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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule 
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IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS newsletter is published online on the “reincarnated” version of my Self-Development (SD) Nuggets blog. I continue to put finishing touches to the content. If you encounter ANY bad/dead links, and you can spare the time, email them to me via tayo at tksola dot com. Thanks in advance
No. 175: Why Speakers Who Barter Products and Services Will Make More Money
Unconventional ideas, used intelligently, can yield superior results compared to “popular” ones. Years of testing ideas advocated by myriad experts, in my search for success have taught me that what WORKS, and NOT necessarily what’s popular, is what REALLY MATTERS.
This has made me a fervent advocate of seasoned, and highly successful experts like Burt Dubin, Terry Dean, Dan Kennedy etc.
In studying their works, I found they possessed the rare ability to NOT care about conforming with the majority…
Instead, they displayed a readiness to go out on a limb, if necessary, to test and find out what worked for them, and once they found it, they fearlessly put it to use, and taught willing others to do the same.
With the exception of Burt Dubin, who I have represented as Sole Agent for marketing his Speaker Mentoring products and services for a few years now, the other 2 experts, probably do not even know I exist.
So this is not some attempt to curry favours or seek recognition on my part.
Instead, my purpose is to point out, as we start this new year, that sometimes, sticking with what everyone else knows and does, may do you more harm than good, in your business!
You need to get into the habit of TESTING what you are told, to see if it really adds value to you, in the way you want, so you can achieve YOUR valued goals.
The fact that it works for some big-name-expert, does NOT guarantee you will get the same results!
That’s why TESTING ideas and strategies to see how they work, for YOU, is so crucial!
Today, I have gotten useful experiences under my belt, doing tons of testing, and emerged with my own original concepts, ideas and strategies for achieving the kinds of success I seek on a regular basis (Note that I continue to TEST…it’s a never ending process!).
Now, a key area in which I have reaped the greatest rewards has been discovering the use of “barter exchange” – an ancient concept – but used in a modern way.
I have used it in the modern way now for years, since first reading about it in several of Burt Dubin’s articles and reports over a decade ago. .
Basically, you have to keep in mind that sometimes you can sell more, if you’re flexible and open minded about HOW you get paid your stated fee or price.
In his articles, Burt explains that when he was still a speaker (today, he’s a renowned mentor of some of the world’s highest paid speakers), he often let companies that invited him to speak, pay in kind and/or cash, to the tune of his full fee.
Sometimes he got part of his payment in form of hotel accommodation across a weekend, for him and his wife, in the city the event would hold. The client could have a hotel in the city in which a special arrangement enabled them get FREE rooms for a limited period, for their staff.
This tends to make it easy for the buyer/client company’s decision to commits, since s/he may have other things that limited funds need to be spent on.
Or better still, s/he could then use the savings from that barter exchange to purchase some other product or service YOU offer that they would not have had the funds for if they had paid your full fee in cash!
In other words, bartering your products and services can make it easier for you to not only close sales, but also to attract repeat – or additional purchases – from the same or other clients (since delighted clients are likely to tell potential others)!
Even farm business owners can use this barter approach (e.g to cut down Variable Costs) as I explain in my guest post on http://www.africabusinesscommunities.com titled “5 Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits without Raising Prices“.
I have written several articles in the past, in which I shared stories about how I used the bartering technique to win client projects and walk away with physical products I went on to sell (see below).
True Story No. 1:
Some years back, a small Telecom & IT equipment installations company in Ikeja, Lagos, wanted me to build a Web Marketing System (WMS) for them.
When the CEO asked for a discount, I proposed a barter exchange that would enable them pay me part cash and part via a product they already had in stock.
He was open minded enough to let me explain further. They had a new subsidiary that did beautiful Heat Transfer prints on T-Shirts. I told him I wanted some branded T-Shirts made in bulk.
So we went to the printing room and I pointed out the white T-shirts they had in bundles, then showed then my high resolution Eyo Masquerade graphic on my flash drive, that I’d modified in Photoshop based on a friend’s Pointillism artwork.
My request was that they print my design onto enough of the T-shirts that would total 50% of my fee for developing the WMS for them.
The operatives did the calculations and announced that I would get 70 branded T-Shirts, ready to wear or sell.
That was good by me. I would NOT have to buy ANY materials, neither would I need to do any hard work printing anything. They would do it all and hand them over to me once I was done with the WMS.
So, it was agreed.
And here’s the best part: I got the 50% cash in advance, and the T-shirts were put on record as the balance I would get on job completion!
Since the work to be done in developing the WMS was a service that required no significant expenses (other than my internet costs and generator fueling), this meant I was more or less eating my cake and having it.
Yet, the client was also happy to be able to pay much less cash than he would normally have had to part with.
Isn’t that just great? I think it is!
[Click here to view the Cafepress.com online gifts store I setup the images to be impressed using print on demand technology onto T-shirts and other items (NB: I will be updating the URLs from spontantaneousdevelopment.com to tayosolagbade.com in a few days) ]
There are no rules about how one can barter, or what one can barter!
Yep. And that means your only limitation is your creativity.
Burt Dubin shares with his mentees, many proven strategies for using this Bartering techniques and others, to reap profitable benefits. Need help? Click here to send him a message.
In my case, I’ve taken a lot of what I learnt from Burt, and added several twists, over the years, to come up with new ways of doing it. This especially to leverage my own unique skills as one who creates a unique range of high profile digital products like my Excel-VB software.
Which bring me to True Story No. 2:
Last month/year – on 1st December 2014, a Filipino gentleman (Nelson) who works with a company in Abu Dhabi, but runs a piggery business back home in the Philippines, purchased my Feed Formulation Handbook PDF from my Lulu.com online store.
He did so on my recommendation, after we spoke on phone.
In actual fact, he’d contacted me asking about my Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator software.
However, after speaking with him, I’d advised that since he did not have formal knowledge about the science of Feed Formulation and Compounding, that he first buy my handbook and read up on that.
But our conversation also revealed a potential problem, which has affected other international buyers.
Since he was outside Nigeria, in order to buy the software, Nelson would either have to send payment via Pay pal (through a 3rd party – my brother in law) or Wire Transfer (which is not so reliable and tends to take long).
Neither option sounded appealing to him, from the response he emailed me. He ended by saying he would get back to me, once he decided.
Later in the month however, I was sending out my usual Xmas/Year end promo offers to all past buyers and subscribers, when it occurred to me that I could ask him to pay for the software, by purchasing physical copies of some of my new paperback books that I just published with Lulu.com, and shipping them to me (through my brother in law who lives in London)..
The books are available in my online store for delivery to the doorstep of a buyer anywhere in the world.
I had been planning to order copies of some of them (like my Speaking IDEAS book and my Best Practice Parenting book titled “Kukuru Danger”).
This was because I wanted to give out as gifts to a few relatives and my kids. The opportunity to have the physical books without spending ANY money from my pockets therefore instantly appealed to me, and I quickly drafted a modified version of my Xmas/Year End promo and emailed it to Nelson.
Not only did my offer afford him a considerable discount, it was also a SAFER alternative compared to sending money directly to me – since he had to “buy” from Lulu.com’s secure platform.
On 30th December 2014, he sent an email confirming that he had taken up the offer and made the purchases, for delivery to my brother in law’s home in London as I’d requested. Click to see the screenshots of the invoice, he sent me in this article.
So, now we wait for confirmation that the books have arrived London.
Once that happens, I’ll simply email him the download link to his personalized copy of the Ration Formulator, its PDF user guide and the 4 video tutorials.
(NB: Last week’s piece titled “Barter Your Digital Products to Make More Money (True Story) features the verbatim emails we exchanged – click to read it)”
If I had not employed this barter strategy, it’s likely Nelson would probably still TODAY, have been trying to make up his mind how to send me payment for the software.
But this barter option I gave him helped him decide quicker. Plus, I’m now getting copies of my new books that I need!
Meanwhile all I have to give in exchange is my Excel-VB Ration Formulator software that I’ve been selling since 2004 – digital, zero cost item!
Final Words: Anybody can use the ideas I’ve shared above!
So many possible applications can be explored – and it will not matter what field you are in.
As an expert-who-speaks, you can really make profitable use of this “barter” approach to win over more clients, and rake in more money.
All you have to do is keep an open mind.
In 2015, the ability to do THAT (i.e. keep an open mind), and also constantly think outside the box, while NEVER letting yourself be limited by the opinions of others, will help you excel way beyond the limits you (think you) have!
I wish you success!
[NB: This write up is the promised sequel to last week’s piece titled “Barter Your Digital Products to Make More Money (True Story)” that I published on 31st December 2014, to close the year.]
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Learn about Burt Dubin’s speaker mentoring products (books, audios etc) below…
If you need help purchasing ANY of Burt’s products (like “Presentation Magic”), call me on +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic, my base) or +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or email tayo@tksola.com
Have a great week :-))
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