The Vyral Marketing Letter May 2012 VyralMarketing.

com

How to Double Your Productivity with Staff Training Videos

By Frank Klesitz Last month I had a great discussion with Vyral Client Janet Gresh on how to systematize her business with video. While we primarily focus on using video to stay in better touch with your customers (following our proven ACE system see the Executive Briefing on our website for details), it's also a great tool to document your internal business processes so you can quickly teach them to staff, thus saving yourself time. So in this month's newsletter, I'll cover a few strategies on how to create your own internal 'certification' course so you can quickly train staff to do all the tasks you should not be doing, freeing up your time so you can encourage referrals and repeat business proactively from your database of contacts (the last step of our ACE system). Proactively encouraging new business, without question, is the highest and best use of your time as a small business owner or independent professional. Remember, the money is NOT in providing your service; its in your ability to sell it. When I started Vyral Marketing I hired my friend since 1st grade John McMillan. My job was to go out and find new business, while he would deliver the service. Unfortunately, John at this time didn't have any experience in graphic design, HTML, email marketing, copywriting and so on, that was necessary to fulfill our program. If I was going to spend my time on prospecting, lead follow up, presenting and writing/making videos (my best creative skill), I needed a system to quickly and effectively train John to do what clients (you!) are paying us to do. Even more importantly, that system needed to be documented so John and I could return to it every week to discuss efficiency improvements. With a documented process, I could also quickly train any new hires as our workload grew. If I didn't set aside time to record this training process upfront, I would inevitably be pulled into the administrative side of our business. I would end up working a zillion hours a week putting out fires and our firm (or I) would collapse. Im sure you can relate. copywriting, graphic design and management which are fulfilled by talent at a cost of $25-50/hr. You cant teach someone exactly how to do these things. Low paid work is the social media updates, proofreading, simple video editing, and administrative work that ties it all together, outsourced at $8-9 an hour. These tasks you can document, systematize, and quickly teach to new hires. In your business, think about everything you do in a typical week. Write it ALL down. Youll find your creative and communication tasks (especially selling and marketing) are generally your most expensive and hardest to hire out, while checklistdriven and routine tasks are generally the least expensive and easiest to outsource. To free up your time so you can grow your business, you must first identify the least expensive tasks you do, document EXACTLY how to do them, then either hire a staff assistant, a virtual assistant, or an independent contractor to do this work for you. I prefer contractors because theres no payroll tax, you pay for results, not time and they are quickly scalable with the ups and downs of your business. Make videos on how to do these outsourceable tasks, put together checklists, hire administrative help on eLance.com for $8-9 an hour and give all the work to them. For example, what must be done when you sign up a new client or customer? If it doesnt involve creativity, complex problem solving, or high-level communication outsource the task!

Create Your Own Certification Training Course

Heres whats interesting. When you tie all your training videos together, youll have your own internal certification course. Heres why this is so powerful. First, BEFORE you hire someone, ask them to watch each training video so they understand exactly what the job entails. Also, ask them to take a test and actually EXECUTE a few tasks you teach in your training videos, again, before you hire them. Youll reduce a significant part of your training lead time. Best of all, you dont necessarily need to pay your hire until they get certified. Having a well-documented training course also provides you with much needed leverage over underperforming team members should you find the need to release them. How many times have you avoided firing someone because it would suck up too much time re-training your new hire? With a certification course this problem is (mostly) solved. You can even position your training course as something employees could add to their resume. If you do a REALLY good job at creating it, you can package it and sell it to other people in your profession. For example, I sat down for an entire weekend and packaged our internal training together into 6 DVDs. I hired a designer on 99designs.com for $300 to create the packaging material, then put it up for sale on our website. Want to learn how to do what we do for clients? For $995, you can find out (www.getvyral.com) or work for Vyral Marketing and get certified for free! Build your resume! Ill even give you a certificate with your name on it. You can do the same in your business. If you invested 12 hours to record how you want everything done in your office, how many mistakes would be avoided in the future? How much of your time would this free?

How Fast It is to Make Quick Training Videos

So here's what I did and I highly recommend you do the same. First, I downloaded Camtasia a cool screen recording program that records what I do on my computer. When a special request came in (Frank, can you update this? Make this change? Etc.), I would fire up my screen share, perform the task and save the video instructions to our internal training library. If it were a manual non-computer task such as sending a letter I would use my actual video camera to record how to mail it right. For example, how I like the address written, the letter folded, how the stamp is to be applied, etc. That way, when any of these tasks needed to be completed again, I would simply forward the email request to John with a link to the respective training video. You see, every time I get an email with a request, I ask myself "How can I train someone to do this for me next time?" If it's possible to outsource the task to either 1) a virtual contractor on eLance.com or 2) a team member, I clearly document on video precisely how I want that task done, then proceed to complete the task myself correctly while recording my actions. I finish by sending the video to whoever will complete this task in the future. It's an excellent system. And by doing this over time, you'll enjoy a full video library clearly articulating exactly how to complete all outsourceable tasks in your company. Imagine how much time you'll save when you have a library like this. And it doesn't take any more time to start doing this now just record what you're doing while you do it anyway. I made a video at www.getvyral.com a few weeks back on how to correctly set an appointment (meeting request, suggest 2-3 times, include phone number to call in the description, and so on). So whats an outsourceable task? If someone tells you exactly, step by step, how to do something thats low paid work. If someone tells you, Hey, figure out how to solve this problem thats high paid work. In short, the reason Vyral Marketing exists is because Ive taken the very complex problem Get two great videos out to my database a month for me and broke it down into very specific individual tasks. The high paid work is the coaching,

Get Your Key Staff to Document It For You

I enjoy listening to Gary Keller, who started Keller Williams Realty. In real estate, he believes you are no more than 3 hires always from running a powerful and highly time-leveraged sales team. I find this true of most professions. You hire 3 key EXECUTIVES lets say marketing, operations and customer service. They are excellent at their jobs but you have failed to document their training. What an excellent opportunity to have your team do it for you! Ask them to make a

checklist of everything they do, and record a video on how to complete each task. Now you have a documented training process for each key department of your office and it didnt take any time on your part to complete! This is what we do at Vyral Marketing. John and Andre (my partners) are free to hire and fire as they wish. They are responsible for all new operational hire training, with authority to hire at any rate or give themselves big fat raises as long as salary and administrative expenses are never more than 50% of revenue. (If we do $500,000 in business, we only have $250,000 to pay people). A good part of their day is spent training our admin team and documenting it so 1) our business can quickly scale and 2) you get quick, intelligent and professional service because their time is spent communicating with you not doing lower paid work thats cheaply and easily done by someone else. Who is helping you operationally like this? At the end of the day especially as I study and do my best to model successful people its how you value your time and what you do with your time that determines so much of your success. If youre still stuck in your business, working 12-16 hour days doing the selling and administrative work, set aside a weekend and record how to do all your administrative work. Put an ad on Craigslist, run an ad on eLance, or hired a shared assistant with someone in your office. Give this work to your new hire and tell them to follow the instructions you documented in your training videos. Its one of the best time investments you can make. Its a true game changer. FRANK

Oklahoma City. I do a powerful 2-3 hour seminar on the ACE system and how to implement it in your business (without hiring us). If youd like to attend my next seminar, or work with me to hold a one in your office or city, email me at frank@getvyral.com.

Q&A: How can I get more email addresses?

First, theres a cultural awareness shift required in your office. You must ruthlessly focus on growing, nurturing and working your database. You are a vacuum for email addresses! It starts with a team meeting to communicate your steadfast goal to grow your database by at least 60 people a month (what we recommend) who will refer or do business with you. Then, I recommend you write May I stay in touch? on several sticky notes and put them all over your office, especially by your phone and computer. Finally, you must attend your coaching call each month where well report to you how many new email addresses you sent our way. Now that youve made the mental decision to commit to ABA (just like ABC Always Be Asking) for email addresses, its time to do it. Let me ask you how many conversations will you have this week with people who would potentially refer or hire you? 10? 50? 100? All you have to do is simply end your future conversations with May I stay in touch? Im publishing great videos on how to solve a problem I see and if I could get your email address, Ill make sure you receive those. Whats your best email address? Thats it but it first requires your awareness and commitment to grow your database. Then, your commitment to send out great videos so theres a REASON to ask for email addresses in the first place! Remember, the relationship with your database is all you have. Take Bill Gates, strip EVERYTHING away. How fast would he get most of it back? He has list of people who trust him. If I were to strip you naked in the desert and take it all away how fast could you get it all back? The answer lies in the only asset you can expect to appreciate in value year after year the relationship you have with people who will do business with you. Its the most important asset you have. Grow it. Feed It. Work It.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REFERRALS!

A special thank you to Vyral Client Spring Bengtzen for her referral to Heidi Skinner, Vyral Client Mitch Schwartz for his referral to Lorri Cutler, and Vyral Client Pam Butera for her referral to Jared Zimmer! You are all VERY appreciated its the best way to spread the word of Vyral Marketing. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Welcome to NEW Vyral Marketing Clients!

John & Maria Hoffman Tampa, FL Ruby Garmyn Bend, OR Chuck Adkins Charlotte, NC Heidi Skinner St. George, UT Carlos Garcia Washington DC Adrienne Lally Honolulu, HI Rich Libnor Saskatoon, CA Mic Heineman Omaha, NE Parke Heffern Phoenix, AZ John Meulstee Buck County, PA Bridget Stuart Santa Barbara, CA Jared Zimmer Cedar City, UT Marc Cormier Reston, VA Daniel Fenyak Kill Devil Hills, NC Joni Zwick Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Book of the Month The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net

Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer Driven World
If I were to make an offer to buy your business, I would look at 3 things. First, Id look at the talented and highly trained people on your staff. Second, Id look at the systems you have in place to bring in revenue and deliver your product or service. And third (most importantly), Id ask how likely are your customers to refer you. In other words, how loyal are your customers? Without question, its our clients who enjoy a database of people who want to hear from them who get the best results. In this book, youll learn how to measure the quality of your database by Net Promoter Score. In short, you (or a third party) call your customers and ask On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to refer us to your friends? Then, just one more follow up question: Whats the primary reason for your score? Thats it. Its the only survey you need to measure how effective you are. Your 9-10s are your promoters, your 7-8s are your passives and anyone answering 6 or under are your detractors. The book offers a scientifically validated way to value your database under NPS. So, hire someone to call your database twice a year and ask these two questions. Measure your improvements. We do this religiously at Vyral Marketing. Marty, a third party contractor, calls our clients every six months and asks both questions. The survey takes 30 seconds. Client answers are confidential we dont know who answers what. This keeps the scoring unbiased. What is your Net Promoter Score with all your customers or past clients? Call me and Ill pass along to you Martys contact info he will find out and report back to you his findings.

What Im Up To This Month (May)

Practicing what I preach, youve seen a pickup in my educational videos (once a week) and newsletters (once a month). A big thank you to our team helping me free up my time so I can create for you. We held a fantastic client dinner and stayed at the nightclub till the wee hours of the morning in Vegas in early May at a real estate mastermind with Vyral Clients Lisa Treu, Spring Bengtzen, Heidi Skinner, Carlos Garcia and invited guests. Personally, I prefer to spend our marketing dollars on great dinners and having fun versus most other options and to be honest its the most productive. Vyral Coach Josh and I will be attending several real estate events in the coming months and if youd like to be a part of our fun, just give me a call and youre invited (402.515.5438). Theres never any pressure to sign up. We enjoy hanging out with successful business people just as much as you. Were also happy to travel to you on our dime and hold a private mastermind with your non-competitor guests (chiropractors, mortgage professionals, attorneys, auto mechanics, etc.) who would be a great fit or Vyral. This is also a great way to get sponsors to help pay for your Vyral Marketing fee. Also, as I write this, Im on the way to speak in

We do all the social media and video marketing work for you to increase referrals and repeat business from your database. Call 1-800-323-9974 or visit our website www.getvyral.com to see how it works, pricing, our client list and how to start.