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Case
Studies - Action
Plan Marketing
Results
Does
the Action Plan Marketing System Really
Work?
There
are a lot of approaches to marketing and selling.
The question is, does the Action Plan Marketing
approach to attracting clients really work? We
interviewed several of those who have used our
products and taken our programs and asked them to
tell us what difference they made in their
businesses.
Below
you'll find a brief extract from these
interviews. If you then click on the link, you
can read the in-depth interview. Each of their
businesses is different except that they are all
Independent Professionals.
All
interviews are in pdf format.
Darrell
Crawford
 I
got exposed to Action Plan Marketing about 7 years
ago when bought a franchise called The Alternative
Board TAB®. I went through a year using the
franchise's marketing plan. It did okay and wasn't
bad. It worked fine for the first year, but I
realized there wasn't any plan whatsoever for the
second year and following to grow the franchise. I
started discovering this was a common problem
amongst the franchisees so I went on a search to
see what I could do to improve our
marketing.
I
have a marketing background, so we were doing some
things that were working, but the one thing I
really wanted to do was build a database online. I
started looking for ways to do that and ran across
Action Plan Marketing's web site. I bought the
Infoguru Marketing Manual and really started to
systematically apply a lot of things and discovered
it was working very nicely. I started applying more
principles to our own marketing for ways to build
our own database.
In
the whole course of building the database and by
the time I sold the franchise, we had close to
10,000 names [starting from scratch].
Primarily, the last few years of my owning the
franchise, all we marketed to was that database. We
didn't market to anyone else and the business kept
growing. We grew to one of the largest franchisees
in the country (#2 or 3 out of about 200) in a very
short amount of time, and in a very small market.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Samantha
Hartley
 I
was first introduced to Action Plan Marketing when
I read an article by Robert Middleton on
Guru.com. I believe it was in 2000 and was
about how to put together your guru profile. It was
really long and it really demonstrated one of the
principles, which is giving away a lot of valuable
information. After I read that I thought, this guy
is a genius so I went to his web site and signed up
for his eZine. Eventually I bought the InfoGuru
Marketing Manual. The reason I bought it was
because I had just left Coca-Cola where I learned
everything about marketing, but realized I didn't
know anything about marketing myself. I could
market a product but not a service, or myself as a
product.
I
have a favorite Audio Logo story. There was a
time when I needed to get more clients and knew I
had to get out there. Networking is not my favorite
thing, but I've always forced myself to do it. I
had a bank that I had been trying to get hired by
for a long time. The President invited me to their
Christmas party. So I went to their party, even
though it was brutal, and practiced the Action Plan
Marketing approach to marketing
conversations.
I
saw somebody I knew from my town and she was there
with this big guy who asked me what I do. So I
say my Audio Logo and they're dazzled. And he says,
'Hey, how do you do that'? So I gave my 'how I do
that' answer and he said to come and see him on
Monday, which I did. Within 2 weeks I had a $44,000
project. The time line on that was 2 weeks from
networking to the first check.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Jaco
Grobbleaar
These
materials came from a direction that was just so
simple and easy to grasp and use. I would reach
the same end result as Robert, but the way he
reached it with his material was just so much
easier. I had a large cumbersome process with SWAT
analysis and positioning strategies - I was
overcomplicating everything. As a marketer I knew
these materials worked and I would have a great
time explaining and implementing them with my
clients. That's when I decided to sign up and
become an Action Plan Marketing coach. The timing
was perfect. Even though it's Robert's material, I
have taken ownership of it and given my own flavor
to the material.
I
use the Marketing Ball model extensively with
clients. One of their first AHA moments is -
"I'm on first base! I'm already there! I don't have
to try and do it again!" It's amazing. I have never
had so many hugs as I have had over the past few
months. My South African culture is a bit
conservative. You don't just hug women. I've had a
few occasions where ladies would say, "Can I just
hug you?" Those are the moments when you realize
that you have contributed to their lives and to
them as a person, not just to their knowledge. Not
just to their marketing. That is the big
satisfaction I get out the material. I know I
really contribute on a different level to people's
lives.
One
of my clients is an extremely successful dentist
who has bought nine dental practices. I asked
him to buy the Infoguru Manual. During our next
Marketing Mentoring session he said, "Jaco, this
guy is brilliant." Coming from me that may not mean
much, but coming from someone who I regard as
brilliant was amazing.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Dr.
Lori Gray-Boothroyd
 I
purchased the Infoguru Marketing Manual and used
the Web Site Toolkit to get my web site up and
running. I also signed up for the Fast Track
program. I didn't do every single thing, but what I
found was just implementing a few things made a
difference. Number one was changing my mindset
about marketing. I do a lot more mentoring now with
new coaches and I remember being where they are now
and the fear around marketing being pushy or
aggressive. They have this idea of service
marketing and that it is all permission based. It
doesn't mean I have to change who I am to grow my
business. For me that is a huge integrity piece and
authenticity piece.
It
is so straightforward, so practical and effective.
It is about letting your authentic self come
forward so you can attract the people you most want
to work with who want to take advantage of what you
offer. For me it was taking a leap of faith based
on the good feelings I had about Robert Middleton.
He is a deeply trustworthy marketer. That's rare.
There are a lot of marketers who have bells and
whistles which are easy to fall for when you are in
a vulnerable place. But with these materials the
bells and whistles are not there. There's nothing
fancy about it. It is just solid, supportive
material that works with effort and
time.
I
am doing well financially. I have also noticed
I am now in more of a maintenance phase with my
marketing. Recently my husband has had some really
serious health issues so I have not been attending
to marketing as much as I had been. In the past, I
would have been afraid the bottom was going to drop
out, but that has not happened. I still have a
steady stream of clients because of the marketing
pieces I had put in place.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Shelley
Riutta
 Since
being in Robert's program I increased my income by
40%. The wonderful thing about the significant
increase in my income is that I could channel that
money into the business to create new services and
invest in ways to be able to reach and help even
more people. That feels great.
What
else I got was seeing the value and power of what I
am offering and seeing the possibilities of the
kind of impact I can have. It crystallized in
the development of my website. It was moving the
business to a new level of really supporting
people. My intention with the website was to really
help people, to have it be a resource. I feel I
have achieved that.
Connecting
with people through my website and having the
interaction has been huge on both a professional
and personal level. One of my larger visions is
to define the field of Holistic Psychotherapy.
Because of my website I've had a lot of
Psychotherapists contact me saying, I want to
develop a practice like yours." So I have been able
to start coaching other therapists on how to
develop a successful Holistic Psychotherapy
practice. That has been another amazing thing that
has happened as well.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Alan
Siege
 As
a result of working with Action Plan Markeitng I
have more confidence. I think Robert has
definitely contributed to my having a much more
refined mission than I had earlier. Very simply, I
now say, "I help you tell your business story
better". That has resonated with a lot of people.
But where I've noticed real change is by beginning
the conversation with, 1) what are your goals, 2)
what's working, 3) what is getting in the way, 4)
what would it feel like if you didn't have those
obstacles, and 5) how I can do something about
them. That five-step process has been helpful to me
and to my prospects.
With
my background as a fundraiser it was always about
telling stories. I think I understood a lot of
this stuff before, but you might say I got
permission to use it more. I have confidence and
comfort with that approach. At the end of day you
have to have something of value. I can now say with
greater authority what I can do for you.
Robert's
work is very, very practical and simple. One
thing that has really struck me is the work Robert
has done with Byron Katie. What has fascinated me
is it so resembles cognitive therapy. I know this
from other parts of my life. Those materials have
also been a big part of giving me permission. I
keep coming back to that. Without meaning to, I've
become a raving fan. I'm not one to write fan
letters as I'm a believer in process over
personality. Yet, after reading and participating
in numerous Action Plan activities, I find myself
recommending Robert's process to many
people.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Mark
Silver
 What
I've come to understand is that all marketers
basically say the same thing. You have to build
trust. And there are different ways to build trust.
The way that Robert talked about it, what he said
in the Infoguru Manual and the way that he
presented the materials in the Marketing Action
Group, they just made sense. It just clicked into
the universal truth of how human beings are with
one another. You don't need to manipulate, you just
need to build trust and here's how to do it. If
you're solid with what you're offering, if you're
offering a high quality service and really
intending to do well by your client, here's how you
can deliver that.
I
don't really remember a particular moment (when I
realized that this stuff was really working). I
do remember looking back over the year after I had
taken the program and I realized our courses were
selling out really consistently, our revenue had
basically doubled from the year previous, and
that's pretty cool. I don't remember the exact
moment, but I do remember that sense of, 'Huh! That
works.'
I
have a tremendous respect for Robert. I
totally respect his sense of integrity and what
he's doing and what he's bringing. Whatever he is
standing behind I feel that I just want to support
him. I'm happy he's taking the steps to make the
materials even more widely available. That's
exciting to me.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Dr.
Shelley Simon
 I
bought the materials and signed up for a Marketing
Action Group. Then, I just really got it. I
understood that there is a language to marketing
and that my effectiveness would be determined by
the extent to which I could learn that
language.
Yes,
it's been really great (using the Web Site ToolKit
to create my web site). But it's not just a web
site that I got from these materials. It's owning
the language of marketing. It's understanding the
process of marketing and being able to apply it
appropriately to people with different needs,
different agendas, or different problems - and who
want different kinds of solutions. Using a
marketing language where you are attuned to someone
else's needs is the secret to human communication.
At the same time, it is a marketing strategy for
moving people closer to a decision to do business
with me. Now I feel like my marketing is a
contribution to people rather than something I'm
selling to them.
Without
a doubt it gave me traction in my business very
quickly. It was knowing who my target was and
speaking directly to them in a language they
understood. It helped me understand what my
marketing strategies were and weren't, and how to
position myself. It just worked. I've used these
materials for a coordinated campaign to market my
business. My articles, advertisements, and the
consultations I offer to prospects are all shaped
by the materials and the principles I've learned.
As a result, I had a full practice within a year
and have a waiting list. I am extremely profitable.
This is my business. This is how I support my
family.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Preston
True
 The
Website Toolkit, hands down, made the biggest
difference for me across the board. What I mean
by that is to clearly define who I work with, how I
work and put it in the language of my prospects. I
focused on what's in it for them rather than who I
am. Nobody really cares who Preston True is. If
their knee hurts they want their knee to feel
better. I needed to describe what I do in terms
that resonated immediately with a prospect. The
Website Toolkit helped me do exactly that. It is a
perfect template to deliver information that is
understood, engaging and invites people to take
action.
What
is most valuable about the Website Toolkit is it
almost demands that you take a really deep look
into your business and what you do. I would
have spent six months or a year if I didn't have a
resource like that and the content would have been
half as valuable, at best. I've gotten so many
compliments from people about my website. It has
been such a tremendous resource for me. I don't
print one flyer. Everything is on the website. It's
my online brochure.
Other
benefits are, number one, the amount of time it
saved me. I could very easily put a dollar
figure on my time. It saved me thousands and
thousands of dollars. There is a tremendous time
savings because I understand and know a marketing
process. And not just for creating an Executive
Summary. I use the same process if I'm going to
write a web page, an e-zine, or make a blog post.
And there is a confidence level I have in
understanding what I do and who I work with. I'm
not sure how to measure that in hard dollars. But I
can attest to is this - I am far more confident
three years later than I was before, simply because
I can explain what I do and who I do it with
clarity and ease.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
Dory
Willer
 I
knew I could coach anyone but Robert helped me see
I was the best person to coach executives.
That's where I came from. I had no passion for any
other group but I resisted initially. He helped me
focus into that niche. He also asked me, "How much
do you want to earn?" That was easy. Then he asked
me, "How much do you want to work?" He taught me
how to "back into" how much you want to earn by how
much you want to work.
In
2003 I was awarded the International Coach of the
Year recognition, and I earned it through
principles I learned in marketing to help me sell
myself for the nomination and ultimate selection. I
also have two executive coaching contracts with
global companies where I am one of only 50
worldwide executive coaches authorized to coach the
top senior level executives. Those individual
engagements average around $40K each a year. And
now at this point, almost 70-80% of my clients come
from referrals.
My
return on investment has been huge! I hit
six-figures pretty quickly, but I wanted to be back
to what my salary was as a corporate employee
executive and surpass it. That was my goal that
year. The Marketing Action Group helped me get
there. My income has far surpassed the former VP
salary and more importantly, I'm in a position to
select my roster of clients and the number of hours
I want to work. I have some of the best corporate
groups which give me pure pleasure in my
work.
Click
here for pdf of entire case study
If
you want to get started with the Action Plan
Marketing approach to attracting clients, I
recommend starting with the Action
Plan Marketing
Club
and then getting the InfoGuru
Manual
and the Web
Site ToolKit.
If
you're looking for individual
coaching or group
programs,
go here.
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