The Ultimate Marketing Engine with John Jantsch: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Created with John Ushai. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down the ultimate marketing engine. To drop these value bombs, I brought John Jantz into EO Fire Studios. John is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, and The Ultimate Marketing Engine. In today's Foundation, we have some value bombs, the hourglass metaphor, how to use content to fill gaps for onboarding, and the innovation of teaching other businesses to take the top 20 % of our clients and oh, so much more.

0:46And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to John and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lanz, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.

1:21John, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, welcome, Fire Nation. Great to be back here. I've been told this is my third time here. Number three. It's got to put me in at least the mid-ranks of a celebrity for this show. Yeah, you're top 25. Top 25. All right, awesome. So I'm not sure that everybody doesn't believe this, but one of the things I find challenging is that a lot of people don't believe that you get to define what success means. And in fact, you have to, because it is only going to be success if it is the thing that you define, the thing that brings you joy, the thing that means something to you.

2:04And it, you know, using other people's metrics is going to bring you nothing but heartache. Completely agree. I mean, I have found my version of success, which by the way, a lot of people disagree with. I mean, I've been publishing my income reports for 94 months in a row now. And guess what? I've been plateau city. hey, I've been making a couple million a year, you know, just most of that net profit. And like, to me, I'm like, that's enough. And I get people all the time. Well, where's your 20%, 40%, 60 % year over year growth? I'm like, I'm not willing to work five to 10 times harder for two to three times more money.

2:36That's not the kind of business I'm looking to run. I have found my version of success. I wish you the best luck finding yours. And you need to find Fire Nation for you what eventually is going to be enough because a lot of people never find enough. and then they just build something they don't even know what they've built. But that's a longer conversation for a later topic. And we're talking today about the ultimate marketing engine. And, John, I was going to ask you right off the top, why this book? Why now? Because I had a contract. Let's be honest. Publisher wanted me to write a book, had to write a book.

3:11Now, actually, that did happen in March of 2020. I signed a contract, and then like two weeks later, the world shut down. And so I was like, whoa. Now, I'm going to write a marketing book. I don't want to write how to market in a pandemic. Nobody wants that book, especially now. But I will say that the pandemic and what I saw happening to my customers really informed this book. One of the things that's always been true, but it was such a bright light shown on this idea, is that the companies that actually thrived, I mean, I know it's kind of scary to say that, but not just survived, but thrived during this last kind of crazy year, were the companies that meant something to their customers and clients.

3:53Those customers and clients wanted them to be around, you know, wanted them to get closer and and and kind of offer support and offer like, what else can I do for you? What else can I do with you? And that is really what this book is about, is getting so close to your customers that you actually start treating them as members. And I don't mean like a membership program. I mean, literally like like somebody who wants not just a transaction with you, but a transformation with you. Oh, transformation, Fire Nation. And that's the name of the game. And you have something called the customer success track model.

4:30What the heck is that? Well, I'm going to say it's like a really big innovation to the concept of the customer journey is basically what I'm going to say. You be the judge after you read the book. But the thing that I've done over the years, I've had my own business for 30 years. And I've actually got a client that I got in 2004 that is still with me. And one of the things that that is really came, you know, shone a light in being in those doing this that many years is that, you know, I went to them and sold them like a solution to a problem they were having. And then I paid attention and thought, well, what's the next stage for them?

5:06And the next stage, not just more of the same, but like, how do I actually take them to where they want to be as opposed to just provide a service? And so over the years, that's really been my model. We bring clients in, we do strategy first, then we do foundation, then we do lead generation, and then we get to scale. And so there actually is a track, a marketing maturity model. And the innovation, at least over the last couple of years, what I've been exploring is, can I teach other businesses to do that? That they would actually be able to take their top clients, their top 20 % of their clients and start to ask themselves, how can we take them from where they are to where they want to be as opposed to how can we just provide the service we agree to?

5:49And by developing these stages and the characteristics of each stage and the challenge at each stage and the promise of getting to the next stage, and then of course the milestones and tasks that are going to make somebody do that, it becomes an entire business strategy. In fact, it informs the mission, it informs the training, it certainly informs the products and services and who you bring on the team. And so while I'm calling it a customer success track, it really becomes an overarching business strategy approach. Fire Nation, there's a lot of things I love about John, but one of the things that I really do love about him is he simply says it like it is.

6:26He's not pulling punches. He's not blowing smoke. Straight shooter. So tell us, why does no one, John, and I mean no one, wants what we sell? I'm not the first person to say this, but I've certainly been beating this drum for a long time. Well, they want what they think they're going to get from doing business with us. I mean, they want their problems solved for the most part. And obviously they get to define what that is. But, you know, for the most part, I sell marketing strategy, but no one has ever come to me and say, John, you've got a marketing strategy for me today. I mean, my website does not say we do marketing strategy.

7:00What they do come to me and say is, you know what? I'm just tired of marketing overwhelm. I'm just tired of all the tire kickers. I'm just tired of competing on price. And the solutions to those problems, that's what we sell. We sell clarity. We sell confidence. We sell control. And by the way, don't tell anybody, it's called marketing strategy. Marketing strategy. I mean, Fire Nation, this is the kind of knowledge that you need. This is the kind of straight shooting that you need. You don't need people to kind of puff things up and say, hey, you know, this is the airy fairy way. No, like this is the ultimate marketing engine.

7:35That's why this book was titled this way, and that's why this is the content you're going to get today. And one thing that I know you struggle with, Fire Nation, because I do, and John does as well, is scaling with customers. And we also want to talk about strategic ways to make your content your voice. And we're going to talk about that and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The overwhelm that comes with choosing the right software and tools for growing your business is real. with so many options and so little time, how are you supposed to know which platform is best? You've got your email marketing platform, payment systems, content tools, the list goes on.

8:12It can sometimes feel like you're spending more time organizing all the moving pieces and places than actually connecting with prospects and customers. And this is where HubSpot steps in. HubSpot is the all-on-one customer platform for growing better. Imagine this. Marketers generate better leads. Sales build tighter relationships with customers and closes more deals. And service supports your customers at scale with tools like HubSpot's AI chatbot and knowledge base. Plus, with built-in AI to answer common customer questions, brainstorm and write marketing content, easily pull reports and more, your teams can slash their busy work.

8:49Meaning your marketers, sales reps and service teams actually have the time to be, well, marketers, sales reps and service teams. And when they grow, the sky's the limit for your business too. Grow better, faster with HubSpot's all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more. One of my favorite places to visit in the late summer months is my home state of Maine. There's just something about being on a lake in August and September that I absolutely love. And now that we have a little one, spending time with family is that much sweeter. Something else I love? Sharing my home in Puerto Rico when I'm away.

9:29Think about it. If you travel for parts of the year, whether it's for a vacation, a business trip, or to see family, why not Airbnb your home while you're away? It's a good way to earn extra money, and the joy of knowing others are enjoying your space is an added bonus. Plus, with things like the Airbnb setup guide and tips to make your home a great place to stay from experienced Airbnb hosts available to you, getting started is simple. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. So, John, we're back, and it's just a struggle across the board for so many people.

10:10I mean, they get one customer, two customers here, but how do you really scale getting more customers potentially, but even maybe, and another way of looking at it is like with the customers that we have, like what is the ultimate marketing engine have to say about that? it's terribly cliche the old 80 20 principle but it's sort of a cliche because it's so true so often over the years almost all the clients i've worked with you can just almost to a t 80 of their profits come from 20 of their best clients and yet they have 47 services listed on their website home page and they don't want to ever turn anybody away by like really defining who it is they can provide value for and, by the way, who they can't.

10:55And really what I focus on trying to get people to do is let's figure out who those best clients are. Let's figure out why they're best clients. Let's figure out the behavior that makes them the best client. Let's figure out the problem that we are better at solving than anybody else. Let's build our entire business around, well, as you said, getting more of them, but primarily focusing on blowing them away, doing more with them, serving their entire ecosystem, because then they become a referral generation machine. And I will tell you that, and I know you share these numbers as well, or this thinking as well, John, that 20 % of our best clients want to do 10 times more business with us, would do 10 times more business with us if we showed them how.

11:40And then another 20 % of that group would do 100 times more business with us if we show them how, if we built our business around just growing and with them, scaling with them, as opposed to going out and just finding more clients. The 80-20 rule, Fire Nation, it is true in both business and life. And I mean all forms of life. It's really crazy just how that works. And how can you, ask yourself that question, Fire Nation, how can you make a referral generation machine? and how can you continue to serve your current clients who already know, like, and trust you, your current customers who want more, you know, that 20 % that, you know, will pay 10 % more, a hundred percent more, a thousand percent more, and then the 10 % of that and so on and so forth.

12:25And that is where I like to say, you never say no, like you never stop the conversation. The offers keep coming. Your offers keep coming. They decide when to say no, like they can say no at any point. They can say no on a free offer. They can say no on a$97 offer. They can then say no on a$9.97 offer and so on and so forth to the moon. Let them say no. It's not your decision to say no for them. Now, John, you make content. I make content. Most people in Fire Nation make content, but how can we make that content the voice of strategy? We talked about figuring out the problem you solve and really making that your core message.

13:03But then you've got to, you know, that becomes a lot of ways your marketing strategy to compete on, on promising to solve that greatest problem. But then one of the things that, that the mistakes people make is that they then look at content as just another tactic. Oh yeah, we've got to have six blog posts a week or, you know, whatever it turns out to be. And what we suggest you do is actually look at the customer journey. There are seven stages in my world. They are no like trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. that's we call the marketing hourglass I know a lot of people have used the funnel metaphor for years I like the hourglass because it focuses as much attention on what happens when somebody becomes a customer and after they're a customer how to turn them into a maniac referral machine so by creating content that that understands the questions and objectives and how they change at each of those stages filling the gaps using content to fill the gaps for like onboarding for orientation, for further education, for upsells and cross-sells, and for literally creating strategic partners that are going to become referral machines, that you look at that map and map all of your content to those different stages and those different needs, rather than just simply thinking, oh, content is an ad or content is a blog post or content is an e-book.

14:22Nothing wrong with those forms of content, but they're just not integrated into being your overarching strategy. Fire Nation, what is your overarching strategy? Do you understand this customer journey as John's breaking this down? Because it's a very meaningful model. Now, John, take the stage, break it down for us. What is the ultimate marketing engine all about? Why should Fire Nation read this book and where should we go to get our copy? The reason I think that the people should be interested in this book is because this book's all about creating customers for life. And again, if you're in it to hustle a buck, if you're in it to see where this next opportunity is, this might not be the book for you.

15:06But if you're thinking, I want to build a real business, a business that not only lets me achieve my financial goals, but also is pretty personally rewarding. There's nothing better in my mind than working with a customer and seeing the customer grow. And that not only did you have an impact in that, but you actually help direct that. If you're somebody that thinks this is my long-term goal, I want to build this business that's sustainable, that's joyful. That's the book that I wrote. You can find the Ultimate Marketing Engine certainly anywhere that you buy books. But John, can I make people a small book?

15:38Yeah, I love it. Do it. So if you pre-order a book, depending upon when you're listening to this, the book will be out in September of 2021. But if you pre-order a book and you go to duct tape.me slash fire, that's duct tape, or it's one word, but two Ts, D-U-C-T-A-P-E dot M-E slash fire, you're going to find a way to sign up for a free companion course. It's a$99 value, six videos, a whole bunch of worksheets that go along with as companion to this book. So before you even get your hands on the book, maybe physically, you'll be able to dive in and consume this really valuable companion course.

16:14Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JJ and JLD today, so keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com, type John in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop up with everything we talked about here today. You can also listen to the other two episodes we've done over the years, value bombs galore there. And of course, your ultimate call to action is ducttape.me slash fire. Get that free companion course and definitely check out the Ultimate marketing engine. John, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

16:51For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Always great to be a part of your energy, bud. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by John and Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals, which is why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. So So visit thefreedomjournal.com, use promo code podcast for a$15 discount. And thank you for listening to my podcast. And I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolfe and Nathan Lanz, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

17:34Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business, and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.