The American comedian, Bill Burr, tells the story of a New York comedy club that…
“For some reason, they moved the stage out away from the wall… and they had this little small club… and they moved it away from the wall, so the waitresses could walk behind the stage.
“They took out like five or six tables, and all the other comedy clubs were laughing.
“And they figured out how money they screwed themselves out of over the course of a year… you know, doing show, two three shows a night times six or seven days… like they were screwing themselves out of three quarters of a million dollars a year. So they ended up having to move the wall back…”
OK, so what’s this got to do with marketing? Two things:
#1: A small percentage of your sales are responsible all your profits.
For most businesses – especially those with high overheads – 80-90% of your sales might do nothing other than cover your costs. And it’s the final 10-20% that provides all your profits.
Which means, if you lose 10% of your sales, it might halve your profits. Or it might wipe them out altogether.
On the flipside, it means a 10% increase in sales – assuming no increase in your overheads or marketing costs – could increase your profit 50-100%.
#2: You never miss what you never had
I bet that, if the stage had always been away from the wall, the club would never have moved it.
It was only because they had the before-and-after that they knew how much it was costing them.
It’s the same with marketing: If you’re not testing your marketing – trying different approaches and comparing the results – you have no idea how much you could be making.
You might have a business that’s making you £100,000 a year that, with just a couple of changes, could be making you £500,000 a year.
And, if that sounds unbelievable, check out this case study, where I increased the profits of a 7-year old PPC campaign by 643%.
Think about that: for seven years, they were sitting on a gold mine, thinking it was a tin mine.
All they needed was for someone to make a few simple changes, and they hit the mother lode.
What makes you so sure you’re not in the same boat?
Just a thought,
Steve
