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Time to find a new river of revenue. Where do you start?
Your current river is drying up. Or, you just need to find new sources of income, so your company can grow.
Whatever the cause, it's time for you to identify new rivers of revenue and start making sales.
Where do you start? How do you make sure that your new actions will be successful?
Hi. My name is Kristin Zhivago. I am a professional revenue coach.
I help CEOs and entrepreneurs increase their revenue. I can help you.
I spent the first 25 years of my marketing and sales career in high-tech, one of the most unstable and unpredictable industries. It was there that I learned how to figure out what customers really want, then help company leaders meet those needs in time to cash in on customer requirements. Now I apply those lessons to companies of all sizes, in all industries.
Over the last 36 years, I have tried all of the latest marketing and selling methods, applying them "in the trenches." I have learned what works and what doesn't--in the real world. And I reveal these truths in this book.
That's why Guy Kawasaki, after reading Rivers of Revenue, said, "You can suffer through years of marketing and selling experimentation, or you can read this book and understand exactly what to do."
My "Purpose" in life is to help entrepreneurs (and CEOs) realize their dreams. I have figured out how to make this happen, regardless of what you're selling or whom you're selling to. But I can't help everyone personally. I can only take on so many clients at a time--and still live the way I want to.
I wrote this book to help as many entrepreneurs and CEOs as possible. I wrote this book so you wouldn't have to "suffer through years of marketing and selling experimentation." I wrote this book so you'd "understand exactly what to do."
And no, I didn't feed those words to Guy. He's just a smart entrepreneur and a great writer. He read Rivers of Revenue and was able to capture the essence of the book.
When it's time to tap into a new river of revenue, you don't have time for "years of marketing and selling experimentation." You have to start making sales, as quickly as possible.
You will surely have competitors, who will have already learned many lessons. You can assume you're smarter than they are, so you're bound to beat them. But in my experience, that's the same as saying, "I want to fail."
The only way to beat your competitors is to make sure potential customers buy your product instead of theirs.
That means that the people with the power to make your dreams come true are your potential customers.
You need to figure out what they want before you can even begin to make promises to them--much less keep them.
This book will teach you how to identify the promises they want you to keep, and then show you how your company can keep those promises, with the resources in your control: your products, people, processes, policies, and procedures.
Rivers of Revenue starts out with a short fable that shows where revenues really come from. Why a fable? Because successful marketing requires that you get into the mind of your customer. You need to understand their internal dialog--the conversation they have with themselves and others as they're thinking of buying your product or service.
As they try to decide whether to give you their money, they weigh their alternatives. They talk to themselves, their friends, their co-workers, their spouse, and/or their boss. They are trying to figure out if you can be trusted; if you'll support them courteously after the sale; if you have, in fact, created a product that won't disappoint them; if your price is fair; if your product is superior to the others they're considering.
In other words, before you can sell, you have to listen.
You have to go through a little "he said/she said." The fable opens your mind to that reality.
But the fable also shows you how people typically react when their current river of revenue dries up. You'll have to decide: Which of these people am I right now? Am I crying over my dried-up river? Or am I taking my future into my own hands--and then doing the right thing?
The fable is a quick read. Then you'll find yourself buckling down, as the book becomes progressively more specific. It will teach you how to interview customers to find out what they really want. It will show you how to create--and keep--the promises those customers want you to keep. It will show you how to market to those customers, without wasting money on marketing and selling methods that won't appeal to them.
This one book will save you from being suckered into yet another money-wasting marketing activity.
You can spend millions on marketing, and still bomb in the marketplace. Why? Because if you aren't completely in sync with your customer's "Buyer Desire"—what they really want—and "Buyer Scrutiny"—how they go about getting what they want—they can easily ignore you. They can more easily click over to a competitor than they can buy from you. They can easily say, "Nope, that's not it," and keep looking.
What's actually in this book?
It's a proven sales success system. It will teach you how to map out successful sales, then start producing them in quantity. This book is not one of those "one theory, many examples" books. This is the stuff that works in the real world. It's been tested and proven to work in situation after situation, for the world's smallest and largest companies. I'm putting it to use at IBM right now.
"Unlike the latest fad-in-a-book from some cloistered MBA professor, Zhivago's Rivers of Revenue provides practical ways to generate revenue that any business person can use."
David Meerman Scott
This book teaches you how to find out what your customers are really thinking. What they say about you when you're not in the room. What they want you to sell to them. Even how they want you to sell to them. My methods, perfected in literally thousands of interviews and hundreds of marketing situations, will give you the information you need to proceed with confidence.
"Kristin Zhivago teaches how to find out what your customers want and need. Customers will enjoy buying from you. Highly recommended."
This is, in fact, the first book that gives you templates for mapping your customer's buying process--who's involved, the questions they ask, the answers that satisfy them, and the marketing and sales tools you'll need to close the sale. Armed with this information and these tools, your marketing and salespeople will (finally!) be in alignment. Their efforts will reinforce each other. More importantly, their efforts will make it easy for your prospective customers to buy from you—whether they're buying from you on the Web or in a sales call situation.
"This is a highly practical—and provocative—handbook on how to 'think like a buyer' in order to increase your sales." Debbie Weil
This book also contains truths about marketing that will simplify the entire marketing process in your own mind. For example, there's my branding concept, which has been quoted in numerous books and articles: "Your brand is the promise that you keep, not the one you make." Your company is really just a promise-making and promise-keeping machine. First you need to find out the promises your customers want you to keep. Then, you can turn to your own organization and ask, "Which promises are we best able to keep?" The strongest of these becomes your brand.
"I devoured your book like a Thanksgiving dinner. Rivers of Revenue has given me 336 pages of intelligent, usable, realistic, pertinent information." David Jackson, President
The problem with marketing is that you can spend your entire budget and miss the mark.
Dozens of vendors--marketing gurus, search engine experts, advertising salespeople, PR practitioners, to name a few--will tell you that the answer is whatever they're selling.
They'll be happy to help you spend your money. But if your messages don't resonate with your customers' truth, those customers won't respond. And if they do respond, but you don't answer their questions, they will look elsewhere. Either way, you won't make the sale.
Order Rivers of Revenue from our secure site
"Engaging and surprisingly quick to finish. I keep referring to it for ideas. This one is a keeper!" Charles Knapp, PMCP PPM
"Loved your book!!!! Awesome!!!!!" Bill Harrison, President, FreePublicity.com
"I love it! Zhivago helps readers 'get in the revenue flow' no matter what is happening in their markets or the economy in general."
Melody Campbell
Order this book from our secure site
Or, buy it at Amazon.com.
Whatever your situation, I know you could be selling more.
If you're willing to see things from your customer's point of view, you're already on your way to higher revenues. This book will take you all the way.
P.S. Just in case you're wondering where this book started...it was back in 1969, when I became the first woman in the U.S. to sell machine shop tools. I was fresh out of high school and determined to succeed, even without any training. ("Here, kid, here's a catalog. Go sell.")
Sure, I got their attention. It was easy to get in to see the shop foreman. It wasn't every day that they were visited by a young woman wearing a mini-skirt.
But I quickly learned that if you don't understand what your customer wants, you won't make the sale.
That realization (and yes, it was a humbling experience) was just the beginning of my obsession with mastering marketing and selling methods, and with technology. I've been learning and applying technology--and marketing and selling methods--ever since.
For the next ten years, I sold and marketed hardware, software, services, and media in Silicon Valley. I opened and ran businesses for entrepreneurs.
In 1979, my husband and I founded and started running a high-tech ad/PR agency in Palo Alto. We did well; we grew the agency by continuously improving our processes. At our peak, we were a two-person team billing what eight- and ten-person agencies billed.
We ran the agency until the early 90's, when desktop publishing emerged and changed the agency business forever. I could see that our river of revenue was drying up.
Because I was close to my clients, and wasn't resisting new market trends, I could also see a new river of revenue. I knew I could help people who were taking their marketing activities in-house. So I started helping clients do a better job of marketing in-house. We phased out the agency. My husband retired.
Over the next ten years, I was often hired as a "rent-a-VP" for well-known companies, re-engineering their marketing departments—increasing output while increasing revenues. (In one case, using the same staff, we increased the output of the department by 500% in the first five weeks--just by improving internal processes.) In my role as a VP, I used the best marketing and selling methods available, testing, tracking, and tweaking until we were getting maximum returns on our marketing investment.
Now I work as a revenue coach for entrepreneurs and CEOs. I still use and test the latest strategies in real market situations. I help business leaders understand what their customers want. I help them find the right people. I train the people. We develop marketing and selling strategies and tactics. I help them identify, evaluate, and build marketing and selling systems. I design websites that make it easy for the customer to buy.
In all cases, the most important breakthroughs have always come from in-depth customer interviews, which lead to customer-pleasing strategies, decisions, and actions. Revenues go up.
Although I've been writing articles about marketing and leading marketing workshops since 1984, I didn't write a book until I knew I could provide a complete, start-to-finish, works-no-matter-what system for my readers.
I'm happy to say that's exactly what this book contains.
Author of "Eyeball Wars"
Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World
CEO
WordBiz Report
David Jackson Remodeling
PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne
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"A powerhouse of wisdom. Kristin revitalizes
companies—and careers."
—Jim Sterne,
Author of Web Metrics and Marketing on the Internet
"No one is better at understanding how
customers think."
—Jeffrey Tarter, Editor, Soft*Letter
"One of America's most famous marketing
strategy consultants."
—Anne Holland, Publisher and Managing Editor, MarketingSherpa
"New and powerful ideas."
—Becky Dale, Marketing and Sales Manager, RC Family
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