Before we begin, you must understand the concept that underlies this book. In today's society, I believe we have experienced two major shifts that have almost completely revolutionized the entire business landscape.

The first and most important one is competition.

The mere fact that business is becoming increasingly hypercompetitive is an understatement. Businesses, particularly home-based businesses and self-employed professionals, are growing at an explosive rate.

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A recently understood segment of marketing is the immense power behind the product category. Often, many businesses build their entire marketing strategy around a particular brand and its better qualities within a currently known product category, only to have it all go down the drain in the end.

Remember the “New Coke”? In the 80’s, Pepsi conducted taste tests called “The Pepsi Challenge.” Coke, on the sidelines, also heard from their own research that a newer, better tasting brand would beat Pepsi.

Only 77 days later, according to Coke’s former marketing vice-president Sergio Zyman in his book “The End of Marketing As We Know It,” not only were they forced to reintroduce the older version as “Classic Coke” but they also had to eventually wipe the New Coke out. Better is not always better.

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Core expansion is far different than extension. Extension is often referred to as franchising, licensing, line extension, or branching out — also known as conglomerating. In this context, I am referring to expansion by division.

If you’re a specialist in your field — which I hope you are after reading this book — and you offer only one type of service, you can expand from within by dividing your core (your product or service) into multiple, smaller components.

This helps to do 3 things. 1) It doesn’t take away from your category or specialization. 2) It increases your hit ratio when targeting clients, since some of them might be interested in your entire package while others may be interested in only a portion of it. And 3) it increases the aura of expertise you project because you refrain from spreading yourself too thin.

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I know that the yellow pages’ people will hate me for this, but your yellow pages’ ad, although an essential part of your entire marketing machine, doesn’t have to be of a large size, in color, prominently displayed, or tied-in with other gimmicks that the yellow pages salespeople have to offer. While necessary, the yellow pages should only be used as support systems.

The concept of this entire book is to teach you that creating top-of-mind awareness (not “institutional” advertising) should be your main marketing goal. When people have seen your ad, heard about you, or have a need for your services at any particular time, your contact information may or may not be available to them at that particular moment. Therefore, you want the yellow pages to back you up and not use them as a full-blown marketing medium.

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We’ve made it! You’ve now reached the last commandment. And what better way is there to end this book that’s chock-full o’ marketing secrets other than by telling you about something I truly hate. I hate networking. Really, I do!

I hate it because, in my experience, it hasn’t brought me anything substantial in return. You’re probably saying right now, “What? Is he crazy? Has he lost his mind?”

But wait a minute, hear me out. Networking isn’t a bad concept. Far from it. If the previous commandments have been properly followed, networking can be a fantastic marketing tool to leverage them. If you can be at the top of your prospects’ minds, you can also be at the top of your network’s mind, right?

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Here’s a bonus commandment. I thought I’d make it a bonus because 11 would sound a little funny, wouldn’t you think? And it is indeed a bonus since, with all that you have learned, you would never be as effective if I didn’t give this extra piece of advice while implementing the first 10.

I can never stress enough, whether it’s in this book or in my seminars that, in order to create endless streams of new, repeat and referral business, you must turn every single nook-and-cranny of your business into an effective marketing system. Everything you do must become a marketing activity.

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Have you ever made a buying decision only to have that gut instinct called “buyer’s remorse” creep up on you immediately after you’ve left the store?

Or, worse yet, have you ever felt the need to rationalize a purchasing decision to save yourself from this conflict?

This very thing happened to me just a few days ago. However, this time it was the vendor who initiated the remorse. (The result was the loss of a four-figure sale!)

Read on to find out their grave mistake… and the marketing lesson behind it.

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