BUSTED!
Author: Clayton Makepeace on September 3, 2011. I’ve been away.
D’ya miss me?
One of the upsides of being self-employed is being able to do things like that.
Anyway, here’s the latest Clayton Makepeace article.
There’ll be another on Monday.
Noted business coach declares:
“MAKEPEACE IS TOTALLY WRONG!”
In this issue:
Why my partnership model
will NOT work for you
Why you should lower your fees
and never, EVER ask for a royalty
Why you should resign yourself
to having your copy treated
like any other common commodity
(And why you should emphatically
reject this advice)
PLUS …
- Why smart business owners desperately want to pay copywriters ten times more – and why penny-wise pound-foolish business owners inevitably wind up with substandard profit growth
- Eight qualities that tell you a business will be an ideal partner – and three red flags that tell you which businesses you shouldn’t touch with an eleven-foot pole (you know; the pole you use to touch things you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole)
- Four easy ways to instantly intensify and deepen your relationship with any client – and how to compel your freelance clients to insist on a longer, more mutually profitable partnership with you
- How to do “the impossible” – Secrets for structuring more profitable partnerships when creating lead-producing campaigns and website copy
- When to tell a prospective client to stick an assignment “where the sun don’t shine” – when your dignity and self respect are more valuable than money
- And much more!
Dear Business Builder,
Things are getting pretty exciting around here: Business owners and copywriters all over the world are abuzz over the partnership model I’ve been describing over the last three weeks.
We’ve had nearly 200 blog postings so far and my feedback box is packed to the rafters with still more thank-yous, questions, and suggestions for future articles.
So far, not even one reader has said a single negative thing – either in an e-mail to our feedback box or on the blog at the end of each issue.
But there IS one, little dark cloud on the horizon …
Last week, Michel Fortin – who weighed in on the blog after my second issue in this series with, “Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! That’s all I have to say. 
” – sent me an e-zine he recently received with the following headline:
CLAYTON MAKEPEACE IS TOTALLY WRONG!
My first reaction to the headline was a big smile. “Finally – a dissenting voice! A little controversy! This is going to be fun!”
But as I began reading the reasons why – according to the editor – my contention that the freelancing model limits your income and that my partnership model is far superior, I started giggling … then chuckling … then laughing so loud, The Redhead rushed into my office thinking Martha had sent me another Hillary Clinton joke.
Now, before we take a look at the reasons why the editor says I’m “TOTALLY WRONG!” there are three things you should know:
First, I’m not going to give you the editor’s name because telling you who it is might cause some newer writers to seek out the editor’s e-zine and accept what I believe is very, very bad advice … and because my momma taught me that it’s not polite to publicly embarrass anyone except for politicians and lawyers.
Second, the editor purports that the e-zine’s purpose is to help copywriters find “great clients.” (Keep this in mind as you read on …)
And third, as you read these objections, you’ll probably begin to wonder if I made them up – that I’m just creating a “straw man” who’ll throw easily refuted softball objections at me so I can knock them out of the park.
Let me assure you: Each of these objections actually appeared in the e-zine in question and is accurate both in its wording and context.
OK – so why is Makepeace “TOTALLY WRONG”? Why does the editor – hereinafter referred to as “The Critic” – say freelancing does not limit your income? Why isn’t my partnership model a far better way for copywriters and clients to work together?
Let’s count the ways:
“The Critic” says …
“Not every client will partner with you.
“Can you imagine Microsoft changing their
entire business and marketing model
just to work with me the way I want them to?”
I say: If your definition of a “Great Client” is Microsoft, Intel or Wal-Mart – massive, multi-billion-dollar global conglomerates that produce 99.99999% of their profits through NON-direct-marketing channels …
To whom the work you do has little or no real value because it has no noticeable impact on their bottom lines …
Who therefore believe sales copy is a cost (not an opportunity) – a common commodity that should be purchased from the lowest bidder …
You are definitely barking up the wrong tree!
These are not “great” clients. In fact, these are precisely THE WORST kinds of clients any copywriter could ever work for!
A “great client” is one:
A. Who relies on direct response marketing for all or nearly all of his income …
B. To whom incremental increases in response and average sale mean big leaps in growth, in bottom-line profits and in personal income …
C. Who understands that the effectiveness of his sales copy is the single most critical variable for producing those increases, and …
D. Who treats the source of that more effective sales copy (YOU) with appropriate respect – both personally and financially.
Oh – and by the way – let’s think about what it means to do what “The Critic” seems to be espousing here: To structure your fees and business model so as to appeal to “every client.”
To do that, wouldn’t you have to make yourself attractive to the lowest common denominator in your prospect group – the cheapest, most venal client companies in your industry?
Wouldn’t that mean settling for a fraction of what better clients would be perfectly happy to pay you?
And wouldn’t that mean living with less than optimal working relationships with companies that are more likely to use you, abuse you, and then throw you away the minute they can find another writer who charges less?
“The Critic” says …
“If I did insist on a partnership arrangement,
what would keep her (my client)
from going to a competitor
who’s happy with a flat fee?”
I say: Why wait to get fired? If your client thinks this little of you, why not just call her now and tell her to stick her next assignment “where the sun don’t shine?”
If the only reason your client doesn’t replace you is that you charge less than “the other guy” … if she views your copy as little more than a common commodity that should be purchased from the lowest bidder – like staples, paperclips, pens and yellow pads … every dollar she pays you is probably COSTING you $10 or even more you could be earning from a client who values what you do.
If the business owner or marketing exec fires you for suggesting that you take a larger role in her business and that she give you a fair share of the increased profits you produce, only one of four things can be true:
A) You’re not writing direct response copy: You’re writing editorial or advertising copy that does not produce a measurable response and therefore has limited value to your client.
SOLUTION: Get a better client.
B) Direct response projects have little impact on the client’s bottom line: You’re writing direct response copy, but sales derived from direct response promotions in general (or the projects you’re working on in particular) comprise such a tiny part of the client’s business that any increase in profitability you produce is meaningless to the company’s bottom line.
SOLUTION: Get a better client.
C) Your client is an idiot: If your copy does make the client more money but she doesn’t want to expand your involvement in her business – maybe even convince you to work exclusively with her – and compensate you accordingly …
If she’d rather fire you and move on to a cheaper writer who’s an unknown quantity – or worse, who can’t produce the results you do – she’s a drooling moron.
SOLUTION: Get a better client.
D) Your copy sucks: It’s no more effective than what the client can get from any other schmuck who darkens her door – in which case you should thank your lucky stars that anybody would hire you, regardless of how insulting or limiting the relationship is.
SOLUTION: Pucker up, baby! Kiss whatever bodily parts you have to in order to keep whatever writing job you’re lucky enough to get.
Then, spend every spare moment refining your skills. And when you’ve developed the chops to actually increase your client’s response, average sale and ROI …
Get a better client!
And then there’s this: I’ve never suggested that copywriters should insist on partnering relationships right from the get-go.
What I am suggesting is that you find ways to intensify and deepen your relationship with clients with every contact – and to let it happen naturally.
If you’re writing front-end promotions, ask to see the psychographic profile of the prospects your client is targeting – and suggest other prospect groups the owner should be testing.
Buy the client’s product anonymously, then send him an e-mail suggesting ways the ordering process can be improved.
Examine the thank-you and receipt letters the company sends after a sale and the stuffers it inserts in the package that delivers the product – give him creative ways to improve this process and copy.
File a complaint – then send a report with ideas his customer service people could use to do a better job of retaining customers.
In short, demonstrate your knowledge, creativity and commitment to the business owner’s success at every opportunity.
I’ll bet you big money that if you do all this and do it well, THE CLIENT will insist on a deeper, longer, more intense and more mutually profitable relationship with you!
“The Critic” says …
“And one more thing: maybe the client is happy
with their level of profitability!”
I say: THIS is this your idea of a “Great Client?” A company that doesn’t want to grow? A business owner who doesn’t want greater profits?
When I meet a business owner who says something that stupid, I start my phone recorder and make say it again. Then, I call everyone into my office, play the recording and we all laugh at him.
And if it’s a publicly traded company, I speed-dial my broker and short the heck out of the stock.
Looo – hooo – hooo – SER!
“The Critic” says …
“What if my client wants me to write website copy?
“How do we partner on that?
How do you measure ROI?”
I say: You’ve got me there! If the client invests nothing in his marketing media (e.g. companies that market exclusively on the Web), there can be no return on investment – no ROI.
So, if you’re taking a percentage of ROI, you get a percentage of zero.
How brain-dead dumb would you have to be to write that into a contract?
Thing is, I NEVER SUGGESTED that you take a percentage of ROI. Just that as a partner, you ask for a percentage of the increase in profits you produce: Your copy brings the client an extra $1 mill, you get $100,000. Dollars to dollars. Now that kind of check is easy to write.
I’ve even seen clients giggle when they sign them!
“The Critic” says …
“How do you take a percentage
when you’re doing lead-producing campaigns?
“How much fun do you think it would be
to follow a lead for months and even years,
calculate the costs over time,
and finally one day get a check for the first order?
I say: Uh-oh. Insurmountable problem here: How do you take a percentage of profits (or increased profits) on promotions that aren’t supposed to create a profit?
Wait – maybe there is a way – if you actually think about it for more than a nanosecond … and if, instead of freezing at the first sign of a challenge, you focus on finding the opportunity hiding behind the challenge.
For one, you could simply work for a royalty on the number of pieces mailed.
Example: The client is now paying fifty cents to mail a lead-producing letter to each prospective client (list rental, printing, postage and processing).
So he’s spending $500 per thousand to mail, say, 200,000 of these letters each month. That’s $100,000 per month.
The letter he’s mailing now generates a 10% response (fairly common response rate when the prospect isn’t being asked to spend money; just to send for more info).
That means for every 1,000 letters he mails, he gets 100 leads: His 200,000-piece monthly mailings are bringing him 20,000 leads per month, which his marketing department then turns into sales.
But you think his lead-producing copy sucks. You know you can beat it. You think you can get him 30% more leads for every dollar he spends to mail his lead-producing letter. And you tell him so.
You say you want to write the copy for him for free if he’ll agree to two conditions:
- He’ll test 20,000 of your letters against his control in his next mailing, and …
- If he likes the results your copy produces, he’ll pay you a royalty of $50 per thousand pieces mailed after that first mailing, as long as he uses your copy.
| Without You |
|
| Mail Cost: | $500 |
| Response Rate: | 10.0% |
| Leads Per Thousand Mailed: | 100 |
| Client’s Cost Per Lead | $5.00 |
|
|
| With Your Copy & Royalty |
|
| Mail Cost: | $550 |
| Response Rate: | 11.5% |
| Leads Per Thousand Mailed: | 115 |
| Client’s Cost Per Lead | $4.78 |
Here’s how it works: When the client mails your letter (after that first, royalty-free test mailing), it’s going to cost him $550 per thousand pieces he mails – a 10% increase.
Instead of paying $100,000 to mail those 200,000 lead-producing letters, your royalty bumps his mailing cost up to $110,000 per month.
Now, let’s assume you’re WRONG …
Let’s say your lead-producing letter increases his response only by HALF as much as you thought it would: A meager, perfectly doable 15%.
Instead of getting 100 leads per thousand pieces mailed, he’s now getting 115.
That means, even after paying your $50/M royalty, the client’s cost to produce each lead has just fallen from $5.00 to $4.78.
RESULT: Client gets 15% more sales leads and lowers his lead cost by twenty-two cents apiece.
He dumps his old lead-producing letter and mails 200,000 copies of yours every month – and pays you royalties of $10,000 per month; $120,000 a year.
Oh – and once you do that, don’t you think a sane business owner would want you to do even more for him? Maybe create his lead-conversion promotions for him and pay you another percentage of the increase in sales you produce?
See? Win, WIN!
IMPORTANT: The client is not in business to generate leads. He’s in business to generate profits. So if your copy generates less-qualified leads – leads that become customers at a lower rate or at a lower average purchase than his old letter – he probably won’t mail your letter for very long. Just until he figures that his closing rate has plunged.
So as you can see, there’s both an art and a science to creating lead-producing campaigns that produce optimal bottom-line results – ‘way too much to teach in an e-letter like this one.
My point is simply this: If you’re only looking for reasons why partnering won’t work, pretty much any cockamamie excuse will do. But if instead, you look for ways to MAKE it work, a lead-producing company can be a FANTASTIC client to partner with.
“The Critic” says …
“You must realize that Clayton is targeting
those of us who are attracted to copywriting
for the money above all else.
If it’s not your goal to make multiple millions,
then his message is not for you.”
I say: Baloney. My mission is simply to help you work smart – by earning maximum dollars for every hour you work.
That doesn’t mean you have to want to make millions … or work longer hours … or give up your dreams of working where you want … or sacrifice your freedom in any way.
To the contrary: Once you learn how to earn more in a month than other writers earn all year, you could even choose to forego the extra income and take 11 months off each year (I have)!
On the other hand, once you master my approach – acquire the knowledge, skills and tools required to make more money for every hour at your desk – you can also choose to go for the big bucks.
Your call!
“The Critic” says …
“Clayton may have “stumbled”
upon partnering (his word),
but it’s not at all a new model for copywriters.
“I’ve done it and my coaching students have done it.
“It frequently fails.”
SURE DOES!
Unless you’re MUCH luckier than I’ve been, you’re definitely going to kiss a few frogs before you find the company with which you create a long-term partnership. I’ve had partners flake out on me plenty of times. And I’ve fired more clients than I care to remember.
In some cases, the chemistry wasn’t right; one or both of us found we just couldn’t stand working together.
Or maybe the client’s corporate structure was such a jumble and employees were so incompetent, they were incapable of implementing the strategies and tactics I gave them – let alone field the promotions I gave them.
Heck. On at least two occasions, a client’s legal beagles had him so frozen by fear, he let them gut my copy and I had to walk away in self-defense.
But my partnership model also frequently works.
And when it does, your client sticks with you for years and there are millions to be made – for both of you.
And let me let you in on another dirty little secret:
Freelancing also “frequently fails.”
You may not get the control. You may get the control, but a new writer can beat it before you earn royalty dollar #1.
And either way, you’ll find yourself spending hours, days, weeks, even months each year doing things that don’t make you money. You get paid to write. You do NOT get paid to line up new clients or to research each new company, product and prospect universe you work with.
And of course, even if you decide to work for crappy freelance clients and accept peanuts in the form of puny flat fees – you can still get fired if another writer offers to work for less.
“The Critic” says …
“Clayton can partner with businesses
because he knows much more than copywriting…
he knows marketing.
“He knows about list acquisition
… he knows what offers work
… he knows his target markets inside-out.”
So I guess that means, once you gain this knowledge, you can do it too – right?
Bingo.
“The Critic” says …
“Sooooo…What did Clayton get right?
“For his particular niche
(largely comprised of publishers),
he’s leading the way,
offering insights into what’s possible
if you put your ‘I can do anything’ hat on.”
Right: Partnering only works with publishers.
Oh – and rare coin retailers like SRC and Blanchard & Company.
And nutritional supplement companies like Health Resources.
And fund-raisers like the charity for handicapped children I worked with in the ‘80s … and the national political party I’m working with now.
And that engineer in California who invented a new kind of water heater but didn’t have a marketing bone in his body whose business I exploded.
And that Beverly Hills chef who needed help selling his pastries through the mail.
No other company owner or marketer would ever dream of paying you for performance and then deepening that relationship into a long-term partnership.
… Except that one real estate guy who offered me 10% of his $200 million business last August.
… And the conference organizer who gave me a 50/50 partnership a few years ago.
… And the guy who’s after me right now to help him sell a car that gets you from coast to coast on $4-worth of fuel … goes zero to 60 in six seconds … and costs less than $20,000.
Of the 25 million small businesses in America, these are the ONLY ones who would ever accept a marketing partner … a business growth strategist … a rainmaker.
Right.
Then, after all these objections, “The Critic” ended with this …
“Partnering is very smart business
if you have master-level skills and knowledge.
“Let’s hope Clayton has figured out a way
to teach copywriters how to do this safely
for their clients, as well as themselves.”
Yeah, I think I can – and judging from the enthusiastic e-mails and blog postings this series is generating so far, lots of other copywriters and business owners do, too.
Yep, I said “business owners” are posting and e-mailing us rave reviews about this model, too.
I know – surprising; right?
You’d expect copywriters to be jazzed about multiplying their income ten-fold with my partnership model – especially considering the alternative.
But business owners? Just how excited could they possibly be about paying a copywriter/business-building partner ten times more?
Pretty darned excited, as it turns out!
Because this isn’t just about how copywriters can make millions.
It’s about how a marketing mastermind – a rainmaker – with tools that extend beyond writing to marketing strategy and tactics and even management can make millions BY MAKING HIS OR HER CLIENT TENS, EVEN HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS!
When you think about it from a business owner’s perspective, great sales copy – although indispensable to accelerated business growth – is really only one part of the success equation.
The best sales copy ever written won’t do much good if the positioning of the company, spokesperson or product is off-target.
Or if the marketing strategy is a mess.
Or if the people who see the sales copy aren’t well qualified.
Or if the pricing or payment method is wrong for the audience.
Or if, because of internal SNAFUs, too few qualified prospects see your sales promotions each year.
And if my career proves anything, it’s that identifying and eliminating these key choke points inside my clients’ companies …
- Multiplies the number of qualified prospects who see my new customer promotions; thereby multiplying the number of new customers created each month (and of course, multiplying my front-end royalties), and …
- Multiplies the response, average sale and return on investment generated by promotions to existing customers; thereby multiplying the company’s sales revenues (and of course my royalties on those sales).
When you do that, you automatically multiply the company’s profits AND the copywriter’s share of those profits, making both of you much, much richer.
And the really cool thing is that once you go to work, this quantum increase in income can happen almost instantly!
In my blog at the end of last Monday’s issue, (you ARE checking in daily, aren’t you??), I told the true story of a friend of mine who stepped into a small company, identified a huge opportunity on the company’s customer file, wrote a simple eight-page sales letter, had it mailed to customers and generated nearly $10 million in sales.
The entire process – selling the client on the idea … writing, printing and mailing the letter … and collecting the money … took less than 30 days!
Copywriters – rainmakers – who take just 10% of the revenues on a deal like that can make $1 million in a month and still leave their client $9 million richer.
Again: Win, WIN!
For future Rainmakers only:
Eight easy ways to spot your ideal partner
The way I figure it, only two kinds of copywriters read The Total Package:
- New copywriters who have yet to bag their first real client and …
- Copywriters who do have clients and are looking to increase their income.
Whichever group you fall into at the moment – and whether you’re working as a freelancer, flitting from client to client or partnering with a client or two – one thing is true:
Deciding what kinds of clients you’ll work with has a greater impact on your financial success than any other consideration.
I don’t care how smart you are or how compelling your copy is; if your client’s mindset, commitment, products, employees and processes are sub-par, you’re fighting a hurricane-strength headwind that will almost surely diminish your response and income.
Conversely, a great client – an owner whose company is primed for growth at every level – can multiply your earnings potential.
So how can a copywriter/marketing mastermind/rainmaker know which kinds of companies are most likely to make you rich?
Well, guess what? “The Critic” has already told us: Precisely the opposite of the types of clients described in the objections to my partnership model above:
- A client who relies on direct response marketing for all or nearly all of his income …
- To whom incremental increases in response and average sale you’ll produce mean big leaps in growth, in their bottom-line profits and in their personal income …
- Who understands that the effectiveness of his sales copy is the single most critical variable for producing those increases …
- Who treats the source of that more effective sales copy (YOU) with appropriate respect – both personally and financially …
- Who is passionate about growing his customer base and profitability …
- With whom you enjoy working and who likes working with you …
- Whose corporate structure and employees facilitate the implementation of the marketing strategies and tactics you’ll give them and field your promotions quickly and efficiently, and …
- Whose legal and compliance procedures allow you to work with his attorneys to develop promotions capable of producing maximum response within established legal guidelines.
And guess what? I’ve identified seven more characteristics to look for in the companies you partner with.
But this issue must now come to an end – it’s 5:02 AM; time to go work out – so the rest of my thoughts on this will have to wait until tomorrow.
So be sure to bookmark this page and check in for more tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, here’s a challenge for you:
Why don’t YOU TELL ME what characteristics you think are most crucial in clients you’re looking to partner with?
And why don’t you tell all of us what additional knowledge and skills copywriters will need to attract better partners and become rainmakers for them?
Can’t wait to see what you have to say!
Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
Clayton Makepeace
Publisher & Editor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
Let us know what you think. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
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