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Many people foolishly believe because they’re using the “internet”, you no longer have to “sell” — that the intenet “does it all for you”.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
See, the internet is just another selling media, like direct
mail… display ads… postcards… whatever.
This story shows you what selling is really all about. I
hope you enjoy it and find a way to use it sometime in your
own business.
For more than 30 years, an old school salesman — a good ol’
country boy — traveled around 4 southern states in his
station
wagon with his bird dog, selling appliances to a long list
of dealers he had established over the years.
The wholesale company he worked for thought many times how
they wanted to get rid of him because of his rather
unorthodox
way of selling, not to mention how he looked and talked.
Yet despite his misunderstood methods, he was always in the
top 10% in sales and won many company trips and awards.
On company trips and outings with dealers and manufacturers
he would often get drunk and tell corny hayseed stories and
jokes, all the while dressed in his wrinkled and mismatched
clothes….again, very unorthodox and uncouth compared to
the upscale image the company wanted to present.
Regardless of his methods, the old country boy was so
successful at what he did, the firm couldn’t afford to get
rid of him.
He once turned in a signed order for 2 box cars
full or washers and dryers on a brown paper bag with grease
and mustard stains on it (he lost his order forms).
One week, our noted saleman was on a company trip to the
plant of a
large manufacturer of refrigerators for the unveiling of a
new technical innovation.
The innovation was for “Frost Free” refrigerators using a
new
insulation product called Acrylic Barrel Styrene (ABS).
Everywhere you looked there were these three
letters “ABS” on signs, banners, and handouts, everywhere…
all over the place.
At the opening of the first days meeting, with hundreds of
sales reps present, the marketing executive for the
manufacturer
stood up and in an attempt to make a dramatic announcement
about
this new innovative technology, and he asked the group if
anyone in the
audience could tell him what ABS stood for.
Our short, rumpled country boy in the back of the room
jumped up on his chair waving his arms back and forth.
The executive couldn’t help but notice, and called on him,
“Yes sir, the man on the chair way in the
back.”
Without hesitation as he stood on his chair with his arms
raised high in the air, he screamed his
answer to the heavens above,
“ALWAYS BE SELLING”.
Remember, if you want extraordinary results… you’ve got to
use extraordinary (and unconventional) means to get them.
Cause last time I checked… being average… doesn’t…
pay… much!
Now go sell something,
Craig Garber
http://www.KingOfCopy.com
P.S. Check out all the prior archives you’ve been
missing, right here at:
http://www.kingofcopy.com/tips/tiparchives.html
If you want to know how to consistently attract a steady stream of fresh new prospects, who are pre-qualified, eager, and excited about buying from you, then Craig Garber — recognized by his peers as America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriter — can show you exactly how to do this, step-by-step. Garber’s written winning promotions across a HUGE variety of industries and you can see them all for yourself on his website at http://www.kingofcopy.com
I’ve got faith in humanity, but what’s with all this fraud and theft on the Internet?
My friends in the web hosting business have recently informed me that the big problem this year (2004) is security and fraud. I have read that currently the F.B.I. receives over 9,000 complaints per month pertaining to bogus email and websites. Why is this happening? Are just a few ‘bad apples’ doing it, or is it the result of a lopsided world economy where the underprivileged are finally striking back like the infamous Robin Hood? Whatever your moral view, I’ve got the strange feeling it stems from a growing unconscious greed in the social consciousness of modern society. People worship money, not spirituality or love. Am I wrong?
Technically, the main problems at the moment are ‘phishing’ or ’spoofing’ scams. This is where the use of Spam or junk-email is used to lure computer users to look-alike websites where they are deceived into giving out personal information and financial data. Often these emails are coming from trusted sources where hackers have altered links to send you straight into their ‘pockets’. The Internet user is duped into thinking that they are visiting a trusted website page, when actually it is an excellent copy of the original. There might be only one tiny change in the web address that is often not easily recognizable.
Identity theft is where multiple tricks are employed to make you fill out fake forms on fake sites to get all sorts of information that can then be used by thieves to steal money or get free Internet access. Anything from credit card numbers to account information, passwords, billing data and personal phone numbers and addresses have been stolen and used for criminal purposes.
These tricksters, few or many, are wizards at finding loopholes in mail systems of legitimate sites. Just go to the site entitled www.crimesofpersuasion.com and read some articles about a few of the more famous scams that have been busted or that are still in circulation. There’s a story about a 17-year-old boy who was arrested with over a million dollars in misappropriated funds hidden in a Costa Rican casino account! Smart kid, but how smart is he really if he got caught? On the site above there are also tips for consumers generally focusing on how not to give your information away to anyone at any time. Check them out.
It worries me a little, this huge amount of illegal activity. I know that a lot of people feel that currently the world is very imbalanced in terms of wealth and spirituality and that this new epidemic is just a karmic reaction of the oppressed masses. The United States earns 50 percent of the world’s economy, of course some of the other 95% of Earth’s population is going to be keen for a piece of the pie, right? Steal from the rich and feed the poor like that guy in the green tights.
The funny thing is I think that a lot of these thieves are living in America and unbeknownst to themselves be already part of the top 5% of wealthy humans. The problem is that they always want more. Money can become addictive in a consumerist society whose advertising and marketing schemes are constantly bombarding us with stimulus relating to the next new product that we ‘need’ in our lives. We are never satisfied with what we’ve got. The next purchase’s momentary injection of adrenalin becomes more of an imperative than any concept of lasting spiritual happiness.
Feel sorry for these people that have to go through all the rigmarole of sorting all these frauds from the real sites out there. I doubt there is a religion on Earth that teaches that theft is a balanced respectful action. I do know that when the country of Australia was founded it was done so on the backs of convicts, many of who had only stolen bread to survive. That’s a kind of theft that will question your moral value system. I’ll leave you with one last question: If the ‘first world’ has nearly all the money on our planet, are we the biggest thieves of all?
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is a concerned human hoping to one-day witness humanity living in a peaceful and egalitarian world.
No matter how long you’ve been in business, one of the quickest ways to start getting referrals from your network and to get out there in a BIG way, is to start telling your Centers of Influence (COIs) what you’re up to in a face-to-face meeting. This can be in addition to sending them the introduction/update letter and can be either in a cafe or at their office (where they happen to have their Rolodex handy).
Centers of influence are people who like and respect you, and who come in contact with enough people on a daily and weekly basis to be able to regularly refer you to the right people. They are some of the most influential people you know, natural networkers who seem to know everyone, “bridgers” who love putting people together, just for the fun of it. (Sometimes we call these people “the mayor” because they just seem to know everyone!)
Just one meeting with some of these COIs over coffee or lunch (your treat), on a regular basis, will start revving up your reputation and referral engines. People will start hearing about you and you’ll get new clients this way quickly. It’s just another way to educate your environment about what you’re up to, but with very targeted individuals.
Dan Sullivan, The Strategic Coach, describes Centers of Influence in an article on “Referability”:
“By focusing on relationships, you multiply opportunities for yourself and your business. The secret is to provide extraordinary service to an inner circle of high-quality clients and centers of influence. They, in turn, become marketers for you, through referrals to other individuals like them. By doing this in a systematic fashion, you will be able to create an unlimited high-quality market that is immune to the ups and downs of local and national economies.”
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Make a list of the 20 most influential people you know. These are usually natural networkers who run into lots of people and would be happy to tell others about you when appropriate.
Call five of these COIs this week to set up coffee or lunch in the next two weeks. Do the same the following week, and so on. Educate them on what you do for clients, your system, and who your Ideal Clients are. Ask who they know that fits the bill. Collaborate, brainstorm, and of course, offer to do the same for them.
Repeat quarterly (and put it as a recurring appointment in your calendar). How’s THAT for a client attraction system?
© 2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Expert, is founder of the Client Attraction System, the proven step-by-step program to help you attract more clients, in record time and consistently. To learn more about Fabienne’s Client Attraction Home Study System, sign up for her FREE client attraction tips and no-charge teleclasses on attracting more clients, visit http://www.ClientAttraction.com. |
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No one really likes the thought of exercising to lose weight. Just the thought of seeing someone pumping iron, doing aerobics, while sweating profusely is enough to make anyone turn away. It doesn’t have to be that way though. One of the greatest and simplest forms of weight loss is walking. Think about this for a minute.
- Walking is something we do every day of our lives. We don’t need to learn how to do it.
– Walking is inexpensive. No having to buy special food, pills, or liquids. You don’t have to purchase exercise equipment, or join an expensive health club.
– Walking does so much more than just help you lose weight. It helps with your overall fitness.
– Walking is peaceful and can be a lot of fun.
When you decide to begin walking to lose those added pounds, there are only a few things to keep in mind.
Buy a good pair of walking shoes. Your feet will love you for this! Don’t just throw on an old pair of 10 year old sneakers and begin walking 2 miles. You will regret it by the time your finished. Spend $40 or so and get yourself a nice pair of shoes to walk in. It’s money well spent.
Be sure to wear a good thick pair of socks. It will help keep your feet even more comfortable. Also wear loose fitting clothing. If you try walking 2 miles in a tight fitting pair of pants, you may look good doing it, but you won’t be feeling very good at the end of your walk.
Take a personal radio or CD player with you. Have a good set of headphones that stay on your head. Enjoy yourself while walking and losing weight.
One of the most important keys to walking and losing weight is to take it slowly. Don’t try to overdo it and walk 5 miles your first few days, or weeks. Start out with a mile, or even less if necessary. Gradually work your way up to longer distances.
Pace yourself while walking. If you feel you’re starting to get out of breath, stop for a while. You don’t have to walk fast or jog to lose weight. Simply by walking a nice pace will give you surprising results.
Walk for at least 20-30 minutes at a time. If you only walk for 10 minutes, you’re not going to see much in the way of weight loss. You need to walk for 30 minutes to get your heart rate up and body working. Also, try to walk at least 4 times a week. Every other day is good. Walking can be done in your neighborhood or in a nice local park. You can enjoy your surroundings and listen to your favorite music. 30 minutes will fly by before you know it.
Keep track of your weight loss with a good set of scales at home. By walking 2 miles, 3-4 times a week, you should begin seeing results within a week or two. By the end of a month you will be shocked at the pounds your body is losing. Walking is by far the easiest and most beneficial way to weight loss there is. It’s natures way of keeping us all healthier.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Weight Loss
One of the toughest choices a bride must make is that of her wedding music. The music at an event can shape the entire evening and set the mood from beginning to end.
However, so many wedding quartets and bands exist now that a bride doesn’t even know where to start looking.
Will the band show up? Are they any good? Can I hear some samples? These are questions that brides are left wondering even after they book that string quartet for the ceremony music.
We talked to Chandler Judkins with Las Vegas Wedding Music, the number one musician contracting company in the wedding capital of the world to find out how a bride’s music jitters can be put at ease.
First, Chandler Judkins says, find a contractor instead of trusting your wedding coordinator.
This might outrage some wedding coordinators who make a living at planning weddings. However, Judkins says that unless a coordinator has graduated in a music program at a university or is using a musician contractor themselves to get a string quartet or jazz band, then don’t listen to their opinions on what is “a magical wedding band.”
“Just like a bride takes such care to match everything to the colors of her wedding, a musician contractor matches the music to her colors as well,” Judkins said.
Las Vegas Wedding Music has over 200 professional musicians ready to be contracted for Las Vegas weddings. “Any good musician contractor should have the same,” Judkins said.
If a bride hires a professional musician contractor, all her questions are answered with ease. She no longer has to worry about the band showing up; they can be reported to the Better Business Bureau if they don’t. Musician contractors usually have years of experience and a degree to back it. A bride also doesn’t have to worry about a band sounding good; musician contractors always have sound demos and often live videos for brides so they can choose the perfect ensemble.
To see an example of a musician contractor’s Web site visit Las Vegas Wedding Music’s Web site at: LasVegasWeddingMusic.com.
If a bride has trouble finding a musician contractor in her area, she can contact the musician’s union in her city. They are always willing to help brides find talented musicians.
Renae C. Judkins is a wedding consultant for VegasWedlock.com. All her articles may be republished for free if a byline and site link are included. More of Renae’s articles can be found at http://www.vegaswedlock.com.
We dream of buying each and everything that we desire and keeping it at our homes. This is a common attitude among all human beings and is not limited to any one particular thing. We desire more and more and with promotions and increasing incomes often buy more and more, just to keep ourselves satisfied. Now it is even possible to use fire pits at home. They aren’t expensive at all, just around 200$ for starters and that is well within the reach of even a middle income group earner!
Fire pits at home give you the opportunity of having fun in summers or getting some natural heat in winters, besides calling parties to rock and showing off your new fire pit whilst all that happens. Possibly your neighbors might like to visit you a little more often once you get a fire pit. After all, why would they not like to share all that heat and fun, besides you might get to try some free marshmallows which they would like to roast on your fire pit. What say? Fire pits are indeed a desirable commodity today and I doubt things will change quite a lot anytime soon. Fire pits still do have some life in them!
click here for more fire pit information.
In this day of age starting to go bald does not regularly mean that you yourself will have to walk around your borough with a thin head of hair. The treatments to help balding gents has evolved so much over the last four years that ladies are trying treatments that will actually create hair regrowth.
The great treatments have been around for over 2 years, and can often involve laser treatment, hair grafting & topical treatments. Boys might start losing their own hair from the young age of 21, and may become almost completely bald by the age of thirty two Girls can of course start losing their wonderful hair.
Baldness that runs in the family is the primary reason for losing hair in males. At first the hair begins to get sparse at the front of the forehead and can harmoniously become get sparse at the crown of your head. The balding part may eventually change into a considerable bald patch making the guy feel ugly. And then the receding forehead and crown eventually become one. A rim of hair is commonly left.
Advanced Hair Studio has been been in the UK for over twenty years & owns hair clinics all over the country. With the firms first-of-its-kind hair strand loss techniques the firm might help ladies who desire to regain their confidence & hair back. For the best hair growth techiniques visit Advanced Hair Studio and get back your confidence.
Everyone has days when they are down, worn out and just not feeling all that happy.
That’s OK, you need to have days like this, otherwise how would you know when you are happy. You need to have something to contrast your happiness with. What is black without white?
Even though you know that sadness is a part of life, let’s try to make it a small part of life.
With that said, here are a few tips to help you feel better when you are feeling down in the dumps. They are easy to do, easy to practice every day and they work!
1. Stand up straight, sit up straight. When your body is in alignment your energy can flow and when your energy is flowing freely, you can flow.
2. Smile! Yes, just smile. Easy to do and effective.
3. Repeat positive affirmations. Things like “I feel good”, “Positive energy flows through my body”, “I see the good in all”.
4. Listen to some music that you like. It doesn’t have to be anything specific, just something you enjoy. Certain types of music work better than others, but experiment and see what works for you. Studies have shown that Classical music and new age music work best.
5. Take some time out for yourself, relax and read a book, do something for yourself.
6. Meditate. Meditation is an excellent habit to develop. It will serve you in all that you do. If you are one who has a hard time sitting still, then try some special meditation CDs that coax your brain into the meditative state. Just search for “Meditation music” on Google or Yahoo and explore.
Our outside work is simply a reflection of our inside world. Remember there is no reality just your perception of it. Use this truth to your advantage. Whenever you are sad, realize that it is all in your mind and you do have the power to change your perception.
These tips will lift you up when you are down, but don’t just use them when you are sad. Try and practice them everyday, make them a habit. You will be surprised at how these simple exercises will keep the rainy days away.
On a final note, if you are in a deep depression that you can’t seem to shake, please go see a doctor. This is your life and don’t take any chances.
Factoring is when a business sells its receivables for a service or product delivered to another business. Many people in the healthcare industry think that medical receivables can’t be factored because the “customer” is a person and not a business. But medical receivables can be factored because in most cases, your payment comes from Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, etc. In other words, the payment is coming to you from a business, so the receivables CAN be factored.
In the past, healthcare professionals could depend on efficient operations to keep
their cash flowing, but that often is not enough now. Increased costs and longer
times for insurance companies and Medicare to pay the bills are making it
impossible for them to keep their practices running smoothly.
Most factoring companies do not factor medical receivables, but there are several
that specialize in this niche. They fully understand that accounts that are paid by
third party payors take more due diligence and more things have to be looked at
than with “regular” factoring. They know these receivables are filed and paid
differently by different states and then have elaborate payment methods and
computations. There are government and insurance regulations, delayed
reimbursements, HMOs, contractual allowances, multiple payors and many more
challenges that are only found in the healthcare industry. The factors who specialize
in your industry know all the lingo and terminology and will immediately understand
your needs.
The healthcare businesses that will most easily be approved for factoring are: Acute
or Rehab or Specialty Hospitals, Physicians, Surgery or Imaging Centers, Dialysis or
Urgent Care or Rehab Centers, Ambulance companies, Medical Labs, DME/HME,
Osteopaths, Oral Surgeons, Pharmacies, Home Health Care and Workers Comp
Healthcare Providers and some Chiropractor groups.
There are certain types of health related businesses that might be more difficult to
factor, mostly because the net collectable value from the private insurance
companies or government is too small each month for a factor to be interested.
These are small chiropractors, dentists, cosmetic surgeons and Lasik doctors (often
not covered by insurance) and some nursing homes because of credit problems.
Medical receivable factoring companies all have different minimum monthly net
collectable amounts, so ask your broker for the one that will be able to help your
business. Some work with amounts as small as $35,000-$50,000, others have a
minimum of $200,000.
Once your account is set up with the factor, you will receive up to 85% of the
invoices within hours of turning them in each week. When the bills are finally paid,
you will receive the rest of the amount owed, minus a small fee. The fee depends on
many things and will probably range somewhere between 2% and 6%.
You will lose all the stress of not knowing when you will be paid for the work you
are doing. You’ll be able to pay all your vendors and staff on time, you’ll be able to
keep up with all your bills. You will even be able to hire more staff or buy more
equipment, because you’ll know you can accept more business.
There have been instances when a medical business has been on the brink of
bankruptcy and decided to try factoring as a last ditch effort and it saved them.
They were able to turn everything around and are thriving now.
Factoring should be considered as a tool for growth and management, not as a last
resort to save your business. Unless your practice has very expensive equipment or
diagnostic devices, your largest asset is its accounts receivables and these assets
can be used to keep your business running smoothly and growing.
Donna Poisl is President of Creative Funding Solutions. CFS works closely with
several of the best factors in the country, each with different rates, fees and
requirements and is able to find the best one for each client. Contact Donna at Medical Factoring.
Over half of all US online adults use search engines most or every time they are online, according to a recent “How America Searches” study from icrossing. “How America Searches” takes a detailed look at why people turn to search engines, which engines have the most loyal users, how well people can distinguish natural and paid results, and other questions.
This kind of information can be incredibly helpful to your business. For example, the vast majority of search engine users (88%) say they use search engines to research specific topics and shopping is the activity of choice for over half (51%).
So what happens if one of those surfers lands on your website from the search engines and they’re doing research for a product or service they’d like to buy? Are they gone in an instant never to return again? That could kill your business.
Maybe not if you have a clever way to capture just who those visitors are. And that is very easy to do. You have only a few seconds to grab the contact details of this visitor. You can accomplish that objective by offering a free report download or newsletter sign up that compels them to give you their contact information in exchange for your valuable freebie.
Once you have those details captured, you have many opportunities to connect with that prospect over and over again.
Denise O’Berry helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Find out more at http://www.smallbusinessmatters.com