Brad Petersen

The other day, I was talking to a friend who was peeved with
his boss.

It seems one of the company’s consultants realized that a
certain type of client was easy to work with, didn’t
complain about their invoices and paid in a timely manner.

In the marketing trade, these are what we call “good
clients.”

At the same time, he was able to identify a type of client
that was the exact opposite. They wasted the consultant’s
time, complained about the price and rarely paid on time.

Worse yet, these “bad clients” siphoned attention away from
the good clients.

Not surprisingly, with the good clients, the company makes
more money in less time and with less hassle.

With the bad clients, the company makes less money, spends
more time and deals with many more hassles.

And morale suffers, too, because it’s such a drag to work
with these people.

It seems obvious that the company should go out of its way
to search out the kind of people who make for good clients,
while referring the soul-suckers to the competition.

Yet, it’s not so obvious to the company’s owner, who refuses
to turn any business away whatsoever. He believes that along
with the cream, he has to take what’s at the bottom of the
barrel, too.

All to make sure the business grows.

And this is what had my friend all hacked off. He’s sick and
tired of working with these crummy clients. They make
everyone miserable, and my friend is convinced the company
would be better off without them. They are dragging everyone
into the muck.

If something like this is happening — or ever happens with
your business — the solution is two-fold:

1) Dump the scarcity mentality. Many business owners — even
successful ones — are convinced that good customers are so
scarce and so hard to find, that they have to do whatever it
takes to land one or keep one.

So they grovel at their prospects’ feet, slash prices at the
drop of a hat and come running whenever the client whistles.

This is no way to live … or to run a business.

You’re far better off assuming that there’s an abundance of
good clients out there that you can tap into to grow your
business …

… and that you never have to deal with bad clients or put
up with their wicked ways.

Because the simple fact is, if you offer a product or
service that people want, then there’s no shortage of good
customers out there ready and willing to do business with
you.

It’s your job to find them, so you never again have to deal
with people you don’t want to deal with.

Which brings us to:

2) You need to have a system in place for regularly
generating those good clients.

This is where my friend’s company went off the rails. They
had almost nothing in place for building the business, other
than an occasional (lame) ad and an occasional (boring) blog
post.

No sales funnel. No lead magnets. No sales letter. No ezine.
No nothing.

No wonder good clients seem so scarce.

The good news is, you can power up your client-attraction
efforts with very little effort — and without having to set
up a complicated sales funnel.

It’s possible thanks to a powerful four-part formula that
I’ll give you tomorrow.

In the movie Mr. Saturday Night, Billy Crystal plays Buddy
Young, Jr., a washed up comedian who never achieved the kind
of success he believed he should have.

In the twilight of his life and career, Buddy is courted by
Annie Wells, a young comedy agent played by Helen Hunt.
Annie is determined to put Buddy back to work making people
laugh.

However, before they get very far, Buddy is outraged to
discover that Annie is completely unfamiliar with the
classic names in comedy — something he believes makes her
unqualified to represent him.

He has a tantrum at the Friar’s Club in New York and sends
her packing — only welcoming her back once she has learned
a little history.

Annie’s ignorance reminds me of something I see all the time
in the business world: Namely business owners who want to
grow their business …

… and are willing to spend thousands of dollars on the
latest, greatest business-building bling …

… but have never taken the time to read, let alone master,
the advertising and marketing classics.

Let alone to begin applying those principles to build their
businesses.

These foundational tomes contain the indispensable
fundamentals upon which successful advertising and marketing
campaigns are built.

And they hold many — if not most — of the answers you seek
for increasing your sales and profits.

Better yet, they’re dirt cheap.

To get you started, I recommend taking 15-20 minutes a day
to begin working your way through a recommended reading list
put together by the late, great Gary Halbert.

Though Gary wrote up the list more than 25 years ago, every
single book on it still has relevance today because the core
principles never change.

Bottom line: reading these books — and putting their
secrets to work — will make your business grow by leaps and
bounds.

So, without further ado, the list:

1) “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins.

“Scientific Advertising” was published all the way back in
1923 — but it’s still worth its weight in gold. When you
read it, you my be surprised to discover that many of the
“secrets” the gurus have been sharing with you come straight
from the pages of Hopkins.

Here’s what famed ad man David Ogilvy says about Scientific
Advertising: “Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to
have anything to do with advertising until he has read this
book seven times. It changed the course of my life.”

Also immensely worthwhile is Hopkins’ companion volume, “My
Life in Advertising.” A fun and inspiring read.

2) “The Robert Collier Letter Book” by Robert Collier

Collier was a direct mail giant in the first half of the
20th century. He is perhaps best known for his advice to
write sales letters that enter into the conversation already
going on in your customer’s mind.

3) “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples

Caples wrote the famous ad, “They Laughed When I Sat Down at
the Piano … But When I Started to Play.”

His books “How to Make Your Advertising Make Money” and
“Making Ads Pay” are excellent, as well.

From what I hear, the fifth edition available on Amazon (and
linked to above) is inferior to previous editions due to revisions
made after Caples’ death. It’s probably worth your while to see
if you can find a fourth edition or earler.

4) “How to Write a Good Advertisement” by Vic Schwab.

This great book is the original source for the “100 Greatest
Headlines” report you’ll often find on the internet (usually
with zero credit given to Schwab).

5) All back issues of “The Gary Halbert Letter.”

A terrific read — and you’ll find many of them here for
free, courtesy of Gary’s sons Bond and Kevin.

6) “The Boron Letters” by Halbert himself

This remarkable book is a series of letters Gary wrote to
his son Bond while he (Gary) was incarcerated at Boron State
Prison. It is solid gold.

7) “The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches” by Joe Karbo (revised by Richard G. Nixon)

Karbo was a mail order genius. Perhaps his most famous
headline was, “Are You Too Busy Working for a Living to Make
Any Money?”

8) “Seven Steps to Freedom” by Ben Suarez.

Suarez has made multiple fortunes in the mail order
business.

9) “Breakthrough Advertising” by Eugene Schwartz

This one takes a few readings to master, but it’s well worth
the effort.

These books were making fortunes for business owners decades
before the internet came along to bombard you with more
business building bling than you can shake a stick at.

And they’ll give you a solid foundation for building
successful marketing and advertising campaigns.

Enjoy.