Last year I found myself entering my idea of hell: a PC World store.

Now I’m sure they’re a very good retailer, and that they sell excellent products at competitive prices. But the problem is that they don’t sell a single thing I want to buy, or even look at. The cacophony of noise and myriad of flashing screens makes me just want to run for the exits. And that’s what I would have done if I hadn’t been there to help someone choose a laptop.

And what a job that is!

Row upon row of identical looking boxes – all with a bewildering list of features and prices, which I’m sure make sense if you know what you’re talking about. But I don’t. If it was up to me, I’d have given up and gone home in an instant…

And if a piece of research I just read is anything to go by, I’m far from alone.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the more choice you give people, the better. If they have more to choose from, then they’ll be more likely to buy. PC World certainly seems to subscribe to that view. But conventional wisdom is sometimes wrong, and this is probably one of those times.

In an experiment in California, a team of scientists set up a display of jams in a supermarket. Sometimes there were just six jams and other times there were as many as 24. If a shopper tasted one of the jams, they received a discount voucher to buy any jam in the store. The results were surprising to the researchers. The greater the choice of jams, the less they sold. People became confused when faced with a wider choice, and fell back on their default position of buying no jam at all.

And jam is a non-technical, easy to understand, product. Choice still led to confusion, fear and ultimately, inertia.

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. I know that making a purchase is a stressful activity for many people. They worry about making the right decision, and the more choices there are, the greater the likelihood that the decision they make will be wrong. The safe option is to do nothing.

One of the biggest mistakes I see made in the direct response business is to send out a catalogue to potential customers. The thinking is that the more products you tell people about, the more they’ll collectively buy. But as we’ve seen, it doesn’t always work like that. People simply become confused and fearful, and retreat to the safe harbour position of doing nothing.

Most of us are lazy and risk-averse. By choosing a single product that you think is right for your customer, and then making the strongest possible case for that product, you’ll sell far more than by the scattergun catalogue approach.

But another piece of research I saw recently, suggests there may be an even better way…

A kitchen equipment store started selling a bread-making machine. Sales were poor, until the store added another, more expensive, machine to sit alongside it. Consumers now had something to compare with, and were no longer expected to make a decision in a vacuum. As a result, sales of the original machine improved dramatically.

This may be the best of all worlds ~ just enough choice to give a point of comparison, but not so much that the buyer becomes fearful or confused.

What’s more, it may be that there is an optimal number of items to choose from, before adding another leads to a fall in sales. To suggest that this ‘optimum’ amount of choice holds true for all products ~ that it’s the same for cars as it is for cornflakes ~ would be a little too simplistic. So you may need to do a little experimentation of your own.

But as a broad principle, you’re probably giving your customers too much choice, rather than too little. Do some of the work for them, cut down their options, and they’ll thank you with their hard-earned cash.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I hope you’re keeping safe and well.

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?

Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.

Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.

  For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

       The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!

  For full details take a look here.

www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Many years ago I saw a poster on one of those noticeboards which all churches seem to have outside. It simply said:  

Jesus Saves!

Underneath, on one of the few occasions I’ve applauded a piece of graffiti, someone had scrawled in black marker pen…

But Moses knocks in the rebound!

I was reminded about that the other day when I passed another church with another of those posters. It said…

God created the world and everything in it.

I’m sure that far more learned people than me could give a perfectly reasoned argument for the truth of that statement, but leaving aside the question of whether God actually exists, taking the credit for creating everything around us seems a bit rich anyway.

The earth is about 4,500 million years old, and I’m pretty sure that until long after the first humans appeared about 3 million years ago, there wasn’t a great deal of what we see today. In fact, there wasn’t a whole lot of anything.

What happened was that as man evolved and became more intelligent, he learned to work with what was in the environment to create everything that we now have: buildings, machines, infrastructure, technology, medicines…just about everything. Without man’s ingenuity, none of this would exist.

I don’t know about you, but I find that awe-inspiring and humbling…

As I drove past that church, and looked around my car, I realised that everything in it existed, not because God created it, but because someone had been smart enough to take some stuff out of the ground, combine it with other stuff out of the ground, and then miraculously transform it by some scientific skulduggery into something useful.

Metals, plastics, ceramics, rubber, glass ~ all created from innocent-looking materials in the environment, and then designed, shaped and fashioned into something that works.

You may have noticed something here. I’m not being specific about the actual processes that have to take place in order to create these things from what appears to be very little. There’s a reason for that. It’s because I haven’t got the first idea. I couldn’t create even the simplest item in my car from scratch, and I suspect, neither could you. But almost everything you see, touch and rely upon to get you through your daily life has been created by human beings from little more than dust, gas, water and rubble.

As I said, awe-inspiring, and a valuable source of perspective too…

You see, when we think about human achievements of this magnitude, doesn’t it make our own work challenges and issues seem pathetically small and insignificant? I know that many readers of this newsletter are in the field of marketing products and services. I also know that many in that field are prone to the odd bout of ‘woe is me’.

Isn’t it almost embarrassing to think in terms of there being significant difficulty in what you’re trying to achieve, when you view it in terms of the challenges people have faced (and continue to face) in creating everything we have around us – from nothing?

As marketers we should be thanking our lucky stars, not bemoaning our bad fortune or the state of the market. All the hard work has already been done for us, by people who created the products we sell from scratch. All we have to do is get them in to the hands of someone who can make use of them, in return for a reasonable amount of money. And for doing that small thing, we’re more than fairly rewarded.

Creating stuff is ridiculously hard. Selling it is child’s play by comparison. Never lose sight of that when you think you’re having a difficult day. 

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I hope you’re keeping safe and well.

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?

Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.

Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.

  For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

       The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!

  For full details take a look here.

www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Have you ever wondered why Australians call us “whinging poms”?

Well to give you a clue, think about the people you know who have upped sticks and moved to Australia… 

Were they happy, successful, and highly ambitious people looking for a new challenge? Or were they underachieving, dissatisfied people looking to escape to something better? 

For reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems like the people who move to the other side of the world are usually those who haven’t really made a go of it here. People move to the United States for positive reasons. They move to Australia for negative ones. 

So what you end up with in Oz, once the novelty has worn off, is a bunch of underachieving, dissatisfied people ~ in shorts!

Or whinging poms, in other words.

The only way the move could have the desired effect for people like that, is if they were able to go without themselves! 

Confused? Let me give you another example of what I’m talking about here… 

Do you know anyone who regularly changes jobs? I know quite a few, and the pattern is always the same:

1. “I just got offered a new job. It’s fantastic…great pay, great people. I love it. So much better than that crappy sweat shop hell-hole I just left.”
2. “Hmm…there are things about this job that they kept from me.”
3. “My work colleagues and/or boss are unreasonable and unpleasant.”
4. “They’re taking advantage of me and exploiting me. I’m not being paid what I’m worth.”
5. “I need to look for a new job.”
6. Go back to number one.

And it’s the same with businesses. People start out with great enthusiasm, only to stall when the reality hits home…this isn’t as easy as it looks. And so they start something else, only to find that that business also has difficulties associated with it. And the whole sorry cycle is repeated over and over. 

The point I’m trying to make here, is that if you find yourself to be a serial-switcher of either location, job or business (and it’s not for positive reasons) then the problem is almost certainly not to be found in the locations, jobs or businesses.

And I’d go even further…

If you find yourself constantly ‘switching’ in any aspect of your life, but without any tangible improvement in satisfaction or success, then the problem isn’t an external one.

The common denominator is a little closer
to home, and can be viewed daily in the mirror.

I think most of us spend at least part of our lives seeking out external solutions for internal problems. To recognise and accept that blame and responsibility lies right at our own doorstep is far from easy (self delusion is much more comfortable and a far more natural reaction) but it’s essential if we’re to find a solution that works. 

So by all means embark on your own version of an antipodean adventure, but at least be honest and realistic with yourself before you set off… 

It’s a long way to go to end up exactly where you started, but with slightly browner legs.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

          
  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you were guaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system you could deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to a rule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you don’t have to imagine it.

Because It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!

And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever.

Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!

For full details Visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/loopholes

Take a look now. You’re going to love this one!

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

A few months ago at a hotel in the Lake District ~ somewhere I’ve stayed on many occasions before. It’s an excellent hotel, and clearly successful. Part of the success is down to the quality of accommodation and service, but there are plenty of excellent hotels which struggle commercially.

So what’s the difference between success and failure in the hotel business? As with most businesses, marketing has a big part to play.

The hotel owners use a lot of online and offline methods to attract new customers, and to encourage old ones to return. They’re also very hot on matching demand to supply through price flexibility. If they sense a slack period, then they’re very quick to email their client base with an enticing special offer. Like an empty airline seat, an empty room in a hotel for an evening is gone forever. Almost any contribution is better than nothing.

There’s an important lesson there for a lot of businesses, I think. It’s difficult to generalise, but it could be worth considering whether you could be more flexible on price at certain times, and how you might market and manage this flexibility.

One aspect of this price flexibility is particularly interesting, and could have a wider implication or application for your business.

A couple of times when I’ve stayed at this hotel (but not every time, so I know it’s genuine) a letter has been pushed under my door on the evening prior to departure, explaining that the room I’m in hasn’t been booked for the following evening, and that if I’d like to stay for another night, I can do so for half price. This is one of those win-win situations, which a lot of businesses could take advantage of, but very few do.

From the hotel’s point of view, they have an empty room to fill. I’m already in it, so there’s a reduction in preparation costs for them if I stay, as compared with a new guest. There’s a strong inertia element working in their favour. To take up the offer, I need do nothing. From my point of view, I get another night at a vastly reduced price. And the inertia is good for me too. I’m lazy, and don’t really want to pack up and go home, or move to another room.

I think any business that rents or hires out anything, could benefit from using this approach, and it has wider applications too. Is it not worth making a ‘please stay’ offer to any customer who is about to ‘depart’ from your business – whatever field you’re in? Given that the cost of finding and serving a new customer is always far more than the cost of continuing to serve an existing one, I’m certain that it is.

This whole idea needs to be thought out and implemented carefully though, if you’re to avoid damaging your integrity or alienating excluded customers. But just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

I’ll leave you to consider how you might apply this in your own field.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

          
  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you were guaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system you could deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to a rule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you don’t have to imagine it.

Because It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!

And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever.

Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!

For full details Visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/loopholes

Take a look now. You’re going to love this one!

Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison

What have Tesco, The Sun newspaper, British Airways and Manchester United got in common? The answer reveals something fascinating, and counter-intuitive about what it takes to make a great deal of money. Understand and harness this for yourself and it could transform the fortunes of any business or enterprise you’re involved in.

So what’s the link?

Well in a recent poll carried out by Joshua G2 on behalf of Marketing magazine, each of these companies was voted the most hated brand in their market sector. Tesco was the most hated supermarket brand; The Sun was the most hated newspaper brand; Manchester United was the most hated football brand; and British Airways was voted the most hated airline brand.

Puzzling isn’t it? You see there’s little doubt that each of these is also the most successful brand in their market sector. And the mist only starts to clear when you discover something else…They were all voted the most loved brand in their sector at exactly the same time!

So what’s going on, and what does it tell us about success?

Well the key point here is that each brand has created an impact. They’ve created an emotion in the hearts and minds of potential customers. People know who they are and they have strong feelings about them. Some of this feeling is strongly positive, while other is fiercely negative. There’s a polarity to it. There are many other brands that provoke no hatred at all, and poll a lukewarm level of approval halfway down the loved list. But they’re not nearly so successful.

Strong feelings and emotions are essential if you’re to rouse potential customers out of their passive state into spending money with you. People rarely part with money unless they’ve had their emotions tweaked in some way. They have a strong emotional attachment to their money. They know what they had to do to get it. And they’re not about to part with it to an organisation that doesn’t impact on them at an emotional level.

The upshot of this is that polarising opinion about you and your business is no bad thing. Of course you’d prefer it if everyone loved you. But it’s far better to have half the world thinking you’re the best thing since sliced bread and the other half thinking you’re the devil reincarnate, than it is to have everyone thinking you’re okay. People rarely spend their money on ‘okay’.

In my own business, I never set out to polarise opinion, but it just happened. I know that some of the products we sell are a little controversial, and hard as it is for someone of such delicate sensitivities to admit, I know there are a significant number of people out there who don’t like us very much.

But then there’s the other side of the coin…

For everyone who despises us because we sell books on gambling or avoiding speeding fines, for example, there’s someone else who’s strongly attracted towards us for the very same reason. An easier route would have been to stick to non-contentious subject matter, but it wouldn’t have been nearly so profitable – or nearly so much fun.

I suppose what I’m saying is that there are two routes. You can either be mildly liked by everyone, and make a living, or loved and hated in equal measure and make a million. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, but heck…

Sitting on the fence never got you loved, hated, or rich.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Once or twice a year I receive exceptional quality information and a few months ago one of these rare and very special documents landed on my desk.

It revealed an amazing system which is making its author an absolute fortune and a large sum of money was asked for in exchange for the information.

   An agreement was reached whereby I could share the information with Streetwise customers, but first I insisted on ‘proving’ the system and so I asked 25 of my customers to test this for us.

   The results have been nothing less than astonishing. Every single one of my 25 testers has reported fantastic success!

   Consequently I signed the deal and now I am delighted to be able to share this information with you. Please do not pass this on to anyone else because this information truly is TOP SECRET. It is just for you and Streetwise’s best customers and no-one else.

We authorised just 50 copies to be printed for our best customers only. At the time of writing we only have 16 copies left and one of these is waiting for you to claim it.

For full details CLICK HERE

…and you’ll discover why I am so excited about this incredible winning system and what’s going to happen next.

Best Wishes,

John Harrison

Recent Comments

“Every Signal so far has been a winner, that is for the time I have been using it which is 21 race days. It is solid and when I place the bets this system throws at me I just place them and walk away for the day. You don’t get lot’s of bets, and they only take 5 minutes max to spot anytime after 9 in the morning.”

– D Lean

“The program I bought in July is so very simple to run and is consistently proving to be a money spinner. I have never before found a system to equal this one.”

– C A Davies

For full details visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/IS