Podcast appearances and mentions of nick swinmurn

In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout a guy who aims to make the valuation and trading of ecommerce business much more realistic and fair. Blake Hutchison is the CEO of Flippa - a global marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Founded in 2009, Flippa has 3 million users worldwide who can browse for content sites, SaaS businesses, ecommerce businesses, apps and digital services. As a matchmaker to connect buyers and sellers, Flippa's notable sales include Mark Zuckerberg's former website Facemash, overnight success story shipyourenemiesglitter.com and Retweet.com. Links from the episode:The Exit podcast: Defining Modern Day Start Ups with Nick Swinmurn, Founder of ZapposBlake Hutchison from Flippa: A Guide to Buying and Selling Online Businesses | #273Questions answered in the podcast:What is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online? Who is your favourite retailer? Which retail fad do you wish was history?Can you recommend a book or podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? Finish this sentence. The future of retail is… This episode was brought to you by…esuiteAbout your co-host: Blake Hutchison from FlippaBlake leads the team at Flippa, the leading marketplace globally to buy and sell sites, stores and digital properties. Flippa empowers individuals and companies to take control, to take ownership and thrive in this new small business economy. You can contact Blake at LinkedInAbout your host: Nathan Bush from eSuiteNathan Bush is a digital strategist, Co-founder of eCommerce talent agency, eSuite and host of the Add to Cart podcast. He has led eCommerce for businesses with revenue $100m+ and has been recognised as one of Australia's Top 50 People in eCommerce four years in a row. You can contact Nathan on LinkedIn, Twitter or via email.Please contact us if you: Want to come on board as an Add To Cart sponsor Are interested in joining Add To Cart as a co-host Have any feedback or suggestions on how to make Add To Cart betterEmail hello@addtocart.com.au We look forward to hearing from you! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

La inspiración para crear una empresa puede aparecer en los lugares más insólitos o en los momentos menos esperados. La chispa puede encenderse mientras se busca activamente una nueva idea de negocio, o puede surgir por casualidad mientras llevamos a cabo otra actividad, o cuando nos enfrentamos a un problema personal que necesitamos resolver.Esto último es lo que le pasó a Nick Swinmurn, cofundador de Zappos, la tienda online especializada en calzados. Un joven Nick estaba en 1998 recorriendo un centro comercial en busca de un producto muy concreto: unas botas Airwalk Desert. Y tras horas buscando, no las encontró. En unas tiendas tenían el modelo, pero en un color que no le gustaba; en otras, lo que fallaba era el número; y en algunas ni siquiera las tenían.Frustrado, volvió a casa, decidido a investigar en aquel pionero internet que daba sus primeros pasos. Pero en la red de redes tampoco encontró lo que buscaba. Ahí es donde se le encendió la bombilla. Swinmurn se acercó a varios distribuidores minoristas de California, y les pidió hacer algunas fotos de las botas que tenían, para ponerlos a la venta por internet, comprometiéndose a que, si alguien los compraba, acudiría a ellos. Y sí, logró varias varias ventas online.Es ahí, como ha contado el propio Swinmurn, donde se da cuenta de que tiene un gran negocio entre manos. Así que acude de nuevo a los almacenes de calzado, con la idea de poner toda la enorme colección de calzado a la venta en internet. Llama a la nueva compañía shoesite.com, un nombre poco original, pero que deja claro a qué se dedica el negocio.El problema es que ya no bastaba él solo haciendo fotos para que el proyecto funcionase. Si quería pulir aquella web, lanzar campañas de marketing y darse a conocer, necesitaba una inversión. Así que le presenta la idea a 10 fondos de inversión. Pero a ninguno le convence. Fue hace 25 años, pero en realidad estamos hablando de la prehistoria del comercio online, y nadie cree que la gente vaya a comprar zapatos por internet, sin probarlos antes.Cuando empezaba a desilusionarse, su abogado le habla a Swinmurn de un fondo llamado Venture Frogs, que parece que tienen dinero y están dispuestos a invertir en cualquier cosa. Queda con Tony Hsieh, un joven que acaba de venderle LinkExchange a Microsoft por casi 300 millones de dólares, y que acaba jugando un papel fundamental en la compañía. Le convence de que un porcentaje importante de calzado se vende a través de catálogo, así que si aciertan, también podrían hacerlo por internet. Le convence, y en dos días Hsieh y su socio, Alfred Lin, deciden invertir 500.000 dólares.Y aunque no tenía ni un año, deciden cambiarle el nombre a la empresa, ya que consideran que Shoesite les limitaba mucho a vender calzado. Tras darle algunas vueltas, llegan a la idea de Zappos a partir de la palabra española zapatos, a la que le agregan una 'p' adicional para que suene más sofisticado.Los inicios para la compañía no son fáciles. Hablamos de los años en los que estalla la 'burbuja puntocom', en la que muchas empresas con negocios basados en internet se van al garete. Pero Zappos logra sobrevivir. Por un lado, porque las ventas no paran de crecer, pasando de 1,6 millones de dólares en el año 2000, a más de 8 millones en 2001, y 184 millones en 2004. Por otro lado, porque en los momentos más complicados, ya que se quedan sin dinero dos veces en tres años, Hiesh acude al rescate, con nuevas inversiones, cuando nadie más estaba dispuesto a poner un duro. Y, por último, por la cultura empresarial que desarrolla la compañía y el compromiso de los empleados.Hsieh, que desde 2001 ya es el co-CEO de la compañía, insiste desde el primer momento en la importancia de los trabajadores. Era un líder diferente a todos los demás, que en realidad no tenía ninguna necesidad de tener un empleo, así que se obsesiona con crear una compañía en la que todo el mundo quisiera trabajar, incluido él mismo.Todos los empleados se sienten parte de la empresa, y partícipes de los logros y los éxitos. Esa pasión compartida fue clave para superar los momentos más duros.El otro gran punto fuerte de la compañía, junto con la implicación de los empleados, era la atención al cliente, un sistema excepcional, considerado por muchos como el mejor que existe, e incluso el mejor que ha habido nunca. Alcanzan tal nivel de excelencia que en muchos de sus logros ya se mezcla realidad, ficción y leyenda.Hsieh era el impulsor de esta cultura. Fue consciente desde el primer momento de la importancia de la atención al cliente para lograr el éxito. Su experiencia laboral le llevó a desarrollar no una empresa tecnológica, sino un negocio centrado en el cliente, y en su experiencia. "Éramos una empresa de calzado con un gran servicio al cliente, y nos convertimos en una marca con un gran servicio al cliente que casualmente vende zapatos", explicaba el propio Hsieh.

Tony Hsieh est un entrepreneur qui a bouleversé le e-commerce quand il a lancé Zappos. Mais plus que le e-commerce, Tony a créé un vrai mouvement. Tony Hsieh devient un véritable gourou pour beaucoup et surtout il devient riche. Pourtant, il va plonger dans l'alcool et la drogue avant de connaître une fin tragique. Tony Hsieh est un enfant de parents immigrés taiwanais. Et ses parents sont très exigeants. Tony doit être bon à l'école et faire tout type d'activités. Tony est brillant et créatif. Il intègre Harvard où il récupère la gestion du restaurant pour les étudiants. Il se distingue déjà par ses idées différentes. Il fera des pizzas, c'est plus rentable. Et surtout il y fait des rencontres déterminantes: Alfred Lin et Sanjay Madan. En 1996, il lance sa propre société, LinkExchange avec Sanjay et Ali Partovi. C'est le site de publicité collective. Un carton ! Il revend la boite quelques années plus tard à Microsoft. Tony devient millionnaire. Mais il s'ennuie vite et déteste la solitude. Il monte un fonds d'investissement avec Alfred, Venture Frogs. Un jour de 1999, un jeune diplômé, Nick Swinmurn frappe à leur porte avec un projet de vente de chaussures sur internet. Personne ne croit au projet. Personne sauf Tony. Notes => https://inspire-media.fr/tony-hsieh-une-machine-a-entreprendre-ep-1/

Nick Swinmurn, Zappos founder and Golden State Warriors co-owner, has turned his attention to Web3 with the NFT-powered sports prediction game, Play Hellebore. Why you should listen Hellebore is an NFT-powered play-and-earn sports prediction game that brings together the features of traditional sports “Pick'em” and player-based fantasy sports leagues on one platform.  Hellebore players can predict the outcomes of games in the NFL, NCAA Football, MLB, and European professional soccer to earn NFTs (called Sibers), unlock physical and digital prizes, and increase their player rating – allowing them to tilt the odds in their favor.  Players can create or join custom leagues with friends, family, or strangers to compete directly against other players, similar to traditional player and statistics-based fantasy sports leagues. Supporting links Masterworks Hellebore Andy on Twitter  Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Nick is a pure entrepreneur so it's always fascinating to hear from OG's in the business sector about their perspective on what's going on in todays world. Nick talks about his mindset throughout his business career and why he's excited about web 3 and the future of nft's. Hellebore is revolutionizing the way we view and interact with sports betting: First P2E sports prediction game. Make picks. Earn players. Create leagues. Hellebore Links: Hellebore website: https://www.playhellebore.com/ Hellebore Twitter: @playhellebore Nick's Twitter: @coasthawk Future of NFT Links: twitter - @theejarrod Instagram: @futureofnft email: jarrod.peters4@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/futureofnft/message

In this episode of Crypto 101, brought to you by Master Works, we talk to Zappos Founder, Golden State Warriors Minority Owner, and Entrepreneur Nick Swinmurn about his new Web3 fantasy sports prediction NFT project, Hellebore. Sponsored link: www.masterworks.io/crypto101 masterworks.io/cd Guest Links: https://www.playhellebore.com/ https://twitter.com/playhellebore Show Links: https://CRYPTO101podcast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crypto101Pod https://twitter.com/BrycePaul101 https://instagram.com/crypto_101 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/101Crypto https://www.facebook.com/CRYPTO101Podcast **THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE** © Copyright 2022 Boardwalk Flock, LLC All Rights Reserved ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Fog by DIZARO https://soundcloud.com/dizarofr Creative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-ND 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/Fog-DIZARO Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/lAfbjt_rmE8 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

In this episode of Crypto 101, brought to you by Master Works, we talk to Zappos Founder, Golden State Warriors Minority Owner, and Entrepreneur Nick Swinmurn about his new Web3 fantasy sports prediction NFT project, Hellebore. Sponsored link: www.masterworks.io/crypto101 masterworks.io/cd Guest Links: https://www.playhellebore.com/ https://twitter.com/playhellebore Show Links: https://CRYPTO101podcast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crypto101Pod https://twitter.com/BrycePaul101 https://instagram.com/crypto_101 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/101Crypto https://www.facebook.com/CRYPTO101Podcast **THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE** © Copyright 2022 Boardwalk Flock, LLC All Rights Reserved ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Fog by DIZARO https://soundcloud.com/dizarofr Creative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-ND 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/Fog-DIZARO Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/lAfbjt_rmE8 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week our host Steve McGarry is joined by Nick Swinmurn, Founder of Zappos.com, and CEO of Hellebore Broadcasting Company. To start the show the two dive into Nick's lifelong curiosity of things and how that led him to constantly be trying something with great support at an early age. They discuss the founding of Zappos.com, and what made the culture there so famous in the business world. Steve asks about their exit and sale to Amazon, and what advice he would give to his younger self. Nick Swinmurn is the current CEO of Hellebore Broadcasting Company where they are leveraging storytelling and emerging technology to create a web3 universe and empower new business opportunities. Nick also has a new podcast called Coasthawk Talk, where he interviews some of the world's most interesting athletes and entrepreneurs about their lives and business ventures. Check the links below to listen now! LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/swinmurn/ Twitter - @Coasthawk - https://twitter.com/coasthawk Website - https://hellebore.xyz/ Nick Swinmurn's Coasthawk Talk Podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tfkHZvJPW8N9xdTz2RWnI iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coasthawk-talk/id1630484012 The Exit Meetups - https://flippa.com/the-exit-meetups/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You'll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://feedssoundcloudcomuserssoundcloudusers.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/greenpark-sports-a-mobile-game-and-sports-fan-world-from-chad-hurley-and-zappos-founder-nick-swinmurn-raises-14m-series-a-and-announces-nba-partnership-david-bloom-forbes/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/you-betterknow4/message

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://feedssoundcloudcomuserssoundcloudusers.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/greenpark-sports-a-mobile-game-and-sports-fan-world-from-chad-hurley-and-zappos-founder-nick-swinmurn-raises-14m-series-a-and-announces-nba-partnership-david-bloom-forbes/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/you-betterknow4/message

Mandi Ellefson's guest is Ron Friedman, the founder of ignite80, an organization dedicated to teaching leaders practical, evidence-based techniques for working smarter and elevating their team's performance through keynotes, workshops, and consulting. He is also CEO at Friedman Strategy Group, where he fuses psychological insight with cutting-edge research to deliver actionable marketing recommendations. You'll hear Mandi and Ron Friedman talk about: “Throughout our lives, we've only been taught two major stories of how people achieve greatness,” Ron claims. “Greatness comes from talent, or greatness comes from hard work.” He talks about the less famous third path to greatness: reverse engineering. [3:16] Successful entrepreneurs aren't harder workers, more creative, or more intelligent; what they excel at is pattern recognition. They observe the market, see what's working, and identify where it's going to go next. Mandi and Ron explore this. [5:10] Many of the stories we love are simply the same story with different characters. Similarly, people who have achieved greatness share commonalities that we can adapt to our own lives and use to our benefit if we take the time to observe them and find the patterns. Ron shares how. [13:07] “The key is to take a few samples to reverse engineer and templatize, and combine the different elements that you find powerful; now you're not just copying someone else's formula, you're making your own creative approach,” Ron explains. [20:42] “Sell first, build later.” Ron shares the story of Zappos, founded by Nick Swinmurn, who took the ‘sell first, build later' approach when he created the company. He started off just posting pictures of shoes from his local shoe store online, buying them when someone placed an order and reselling them to the customer. Zappos scaled significantly before being bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion. [26:40] Resources Ron Friedman on LinkedIn | Twitter FriedmanStrategy.com Mandi Ellefson on LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook Hands-Off CEO - Executive Briefing

Vover founder and CEO, Nick Swinmurn, talks the ups and downs of idea creation and execution before giving his thoughts on how to take your passions and turn them into reality.Host: Nick SwinmurnVoice your thoughts on this episode by downloading the Vover app here!

Vover founder and CEO, Nick Swinmurn, is reminded by the NBA playoffs of the dangers and uselessness of comparing others and comparing yourself to others when the only person we should be competing against is ourselves.Host: Nick SwinmurnVoice your thoughts on this episode by downloading the Vover app here!

Vover founder and CEO, Nick Swinmurn, gives his five biggest lessons that he learned from the Champions League final between Chelsea and Man City.Host: Nick SwinmurnVoice your thoughts on this episode by downloading the Vover app here!

Nick Swinmurn is a friend and someone whom I ALWAYS love talking to. His experience and way of creative thinking is very unique. He Co-Founded Zappos which ended up being sold to Amazon for over $1 Billion dollars, is a part owner of the Golden State Warriors as well as a few professional soccer teams here in the US and in Europe and is also the founder of Vover which you can get in the app store now! +much more.Follow @buster & @thebustershow on IG for more.

Bienvenidos 😀 ➡️ al podcast 🎙 de la Magia del Servicio al cliente. Todo comenzó cuando Nick Swinmurn caminaba por un centro comercial de San Francisco buscando un modelo de zapatos. Una tienda tenía el estilo correcto, pero no el color que quería Nick. Otra tenía el color correcto, pero no el tamaño adecuado. Swinmurn pasó una hora caminando de tienda en tienda hasta que se dio por vencido y se fue a casa sin los zapatos. Ya en su residencia Nick se conectó a Internet para ver si tenía mejor suerte... La historia de ZAPPOS. ¡Compártelo si te gusta! ¡Gracias 🙏 por estar aquí! Estas son las páginas que te comparto al final del podcast: 🚀 davidblancoperez.com 🚀 testdisconline.com ¡Suscríbete ✅, así siempre estarás informado de mis nuevos episodios! Música autor: The Spin Wires Título de música : Night Life Licencia : CC BY-NC Descargar : descargar gratis música Night Life

Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn who launched the company with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin who invested $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched online in 1999 as "ShoeSite.com." In July 1999, the company's name was changed from ShoeSite to Zappos after "zapatos," the Spanish word meaning "shoes." In 2000, Venture Frogs invested in the business and Zappos moved into their office space. In 2001, Hsieh came on board as co-CEO with Nick Swinmurn. Tony helped Zappos.com grow from nearly zero sales to a company with a $1.2 billion valuation and an eventual acquisition by Amazon - allowing the company to remain completely independent because of the strength of the brand they had built from a relentless focus on customer satisfaction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although Nick Swinmurn was born in England, he grew up in the Bay Area of California with his supportive engineer father and teacher mother. He has a degree in Film Studies from the University of California and has always been an innovator at heart, starting his entrepreneurial career in college. Nick's most well-known venture is Zappos, the online shoe retailer which he sold to Amazon in 2006, and he has subsequently started several businesses, including Basecamp Fitness, Dunk Contest, and Dethrone Royalty. Nick is also a part-owner of basketball team Golden State Warriors.   Nick joins us today to share his experience of being a serial entrepreneur and keeping his family happy at the same time. He discusses what inspires him to keep moving forward and trying new ideas, and when he knew the time was right to sell Zappos. Nick also shares his perspective on being a working dad and how to foster and protect your relationship with your child when you are so busy professionally, as well as the lessons that he learns from his 10-year-old son.   "Your family are the stability, they give you the foundation, and you can be fearless in business because you know that at the end of the day you can fall back on the family and that stability and the stuff that does matter." - Nick Swinmurn   This Week on Pretty and Punk: How Nick tested his entrepreneurial chops The dangers of going too fast without considering all the angles How Nick lost $10,000 of his parents money and what lessons he learned for the future How Nick got his first investors for Zappos on board Why Nick started a company the very next day after selling Zappos and what he did when it didn’t work out The attributes that help and hurt him in new businesses How Nick met his wife at Zappos and the effect the relationship had on her career Nick's experience of meeting with Jeff Bezos and why they initially turned his offer down The effect of Nick's businesses on his family How and why he tries to model positive behavior to his son How he and his son enjoy spending time together and bonding Why it’s so important to have a healthy lifestyle Nick’s upcoming book and why he’s writing it   Nick's Parting Wisdom: Everything happens for a reason you, although you might not see the reason straight away. Avoid getting into a negative mindset and remember that you can’t control everything, but you can control how you react to things.   Resources Mentioned: Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss   Connect with Nick Swinmurm: Nick Swinmurn on LinkedIn Nick Swinmurn on Instagram   Connect with the Pretty and Punk Podcast: Pretty and Punk Website Pretty and Punk Podcast on Facebook Pretty and Punk Podcast on Instagram      

https://www.iwdagency.com/ - The eCommerce Experts A business idea that came to fruition after an unsuccessful shoe shopping expedition at the mall, was bought out my Amazon at a $1.2 billion value just 10 years later. Zappos was built by Tony Hsieh and Nick Swinmurn on the foundation of offering the best customer service. Creating a company culture to promote this was Zappos number one priority. Check out the video to see how they did it. #Zappos #TonyHsieh #VentureFrog #NickSwinmurn #eCommerce #SuccessStory ============================================================== Other eCommerce Resources: How Blenders Eyewear grew to $90 million in less than 8 years!: https://youtu.be/EAI-S0yPKOA Sell products on the new Facebook Shops: https://youtu.be/GROpi_9MBw4 eCommerce for Dummies: https://youtu.be/GROpi_9MBw4 ============================================================== Subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/2UqyOg2 IWD Agency offers online business solutions that help maximize the retailer's consumer base with a professional website, online branding, marketing, and optimizing the overall customer retail experience. Discover the true value of your brand with professional solutions offered by experts in the online retail industry. IWD Agency YouTube channel is focused on providing quality content information, news, tips, tricks, and much more. On our YouTube channel, you'll find all the necessary information that you need to maximize your eCommerce biz. So, make sure to follow our content, share these videos, give us a thumbs up, and leave a comment below. ============================================================== Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iwdagency/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwdagency/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iwd-agency/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/iwdagency/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IWDagency While you're at it, check out our blog: https://www.iwdagency.com/blogs ==============================================================

Nick Swinmurn is the creator/founder & former CEO of the largest shoe retailer in the United States, Zappos.com.  Nick worked in ticket sales in minor league baseball, an online car-buying service, started a student portal called 4students.com and also worked at SiliconGraphics all before creating Zappos.  Find out what it took to build, sell and create Zappos and the new businesses that he has now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Swinmurn is the creator/founder & former CEO of the largest shoe retailer in the United States, Zappos.com.  Nick worked in ticket sales in minor league baseball, an online car-buying service, started a student portal called 4students.com and also worked at SiliconGraphics all before creating Zappos.  Find out what it took to build, sell and create Zappos and the new businesses that he has now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Show has been discussed on MLS Soccer's Podcast List Article http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/11/23/guide-mls-podcasts-updated Two hour American Soccer Show. Our Clubs, Leagues, Players, National Team & other fabulous moments My guests for tonight Kartik Krishnaiyer from World Soccer Talk joins me to discuss the US U17's 5-0 Thrashing of Paraguay in the U-17 World Cup in India, Nick Swinmurn who owns Zappos online discusses why he pulled out of the USL for his SFFC side 2nd Division Segment: Recapping the Games involving the NASL & USL Red Bulls Hour: Recapping the win against Vancouver & the draw against Atlanta United.

Warriors minority owner Nick Swinmurn joins the WarriorsWorld podcast to talk ownership, fandom and stories from courtside.

If you were to boil down marketing to a single word, it would be "risk". When a client is ready to buy they still hesitate. Even when there's a sense of urgency on their part, they still go through a series of steps before they come to a decision. What are those steps? Why do clients seem to back away at the last minute? In this two-part series, we examine the "big boy"?risk. And we find out how it sits on its end of the see-saw and dominates the buying process. We then use The Brain Audit (yes, it's a book you should read) to remove those barriers that cause risk. Find out for yourself how we get to the end point and do so much more than just risk-reversal! -------------------------- In ‘part 1 of this 2-part series’ Sean talks about Part 1: Why Clients Don’t Buy (Understanding The Elements of Risk) Part 2: Why The Risk Factor Changes With Every Version Of Your Product/Service Part 3: How Pre-sell Dramatically Ramps Down Risk Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer. Useful Resources The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don’t) 5000bc: How to get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems Read or listen to: How To Attract Truckloads of Clients -------------------------- Last month I decided to buy some software for sound editing. And with that decision, I started a merry dance. You know that dance, don’t you? It’s called the “should I, shouldn’t I” dance. First, I spent an enormous amount of time reading up on what I was about to buy. Did it fit my needs? Was it just a duplication of the software I already had in place? Would it be easy enough to learn? Then, I delved deep into the testimonials. 20 minutes later, I was still reading—not quite sure what I was looking for, when every testimonial clearly seemed to signal the software was right for me. Almost an hour later, not entirely sure of my decision, I pressed the “buy now” button. So what was the price of the software? It was $350. And you think—“Ah, that makes sense You have to do a fair bit of research before plonking down that much money.” And you’d be right. When faced with a slightly risky decision, we have to make sure we do our due diligence, don’t we? I spent another hour going through the very same process: The features, benefits, testimonials, comparison—all while assessing whether I needed the product. The only issue was this new product was priced at two dollars and ninety-nine cents! So why spend the same amount of time and effort on a product that costs less than the price of a coffee? Welcome to the tangled universe of risk, where logic seems to go into a blackhole. Where we spend as much time debating whether to go ahead with a decision, even if a product or service is offered free. We explore why risk isn’t always connected to money, or even the size of the transaction. And while it may seem that we behave unpredictably, our actions are remarkably consistent every time we have to make a decision. Worst of all, despite knowing it’s pointless spending hours debating whether a $2.99 purchase is worth it, we can’t help ourselves. We go through similar actions over and over again. If we’re so hopeless when we’re aware of our actions, how can we predict the behaviour of our clients? And how do we reduce or even eliminate risk? How do we get to the stage where the client doesn’t even read your sales page and buys your product completely on trust—even when it’s an expensive purchase? Let’s dig into this crazy universe of risk—shall we? We’ll delve deep into three topics – Why Clients Don’t Buy (Understanding The Elements of Risk) – Why The Risk Factor Changes With Every Version Of Your Product/Service – How Pre-sell Dramatically Ramps Down Risk Part 1: Why Clients Don’t Buy (Understanding The Elements of Risk) Modern see-saws are kind of boring. You don’t even need someone to sit on the other side. They have all these fancy spring mechanisms so that—in effect—you could see saw your way to your heart’s content. What the modern see-saw misses is the fun that came with understanding balance. As kids, the see-saw mechanism was quick to demonstrate how balance made an enormous difference. And when we decide to look at risk, we must first understand balance. Now if you’ve read The Brain Audit, you’ll know that you need seven elements to take the client from “hmmm” to “yes, I want to buy your product or service”. The first three of those seven are the problem, solution and target profile. The next four are objections, testimonials, risk reversal and uniqueness. What we’re experiencing in The Brain Audit is a factor of balance. The first three elements of problem, solution and target profile balance out the next four elements. The first three elements are all about attraction—the next four are about risk. Risk, as you can see, is the big boy on the see-saw No matter how good you are at attracting a prospect, there’s an enormous risk factor always lurking on the sales playground. To understand how we need to reduce that risk, let’s examine each of those four elements, one at a time. On our list, we have objections, testimonials, risk-reversal and uniqueness. And of course, that list makes no sense at all, does it? Because we just saw risk-reversal as one of the elements in the list. If this topic is about risk, then isn’t risk-reversal supposed to take care of the risk? Interestingly, no. Risk-reversal is only a part of the whole “gang of four”. Let’s start with the first of the four—objections Objections are the harbinger of risk. They’re like vultures waiting to land and chomp off the sale. But just like vultures, the reputation of objections is misplaced. Every possible purchase has not one—but many objections. But even if we were to sidestep the sales process and just look at your life, you’d see that objections play a big role. If someone said to you: Come over on Sunday—notice, notice how your brain goes for a little spin. That’s because your brain is bringing up the objections—even if you you’re semi-keen to go over. Is it just a “come over” situation, you wonder. Or will there be lunch? Will you have to have lunch in advance. All these questions go circling madly in your brain. Should you make an excuse, and just stay home, you wonder? And the moment you do all of this wondering, you’ve entered the world of objections. There are two big reasons why objections show up The first—and most important reason objections are roused—is because necessary information is missing. As we noticed in the “come over to my place” situation, the complete lack of information drives the prospect crazy. Most objections arise directly from the fact that you’ve held back the most important information—the information needed to make the sale. Whether you’re buying a car or software for $2.99, the objections are what will hold the client back repeatedly. And we may say, “I know this stuff. Objections are marketing 101”. And yet, time and time again, a client will come right to the point of buying the product or service—and then back away. In some cases, this is because the information is not available, but in today’s world, there’s also a pretty good chance that the client hasn’t seen the information. Because we’re all drowning in information, we start to skim—and miss out on certain points—points important to us. This builds up the risk tremendously—and more so for an expensive product or service. At this point in time, the Article Writing Course is about $3000 $3000 is a fair bit of money, even when you’re absolutely sure of the results. There are a ton of objections that come up almost immediately. – Will Sean be present at all times? – Will there be specific assignments and will they be looked at daily? – Will the group I’m in work out—after all, I don’t know any of them! – Will there be specific guidelines for the course? The answer to all of this is yes, yes and yes. And yes. The sales page must, in graphics and text—take apart the objections. And this brings us to a very important juncture. No matter what you say on your sales page, it’s just you saying stuff to sell your course. What an audience looks at, right after you’ve reduced their risk is the very next element—testimonials. Testimonials are the opposite of objections Yup, you heard right. Testimonials are not the wonderful things client write about your business. Instead, they have a clear and definite purpose. That purpose is to destroy the objections—and the risk—but from a third party point of view. Which is why you need first to list all the objections you receive—and continue to receive from clients. Once you get these objections, get your current clients to address the risk with their testimonials. When you look at the Article Writing Course, for instance, we realise that it’s expensive. We realise there are courses that are $1000 or even $500. They may not be the competition for Psychotactics, but you have to know that first hand from a client who’s done the course. Someone who’s taken the journey. They need to tell you how the course has tiny increments; how it has groups that magically work together; that I—Sean am there all the time, almost never sleeping, always hovering, always moving you ahead. But they also need to compare it with courses they’ve done before; experiences they’ve been through and found to be less than satisfactory. And to make sure this happens, we ask the alumni of every course as many as 17 questions. In return, we get a 1500 word answer. Notice what’s happening to you as you skim through the prospectus? You suddenly notice there are over 80 pages of testimonials. You read maybe one or two, possibly even getting to three—but those walls of risk are coming down very quickly indeed. But why? Because the testimonial attacked the risk from three angles—first it took on the objection head on, it was a third-party experience, but most importantly, it wasn’t just a few lines. 1500 words mean a lot to a prospect. They paint a picture that 20-30 words could never do. And the risk factor starts to reduce considerably. But we’re not done yet—because we’ve only dealt with the objections and testimonials. Part 2: Why The Risk Factor Changes With Every Version Of Your Product/Service It’s now time for the risk reversal Seems odd, doesn’t it? Why have a risk-reversal when you’re already dealing with the objections? This is the question we had to ask ourselves as well when we ran into the concept of risk-reversal. Back in the early days of Psychotactics, we would sell home study versions of our courses and workshops. Back then in the good ol’ days, clients were more than happy to get a big box in the mail. That box would contain a binder with a ton of notes and yes, CDs. As we continued to sell the product, we’d get a few returns now and then (every product gets returns). When we’d open the returned products, we were foxed at how immaculate the contents of the boxes happened to be. The CDs looked like they’d never been touched—or touched and wiped clean. The notes—not a smear or tear in place. The boxes looked almost identical to the condition they were shipped out. And that made us realise that risk-reversal is not the same as objections. Risk-reversal is the biggest fear the client has—a fear that must be addressed and put in bold, bright lights so it can’t be missed. The risk wasn’t that clients wanted their money back The risk was they were afraid to go through the package in detail as they feared they wouldn’t get their money back if the materials were soiled in any way. From that came the “The Lawn Mower Guarantee”. A guarantee that stated: If you don’t like the product, you’re free to take your lawn mower, run over the CDs and notes—then put them in the box and ship it back. The moment clients set their eyes on that guarantee; the sales went up exponentially. When Zappos.com started selling shoes online, there were smirks Who would buy shoes online? Sure, shoes were a $40 billion market, but shoes online? As you can see, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com was voicing his objections. But his eventual partner, Nick Swinmurn, was prepared. “It’s a $40 billion market”, Swinmurn repeated, and the most interesting thing was that 5% of shoe sales was already being sold by mail order catalogs. But what was their risk-reversal? A money back guarantee, right? After all, shoes may not fit; they may not look as good as they do online—or you may just change your mind. But no, that wasn’t the guarantee The risk was that you’d have to figure out how to ship the shoes back. So Zappos put in a 365-day return policy with free shipping both ways. Free shipping both ways! That’s the biggest risk of all. And this is the part that most of us may not take the time to figure out. What is the client’s most significant risk? In some cases, it’s a simple money back guarantee, but in most cases, the clients will voice their biggest risk. To find the real risk, you have to dig. To find the biggest risk, you have to get clients to list all the possible risks and objections—and get the clients to pick their greatest risk. And sometimes even that may not be enough. The packages that came back to us untouched told us a precise story—a story that the client might never have voiced. To get to a real risk-reversal and reduce that risk, you can’t just hope that a shiny money-back guarantee will work. You have to dig, and dig deep. But nothing needs more digging than the last element—the uniqueness We’ve covered objections, testimonials and risk-reversal, but all that does is set up a client to go to the competition. And that’s where uniqueness comes in. Once you’ve covered all the other elements, the client needs to know why they should buy from you and not from anyone else. If we were to drag the Article Writing Course back into the picture, we’d notice that the competition may be offering courses at a far lower rate—and promising quicker results. After all the Article Writing Course takes 12 weeks—that’s three whole months. You have assignments, and these are checked daily. This means you have to run your business and do your assignments every single day. This makes the course baby-tough So what’s baby-tough. If you have a cat, you have to put out their food, their water, and that’s probably all you need in terms of work. A dog—now that would involve a walk, some play time—it’s a lot more work. A baby on the other hand—a newborn—that means you’re sleep deprived for quite a while. That is the uniqueness of the Article Writing Course. It’s baby-tough. It means you work extremely hard for the three months—and that hard work shows up as a skill on the other side. Right before we had this uniqueness in place, it was a lot harder to sell the course We tackled the objections, had reams of testimonials and the risk-reversal (not money-back, but that you’d only tackle tiny increments every day). Still, it was a lot harder to sell the course. The moment we added the uniqueness, the seats were filled in a day, then half a day and in some cases as little as 25 minutes. A client wants to get the most unique product or service possible. To get anything but the best is hardly acceptable. The moment the Article Writing Course became baby-tough, the clients knew they were in for some real work. And real results. The other courses with their “easy” and “quick” results now became a liability. In fact, uniqueness can stand alone—and clients may ignore the other elements of risk if the uniqueness is strong enough. When you think of Domino’s pizza delivering in “30 minutes or it’s free”, there could have been many other objections, zero testimonials, and well, we’ll accept the risk-reversal. But it’s the uniqueness of screamingly quick delivery that got the attention of the client. When you look at products and services that clients choose—even when they’re not the best in the market place, it’s usually because of the uniqueness. And that’s because the uniqueness creates extreme clarity. When you’re faced with why you chose one computer over the next, why you chose one chartered accountant over the other—you don’t need muddiness. The more fuzzy the message, the less likely your audience is to pick you over the other. Working on your uniqueness is your top priority, and every product or service should have their uniqueness. The company may have one level of uniqueness, but every product or service needs to have their uniqueness as well. When we think of risk, it’s easy to isolate ourselves to just the risk-reversal There’s no doubt the risk-reversal is very important—once you find the real risk involved. Just like Zappos figured out the both-ways free shipping was more important, you too have to dig into the nuances of your product or service. The objections can’t be left out because they cause too much chaos in the mind of the client. Even a simple Sunday outing without the proper information, becomes a matter of “should I, shouldn’t I?”. And testimonials are a science that’s worth delving into. Getting long, detailed answers turn your testimonials into an experience, not just some sugary, nice things your client is saying about your product or service. But what’s the one thing you need to work on as quickly as possible? It’s always the uniqueness. What makes your product or service unique? What makes it different from the competition? That’s the question clients want you to answer right away as it creates clarity. The client can justify to themselves and others in their world, why they bought the product or service. In The Brain Audit, there are two distinct parts: the attraction factor—and the risk. It’s like a see-saw—an old-fashioned see-saw. It’s fun when both sides are balanced—well, almost balanced! Coming Next: Part 2—How Pre-sell Plays A Crucial Role In Risk-Reduction. http://www.psychotactics.com/82