Recently I got an email about FN, a successful marketing
\nconsultant.<\/p>\n
In it, FN tells the reader: “I bill out at $2750 an hour. So in a
\n40-hour week, I gross $110,000 in fees.”<\/p>\n
Although I know FN casually, and believe him to be ethical, his
\nclaim of six-figure weekly earnings as a consultant caused me to
\nraise a skeptical eyebrow.<\/p>\n
So I did the math.<\/p>\n
If FN works 40 hours a week, well, I don’t know any consultant
\nwho will every hour he is in the office.<\/p>\n
For many consultants, billable hours comprise only 50% to 60% of
\nthe time they put in.<\/p>\n
The other hours are spent on what is known as “administrivia.”<\/p>\n
It’s a catchall term for routine tasks such as reading emails,
\nhandling paperwork, dealing with staff and vendors, paying taxes,
\nputting out fires — most of which they don’t get paid for.<\/p>\n
Also, if FN works 50 weeks a year as a consultant, at $110,000 a
\nweek, he makes $5.5 million a year — a claim that raised my
\nskeptical eyebrow higher while sending my B.S. alarm into red alert.<\/p>\n
No doubt FN or his copywriter intend for these facts about his
\nachievements to build credibility.<\/p>\n
But this type of outrageous marketing often repels prospects who
\nmight otherwise buy — for two reasons.<\/p>\n
First, the claims are so beyond what most readers have ever
\nachieved, they reject it as false.<\/p>\n
Second, many prospects are turned off by brag-and-boast marketing
\n… when means you should think twice about doing it, even if all
\nyou say is true.<\/p>\n
One technique to soften the boast and make readers more accepting
\nof it is to use this phrase from Joe Karbo’s ad: “I tell you this
\nnot to brag, but…”<\/p>\n
Another is for the superstar to remind the readers that he too
\ncame from a more humble start. Example: Joe Vitale writes about
\nonce being homeless.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: Even if your incredible claims of wealth and success
\nbeyond compare are true, you should perhaps tone them down a tad
\nto avoid making the reader skeptical.<\/p>\n
Of course, I may be wrong about this. I often am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I got an email about FN, a successful marketing consultant. In it, FN tells the reader: “I bill out at $2750 an hour. So in a 40-hour week, I gross $110,000 in fees.” Although I know FN casually, and believe him to be ethical, his claim of six-figure weekly earnings as a consultant caused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-direct-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions\/1663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}