Unlocking Hidden Profits

0:00You know, over the years, you've heard me talk a lot about marketing systems. Today, I get to share something really special. My daughter, Sarah Nay, who also happens to be the CEO of Duct Tape Marketing, just released her first book. It's called Unchained, Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models and How Small Business Can Finally Take Control of Their Marketing, Lead with Strategy, and Scale with AI. I know, a mouthful, right? But it's everything we've learned taken to the next level. In fact, we're even calling it Duct Tape Marketing 3.0. As a dad, I couldn't be prouder, but I want you to check it out at dtm.world slash unchained and get ready to take your strategy to a whole new level.

0:52Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Chance. My guest today is Stacy Highland. She's an international recognized business coach, growth strategist, and speaker who spent over two decades helping entrepreneurs uncover untapped revenue and performance in their business. As a former vice president for Chet Holmes International, Stacey has worked with companies ranging from solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500. We're going to talk about her new book, Hidden Profits, More Clients and Cash. So welcome to the show, Stacey. Thanks, John. I'm excited to be here.

1:28So you open actually the book with a story, which is always awesome. A business owner doubled their revenue without new marketing spend. Can you break down a little bit of the hidden profit you helped them find? And maybe also like how they couldn't spot it themselves. Yeah, well, the thing is that a lot of times when you're a business owner, you're stuck in the day to day doing all the time and really hard to see the things for yourself. So the hidden profits came about from when I worked with Tony Robbins and he said during the recession, it's not about a lack of resources. It's about becoming more resourceful.

2:08and so what we looked at is all right what are the ways that we can increase and we looked at the different hidden profits in his business in this case he was able to do a come on back strategy to reactivate a bunch of the clients that hadn't been in his business for a while and increase his business that way and then we also looked at tweaking his pricing because in a lot of places He was underpricing what he was doing. Yeah. Yeah. We could probably talk the whole show about that very thing. I find that especially with service businesses. And you probably encountered that a lot, right? So just telling somebody they should raise their prices, while it might make sense, it's pretty hard for them to sometimes stomach.

2:50How do you get people around that resistance that there normally is? Well, it's funny because in the book, I call it that fear factor, right? The hidden profit of raising your prices because people not being able to raise prices comes from a lack mentality as opposed to abundance mentality. It also comes from not owning your expertise. And so I think one of the big challenges that entrepreneurs need to do is to start to own their expertise and to own the outcome that they help create for their client. And when you focus on what the outcome is that you create for your client, then it's a lot easier to say, okay, this is worth charging more for and be willing to, you know, sometimes it's baby steps that we have to do, you know, that we raise the price on one particular product or service or program.

3:38And then once they get the little bit of confidence, then we, you know, step it up again and again until we get to the right spot. You know, I also find a lot of that comes from them not really being very specific about who they can help. And so they attract a lot of people that don't get the value, don't appreciate their expertise and consequently are very price sensitive. Would you say that's also another, like getting people to narrow their focus as part of it too? Yeah, it's really important. And I think part of that comes from your language when you speak in your marketing, and really honing in that strategic positioning so that you become the expert that they want to work with.

4:15And I think, I had a client here yesterday for a VIP day. And one of the things that was funny is he was saying words that he wanted, you know, to attract the clients. And none of the words he mentioned were the words that an actual prospect would be searching for or looking for in a transformation. So we had to really look at that. And then we also looked at, you know, who are those clients that he didn't want? And what were the warning signs? Because I think a lot of times, again, coming from a lack perspective versus an abundance perspective that they think, oh, it's a lead. I have to take this client.

4:50But when you have a lot of crappy clients, it sucks your energy. It sucks your time. And it's not a great way to grow your business. Whereas if you have one of your perfect clients that is fun to work with, is willing to invest, like that's a great way to grow your business. Yeah. It's funny. You know, you're in this game very long at all. You know, you can almost, I can almost talk to a client and the first thing they ask me, you know, well, we go, oh, you're going to be a good client or not. You know, you get really good at sort of recognizing that perfect client behavior, don't you? Yeah. And also it's willing to be, pay attention to your gut when you hear that.

5:25You're like, Ooh, that's not going to be a good one. And being willing to just release them and let them go into the wild. You identify something as being a problem that you call profit leaks. You want to talk a little bit about what those are? Yeah. So one of the things with the profit leaks is that people are focusing on the wrong thing in their business. They're focusing on the minutiae in their business that is not helping them create revenue. Right. And so this could be endlessly tweaking your website. It could be, you know, anything that is like so much easier to do than actually do some marketing, go out there, talk to prospects, get in front of, you know, places where your perfect clients are.

6:06So I'm sure you see that in all of your work that people just like hide out. And that's really where a lot of those revenue leaks come because they're not taking the action that they need to take. Well, I can go a lot of directions with that, but I think that's a real issue. A lot of businesses, I mean, a lot of people know how to do something. They got into a business to do it, but they don't really get into business to go out there and sell to, you know, actually have conversations with people or convince people as they maybe feel like it is. So how do you get people past that? Because I mean, the whole profit conversation kind of breaks down if I can't go out there and get clients.

6:39Well, the thing is, is that I really help my clients shift from seeing sales as selling to helping them see it as serving. And the reason why is if I was to ask you, what's your favorite restaurant? You would. What's your favorite restaurant, John? It's easy to say, right? All right. It's Trace Greengross, in case you're listening, in Nederland, Colorado. Awesome. Awesome. And so that's easy because you think, oh, my gosh, I'm going to help Stacey find a great place to eat while she's in Colorado. But the thing is, your prospects are also having problems and challenges. And if you are really good at what you do and you're an expert at it, then you should be willing to share what you do because you're helping solve a problem for somebody and you're actually serving them.

7:21So I think that's really the first step to shift into that confidence. And that's where having a coach really helps is because sometimes my clients have to borrow my confidence, both in selling, marketing, and also raising their prices, right? Because those are all confidence issues. Yeah, and I would extend that to referrals too, because a lot of people, even if they have a good customer, they're like, oh, reluctant to ask for referrals. But it's the same thing. It's like, if you're getting this amazing result, wouldn't you want your friend to get that? Yeah. So it's kind of the same mentality, isn't it?

7:54So I should have asked this at the very beginning of the show. We ought to talk a little bit about people's relationship with the word profit to begin with. You know, a lot of business owners don't really think about profit or heaven forbid, some actually look at it as a negative thing. And so consequently, you probably know Mike Michalowicz, my friend that's been on the show a number of times, wrote Profit First. And he said that a lot of business owners, all they really want to do is pay the bills and pay themselves a salary and amounts to being a job rather than building an asset. So do you find that you sometimes have to actually set the baseline for what profit is and why it's a good thing?

8:33Sometimes. It depends on the client, right? But I think a lot of times what happens is, you know, the hidden profits are really revenue boosters that go direct line to bottom line profit. Yeah, raise your prices without raising your cost, right? Right, because that's why this book has hidden profits, because there are things that boost your revenue. But because it doesn't increase your cost, you're not doing more marketing or more expense with the strategies in the book. It all goes to the bottom line profit. So it makes it much easier to boost your profit. it. You know, over the years, you've heard me talk a lot about marketing systems.

9:09Today, I get to share something really special. My daughter, Sarah Nay, who also happens to be the CEO of Duct Tape Marketing, just released her first book. It's called Unchained, Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models and How Small Business Can Finally Take Control of Their Marketing, Lead with Strategy and Scale with AI. I know a mouthful, right? But it's everything we've learn taken to the next level. In fact, we're even calling it duct tape marketing 3.0. As a dad, I couldn't be prouder, but I want you to check it out at dtm.world slash unchained and get ready to take your strategy to a whole new level.

9:48So if you're going to walk into a business, and I know every business is different, but have you found there are a couple things that are like, that's the low hanging fruit. Like here's the first thing we're going to do. Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing is, you know, what do you have for past clients that are currently not doing business with you? Because those people love you, they trust you. And for the most part, you know, you were saying people are shy to do it or hesitant to do it. People are other than dentists are hesitant to get people to come back. Right. And so we want to do a come on back strategy.

10:25And I had a client that I talk about in the book that she was taking one of my live hidden profit programs and it was the slowest month of the year for her. It was December. She was selling weight loss. Nobody wants to lose weight in December. It's like time to eat your grandma's cookies, right? Right, right, right. So we did, she, she was an action taker and she said, I'm going to do it even though it's December. And I was like, well, this might not be the best month for this hidden profit, but go for it. She increased her sales by over 50 % in one month. She had her best month ever in her business by doing that reactivation strategy.

11:00And it's because she actually went back to them, gave them permission to come back. And sometimes that's the shyness there is like, you think the client is shy to come back to you because they might have gone off and tried another weight loss product or tried somebody else to fix their car or cut their hair or whatever it is. And you're saying like, hey, I'd love to have you back. Come on back. And that works almost every single time to really boost profits very quickly. You know, it's really interesting, too, because I think most businesses feel like, oh, they left because they weren't getting what they wanted here or.

11:34But people leave for tons of reasons. Right. And so I think for us to assume that it was all about us is probably what holds a lot of people back. Yeah. This one this one is going to be a writer downer for your listeners and watchers. I have a client. We call this the seven hundred thousand dollar mistake. and he was coming to his coaching call and he canceled last minute. And I said, what happened? And he said, well, I had a hundred thousand dollar sale. Now, normally a hundred thousand dollar sale, I would be like, let's do our happy dance. Right, right. And he said, no, Stacy, this was not a happy dance moment.

12:06And I said, well, how can a hundred thousand dollar sale not be a happy dance moment? He said, this client was a past client that for the last seven years has been going to my competitor. And because he had not said, come on back, he lost$700 ,000 in sales. So I want your listeners to be thinking about that. Like, really? There's some hidden profit right there that if you just go back and talk to these past clients, you can be welcoming them back into your business. Well, I think he should have done the happy dance anyway. Take what you can get, okay? He learned a lesson.

12:47So in some cases, people left because something was too expensive, their business had changed or something. I mean, so how often do you find that the hidden profits might be in saying, hey, we need to relook at all of our products or all of our offers and repackage or repositioning? You know, how much of creating new profit is sort of reinvigorating what you've already put out there? Yeah, well, I have a mastermind and we have retreats twice a year. And that's really like, I would say like six months because we do the retreats every six months. It kind of gives us a time to like deep dive into the business and look at, okay, what's working?

13:23What's changed? Because you're, you know, the markets change, the economy changes. AI has brought in a lot of stuff. Like I recently become a certified AI consultant. So like you can look at like, how can you refresh your offers to meet what your clients actually want right now? How can you package them differently? How can you drive them to those offers in a way that, you know, gets more clients quickly? So you do talk about the hidden profits framework in the book. Is there a way for you to give the high level? Here's the step by step process. Yeah. So what we're looking at is we're looking at where you're not getting the revenue coming in the door.

14:05So we talked about the reactivation, the come on back. So that's lost clients that have already worked with you. Another great spot to look at that's a very quick win for most people is, do you want fries with that? Right? The upsell. Now, when we were kids, we went to McDonald's and they said, do you want fries with that? And our parents were like, okay. And now they sell the Happy Meal, the combo meal that has everything together with it. And they say, do you want to biggie size it or do you want to super size it? And so a lot of times people are leaving money on the table right there when people have their wallets out.

14:41So when people have their wallets out in your business, that's an opportunity for you to say, okay, you're signing up for this. Would you like this, the VIP level support? Would you like this, the additional thing that will help them solve their problem, help them reach their goal faster? So those are two hidden profit points that are really quick to add into your business without any additional time, money or team members to implement them. Let's say you do have a team. I work with a lot of folks that have even salespeople in organizations, which their job is to sell more stuff, right? But what you're talking about, the reactivating customers, looking for ways to sell more to, you know, even account managers, say, in marketing firms.

15:22I mean, isn't that something that really ought to be or a business ought to look at that as being everybody's job? Yeah, absolutely. Start adding those things. Absolutely. Like I have a longtime client. He's been my client for over 15 years. And so what we look at every year is, OK, who are your best clients? What additional products, services, what additional things can help them solve their problems and help their clients reach their goals faster? And then his team, he has salespeople and he has operations people. They are trained to look for cross opportunities also in that account. Like what else does this client need?

16:01What other divisions does this company have that could use our services? Who else could we meet in this company that could connect us to somebody else in the company that also needs our products or services? So absolutely, that's something that should be constantly looked at and also rewarded, right? In terms of not just a sales team, but if you have an operations team that's dealing with the client on a regular basis, they're a really good person to hear about the pain, to hear about the goals within the company, how they've changed since the person's talked to the salesperson and bring in some additional revenue through that avenue as well.

16:37What about companies that feel like I run across them all the time? At least people have this mentality. It's like, oh, I'm in this commodity industry. It's all about price. You know, there's really nothing more we can squeeze out of this. Have you been able to help companies like that, or at least that have that mentality, think differently? That is absolutely, that is one of my favorite things to do is to help clients go from commodity to koutur. And what that means is, you know, if you are competing on price, right? I had a client in the logistics industry. They are competing on price every single day.

17:09And they're competing against$100 million, billion dollar companies that are, you know, they have hundreds of salespeople smiling and dialing all day long, sending cold emails, all of that. And my client was a boutique company. He's gone from six to eight figures since we've been working together because we positioned him as this couture brand of helping him solve a problem for his client and get a better result, not saying, hey, can we quote you on shipping? Can we quote you? And so what we've done is we've positioned him as how can we help you increase the client satisfaction on the back end of the transaction once you make a sale in your company.

17:50So logistics becomes a value add versus a cost in the business. So that also, when you position yourself in that future manner, it also helps the person making that buying decision, be more confident changing providers because they're going toward something, not just like making a minute improvement in something or just cutting costs, which often means you're getting less service, less quality. Yeah. Well, and they also aren't going to leave you for the next person that's five cents cheaper, right? Because it's like, no way. Have you had any results that you've gotten for somebody that even surprised you?

18:29Oh gosh. Well, I would say that person doing the weight loss in December was a huge one. The other one, I had a client who who had an auto parts store who had all employees that were elderly. And he was complaining about them when he did his intake form and is saying like, this wasn't working, that wasn't working. And it was really all about team. And I said, oh my gosh, how am I going to help him if none of his team will do anything, he said. So I said, we're probably going to have to clean house. And when we got on the call, he said, well, I'm not willing to let anybody go there. We live in this small town.

19:06They're not going to get any other employment. They're family members, church members. So what we did is we did a one question upsell. That was it. And that increased his sales 48 % in one month. And it was just, he was blown away. I was blown away because he had such a hard, you know, hill to climb with his employees to actually do something. Just one question at a 48 % increase. Yeah. And that's a great lesson too, because sometimes we try to do all these things, right? At one time, and it just kind of overwhelms everybody. Just having that one thing was easy for people to do. And then they probably, when they started seeing success, they probably got a little jazzed, didn't they?

19:47Yeah. Yeah. Because when you get a yes and people are happy, then you want to have more of that, right? And also the employees had the employer being really happy too, which created goodwill and helped the company culture as well. Well, Stacey, I appreciate you taking a moment to drop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Where would you invite people to connect with you, find out more about your work, and obviously pick up a copy of Hidden Profit? Yeah, thanks for asking. This has been great. I can be found at staceyhyland.com. And I'm Stacey Hyland everywhere on the internet. And then if you want to get on the early bird list for the book, you go to hiddenprofitbook.com.

20:25And we're going to have a bunch of resources there. I have some AI stuff that's kind of behind the scenes that I've, you know, plugged in with the Hidden Profits. So that's going to be great. So go to hiddenprofitbook.com to get that as well. Awesome. Well, again, I appreciate you dropping by and hopefully we'll run into you on these days out there on the road. Thanks, John. Have a great day.

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