The Commission Code for Success
Does your gross revenue come from commissions, fees, and other types of 1099 MISC income? If you answered yes, then the Commission Code for Success is a podcast created specifically with you in mind. Each episode is designed to deliver a concept or idea that will help you increase your revenue and have more time to enjoy it.
If you are an employee on 100% commission or an independent contractor you are a business owner when it comes to how you go about doing your daily work. The mindset of a business owner puts you in exactly the right spot to maximize your revenue and maximize the impact you have with your clients and customers.
The Commission Code is the library of knowledge and the set of skills you need to grow your business and reach your desires. Please join us and our guests at The Commission Code Podcast! I look forward to seeing you there, I'm your host, Morris Sims.
The Commission Code for Success
Why Your Customers Don't Care About You (And What To Do About It)
Amber Gage shares her proven marketing framework that helps business owners focus on what really matters instead of being overwhelmed by marketing options. She reveals the Four C's of Effective Marketing that became an international bestselling book in four countries.
• Clear copy - Knowing how to talk about your business so others understand the benefits they receive
• Consistent branding - Using the same colors, fonts, logos and messaging across all channels
• Customer demographic - Understanding that not everyone is your customer and niching down actually increases profitability
• Channel management - Focusing on existing clients and choosing platforms where your target audience actually spends time
• Email marketing works best when it takes customers on a journey rather than just sending newsletters
• Social media reels are critical for algorithm visibility, even if you personally dislike them
• Good marketing requires strategy, consistency, and at least 90 days to properly test effectiveness
Visit MorrisSimscom for more information to help you grow your business and enjoy more free time.
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So what I tell people is the first thing they need to focus on when it comes to marketing is clear copy Knowing how to talk about your business in a way that resonates with other people, that they understand what you do and that they understand the clear benefits that they get from doing business with you. So clear copy is number one. It's probably one of the most overlooked areas of marketing. We just assume people know us, like us, love us and want us, and no, until they know that they're going to get some benefit from working with you, they just don't care.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Commission Code Podcast. We're here to help you overcome the challenges that most of us face in our business. From time to time, you know things like feeling like you're on a plateau and you just can't seem to grow your business. Or maybe feeling overwhelmed, just trying to make ends meet and yet it seems like you're always working. Or maybe you've done quite well for a while, but now nothing seems to be working anymore. Well, we want to help you solve those problems and many more. Our objective is to provide you with practical solutions so you can grow your business and have more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Speaker 2:My name is Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for this show. I've spent years okay, decades really in the corporate world teaching business owners how to increase their revenue and use professional sales processes and run their business more effectively and efficiently. I started my own consulting and training business about seven years ago, I guess, and I'm helping my clients do just exactly that Get more revenue, increase their revenue and have more time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But I got to tell you I'm having more fun than ever helping people build successful businesses. So, with all that said, let's get on with today's episode of the Commission Code for your Success, today's episode of the Commission Code for your success.
Speaker 2:Amber Gage is our guest today on the Commission Code podcast. We're really excited to have her here. Amber and I are actually not that far away from one another. I do this podcast and sometimes I'll have people on that are, you know, on the other side of the world, but Amber's just about 30, 45 minutes away, right down here in Texas and we're just having a great old time, a wonderful conversation before we got started. Wish you guys had been here with us to hear it all. But you're here now and we're here and we would really love to talk with you about marketing and how you can use that to help you and your business to increase your revenue and have more time to enjoy it. Amber, thanks for being here.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to be with you today, Morris. This is going to be so much fun. How can we help your audience increase their business and have more time to enjoy it? What a great tagline.
Speaker 2:That is exactly what we want to try and do. And yeah, marketing Amber's marketing company is far beyond marketing. And again, it's here right in Texas and you can find her right there, linkedin and all those kind of good things. The thing that gets me about marketing Amber is that there's just so many different ways to go about it nowadays that I have to tell my clients stop, marketing is not your full-time job. It's important. You got to do it. Without it, you're going to fail. But somewhere along the line you've got to engage with prospects and actually help them make a decision to buy your product or service. So what do we focus on? That seems to be the key word in my mind for business today is focus Marketing. What should we focus on really?
Speaker 1:Yeah, marketing can feel like an overwhelming full-time job and the bottom line is, if you don't know what to focus on, then you're just spinning your wheels, wasting time, wasting money, wasting energy. So we actually came up with a process to guide our clients through how to build a successful marketing program for their companies, and we call it the four C's of effective marketing. And I guess it's been pretty effective because we turned it into a book and that book became an international bestseller in four countries. So I guess people like what we have to say Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 2:An international bestseller in four countries, In four countries. So I guess people like what we have to say Wait a minute, wait a minute. An international bestseller in four countries.
Speaker 1:In four countries, yeah with our little back pocket marketing guidebook.
Speaker 2:Oh, my word, oh, I got to get me one of those. Yeah, congratulations. That's a wonderful achievement all by itself, amber.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll send it to you. We'll send you some copies, Morris, and you can send it out to some of your friends too who need it. So what I tell people is the first thing they need to focus on when it comes to marketing is clear copy, Knowing how to talk about your business in a way that resonates with other people, that they understand what you do and that they understand the clear benefits that they get from doing business with you. So clear copy is number one. It's probably one of the most overlooked areas of marketing. We just assume people know us, like us, love us and want us, and no, until they know that they're going to get some benefit from working with you, they just don't care.
Speaker 2:They don't, and they got to be in a position where they're going to be trusting of you and trust you to take care of them. Because that's what they're doing. They're giving you their lives and their business and they want you to. Anyhow, that's right. The key that you the word that you used, amber, that just absolutely triggers me is benefits.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You've got to understand how you're going to help them solve a problem. What's? It's all what's in it for me? Thing right.
Speaker 1:It is Make everybody feel special. You are not the hero of your own story. Your client is the hero. So as long as you help your client achieve their desired outcome through your product or service, then they will do business with you. Gone are the days when we're cramming our message down people's throat and thinking that they care. They don't care.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. I was thinking right before we started this podcast I was doing working on another thing and it's it. It really comes down to what. What I'm interested in, what I find on the podcast. I was looking at other people to possibly be guests and I thought I don't really think that person's going to well, I don't know whether she would or not, but I don't have any interest to hear about what she's talking about, so I'm not going to invite her. Right? You know it all comes back to what do we really believe and want and need? Yes, benefits is the key. You've got to help people understand that they have a problem and you have a solution and there's a benefit for them if they work with you.
Speaker 1:And that has to be made clear on your website. It has to be made clear on your business cards, on your tagline, on your trucks, depending on the industry that you're in. Consistency is key and that is the second C of our process, which is consistent branding. You have to make sure that you're using the same colors, the same fonts, the same logos, the same messaging across all of the different channels and outlets, because when we confuse people about who we are, what we do, how we do it, they will not pay attention to us. So our brand has to be exceptionally clear and very, very consistent. Your brand matters. Your brand is how people, how it makes people feel when they discover your company.
Speaker 2:Boy, howdy, you just convicted the stuffing out of me. Oh geez, I'm sitting here thinking the stuffing out of me. Oh jeez, I'm sitting here thinking I've been doing this now for what? Since 2016. I'm working on, I guess, my third or fourth logo and iteration of my company. It's always more Sims, training and consulting, but we've got all these other things out there and I've got to get consistent Amber, because I'm not right now.
Speaker 1:Well, it happens right. And here's the bottom line. Morris, you're running a business, and so are your listeners, and so am I. We're the worst takers of our own medicine, which is why we have to sometimes have our outsourced partners to support us or bring in someone to work for us under the guidance of an expert. But you shouldn't you said it earlier you shouldn't have to be a marketing expert to be able to grow your business. You just need to be able to implement these key principles in one way or another.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's just amazing as I'm sitting here thinking about it. This podcast is the third one that I've done. I've done well over 300 episodes, but this is the commission code, focused on people who are living from things that fall into that good old 1099 miscellaneous spot on your income taxes that we all then have to pay tax on, and that individual those of us out there that do that has some specific problems that they need help with, and one of those is marketing, and that's why we're having this conversation today. But that is different than what I started with back a couple of three or four years ago. I've got to work on that consistency piece. What's our next? C Amber?
Speaker 1:Our next C is knowing your target audience. So it is customer demographic. Not everyone is your customer and let me say that again, not everyone is your customer. We are so hungry for business and for work. When we start out as small business owners, we're going to do everything we need to for anybody that'll pay us a dime right Because we are hungry to start this business. But as your company scales and as you define your offers and your calls to action, you will start to see a trend of who is actually biting and responding to your messaging and your offers.
Speaker 1:That ideal customer demographic is who you want to target your branding and your messaging towards. We can't be everything to everybody and offer a great product or services. We burn out. We don't do things well. So being able to niche down, being not afraid to serve a very clear target audience customer demographic and that extends beyond male, female, city income house it's a psychographic. It's understanding the motivation behind why someone's doing business with you. When you scale down and you focus on one niche audience, you make more money and you become more efficient, and people think it's the opposite, but the actual data shows us that the more niche down you are, the more you can charge, the more successful you become.
Speaker 2:The riches are in the niches right.
Speaker 1:I love that. Let's get that on a t-shirt or cup.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's just amazing. Tell me this now. I've experienced this and I've had a client experience it, but they niched down so tight that they niched into a group that needed what they were providing. The group itself wasn't really sure they needed it, but it was obvious that they did and, frankly, the sad part was the group was not extremely successful money-wise and if they were, they didn't believe they needed the help and it didn't go anywhere even though they were niched down real tight. How do you define that niche that you need to work toward, Amber?
Speaker 1:So you need to be able to understand again. In this situation I would say perhaps there was a messaging problem, perhaps there was a call to action problem, perhaps there was an offer that needed to be clarified. You need to be able to target down into that niche audience what their needs are, what offers are selling, what benefits they receive and how can you serve them through upselling again and again and again. Which leads to the fourth and final C Morris, which is channel management. Excuse me, I had a brain freeze right there.
Speaker 1:Channel management we are not in the turn them and burn them, we are in the help. People succeed again and again and again. So if you know that niche and you know their needs, because you've served that client, their needs, because you've served that client, then you should be able to upsell a client and you should be able to create a sales funnel that will give you the opportunity to maintain your client instead of having to constantly go out and farm for new ones, because it's twice as expensive to go get a new client than it is to upsell a current client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because once again, that existing client is somebody that hopefully trusts you already. I don't have to rebuild that relationship or start of that relationship and show you that you can trust me because you already bought from me. We already have that relationship of trust and if we've got that, then heck, that's 90% of the way there, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It absolutely is, it absolutely is, it absolutely is. And you become their trusted advisor and you become a part of their team and their business, where they come to you and give you the first right of refusal for other needs that they have because of that trust basis.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, it took me 40 years to learn that. That's all Just 40 years.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, we're always learning, morris, we're always learning. My grandmother always said God watches over fools and little children. I'm not telling you which one you are darling. I'm like oh, that gives me a lot of hope. Thanks, nana.
Speaker 2:Love you to death.
Speaker 1:Love you to death. I think she just called me stupid, that's okay.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic, oh yeah. But I mean, it's true, as a new, young salesperson, I'd make a sale and then run and hide because I was so afraid that they would take it back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like, oh my God, if I show my face around them again, they're going to say what happens if I stop paying that premium Right, and I can't afford for them to do that, so I'm going to stay away and go find somebody new Boy. Was that the wrong thing to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Amazing I would today if I were in the same position where I was selling a product on a repetitive basis. I would spend 90% of my marketing time with my existing clientele and, you know, 10% out finding new people. And I would look to get most of those from my existing clientele because now I can get a referral and basically bank on their influence and their trust in me rather than having to build it up from scratch.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right, that's right 100%.
Speaker 2:Yep, and we were talking about channel management there. Does that relate to the fact that, I don't know, I count at least six or seven different platforms on which I can communicate to my client, from personal observation to social media to events, to all the rest of them? I just I worry. I tell my clients they need to pick one or two, not all six or seven. Is that a good idea?
Speaker 1:Well, I like to describe it like this Morris Marketing is like a chocolate layer cake you can eat one layer and it tastes okay, but when you get that fork and you get all seven layers at once, boy, does that taste good, right?
Speaker 1:So I like to subscribe to the model of frequency over reach and also understanding that that message that you are creating and that creative collateral from your consistent branding can be repurposed in multiple formats long formats, articles, blogs, et cetera, emails, social media, video. You can talk about one topic in a variety of different ways and reuse that content again and again and again, expanding your reach through one primary controlling idea. So I tell my clients we want to be everywhere and anywhere that your target demographic is. If you're trying to hit a target demographic in their 50s or 60s, I'm going to tell you probably want to be in print or you want to be somewhere local, because those people shop completely different than the 16, 15, 17 yearyear-olds that are on TikTok all day. So why would you waste your marketing dollars on TikTok when you know your target demographic in non-TikTok? So the answer to your question is go where your ideal audience is and go everywhere that they are.
Speaker 2:Now I would think that, for our audience out there right now, we are all pretty much medium to small business owners, right? So, as far as platforms are concerned, I would think that we're all probably well, we probably all have profiles on LinkedIn, and if we're looking at any of that kind of stuff, linkedin would be the place, Would you agree?
Speaker 1:It could be. It really does depend on the industry. I don't know a lot of some industries are not on LinkedIn at all, except for the sake of networking. They're certainly not going to make a buying decision based on LinkedIn. So are you trying to do networking? Then yeah, I'd say LinkedIn is great If you're trying to do customer acquisition. If you're in a B2B business, sure, linkedin is great If you're in a B2C business where you're offering a product or service to direct a consumer. I don't buy shoes on LinkedIn but I'll buy them on Amazon.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I do think it depends on the industry and the product or the service that you are trying to sell, and that helps to determine what platforms you should be on.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. That helps. I hope that helps everybody out there in the real world listening to us, because it certainly does help me, amber, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad. I'm so glad we're all about stewardship over here at Far Beyond. I was mentioning to a friend the other day. You know, we tell people what not to spend their money on just as much as we tell them what to spend their money on. We're like no, you don't want to do that, that's a waste of money, Don't? What are some of those things? Well, for example, social media. For the sake of social media only.
Speaker 1:You're not going to grow your business only on social media Right? The algorithms aren't going to let you so again, having a marketing strategy that gives you a clear understanding about the tactics that you need to employ to grow your business forward is huge. Throw it up the wall and see if it sticks. Ain't going to work.
Speaker 2:Not a good idea.
Speaker 1:Not a good idea. Don't throw out a postcard and then expect your phone to ring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're going to do a postcard, then maybe you need to do a display campaign to the same recipients of the postcard, so they're seeing you double time. So, always begin with the strategy and always allow something at least 90 days to test, because you're not going to know if it works. If you're turning things off and on every 15 to 30 days, how are you going to know that it was effective?
Speaker 2:That's right, and if you're not tracking what your results are?
Speaker 1:That's right. Oh yeah, all of our clients get a customized dashboard. They see everything that we're doing and the ROI for it all.
Speaker 2:That's cool, that is really really cool thing that we're doing and the ROI for it all. That's cool. That is really really cool. What about email marketing? That's the other thing that seems to be hot and exciting and people are talking a lot about it nowadays. And in email marketing is that best like a newsletter kind?
Speaker 1:of a thing you know nobody wants your newsletter. That's just the harsh reality. Even people say they want your newsletter, don't want your newsletter, no, I don't. So what I tell people is it's much better to have a five email drip that takes them through a paradigm shift, that builds a case, that tells a story, that gives an endorsement, that takes them on a journey through a story so that they can see you in their inbox consistently, because it is another form of branding. We are seeing an uptick in the efficacy of email marketing because the cost of online ads is so high and the drop-off rate is so high. So again, if we talk about how to upsell a current client and you have a nice database, then it is hugely important for you to leverage an email campaign.
Speaker 2:That sounds interesting. I love the idea of a series that's taking you on a journey, so much more than something that pops in my inbox and it's like hey, did you ever think about this wild idea over here on the side? And you know, it's all great and wonderful. No, I don't want an advertisement in my inbox for sure. I want something that's going to help me in my business.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Because what are the odds that what you are advertising is going to hit them at the right time for the right offer for the right product? I mean, that's just it. But if you are continuously sending valuable content that again benefits your clients, then you are building the trust factor that you mentioned earlier, morris, and so they're going to click and read it, they're going to be interested because they know that you have their best interest at heart.
Speaker 2:So once again, my focus has to be on what's best for them, not what I want to get out there. I spent my major part of my time in the corporate world dealing with training adults and the one thing that I learned early on from some wonderful person somewhere was that you're not trying to get, it's not about covering the content oh, I didn't get to this and it's just this kind of no. It's about what the audience can and is willing to accept. A friend of mine used to put it this way. A good Texas friend of mine would say Morris, you got to be careful, make sure the dogs are going to eat the dog food, otherwise you need to change dog food.
Speaker 1:I love that I do too.
Speaker 2:I love that Because we'd put stuff out there and he'd look at me and say dogs ain't eating the dog food. Man, do something different. And he was absolutely right. You got to make sure it's getting out there and it's something that people want to consume. Because that's what we're doing with our time. Yes, You're consuming things, which leads me to a confession. I hate, I hate these. The Facebook reels things. Yeah, oh my God, that's the biggest waste of my time ever was, and it can catch me and link and just hook me in and I'm stuck there for God only knows how long and oh, it's such a waste of time. Oh, I hate that mess.
Speaker 1:But you're listening to it, aren't you?
Speaker 2:Oh, constantly, I can't get rid of it there you go.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. That's why we tell all of our social media clients that we handle their social media management for them. You got to have reels. It's a huge part of the algorithm. If you don't have reels, you're wasting your time.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's absolutely amazing. All right, amber, I learned a lot.
Speaker 1:Well, I love being with you, Morris.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me man, that's the beauty of a podcast.
Speaker 1:I learn more than I think anybody else does. It's just absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here today. I really appreciate the honor of being your guest. This was so much fun it has been. Let's do it again. Yeah, all right, amber.
Speaker 2:Thank you again so much and wishing you the very best.
Speaker 1:You too, morris, take care, and God bless.
Speaker 2:Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the commission code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisSimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes. I'm Morris Sims, thank you.