The BBB, Better Business Bureau had been previously accused by members and non-members for their questionable sales practices. The sales teams used by their franchisees or licensees to sign up customers were reading from a sales script one, which was at best a little misleading. As it would be prudent not to comment on this matter most business owners are not willing to say anything, although many do consider the sales tactics used in the past to be problematic. Personally I have not followed up to see if in fact the BBB has changed their sales tactics, although do recommend one does do some investigative reporting.

You must understand of course that having a BBB plastic sign in your business, tends to give confidence to consumers to buy from you, so that is a plus for them. Good brand name building. A true pragmatic small business owner might over look such things as misrepresentations in their sales pitch to get that sign and prominently display it

in their establishment. Theoretically one could argue that point.

Personally I would not choose to mention anything negative about the BBB, but I did put it in a letter to the FTC, which is public record, not sure if the Federal Trade Commission bothered following up on it, in fact the BBB is in the news today working with the FTC?

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-03-2005/0004157777&EDATE=

http://www.motorage.com/motorage/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=184916

The BBB serves a purpose in the market, but as we know absolute power often corrupts absolutely. Indeed, the BBB acts above the law and with the FTC, while not always following the law or rather the expectations of ethics one would assume, that is to say someone like me. No further comment. It would not serve our company to have interviews on this matter as many in the society take BBB as gospel. How little they know? Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Two years ago I started my small Virtual Assistant business with a non-existent marketing budget. I borrowed marketing books from the library, read countless articles on the Internet and joined a professional trade association of my peers. I learned hundreds of marketing techniques and one valuable lesson. The lesson I learned is that the financial ruin of large companies is often achieved by incredibly expensive and glitzy marketing plans that do not take into account the company’s ability to earn a profit. Over time, I found that the most effective marketing techniques that allow a company to make a profit are those that are inexpensive or free. What a fantastic discovery for me at that time! This knowledge, combined with hard work and excellent customer service, enabled my small business to expand at a phenomenal rate.

When developing your marketing plan be aware that frugal marketing techniques take more time and a great deal of personal creativity but they DO produce results! Following are a few of my most successful frugal marketing techniques:

Website

It is not necessary to spend thousands of dollars on a beautiful website. Some of the most effective and interesting websites I have seen were built on a frugal budget. Far more important than the cost is the content of a website. At a minimum your website should include your company name, contact information, tagline or slogan, company/owner biography, a list of services, a client list or list of testimonials, articles or press releases you have written and any interesting information related to your business that might be of help to your visitors. It is essential that you use a paid web host and not a free service. Free hosting may exclude you from search engine listings and may brand you as a neophyte in your field when that impression may not be correct. Inexpensive hosting is available and many hosts provide free or low cost web templates that will give your site a polished and consistent look. For a list of affordable web hosts visit the Web Host Directory and Host Review. Having a well-developed website will help you leverage the results of your other frugal marketing techniques and, in the long run, will save you money by reducing the overall cost and shipping of your marketing materials.

Public Relations

Create a press release and submit it to your local newspaper. Highlight the unusual aspects of your business and educate the reader about your business and your industry. Do not simply promote your own company, but promote the industry as a whole. Position your business as unique in that industry by explaining, for example, how your company takes a novel approach to delivering products or services. Take the same press release and format it for the Internet. Submit it to as many free press release sites that you can find such as LocalBusiness.com, PRWeb.com and USA News. For added impact, search the Newslink website to find other community newspapers in your state that might be interested in your business news. Follow standard press release formatting and be sure to add that you are available for interviews in your contact information section as this opens the door for feature interviews during slow “news” weeks for local papers. Send out a press release every quarter or at least twice a year. Always include your website’s URL in any marketing materials and press releases. For more information about press releases including formatting visit the Netpreneur Exchange, Infoscavenger and Pertinent Information.

Contests

Sponsor local or on-line contests by providing a prize. This could be one of your products or a coupon for two or three

hours of your services. In return you will receive valuable free publicity. Find local contests, which would welcome your participation by scanning your community newspaper. Target on-line contests by surfing for well-established companies that compliment your own. For example, if you sell wine glasses, you should seek a company that sells wine and offer a set of wine glasses as a contest prize. Another option is to search for e-zines (on-line newsletters) that cover a topic related to your business and ask the editor about partnering to offer a contest to readers with your product or service as the prize. You can find e-zines by searching on-line directories such as BestEzines.com, The Ezine Directory or Ezine Search.

Publishing

This is my favorite technique. Write an article about an interesting or timely topic related to your business that would be of interest to your target market. Ask a friend or loved one with editing skills to proof your article for you. Create a four or five line biography at the end of the article that includes your contact information: your company name, e-mail address and company URL. Add a copyright statement at the very bottom of the article. Then submit the article to on-line article archives, e-zines and appropriate websites. This technique helps establish you as an expert in your field, publicizes your business, and creates incoming links to your website to increase your link popularity and search engine rankings. You can begin submitting your article to: Article City, Expert Articles and GoArticles.com. These three resources will get you started but a quick Internet search will provide an extensive listing of thousands of venues on-line.

Networking

Research your local chamber of commerce and start attending their networking events. Develop and rehearse an interesting “elevator speech” that summarizes your business and your talents in less than thirty seconds. Introduce yourself to as many people as possible, give your elevator speech and hand out your business cards and collect the business cards of prospects. Take the business cards you collected, use the back of the card to write down what you discussed or other important information about the prospect, and FOLLOW UP! Write and mail a quick note on your business stationery to say how nice it was to meet them and mention something memorable you discussed. Keep in touch with them on a regular basis.

Join on-line communities such as newsgroups, discussion boards, e-mail lists, etc. where your target market and peers congregate. Introduce yourself and your business if introductions are allowed by the community guidelines and encouraged by the list moderator. Establish your credibility and promote yourself by responding to questions in your field of expertise. Join an affordable, well-known and professional association of your peers on-line or locally. If it is permitted, announce your availability to take on sub-contracted work from your peers, but read the guidelines and do not “spam” these lists which will result in a loss of your credibility and professionalism. Become involved locally with a worthy charity by donating your time, products or services.

Over time, as your business grows, you can and should add a few paid marketing techniques to your marketing plan. But you must continue to use the most rewarding of your free and inexpensive marketing techniques to maximize your profit. Never forget that creativity, hard work and excellent customer service are the keys to growing a successful business while keeping your marketing costs in check.

(c) 2002, Davis Virtual Assistance. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Bonnie Jo Davis is the author of a new e-book “Articles That Sell” featuring her favorite marketing technique at http://www.ArticlesThatSell.com.

What does it take to be a WINNER during these challenging times? Do you really know what it takes to win more sales?

It takes . . . Uniqueness. Being boring, bland, and benign is out. Being different is your first step to being better. If you’re different and you’re better, you’ll be remembered. Type INC. after your name. For example, Jim Meisenheimer Inc.

Don’t view yourself as a person. Think of yourself as a brand or even as a company. How are you positioning yourself? When your customers think of you, how do they think of you? Create a list of ten things that make you different from your competition. If this is a tough exercise for you, you should invest some strategic thinking time. Blending in is out, standing out is in.

It takes . . . Passion. Why do so few people really get excited about their work. How many times a day do you meet someone whose eyes sparkle as they are going about their work? Too many salespeople put their presentations into cruise control and expect the product to sell itself. People buy from salespeople who really believe in their products/services. Passion is a small intangible quality that has a big influence on how you are perceived. Put on smile on your face, angle your chin up, focus on your customer, speak enthusiastically and go about your business energetically and you’ll become passionate. If you combine equal parts of preparation and product knowledge with a splash of passion you’ll take it to the next level.

It takes .

. . Discipline. Every presentation can benefit from a little spit and polish once in a while. Don’t get complacent about anything. Success comes from order more often than it does from chaos. Develop a system for getting things done. Have a system for planning your day, planning your calls and planning for your territory.

Discipline takes time and effort. Discipline is not being rigid, it’s being in control as we work in chaotic and reactive environments. The choice is simple. Are you in control – or out of control? It takes nothing to be out of control. It takes discipline to be in control.

It takes . . . Time. You can’t rush success. Success is not something you start with. It’s something you hope to achieve. The bigger the challenge, the longer it takes to get there. Most folks view success as the destination

instead of the journey. Enjoy the ride and make time to smell the roses along the way.

Speaking of dictionaries, obliterate these words from your personal dictionary immediately – can’t, impossible, commodity, and discount. In sales, language is power. Avoid using words that weaken your presentation and lessen your selling power.

How you think is everything. If you don’t already have one, keep working on your DO WHATEVER IT TAKES attitude.

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com

Most people tremble when they hear the word “sales”.

This explains why most businesses fail.

No matter what product or service or business you have, if you can’t market it, you’ll fail.

Salesmanship is not an easy skill to acquire.

To improve your salesmanship skill, there are a few qualities you must improve on.

Here are some secrets of super salesmanship to help you.

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge.

You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents.

The key to understanding your customers is to first understand yourself.

If you don’t know yourself, you’ll not be able to know others and will not be able to sell anything to them.

It is a no brainer!

This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.

Therefore not everybody can be a super salesman or woman!

In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people.

People change all the time.

The more they change the more you must revise your knowledge about them.

Just as with yourself, you must be insightful, perspective and able to see not only the trees but also the forest.

In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be.

One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision.

The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.

Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.

Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time.

We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts.

Everyone is included, whether we’re attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects.

Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman.

Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal – a successful sale.

Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others.

But regardless of what you’re selling, or even how you’re attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor.

If you make your presentation to enough people, you’ll find a buyer.

The problem with most people seems to be in making contact – getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people.

But this really shouldn’t be a problem, as we’ll explain later.

There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson’s favor.

We have established that we’re all salespeople in one way or another.

So whether we’re attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it’s vitally important that we continue learning.

Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge – all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy.

But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!

Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking.

The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you’ll sell.

Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling.

Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a “regular” job when they began their selling careers. Yet they’ve done it, and you can do it too!

Remember, it’s the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want.

You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you’re ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (prefer ably something exclusively yours) – something that you “pull out of your brain;” something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people.

But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people.

You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.

Here are some secrets of super salesmanship that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income.

I like to call them the Super Salesmanship Secrets Of Success (3SOS).

Look them over; give some thought to each of them and adapt those that can improve your selling efforts.

1. If the product you’re selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible.

In other words, get the prospect “into the act.” Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.

2. Don’t stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face him while you’re pointing out the important advantages of your product.

This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for

the close.

In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you’re highlighting the important points.

Regarding your sales literature, don’t release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read.

In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you’re telling him about at a given time.

3. With prospects who won’t talk with you: when you can get no feedback to your sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get himinvolved.

Stop and ask questions such as, “Now, don’t you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?”

After you’ve asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer.

It’s a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don’t say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!

4. Prospects who are themselves sales people and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell.

Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, “I don’t know, Mr. Prospect – after watching your reactions to what I’ve been showing and telling you about my product, I’m very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you.”

Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something.

Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your “tough nut” will quickly ask you, Why?

These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong.

When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves.

The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they’ll demand that you sell it to them.

If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly.

Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them.

5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect.

The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money.

Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.

After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money.

Any call backs should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line.

In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you’re going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product.

When faced with a reply such as, “Your product looks pretty good, but I’ll have to give it some thought,” you should quickly jump in and ask him what it is that he doesn’t understand, or what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought.

Let him explain, and that’s when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him.

If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think he’s procrastinating, or that overall, you don’t think the product will really benefit him, or it’s purchase be to his advantage.

You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects.

Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for reorders and other items from your product line.

6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts.

Make sure you have a “door-opener” that arouses interest and “forces” a purchase the first time around.

This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your “buying customer” list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.

If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, you can readily absorb these “commandments.”

Study them, as well as all the material in this report. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that “salesman are made – not born.”

May these sales secrets of super salesmanship help you to improve and sell more of your products and services.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”, (foreign currency market) program which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Secret Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

Do you routinely achieve a 65% – 85% callback rate on the voice mail messages you leave for prospects?

You can. But first you have to ignore the “conventional wisdom” being taught by sales trainers who never actually cold-call or by business consultants who teach rather than do.

In the course of my *research for my book, How To Get Your Voice Mail Messages Returned (http://www.VoiceMailReturned.com), I came across a presentation that some consultant gave on this topic. Like a lot of consultants, she didn’t base her techniques on real-world experiences. Instead, she based it on a book she read.

(*The techniques I teach are based on field research. But I also was interested in what other people had to say about this topic.)

She teaches what you might call a “blueprint” of a standardized script you should follow when leaving cold-call voice mail messages.

Without violating anyone’s copyright — and while representing the “blueprint” as accurately as possible — I will now share with you an example of a voice mail message that follows the principles apparently taught in the book she read.

If you prefer to use a traditional approach to voice mail, you can copy this example.

Personally, I hope you won’t follow this blueprint, because of the three underlying precepts I teach regarding voice mail messages:

1. The only goal of a voice mail message is to get the call returned (or, ultimately to result in a live conversation).

2. Most voice mail messages left by salespeople are not returned.

3. Therefore, the methods commonly employed by most salespeople usually are ineffective.

But if you believe the conventional approach to be just fine, here is a faithful example:

“Hi, my name is Dan O’Day and I am with Z-100 Radio. I understand that you are the Advertising Manager for ABC Widgets, which means you are responsible for the advertising in the Riverside area. I work for a division of XYZ Broadcasting that specializes in creating advertising campaigns that are specifically designed to drive sales for companies like yours. We have worked with everyone from Brand X Widgets to Brand Z Widgets. For example, last year we did an advertising campaign for Brand X Widgets in which we helped them advertise their new Super Widget. I would love to give you more specific

details about other successful campaigns we have designed and talk to you about how we can help you meet your goals in Riverside. My name is is Dan O’Day and you can reach me at 555-476-8111. That number again is 555-476-8111. Thank you and I look forward to your call.”

Well, there it is: A “professional” voice mail message which, according to some book, contains all the elements required to stimulate a callback.

Lots of luck.

We don’t have enough space to analyze that message and list all the things that it does wrong.

But I will point out something that the creator of this “blueprint” doesn’t quite understand:

The average business executive sorts through his mail over the wastebasket. As soon as he mentally identifies something as “junk mail,” he drops it into that wastebasket. And the majority of his mail goes directly into the trash without ever being opened.

The average business executive listens to her voice mail messages with her finger poised over the “delete” button.

And as soon as she decides this phone call is not one that she needs to return or one that she will benefit from returning, she hits “delete”…

…and never looks back.

That means you must begin your message with something that makes the recipient afraid to hit the “delete” button.

And it must maintain the recipient’s interest all the way to your “call to action” (i.e., telling them exactly how and when to return your call).

So you have a choice:

Do you want to leave “professional”-sounding messages that get deleted, not returned?

Or do you want to leave unique, intriguing messages that are are virtually irresistible to the recipient?

© 2005 by Dan O’Day

Dan O’Day, an internationally known Advertising and Marketing strategist, specializes in results-producing, one-to-one communication with customers. He’s worked with media companies, ad agencies, and businesses in 31 different countries. His work has been praised by other marketing gurus including Jay Abraham, Joseph Sugarman, Joe Polish, etc. His book, How To Get Your Voice Mail Messages Returned, is the only resource in the world that includes detailed critiques of actual sales voice mail messages… plus O’Day’s own rewrites to greatly increase the callback response of each call. How To Get Your Voice Mail Messages Returned is available for instant download from http://www.VoiceMailReturned.com

Have you ever gotten frustrated when you realize that your prospects keep stereotyping you as a “salesperson”? And because of that, they don’t give you the trust and openness that you deserve, and that are essential if you’re going to help them solve their problems?

That’s what’s been happening to Michael, who calls companies to set appointments with decisionmakers. “I have a great product that I’m passionate about,” he told me, “but when I call prospects, they immediately start treating me as just another salesperson who’s trying to sell them the same type of product that others have tried to sell to them in the past…Is there any way to stop them from pigeonholing me?”

Michael is hitting what I call the “wall of defensiveness” that almost all decisionmakers these days use to protect themselves against sales calls. It tears me apart that he, like so many other salespeople, have to endure this type of personal rejection as he tries to make a living.

And none of the sales training or motivational programs he’s been through had helped him to solve this frustrating and debilitating situation.

In our one-on-one sessions, Michael and I discussed 7 key strategies that can break down that wall, and he’s been finding that they work for him…maybe they’ll work for you, too…here they are…

1. Curb your enthusiasm. This idea always comes as a shock to anyone who’s been exposed to the old “sales gurus” who insist, “The more enthusiastic you are about what you are selling, the more people will be attracted to your solution”–but, boy, are they wrong! When you come across as overly enthusiastic, especially when you’re on a first call to a new prospect, you immediately trigger sales pressure that tells your prospect, “I’m excited because I just know that you need what I have to offer!” But in any new situation, that’s exactly what you don’t know–so try cutting out your enthusiasm on initial calls. Otherwise, you’re likely to hit the wall.

2. Avoid assuming that you and your prospect are a fit. You may have the “perfect prospect”–someone with the exact criteria and profile of your ideal customer. However, if your words or tone of voice say, “I know you’ll benefit from our service because you fit the exact profile of our customer base,” you’ll inadvertently will set off alarms that will let your prospect associate you with the negative “salesperson” stereotype. Instead, learn to be humble, and avoid making assumptions until after your prospects trust you enough to share their true issues with you. Then the two of you can decide, in a natural evolutionary way, whether you’re a match or not.

3. Don’t think that you have to have all the answers or you’ll “lose” the sale. So many of us work ourselves into a frenzy before we actually pick up the phone to call someone. Why? We’re afraid that if we make a mistake or don’t deliver our pitch perfectly, we’ll be rejected. But it’s okay not to have all the answers. Ever see the TV show “Columbo”?

Was he perfect? No. He was human, humble, and unassuming, and people trusted him. It’s okay not to have all the answers. Needing to have all the answers is a control trip, and when you’re with a prospect, you’re not in control–the two of you are in a relationship. The more you internalize that realization, the more comfortable and less frenzied you’ll feel. And you’ll be surprised when your prospect appreciates you for being a just another human being.

4. Don’t try to overcome objections. Overcoming objections doesn’t build trust. Instead, it only associates you with the negative stereotype of a salesperson who has been trained to move the sales process forward at the prospect’s expense. When you hear an objection, diffuse it and re-engage the conversation on your prospect’s terms.

5. Learn to diffuse sales pressure. Hidden sales pressure is the root of all sales woes. Diffuse it at the beginning of the relationship, and you’ll never have to deal with it again. Shift your mindset and change your language so it reflects you being your most natural self. The most sophisticated sales strategies in the world won’t make any difference if you don’t know how to diffuse the sales pressure that prospects are only too quick to sense–and back away from–in any buyer-seller relationship.

6. View prospects as potential friends, not as sources of commissions. If you see dollar signs instead of human beings when you’re with prospects, they’ll sense your attitude and see those dollar signs in your eyes. Keep your conversations human by always viewing your prospects as people who have potential problems that you can solve.

7. Acknowledging the sales game diffuses the pressure. If you find yourself in a sales situation that puts your relationship with your prospect at risk–for example, a prospect promises to call you back but doesn’t–call the “game.” Call your prospect and say simply and gently that you really don’t want the relationship to degenerate into the stereotypical cat-and-mouse sales game. Your message should always be, “Our relationship, not my commission, is my priority.”

The bottom line of all this is: You can no longer rely on what you are selling to distinguish yourself, because there’s just too much competition out there. Instead, you must focus on how you’re selling. That’s the only thing that will make you different from everyone else.

With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari Galper discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years.

His profound discovery of shifting one’s mindset to a place of complete integrity, based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world’s leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling.

Leading companies such as Gateway, Clear Channel Communications, Brother International and Fidelity National Mortgage have called on Ari to keep them on the leading edge of sales performance. Visit http://www.unlockthegame.com to get his free sales training lessons.

Do you find people are abandoning their registrations part-way through? The solution may lie in how much detail you are giving up front.

Why are people jumping ship?

One reason people abandon their registration is because they want to learn more before buying. You could have the best speakers in the world at your event, the most cutting edge training, the best and brightest attendees, but if no one knows about any of that then potential registrants will have trouble justifying spending their time and money. Remember, your objective in online registrations is to make it as easy as possible for someone to find you, decide on your event, make a payment, and get all the information they need to attend.

What do my registrants need?

Having links from the registration pages to more detailed pages (either on the registration system or to your website) is very important. It enables the registrant to open secondary windows, get

more information, and then come back to finish their registration. It takes very little time and effort to click a link and read more information in a new window, so that is a great first line of defense in terms of getting registrations completed. You may also want to encourage people to call you while they are registering, so they can get answers right away and finish their registration right then and there.

Lack of information is just another hurdle that you need to make as low as possible for your attendees.

I sincerely hope this article makes your conference and seminar registration even more successful!

Bill Flagg is the President of RegOnline

Putting smiles on the faces of over 9,200 event-planning professionals worldwide because it is the easiest-to-use online seminar and conference registration system available.

P.S. – If you would like to receive more tips like this via email then go to http://www.RegOnline.com/eTips

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4) The material and size can be required to be made in accordance with customer

requests

5) Double customs clearance for container customers

Packing: original packing

MOQ: 10prs

More information like catalog and pricelist please kindly visit my website and contact me immeidately.

–website: www.wholesaleincn.com

–Msn/Email: gosportcity@hotmail.com

Our mission is top quality, competitive price, fast shipemnt and best service. We are the best choice for you.

“Absolutely, Positively, Overnight, Guaranteed”

“Reach out and touch someone”

“VISA: It’s everywhere you want to be”

All memorable promotional slogans, right? But how did these tiny phrases work for these BIG companies, to help position and promote their service? That’s the real question.

Federal Express was perceived as just another shipping company. But they were very smart: they did market research. And what they found was that most shippers were not on time, and did not have viable tracking systems. Customers of those lesser shippers, therefore, were often angry, since their packages were lost or delayed. With that in mind, FedEx created a system that was extremely revolutionary for its time: hub shipping, which required that all orders be processed in one, centralized location. By activating a large fleet of planes and trucks (and people!), FedEx was able to meet the demand for guaranteed overnight service—at a time when our culture as a whole was infusing speed to provide an edge in business. Now, of course, we can surf the Internet faster than we can talk. But back then, such a significant move to highlight FedEx’s differences from other shippers, and promote that difference “absolutely, positively,” convinced even us tough skeptics.

Working in the film business at the time, we typically spent over a half-million dollars just to shoot one commercial or television episode. Naturally, we were reluctant to trust our original celluloid film to some shipper who might not temperature-protect it, thus ruining the image quality. Worse, we certainly couldn’t contract with a shipper who might lose the film entirely, and wasn’t insured to reimburse us the half-mil needed to re-shoot our film. Sure, now we can digitize a copy, or use a dozen other protective measures, but back then it was a very different techno-time. In our industry, the production cost was so incredibly prohibitive that we only hired people or equipment that “absolutely, positively” could get the job done, like FedEx.

Looking back on those times, the ad slogans reveal lessons not in clever wording (as most companies mistakenly believe is the key), but rather in great thinking. After all, as we’re fond of saying, Knowledge is Bliss! Understanding what clients really need, and how your company can fill that niche, is the key to capturing ongoing business from satisfied clients. And it’s not just applicable to giant corporations, whose slogans we know so well. Small companies need intelligence to find out how they’re different, so they can really embrace and promote those differences.

EXAMPLE OF HOW IT WORKSOne of my clients, Kathleen Kline & Associates, has a virtual office from which she provides transcription and editing services. She was selling against similar types of companies in her area. Once we surveyed her clients, we discovered that they valued the differences that set her apart from the plethora of other, less intellectually sophisticated editors and transcribers.

Therefore, we promoted her “Intelligent Virtual Office” services and raised her rates to be commensurate with the value she brought to her clients.

Kathleen’s elite education (Diplôme Supérieur from the Sorbonne in Paris), as well as her ability to understand and accurately transcribe technically complex subject matter from audio-taped interviews into real text, using the clients’ actual words (as opposed to transcribers who simply employ phonetics, which yield impossible-to-understand or completely useless transcripts) greatly

distinguished her company’s value from her competitors.

If you need a great, cost-effective transcriber, editor, or proofreader, I’d be glad to put you in touch with Kathleen Kline & Associates. She can tell you firsthand how her revenues jumped from embracing her differences and promoting that.

CLEVER IDEA FROM A SMALL COMPANYPatricia Griecci, CEO (and “Top Dog”) of the “Smiling Dog” company, makes products for “Kids with Tails”. What are her products? Dog cookies. Is there a market? Yes! As a matter of fact, ten million people regularly purchase such products. The idea for her business came to Patricia when she was trying to find a really nice dog bed for her own “kid.” She now thinks of herself as the “Martha Stewart for dogs.”

At a professional conference a few years ago, Patricia described how she found and successfully filled this need, explaining, “Go for the void. When you see a need, do your due diligence to make sure there’s a market, and then create a niche product. Don’t take ‘no’ as never, but instead as a ‘not now’ answer.”

WHAT TOP LEADERS TEACH US IN MARKETINGBecause I’ve been fortunate to work in television, taping thousands of business and community leaders, politicians, scientists, educators, entertainers, athletes, and a cross-section of humanity, I’ve gathered some wisdom from them that directly applies to marketing. These noted professionals mostly concur that if one is to be recognized and remembered, and hopes to succeed, one is obligated to put forth the following principles.

· Stand up for your beliefs with integrity, passion and imagination. Don’t be afraid to be different—that’s what will be “absolutely, positively” remembered about your company!

· Be authentic in your messages—steer clear of hype, spam, and ho-hum marketing. Putting out that kind of drivel is insulting, and no one has time for it. Be clear, authentic, and consistent. Success is noisy—the phone is ringing! So, be sure to listen to your intuition while it’s noisy and you’re reaping profits, because that’s what will guide you to keep your business thriving.

· Your brand is your promise. Stick to it, and consider its DNA as your own.

· None of us has all the answers. Find experts or those more knowledgeable than yourself to help you—consultants, mentors, coaches, lawyers, friends, kids, a board of directors, or whatever works. (This is also hugely stress reducing).

· How you think is more important than what you know. When you need someone knowledgeable and thoughtful to help you think things through, don’t be afraid to ask for counsel (yep, that’s what we do here).

· It’s easy to make changes, because so few of us do.

· Knowledge is Bliss. When you have it, you’ll enjoy life.

Allison Bliss Consulting, the creator of “Marketing as a Spiritual Practice” method, rebels against misleading, pushy, spam-filled marketing offering Fortune 500 companies and offers entrepreneurs an integrated range of do-it-yourself marketing products & customized marketing strategy, plans, promotional materials, websites, and hands-on services.

Having studied with Frances Ford Coppola and other film greats, Bliss is a member of the Directors Guild of America where she crafted hundreds of films, tv shows, and commercials. She moved into marketing to help worthy business get noticed, and because she figured they needed her help more than Hollywood did. Her website offers tools to make marketing idiot-proof for under $20.

http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm

Corporate videos are an important sales tool that can often be overlooked in marketing budgets.

We look at the top nine tell-tale signs that indicate whether your company is in need of an innovative and effective way to promote itself.

1. No strong corporate “look and feel”

You’re in a highly competitive industry. Yet, what makes you really stand apart from your competitors is your people and the look and feel of your company.

So how do you show your state-of-the-art factory in action or your professional staff working in your appealing office?

And what about your idyllic location? What’s the best way to show picturesque vision of rolling hills, clean and green countryside or waterside views?

The solution is to create a marketing video that paints an appealing picture of those indefinable qualities that make your company unique.

2. Unique Presentations

You need to do a sales presentation and your company is up against some tough competitors.

How do you present your company in a way that is different to your opponents?

A proven method is to play your corporate video within your PowerPoint presentation.

Playing your marketing video at the start of a sales presentation is a great way to relax your audience. Interesting vision and upbeat music can make your audience feel more positive, even before you’ve spoken a word.

It’s an ideal way to show the look and feel of your company in a convincing and enjoyable manner.

3. Trade Shows/Exhibitions

Your organisation is always exhibiting at trade shows and needs a way to stand out from the crowd.

Setting up a television screen and a DVD/VHS player in your stand with your continually repeating corporate video is an easy way to get people to stop and stare. Moving vision and music easily stops people in their tracks.

Parents quickly learn that it is easy to distract a child by leaving them in front of a television. Adults are usually no different. It is easy to grab the attention of participants who may feel uncomfortable (or bored) walking around a trade show.

Continually playing your corporate video is an easy way for passers-by to learn about you without having to go to the effort of reading through brochures.

4. Increasing Export Sales

Travelling overseas to market your products or services to international buyers is risky business. Not just for your company, but also for your prospects.

Can they really trust you when you tell them how large and reputable you business is and that you have the right quality procedures in place? How can they get a real feel for your company that is located thousands of miles away?

Presenting your location, factory or office, production process and your dedicated staff at work is highly regarded by international buyers. It provides an extra a look and feel about your company that is often lacking from brochures and photos.

A concise marketing video that gives an interesting overview of your company is a proven method to increasing international sales.

5. Showing your Product or Service in Action

Sometimes you cannot actually demonstrate your product or

service to a client because it is too large to lug around, it is located on the other side of the world or there is only one prototype that cannot be used.

New products or services that are suitable for use in a range of different scenarios are also difficult to demonstrate.

Using a marketing video that can exhibit how your product works and under what circumstances is a great way for prospects to understand what you are trying to sell.

This is a much better alternative than taking the prospect through lengthy operational manuals or worse still, having them rely on their imagination.

6. Extensive Product Range

Your product list is extensive. Not only do your clients not know all of the products that you sell, but even your staff have trouble remembering!

Studies have found that we are more likely to remember information if it is shown with pictures. The best way to inform people about your product range (and for them to remember) is to show scenarios in which the product can be used.

7. Your Production Process

Your product is made in a time-honoured tradition that takes hours of dedication. Or your product is made from the finest quality materials that are only obtainable from a scenic, rural location. Alternatively, your service was developed from years of research by experienced technicians.

Showing your product being made in a manner that is different to your competitors gives you a distinct competitive advantage.

This is one area that you do not want to leave to nice words and pretty pictures in a brochure. To do your company justice, showcasing your production process is an extremely important message to convey.

8. Believable Testimonials

There is nothing more potent than having your happy customers raving on about how wonderful you are to camera.

Written testimonials are often read suspiciously. We’re all guilty of reading through testimonials and laughing about their dubious authenticity.

Having a real client talking about you on camera is like having that person tell your prospects face-to-face about how highly they think of you. Of course, the testimonial has to look real. Uncomfortable clients poorly reading from an autocue fools nobody!

When done correctly, this is an extremely effective way to promote your business and one that has been used since televisions first appeared in our lounge rooms.

9. Winning Awards

Many savvy businesses know that entering awards can be a great way to cost effectively promote their company.

Submitting your corporate video in an award submission is also a clever technique to distinguish your company from the pack.

An added bonus is that your video material may also be included during any awards ceremony stretching your promotional opportunities even further.

Marie-Claire Ross is from Digicast Television Production. Digicast Television Production has helped many businesses win big contracts and projects by increasing more awareness and knowledge of their products and services. To get the FREE Digicast Ezine with marketing tips and the latest information on technology to help busy business professionals visit (http://www.digicast.com.au) to subscribe.