Six – Love
Six – Love
by Ron Rosenberg
It’s easy to make snap judgments when you first meet someone. But first impressions can often prove to be wrong – sometimes with unexpected consequences.
Several years ago, my family traveled to Florida to visit my in-laws. I remembered from a previous trip that there was a tennis court, so my wife and I both brought our tennis racquets hoping to find some time to play.
On Saturday morning, my wife decided to sleep in, so I took my racquet over to the tennis courts to see if anyone was there to play. I found three people playing a modified game of doubles and asked if they could use a fourth person to even it up. They said they were almost done, but invited me to play for a bit.
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Fax Me a Copy of Your Facial Expression
Fax Me a Copy of Your Facial Expression
by Debra J. Schmidt
It’s faceless, untouchable and remote, yet it is the first moment of truth that your customers have with your company. A telephone can be an excellent marketing tool, or it can damage your customer relationships in ways you’ll never know, because your frustrated customers will just silently go away.
You are the voice of your company. Even if you don’t have control over how a call is initially answered, make sure that when a call does get to your department it is handled well.
When communicating by telephone, your choice of words is far less important than the tone of your message. You can test this out by saying “Thank you for bringing this to my attention” in four different tones.
Say these same words, but each time change your tone to:
- angry
- happy
- skeptical
- stressed
Now say “Thank you for bringing this to my attention” in a happy, caring tone of voice but at the same time, cross your arms, scowl, slouch and look down. It’s difficult to convey a positive tone. Your body language will negatively impact your tone even when you think you’re sounding friendly.
Here are five tips for improving your telephone communications:
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Asking for a Referral
Asking for a Referral
by Tom Latourneau
The insurance industry has always encouraged its agents to ask their clients for referrals. The thought is if I’m doing a good job for you, then I will do a good job for your family and friends. Unfortunately, people aren’t always open to giving you names.
Yes, you should ask for referrals to farm your client base periodically but before you begin, your clients must like, respect and trust you.
Especially if I’m a new client, I may not have the experience in our relationship to form an opinion about you. I’m certainly not going to put my reputation on the line by giving you the names of my friends until I know you will approach them with a large degree of professionalism. In short, I must like you.
I must know you will not badger or harass my family and friends. You must prove to me that I can trust you.
Finally, I must respect you for your knowledge and ability to solve my problems. I can’t afford to have you try to sell my referrals without first, understanding their needs, wants and wishes.
Ask for referrals but make sure you have earned them.
From The World’s Shortest Ezine by Tom Letourneau (800) 845-7553 / www.TomSpeaks.net
5 Reasons to Journal Your Goals
5 Reasons To Journal Your Goals
By Debbie Allen, All Rights Reserved
Writing out your goals, sharing them with others and actually visualizing your success will bring you powerful results! It doesn’t really matter how you record your goals – it only matters
that you take the time to really focus on them. But, the more detailed your wants and needs are spelled out on paper and in your mind, the more accurate they will be to achieve.
Even by writing out your goals, you are more likely to achieve them. It’s true, even if you wrote the goals and then threw away your journal you are still more likely to achieve your goals than avoiding
this exercise all together. The goals you write are still there in your subconscious mind. Give your mind a boost and add more detail and visualization to the goals you plan to accomplish.
For example: One of your personal goals maybe to own a new sports car someday. Okay, now detail the type of car, color, options and the date you plan on getting the new car.
Reason #1 Helps To Relieve Stress
The exercise of journaling is not only good for your mental state, but your physical state as well. Yes, it will help with confusion, anger and stress. When you journal your goals you know where you are headed, what you truly want out of life, and you begin to create a blueprint toward a higher level of success.
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Strategic Internet Marketing
Strategic Internet Marketing
Use Internet Marketing to Get More Clients
by Biana Babinsky
I met Sue at a recent networking event. She is an author and speaker, and promotes her products by speaking at events and selling her products after the talks. Sue has a web site, whose primary purpose is to sell her products and make more people aware of her expertise. She isn’t happy with the web site, though. “I have a great product, but I only had 2 sales in the last twelve months from the site. On the other hand, I can’t keep enough inventory on hand for event sales! Something isn’t right.” So the coach in me had to ask a few questions and offer suggestions. “Tell me,” I said, “how do you market your web site?” “Market?” she said. “I don’t do much marketing. I have a great product, I am an accomplished author and well-known expert. People should be able to find me and buy from my web site.”
Many business owners put a web site on the Internet and think that “if you build it, they will come.” They, of course, being web customers. You have many potential clients out there, looking for someone with your expertise, looking for your products and services. However, it would be difficult for them to visit your web site and buy from it, if they didn’t know it existed.
Help your customers find you – create a good Internet marketing campaign to reach your potential customers and make them aware of benefits of hiring you. Here are three main online marketing areas to get you started:
Your Expert Web Site – It should be user friendly, make the benefits of hiring you or buying your products crystal clear, and promote you, your services and your products.
Keep adding to your web site content. Write articles of interest to your target market, start a blog, and keep expanding your product line. Fresh content helps you with search engine positioning and keeps your potential customers coming back.
Curious how user friendly your web site is? Ask a potential or current customer to evaluate your web site.
Newsletter – It should be highly relevant to your target audience. Publish a newsletter that gives your readers a lot of valuable information, but at the same time leave them hungry for more of your expertise. For example, a professional organizer’s newsletter can offer ten tips for getting kids organized for back-to-school, advice which helps the reader while inspiring confidence in the organizer’s knowledge and experience.
Networking – Don’t forget about networking. Online networking is becoming increasingly prevalent. You can network through many online networking communities, such as Ryze.com, LinkedIn.com Ecademy.com, and many more. Each one has a different focus, feel, and dynamics. Try several and see which one is the right fit for you. Online networking is an excellent way to connect with your target market.
When you are selling your services online, your web site is the image you project to the world. Often, it is the first thing your potential customers see before they decide to hire you. Newsletters and networking are there to help you build relationships with your potential customers, and help them learn more about you and your business. Strategic Internet marketing is the combination of user friendly web site, newsletter, networking and other online strategies that you use to market your business effectively.
About the author: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert who has helped many business owners attract more web site customers, bring in more online publicity and increase the bottom line. Visit http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html to subscribe to her newsletter full of marketing tips and ideas and join her online business coaching program at http://www.MarketingSalad.com.
