SALES AGENCIES   Why Did I Quit My Day Job? Because With SBI!, I Can Do It Myself And I Can Do It Over And Over Again By Jerry Mack   Ken, You may not realize it (although I suspect you do), but Site Build It! is much more than "the only all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing product" (I think that's what your site says!). It's actually a "9-to-5 life liberator." Of course, I wish I really knew that before I tried it, as my story will tell. In my former (pre-SBI) life, I was a regional manager for a medical imaging company. My headquarter's website was just not getting us any new customers (or leads). And that's how my first Site Build It! (SBI) website started. Starting from scratch I needed a way to generate leads to help me sell medical equipment in the office I had just opened in California for a medical distribution company based on the east coast. Basically, I figured that if I had control over web-based sales promotions and marketing programs, I could build sales significantly in my region. Otherwise, I was going to starve, because their expensive, fancy, gorgeous site was not sending me any business at all. I built my SBI site with some pages based on keywords from the brainstorm tool in SBI and also built pages where the keyword was the model number of the products I sell (so obvious, yet so powerful). The pages I built based on keywords from SBI's brainstorm tool brought in traffic from my general target market. The traffic came because these keywords were in high demand by web searchers and not supplied by many websites on the net. The pages I built based on product model numbers brought in traffic because they were usually ranked very high in the search engines -- and that traffic, while lower, was super-targeted. SBI submitted these web pages for me and then managed them to the top of the search engines rankings. You know what's great about being as "Net-dumb" as a guy like me? I just trusted SBI! to do its job, while I did mine! (I'll bet you get some smart tech-types who try to outguess SBI -- HA! HA!) And boy, did SBI ever do its job. Anyone entering specific keywords, for example their specific model ultrasound machine (talk about a highly targeted lead!), finds my site at the end of their search. It really works well. I was often ranked higher than the website of the company that manufactures the products I represent. In my business, this creates a lot of hot leads that usually turn into sales. And with a new customer ordering supplies, that means a significant future revenue stream as well. SBI! really is the ultimate sales person's tool Ken, I know you like to show Alexa rankings as proof of how well SBI! works, but people want to know how that translates into dollars. Yes, I know your sites explain how small businesses have to build the traffic first through great content, PREsell it and THEN monetize it, but people still want to know "how much money that Alexa ranking makes," if you know what I mean! And that goes triple for us sales guys! So let me cut to the chase. My Alexa traffic ranking made it into the top 80,000, well within the Top 1% of all sites on the Net. What did that translate into, in business and dollars? SBI! worked so well that I built a brand new sales office (with zero sales) to one with over $250,000/month in less than a year. In all, before I left them, I sold millions of dollars worth of product, at a 10% commission. Actually, it worked a little too well (as far as head office must think, anyway). Why? Well, I recently resigned from that medical distribution company because it was obvious I didn't need them. The company was getting the benefit of all the sales generated from my SBI traffic. And here's the funny part. Head office couldn't understand how the heck my little site was generating all that business. The HQ Webmasters thought I was just lucky. (And I'll bet that's what they told management -- after all, they had to be doing something mysterious and difficult to earn their salaries, right?) As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "I got no respect." Meanwhile, I was wishing I had known that SBI! would work this well before I took the job and started the site. And then it occurred to me -- "You know it now, so what are you going to do about it, Jerry." (I don't usually talk to myself, only in "EUREKA" moments.) EUREKA! The Epiphany I wanted to try it for myself, own my own business and my own life, so I went for it alone. (Well, not exactly alone, I also had my wife and SBI -- but never ask me to choose between them.) I knew that I could generate all the leads I need to make a living on my own. And yes indeed -- my new company is already doing just fine because of the SBI website, which is barely underway but already pulling leads - www.sonomahealth.com. Sonomahealth.com will grow to be the cornerstone of how I earn a living as an independent medical distributor selling ultrasound systems and supplies at my new company, Sonoma Health Products. Actually, I'm more of a broker or a sales agent than a distributor. To my customers, though, I look like a large national distributor with multiple warehouses across the country. In fact, I do use several warehouses across the country, I just don't have to tie up any of my money in owning inventory because I let the "old school" distributors do that. I am a virtual distributor, a modern-day sales agency - as you can see, the actual inventory that I maintain fits into my garage! I do my business successfully because I use Site Built It!. And I'll be the first to admit I don't even use all the features and capabilities of SBI to their full extent. SBI is such a powerful tool you just have to "kind of" know how to use it to be successful. So because I "kind of" know how to use SBI, it helps me make me a very nice living in a company of my own. (Yes, I am one of those famously "lazy sales guys," I happily admit it -- but I prefer to think that I get the maximum reward for the minimum effort and SBI is an important part of that.) When I think of all that SBI does for me, I'm amazed that you sell it for peanuts First, it brings in super-targeted leads. Do you have any idea how much time and energy I would have to spend to do that without a Web site? I choke to think about it. Second, it can help you look like a big organization with multiple warehouses across the country even though you work in your bathrobe in the den. And, in one sense, I really do have warehouses all over our nation. I just don't own them and don't have to worry about them. Of course, it's also a brochure for all my products. I don't have to spend a penny printing or mailing brochures. And I don't have to waste a second, either. As soon as a lead finds my content, there's the brochure, product information, content, etc. Fourth, it can also actually sell the products, too, and collect the money electronically. On my first site, we took payment via PayPal, smooth as silk, easy as pie. Fifth, you build a bond with your customers. We had started an e-zine, a very professional-looking newsletter, with the first site. Our customers love the updates, and by staying in front of their eyeballs, they thought of Jerry Mack when they thought about their next purchase. Naturally, we'll be doing all this again, too, with Sonomahealth.com. (By the time you read this, Sonomahealth.com may already have an online store where the products are sold using PayPal.) So how's it going? SonomaHealth recently broke inside the Top 200,000 Sites at Alexa.com. It's really just getting going, and I'll be building it up, pulling in lots more traffic. And yes... I can tell you what that "Top 200,000" means already for my wife (who is not only my lifetime partner, but business partner, too) and me... we're already averaging $10,000 in commissions per month. Ken, we're running... and this time we own it! One step at a time, I'll build Sonomahealth.com far bigger than my first effort. And you know what... I could do this in any number of industries. There is simply no reason for me, or any other reasonably ambitious person who wants to own their own life, to work a 9-to-5 anymore. Thank you Ken! I have a great marketing positioning for you. You know the way Arnold S. called himself "The Terminator"? Well, you should be... "The Liberator" Jerry Mack www.sonomahealth.com Click here for Jerry's one-year update. Jump to Dec/2005 update More news! Nov/2006 update     Close Window