Nail the “BIG Idea” and it’s hard not to get rich
You remember last time I talked about the BIG idea and how by nailing the BIG idea, it’s hard not to get seriously rich. (If you didn’t read the last blog, this would be a good time to go and read it).
I also talk about how it is the first thing I try to figure out before I start a business of my own or buy one.
It’s also the most important thing I try figure out for a client because that way, I know they will succeed beyond my wildest dreams or theirs.
I also revealed what could arguably be one of the best stories ever known to man for creating the big idea out of nowhere.
The man who created it, is the late great Gary Halbert.
Finally, I promised in my next blog to reveal some of the “Game Changer” BIG ideas I created for my own businesses and many of my clients.
So if you love case study stories that are real, some even you will know of, you will love what I have to say here.
I’ll start with one of my favourites and it’s Footwear Industries, Steel Blue Boots.
Fairly recently I saw Ross Fitzgerald, one of the founders of Footwear Industries on TV telling the Footwear Industries story.
As I recall, he talked about how the company had lost $500,000 in the first 8 months and how they spent a fortune to build a factory to make boots, only to find themselves in a very precarious position.
He then went on to say that they created a guarantee for their work boots and it changed everything.
I am the guy that led them to that guarantee and here is how it went.
Back in 1996, I got a call from a friend of theirs called Steve Gillespie who had played football with some of these guys.
I worked on Steve’s marketing in his insurance company back in the early 1990’s and he had outrageously good results with all of that.
Anyway, Steve had told his mates at Footwear Industries that “If anyone could fix this, then Mal Emery could”.
So, not long after I found myself in their boardroom surrounded by owners, investors, salesman, graphic artists and as I recall, the storeman.
Anyway, I asked them the million-dollar question and here it is…
“Why should I buy your boots as opposed to every other boot in the market place”
The answer I got was similar to what most people give me, basic, vague and nonspecific like “we make good boots”…
Well that is what you are supposed to do, make good boots. It was a nice reply.
I could see that was going pretty much nowhere so I asked them what their client’s biggest fears, frustrations, wants, desires and needs were and that’s when it got interesting…
Some sharp pencil in the room said “Oh, that the boots are comfortable” and I said “boy, we are getting somewhere, what else does the client want?”.
Someone said that they don’t fall apart and in that moment, I said “I got it, I know what you need to do. You need to guarantee the comfort and quality of your work boot”.
You should have seen the look on their faces…
All they could see was boots literally running in the door that they would have to replace.
And I said “I know what you are thinking, but let me help you out here”.
I turned to the group and said “Who is responsible for work boots that come back, how many do you get a month and what do you do with them?”
The storeman pipped up and said “I am responsible, I get about 5-6 back a month and I fix them or replace them”.
That’s when I loosened every bodies underwear…
You see their underwear became pretty tight with the thought of the guarantee but when they realised that’s what they do anyway, they couldn’t loose.
History tells us they hired Dennis Lillee to tell the story and that 2 decades later they are on national TV telling their story.
So the big idea was…
Guarantee the Comfort and Quality of the Work Boot
Obviously the guys at Steel Blue Boots Footwear Industry liked what they heard and they chose to adopt the guarantee with some variations.
Around the same time, I was hired by a nice young couple to help them launch a new hair loss business.
I got to name that company and develop their BIG idea and today they are something of a household name in Australia and in fact, overseas.
The name I developed which is a BIG idea also, was Innovative Hair Loss Solutions.
You see, the name of the business said it all.
They are innovative in what they do, they solve hair loss problems and they have solutions for the sufferer of hair loss.
The other breakthrough I had for them was their tagline, which in those days was “Regrow your own hair or double your money back”.
There again, I put them in a position where they couldn’t lose.
You see, the name of the game is to get in front of the prospect in large quantities than your competitor and then diagnose various solutions to their problem.
In this case, hair loss.
Anyway, their process will only regrow hair on a bald head that had lost hair for less than 9 years. After that, the follicle was dead and wouldn’t regrow.
If that was the case, they would prescribe another treatment like “Nido” which is strand by strand or scalp reduction where they cut the scalp, pull the hair over the top of your head (yuck).
Anyway, on diagnosis, if they couldn’t regrow their hair, no money changed hands.
So in actual fact, you can’t give double your money back if no money changed hands.
So the BIG idea was…
In the Name of their Business and their Tag Line
I doubt they would have been successful as they are without their name and tagline.
Another client of mine, All Heads Services out of Melbourne, came to me when they were 3 months away from closing the doors and in desperation.
At the very first meeting in the first 7 minutes, I developed the BIG idea that changed everything…
You see, they went from facing bankruptcy, owing 100’s of 1’000’s of dollars to creditors and the Taxation Department to selling that business for a small fortune some years later.
You see, All Heads used to fix the engine or more specifically, the head of the engine of cars and business had slowed down somewhat due to the economic situation of the time.
Anyway, here is what I did and it’s a master stroke I performed many times.
I turned their business and what they do into a profit centre for their clients who were mechanics that fixed peoples cars.
You see, the number one fear, frustration, want desire and need of the mechanics is profit, so I found a way to increase their profit every time they exchanged a head on a car with All Heads.
And all I did in a sense was copy what you would call today a “Coffee Club Loyalty Card” where you buy 10 coffees and get 1 free.
In All Heads case, it became, to the mechanics that when you buy 5 heads, you get the 6th one free.
Point being, the mechanics chased the free one like crazy because they got to keep all the profit from that repair job to themselves.
So the BIG idea was…
To Turn what you do into a Profit Centre for your Clients
This model works best of course for business to business.
It did change everything for Carl and Mark from All Heads Services who have become very dear friends of mine today because of all of this.
The interesting thing about all of this is I never really changed anything about what the business did, I mean the mechanics what the business did.
You know, make work boots, regrow your hair or repair heads for cars.
What I did was make the invisible, visible.
I am going to stop it here because I have gone over 1,300 words, but I think it is important enough that I tell you more of these stories about the BIG idea in my next blog.
Quite honestly, if you put the time and effort into figure this one out, it will be well worth the effort.
All the best,
Mal Emery
Committed to Elevating the Financial Wealth and Wellbeing of Society Through Entrepreneurial Excellence and Guilty of Conspiracy to Create Capitalism.
P.S. Feel free to pass the blog on to anyone who you feel might benefit from it.
You remember last time I talked about the BIG idea and how by nailing the BIG idea, it’s hard not to get seriously rich. (If you didn’t read the last blog, this would be a good time to go and read it).
I also talk about how it is the first thing I try to figure out before I start a business of my own or buy one.
It’s also the most important thing I try figure out for a client because that way, I know they will succeed beyond my wildest dreams or theirs.
I also revealed what could arguably be one of the best stories ever known to man for creating the big idea out of nowhere.
The man who created it, is the late great Gary Halbert.
Finally, I promised in my next blog to reveal some of the “Game Changer” BIG ideas I created for my own businesses and many of my clients.
So if you love case study stories that are real, some even you will know of, you will love what I have to say here.
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