How the “I Have Pain” Story Taught Me the Secret of Small Business Success

Generally, when people write a book like this one, they save the “secret” for the last chapter. In an attempt to get you to read the entire book, they’ll share their strategies (in my case building blocks) with you and leave you on a high note with some amazing secret. I’m not going to do that.

You see, this book is so full of information that I have no doubt you will want to read every single chapter. But, more than that, the 9 building blocks do not hold their value nearly as well if you don’t know and adopt the power of the “secret.”

How the “I Have Pain” Story Taught Me the Secret of Small Business
Success

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 I need to readdress the story at the beginning of this book. You see, the story didn’t end with
the phone call. Quite the contrary! It was only that moment when I realized how we were going
to pull out of our stressful situation and start profitably growing our company. But I’m getting
ahead of myself. Let me explain.

After our “pain” conversation, Reed Hoisington ended up hiring us to write a software program
that would help him automatically follow up with prospects and customers, track communications, organize prospects and customers into groups, and run the whole “follow-up” function of his business. Reed was thrilled with what we created for him and he went away very happy.

But then he came back. Turns out, he had a bunch of mortgage broker clients who realized what
his software was doing for his business…and they wanted it for their businesses. So we “productized” the software program and provided it to a few dozen mortgage brokers, who began to ave about the product.

Things were going so well with our mortgage broker clients that we moved away from the custom software business and began selling our “follow-up machine” exclusively to mortgage brokers.

I was doing the selling, talking to prospects, following up with leads, educating people on
the benefits of our software…

…and then something amazing happened 
We began to use the follow-up features of the software in our own sales and marketing efforts. Suddenly, prospects I had never talked to were calling me up saying they were ready to buy. I was having conversations with people who had heard from me several months earlier and had
been receiving my follow-ups.

Streams of prospects were literally coming out of the wood work, calling me, emailing me. They
were hot and ready to buy.


And our business has never been the same since. Today, thousands of people use our software
every day to follow up, educate their prospects and customers, cultivate lasting relationships and
maximize the value of their prospect and customer lists.

What I want to share with you is not just my personal experience. Although my own experience
with follow-up techniques has been life-changing, I have seen this secret work for thousands of
entrepreneurs who have found a better way to sell and market their products and services.

I promise you that when you put this secret into play, it will change the way you do business. It
will increase your marketing and sales in ways you never believed possible.

So now that you know where I’m coming from, I want to tell you the secret. The same secret
that energizes the building blocks, helps you double your sales, and propels you toward success.
The secret is:

YOU MUST BECOME THE
MASTER OF THE MOMENT 

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

What Does Doubling Your Sales Have to do with Small Business Pains?

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Clate, I would really like to double my sales, but I’m too tired and too
stressed to think about that right now.” Good point. Let me put it this way, the same strategies
you will use to double your sales--automatically ease the typical small business pains: lack of
time, lack of energy, financial obligations, and the inability to break free from the chains of small
business ownership.

I know, it might sound too good to be true. These building blocks are going to double your sales
and make small business ownership easier? Yes. Without beating around the bush, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You can accomplish more in less time and with less effort. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “Work Smarter, Not Harder.” It’s a great phrase, but now it’s time to put that phrase into action!

I’m going to show you how. But first let me demonstrate how quickly incorporating
these building blocks can make a diference.

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A Few Short Months to Success
Chet Womach - birdtricks.com

A couple years ago, Infusionsoft received a call from a man who taught parrots how to be properly behaved. This man, like many others, was frustrated with his small business and was searching for solutions. He had a great, unique company. However, managing his overhead was too much. He failed to fulfill orders on time, had no way of following up with his customers and contacts, and was otherwise buried in his business. Sounds like a common story. 
What we gave him is the basis of the same nine
building blocks I am offering you. Within two
months, the man doubled his sales and turned his
company around. Now, his business is thriving and
he couldn’t be happier.

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I had another customer call up and say, “My dream is to run my business while sitting on the
beach in front of my home.” One of our salespeople, Larry, chatted with this gentleman for a
while and discovered…he didn’t own a home on a beach. He does now!

The 9 building blocks may not work in exactly the same way for every company,
but they do work. I’m going to show you how. But first, let me tell you
the must know secret to success. 

 

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

Is Doubling Your Sales the Best Goal to Achieve?

I’ve had a lot of people come to me and say, “Clate, the information you’re providing small businesses
is priceless. But why would you want to make ‘doubling your sales’ the goal for small
businesses following your building blocks?”

There’s three parts to that answer. First, in all honesty, who doesn’t want to double their sales?
If one dollar is good, isn’t two better? Would it be more pleasing to grow by the same base
amount every year, or to increase your sales exponentially?

Secondly,
study the growth rates of major corporations, and a typical pattern occurs. Small
business do not evolve from “doing okay” one day, to making millions the next. It comes a piece
at a time. If a company repeatedly doubles their sales in the first few years of development,
they will be mimicking the results of large, profitable companies. I would love to see everyone
that uses the building blocks turn their small businesses into big businesses.

Finally,
you’ve got to start somewhere. Doubling your sales is not only possible, it’s measurable.
Two is an easy number to measure.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

But Why Should I Follow These Nine Building Blocks?

Before I get any further, I’d like to introduce the nine building blocks. An adequate description of
each building block will be provided in individual chapters. However, as you’ll want to think about
how they relate to each other, here they are:

The building blocks are interrelated strategies which, when collectively implemented, produce phenomenal results. Understand that the building blocks do not follow a particular order.
One does not necessarily build upon the other. 

And, although the building blocks tend to be closely related, by the end of each chapter, I feel certain you will understand the singular importance of each one.

But Why Should I Follow These Nine Building Blocks?

In actuality, I could have picked a different number, 8 or 10. It really came down to a matter of
choice. However, the number 9 along with “one secret” (which I will reveal in a moment) happily
encompasses the most important techniques, or secrets to doubling sales. With 9 building
blocks, I am able to clearly define the pains small businesses are struggling through and clearly identify specific, changeable behaviors that increase revenue, liberate the small business owner, and lead to unbelievable success.

The more building blocks a small business owner chooses to incorporate,
the more growth they will witness. That being said, simply having this
knowledge is not going to propel your company forward. After reading this
book, it is up to you to decide whether or not you’ll benefit from it.

It’s amazing to me how many small business owners, imprisoned in their own offices, refuse to
do anything about it. They become so bogged down with their daily dance to stay alive that they
become short-sighted and are unwilling to look beyond the day-to-day grind.
True, this short-sightedness might never hinder a company--just as long as the business owner
never gets sick, or the economy doesn’t dip. But “the only predictable thing in life is that
life is unpredictable.”

One of our sales guys received a call from a mortgage broker several months ago. The broker
was living the high life. He’d made extraordinary amounts of money when the housing market
boomed. But, as the market slowed, his business naturally began to taper off. He was curious
about Infusionsoft and what we could do to help grow his business. However, he wasn’t really
motivated to do anything…yet. He’d saved up enough money from the housing explosion to keep him flying high for a while. This man hung up the phone promising to think about the things he’d been told, but he felt confident the market would stabilize and his business would continue to prosper on its own.

Well, a recent follow-up call with this same mortgage broker didn’t end on such a happy note.
The money was gone. The company had accrued massive debts. And the man was willing to try
ANYTHING to keep his business alive. He’d already given himself a three month timeline before
he lost it all.

Now, not every small business is bordering on the edge of complete devastation. But the picture
being painted is not uncommon. Nearly all of today’s small businesses will come across a
moment when they wish they could do things differently. And when they hit that moment, they
might throw more money, time, and effort into their company in the desperate hope that things
will improve.

That is why I’m revealing the power of these 9 building blocks to you. So the next “moment” you
have is a moment of regret that you weren’t able to implement these ideas sooner. So that you
can quickly achieve the type of success you always dreamed of.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

What I Learned About Managing and Growing Small Businesses

Years of interacting with small business owners brought me to some simple but significant conclusions.

I watched the same mistakes being made over and over again. I saw seemingly popular

companies close their doors for the last time. And I observed other companies skyrocket for

no apparent reason.

What I learned…is that the strategies for success were not unique to one industry, company, or business owner. Success was determined by the use of predictable, repeatable, simple actions. But not just any actions--the right actions.

The great news, and the reason I felt it necessary to
complete this book is that once small business owners
learned what they could do with their companies,
they began writing a completely different story for themselves. Gone was the “pain” of small
business ownership, and in its place was the “pleasure.” No longer was it a question of “will
I succeed?” but “how much success will I have?” I’ve watched desperate business owners
turn back into excited entrepreneurs when they found out what their small business could easily
and repeatedly accomplish.

Ultimately, these strategies morphed into the focal point for our company.
They were the driving force, the culmination of everything I had dreamed of doing for the small business owner and their employees. For years I’ve developed and refined these strategies so they would provide the most and best value for the small business owner.

And after all the refinement, I am finally able to introduce:

The Nine Building Blocks to
Doubling Your Sales
...Plus One Incredible Secret!

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 I can’t even begin to express my excitement at finally
being able to reveal the building blocks. With the release
of these strategies, my goal, my drive, my need
to provide small business owners with valuable, lifechanging
information has been realized.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask