds marketing'

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Graham McGregor talks about how to find the acres of diamonds in your business.

In 'Acres of Diamonds', considered by many to be one of the finest speeches ever written, Russell Conwell tells the story of a man, Al Hafed, who sold his farm to go in search of diamonds.

He travelled the whole world to find them and never did. Then one day by accident the man Al Hafed sold his farm to found the most magnificent diamond mines in all of the history of mankind in his own back yard.

Russell observed, "acres of diamonds are not in far-away mountains or in distant seas; they are in your own back yard if you will but dig for them".

Regardless of what is going on in the economy there is always opportunity for your business to improve results.

Here are two ways to mine the 'Acres of Diamonds' in your own business that you may be overlooking right now:

1: Look for the additional sales you can make with very little effort:

A personal fitness trainer I met a few years ago had fast yet fun training methods that produced excellent results for all his clients.

Yet all he offered his clients was his personal fitness training services. I suggested he offer his clients additional products like protein powders, vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. This made sense so the personal trainer tried it.

Within three months the majority of his clients were now enjoying even better health and fitness after purchasing the supplements he was now offering. And the personal trainer was now enjoying an extra $1,000 a week in brand new profits.

2: Look for simple and inexpensive ways to attract more customers:

Sometimes making more sales is as simple as talking to more potential customers about what you sell. And there are a huge number of simple things you can do to attract more customers.

Here's an example to get you thinking:

A hardware shop increased the number of people coming into their store with a fun competition.

They put up a big sign in their window that said: "We guarantee that if you come into our store one of our people will professionally greet and welcome you within 15 seconds. If they don't we will give you $50.00 worth of hardware of your choice free."

People would walk down the street and read this sign. They would stop for a few seconds and then mentally say to themselves "That sounds interesting; I think I will check it out." So they would walk inside the hardware store to see more about what was going on.

The store had a bell and buzzer on their door that sounded as soon as you went in. One of their salespeople would excuse themselves if they were dealing with a customer by saying something like "Can you just excuse me for 10 seconds" and then walk over to the person and welcome them to the store. "Thank you for coming in today, I'm just with someone else so please free to look around. I'll be with you in a moment."

This way the customer was always greeted professionally within 15 seconds of walking in to the shop. Now, once the people were in the shop guess what many did? They said to themselves, "Well now that I'm here what can I buy that I might need?" Sales increased dramatically.

The good news is that there are acres of diamonds opportunities in every business if you take the time to look for them.

The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' The great opportunity is where you are.' John Burroughs

Action Exercise:

What additional sales could you make in your business with very little effort?

What simple things can you do this week to attract larger numbers of new customers or clients to your business?

Graham McGregor is a marketing consultant and the creator of the 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage Report.' available at his website. (This is free and has now been read by business owners from 27 countries. ) You can email Graham on graham@twomac.co.nz