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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
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
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.
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