The Unique Path To Online Business Success

The Unique Path To Online Business Success
Table of Contents
1. How to write web site and article content that sells 2. Why your company must have a designated nudge 3. Top 5 Mistakes made by Online Marketers. Don't make these mistakes and sabotage your promotional efforts 4. Massive Passive Income: What is Autoblogging All About? 5. Massive Passive Income: Does Autoblogging Really Work? 6. 10 Tips for Writing Business Communications that get results! 7. Achtung! Internet Readers BEWARE! People are deliberately misleading you online. Here's why... 8. What to do when your customer says No! 9. Is it a Scam? Here's how you'll know! 10. The 4 MOST Important Words In Business Success 11. The Fine Art of Business Follow-up 12. Is Your Business REALLY Customer Centered? 13. The great secret of business success: The MORE you GIVE AWAY, the richer you get! 14. Here's how you get success from the very FIRST DAY of your home-based business. 15. Warning! You may be one of MILLIONS of people leaving money on the table because you won't work the phone! 16. What you want your customers to say over and over again. 17. What is absolutely crucial for your business success? Joy, that's what! You either have it, or you've had it. 18. How to stay focused and make money on days you DON'T feel like it! 19. Beware of any 'business' that relies on recruiting family and friends for your success! 20. Six things you can do to ensure constant good service. Hint: tipping isn't one of them! 21. Tips for profoundly irritating your customers. Here are the words that'll do it. 22. Five Things You Don't Know About Closing Sales Which Are Eviscerating Your Profits 23. 5 Things You Should Do When Your Customer Buys (if you want more business in the future!) 24. Four things successful business people will do today... that you won't! 25. What Kind of Online Marketer are you? A Dabbler or a Doer? Your Answer Matters. 26. Another look inside the millionaire mind-set... how millionaires look at the Internet... very different from you... and far more lucrative. 27. If you're lucky and work hard, you get the partners you need to be the business success you desire. Here's a tribute to mine. 28. After 17 successful years online, I know the secret of Internet success. I'm spilling the beans right here. 29. Home truths from an old hand about what it takes to succeed online. You may not like them but you need them! 30. 21 Recommended Books for Entrepreneurs 31. Want to make money online? Here's 10 Proven Ways! 32. Worldprofit: A Review of Developments in 2011 and Sneak Peak at Plans for 2012. 33. You SAY you're in business, but that proposition is dubious, as this article reveals in shocking detail. 34. I accuse you of doing everything you can to sabotage your online success.... and what you must do -- at once -- to change that and profit. 35. 100% sales. The 'must read' for business people who want more money and want it NOW!
How to write web site and article content that sells

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant It was Bill Gates, the sage with prophetic talents and the deepest of pockets, who said it first: "Content is king." Per usual billionaire Bill was right. Problem is, he omitted the directions on how to produce the site and article content you need so much. Humbly, I rectify his omission. Here then are the necessary steps for producing web site and article copy that sells. 1) Know thy audience. The purpose of creating site content is to build relationships and loyalty with your designated populations... and produce content that gets them to RETURN and RESPOND. Are you, therefore, clear on just who you are producing content for? Say you are running an insurance agency and want to insure more business from people with large and valuable art and artifact collections. Before you write word 1 of content, you must know and WRITE DOWN a description of the kinds of people you want to attract. Every word you write thereafter, all the content you produce is for -- them! 2) Write content that brings you business In this report, I am showing you how to write site content that sells. For details on how to write the great American novel, you must seek other counsel. Thus, your next step towards producing site content that sells is to brainstorm subjects and to craft the all-important title. Again, consider the insurance agent aiming for lucrative antique collection accounts. He needs a title like this: "7 things you need to know about insuring your antiques and collections." Alternatively, try this "7 things you don't know about insuring your antiques that make you vulnerable." Or, "5 things you can do right now to decrease the cost of your antiques insurance." Note: a title like this peeks reader interest... the public designated for this content wants to know, is desperate to know, just where there may be holes, flaws, and omissions in their policies. Your content (and your title) play to their need to know, including fears and anxieties which motivate prompt response to you. 3) Brainstorm subjects to be included in your article or site content The most cogent content is brainstormed and outlined before a single word is written. First, and most importantly, sit down at your desk and write down the topics you want (and your reader must have) in this content. Personally, I take one 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet and (in my execrable hand writing) detail all the key points about the subject at hand. Then, having brainstormed all, I arrange these points in logical order, thus: first do this, then this, then this, etc. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 4 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Brainstorm and point prioritizing are key to successful content. Note: for best results, you should have no fewer than 5 points in any individual article or not more than 10. The content may appear skimpy and inadequate if you have too few points while having more than 10 over burdens your reader (and future customer), causing him to postpone reading -- and response! 4) Now write. You are now ready to write the content, for you have considered your audience and what they need to know (and will most thank you for); you have brainstormed the subjects to be included and arranged them in the proper order. Yes, you are ready to write. Sit yourself down in your writing place (you do have one, don't you), a place where you can write undisturbed, inviolate to the crafting of superb content Go there now. Determine your writing schedule. You should be able to produce draft site content in 2-4 hours, depending on how experienced a writer you are. Always set a date and time for the conclusion of Draft 1. Never leave it open-ended. Things without deadlines are things less likely to be done. Note: Remember, what you are writing now must be a conversation between you and your reader (who is, let's be clear, your future customer, too.) The content must, therefore, be written accordingly. The word "you" (meaning you, the reader) must predominate. You must not write for an amorphous audience of the unknown. You must write instead to and for the chief benefit of each individual reader... just as if the reader was sitting beside you and you were explaining one thing after another of importance to her. This is vital. 5) Read, review, revise your content. Now hear this: the best writing is re-writing. Thus, when you have finished Draft 1, let it sit overnight. It is the rare, experienced, polished writer who can write such content, review such content, and post the finished product all in a day. Some may disagree, but I remain convinced time and patience are necessary ingredients in the very best content. When ready, read your content aloud. No sentence should be more than one breath. If your sentences are turgid and flow slowly, awkward, break them into shorter lines, easier to read. Your tempo should be allegro, not andante. 6) Revise, revise, revise. Having finished your first revisions, it is time for... more revisions. As much time should be spent on revising your content as writing it in the first place. This, then, should be your schedule: Day 1, write the content. On this same day, do the first revisions. Day 2, after letting the content sit overnight, awake early (personally I do this between 5-7 am because that is when my schedule is clear and I have the fewest interruptions. In other words, I can focus.) Then do at least one more content revision. 3) On Day 3, do a final content review. There should be few, if any, changes at this point. Your content should be word perfect, light, graceful, moving; content that will impact the reader, because it impacts you! 7) The Resource Box Now add the crucial Resource Box and About the Author details. Having written content that helps http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 5 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success your reader and future customer, it is now manifestly appropriate to include something that helps you... and that is precisely what the Resource Box and About the Author sections do. Treat them accordingly. Be sure to include all the means you wish customers to use to get in touch with you, including email, URL, telephone, cell phone, etc. Believe me, the useful content you have given them will inspire response. Depend on it. Exult. You deserve it! You have now done a useful thing. Your content is now available for use on blogs, ezines, site postings, et al. Take a moment to congratulate yourself. You deserve it. You have taken what you know and can do and transformed it into a focused means of generating new customers and really helping them. You may be a tad fatigued by your effort; that's natural. But what you've written can live for years and help thousands. And that's a true cause for jubilation.
http://www.SuccessPunch.com
Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012
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Why your company must have a designated nudge

Did you know your company has a open position which needs to be filled at once? The absence of this person is costing you money every single day. That's why you cannot wait another minute to fill this vital post. To help understand what this position is all about, let's start at the dictionary: Nudge (nuj) v. nudged, nudging. v. t. To touch or push gently as with the elbow, in order to attract attention, convey a meaning, etc. v.i. To give a nudge. n. The act of nudging; a gentle push as with the elbow. Norw. nugga, push. Frankly, I think the original Norwegian ("nugga") has it right: push. The nudge is your company's designated representative to push employees and associates for more and faster results. Why you need a nudge Let's face it, you're human. You try to set goals. You try to reach them in the time provided. You try to do more and better, right? But somehow you fall behind, miss deadlines, bobble opportunities, trip and crash when you should be sprinting ahead. Isn't that about the size of it? Which is why you need a designated nudge. In a nutshell the job of the nudge is to * check progress on existing projects and objectives * ask how you are getting on with what needs to be done * remind you what needs to be done and when it must be done * offer incentives for achievement * make it clear what happens when achievement is not forthcoming And, in general, spur, motivate, challenge, chide -- and push. The nudge must be organized, efficient, focused, indefatigable, with a thick skin Only a person of the utmost efficiency, clarity and organization can be a nudge. After all, a nudge who falters and fails is hardly going to make a success of the position, much less deliver the benefits you have every right to expect. Beyond such skills, the nudge must be a person who, above all, has a thick skin and who doesn't take things personally. Nudges are often regarded as people butting in where they are not wanted... perfectionists in an imperfect world... annoying, interfering, pests; in short not the most welcome of creatures. That's why two things are absolutely necessary for the successful nudge: a thick skin and immunity for whatever they say. The necessity for immunity A nudge by definition pushes other employees... and must therefore be protected from the comments and reactions of all employees. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 7 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Consider this typical situation: Nudge: Mary, as you know your monthly sales figures are a little off. What are you planning to do to get back on track? I guarantee you that Mary is not likely to be very happy when the nudge drops by with this message. However, that is the nudge's job: to get Mary back on track ASAP, to enable both Mary and the company to achieve their clearly understood goals. Mary may well be inclined to respond with a "get out of here. I am fully capable of handling this matter myself" comment. But she cannot and must not. The nudge's job is to remind Mary of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, what Mary is doing to achieve the objective, and to give Mary all appropriate help and directions, right up to and including warnings and admonitions. The nudge is constantly in motion and may appear anywhere, at any time. By definition, a nudge cannot be a stationary object; the nudge must constantly be * connecting with employees * reviewing their progress * making suggestions * focusing employees * recommending what must be done and when it must be done. The nudge must be supremely well organized and must have a clear daily "to do" list. This means * knowing who must be contacted today * calling and emailing such people (including follow-up e-mails after all meetings). * re-focusing employees, tweaking, adjusting, reminding. The nudge is a creature in constant motion... * prodding Joe * complimenting Neal * chiding Sally being clear on what each needs to achieve... and working with each and all to achieve those objectives. Start today There isn't a company on this earth which wouldn't be better off having a designated nudge on staff. That's why you must start today. * Review the nudge candidates you have. Who is best equipped to contact each and every employee and representative to improve results? * The nudge must be in constant communication with employees AND with management. * The nudge's conduct and mode of operation must be reviewed at regular intervals. Remember your Lord Acton: "power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." You must ensure that your nudge doesn't develop arrogance and "big head" problems, which can easily occur without periodic http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 8 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success intervention and oversight. Review the nudge's results A nudge who understands and is good at this job is a godsend to any company. After all, nudges are clear on what is likely to deliver better results: * allowing employees to go their own ways without regular oversight and reminding, or * having to report progress (or lack of same) to a designated representative whose task is to get people to produce more in a designated period of time? Obvious, isn't it? And so we come back to the original Norwegian word "nugga", meaning push. The nudge is your company's secret weapon, who by simply showing up and pushing and prodding employees will achieve better results day after day. Cherish nudges, for they are a source of endless benefits to you and your organization. Far too many employees are slow, slothful, disorganized, inefficient. Apply the magic of the nudge to the solution of these problems and deficiencies. The results will most assuredly please you!
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Top 5 Mistakes made by Online Marketers. Don't make these mistakes and sabotage your promotional efforts
Today I am tackling one of the BIGGEST problems faced by new online marketers. The problem is this, the inability to market effectively. This causes so many marketers incredible frustration! The result, they throw up their hands in despair and quit long before they see any results. This is what I hear from people day after day in my role as an online Home Business Consultant. "I am posting, and promoting but not getting any leads or sales! Help me!" If this is you, keep reading, I am going to tell you what you need to know about marketing. It is true that you can be promoting every day but if you are making one or all of the 5 common mistakes I've outlined here, you won't get the results you want. Take note, this is important stuff if you are really serious about making money online. 1. The first mistake made by new online marketers is this: Not knowing WHAT to market. I talk to people daily, nice people who want to sell something online and earn some extra money. They sign up or this and for that, they get Affiliate Memberships all over the web hoping to get better results by being involved in everything they can get their hands on. There intentions are good, they are motivated but they stumble right off the bat by not knowing what to market. Here's a quick guide for you on WHAT to Market: -Pick products to market that are DIGITAL. Digital products are those that can be bought and sold instantly online. You get your commission sooner, the buyer gets their product instantly! It's no-fuss no-muss and the best way to start your web marketing experience and see some results. -In most cases there is no cost to be a product Reseller or Affiliate - hurray! -Pick Reseller products from a reputable long-standing company that specializes in helping vendors connect with affiliates to sell products online -Pick products or affiliate programs that provide advertising copy, banners, and sales aids along with referral links so you can easily promote the products -Pick products that catch YOUR EYE! Newest releases, products with catchy names, trendy topics, those with positive buyer feedback, and return guarantees are best! -Look for Joint Venture releases so you can be one of the first to promote the products when first released for sale Finally, FOCUS! Keep your eye on the prize - profits - don't spread yourself too thin. Narrow your efforts to a few products and put 100% effort into your campaign. 2. The second most common mistake made by new online marketers is this: Not knowing HOW to market. I am always surprised at the answer people give me when I ask how they are marketing online. They look at me perhaps thinking what a ridiculous question that is! They tell me they are sending out their website address. When I look at their website I see a site that is oh so boring! It reads like a brochure with company history, and a few pages of fluffy copy. Yes, of course it is important to promote your website address BUT if you wish to capture leads you must do this - get the prospects contact information! Getting the contact information from a prospect is often very difficult to do with a standard corporate site. The answer to this problem is to create what are called LANDING pages, or Squeeze pages. These are single page sites that have one purpose and one purpose only - get you a LEAD - and better yet lead to a sale! Some companies provide Landing Pages for you when you become a Reseller for their products. Landing pages help you build your marketing list. Every person may not be a buyer today, but on your mailing list they may enjoy future products you offer. Offering an http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 10 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success option to join your mailing directly on your Landing Page gives people 100% control over opting in to your mailing list or not. You build your list while ensuring that people have voluntarily joined your mailing list. Here's a quick guide to creating responsive landing pages: -They should be FAST Loading! Skip any animation, video or annoying distraction that just makes people click OFF! -Use images that are colorful, directive, and related to the theme of your product -Your copy MUST be short, punchy, laden with benefits - speak directly to the reader -Your copy should tell readers what they get if they ACT now! Limit the offer, even better! -Capture the contact information of the reader so you can deliver what they asked for -The more goodies, freebies, offers, and cool stuff you can give people the BETTER the response! -Always include an option for people to join your mailing list and give them GREAT reasons to want to do so! Unlike a website, a landing page should be EXCITING, BENEFIT-LADEN and accomplish this: Look reader! You get this! Do this to get it! Do it NOW and also get this BONUS! 3. Here is the third most common mistake I see new marketers making: Not KNOWING WHERE to Market Marketing is NOT simple but if you know what you are doing it can be. The key is to find the sites, the niches where you can target your market. Market to the right people instead of the masses with solid products and you will get instantly better results. Here's a quick guide to knowing WHERE to market: -Do a Google search to find sites related to what you are promoting, then target those sites for your marketing campaigns -Use every available niche market you can find and post there, this includes Forums, Classified Ad Sites, Banner Exchanges, Twitter and Social Networking and Bookmarking sites. -Do not discount FREE and low cost advertising options like Safelists, and Traffic Exchanges. These are excellent ways to target a specific market -You do NOT have to spend ridiculous amounts of money on advertising. Find the sites where your target market exists, then place low cost ads including safelist posts, banners, and classified ads. Don't even think about buying pay-per-click ads at sites like Google unless you have deep pockets and know what you are doing. -Learn what backlinks are and why they are SO VERY important to generating traffic and achieving better search engine indexing for your site, products or business. -If any of the terms above are foreign to you, you have some homework to do, I have included some resources below. 4. Are you ready for the fourth and perhaps most fatal mistake made by new online marketers? Not knowing how to TRACK your promotional campaigns If you are going to spend time and money to promote a product or service you MUST, you absolutely MUST know where you are getting your results. Ad Tracking is a 100% requirement! If you are not tracking your ads, and the clicks you get and from where, you are promoting blindly. What happens when you don't watch what you are doing? You can fall in a hole! Online this can be a hole where you fall in and throw your money into wasted ad campaigns. I've seen more people allow paid advertising to eat up their entire budget than I want to think about. Smart marketers that get results know exactly the ad campaigns that get results, and the sources they came from. Get an Ad Tracker Tool. Some advertising sites provide you with data on number of clicks to your ads, or impressions. This is important, just be sure you understand what those terms mean. A click is usually far more powerful for you then a "view". You want ACTIVE respondents, real people actually clicking on your ad to see it. This is much different than an "exposure" or a "view" with the http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 11 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success latter being considered passive and very weak marketing, often provided free. For best results you will ALWAYS get better results from paid advertising than from free advertising but don't discount free promotion, it is a good way to earn advertising credits if you have a small advertising budget. If you buy advertising be SURE you get some kind of way to validate the promotion, the click rate, and actual IP addresses of unique respondents to ensure the hits are legitimate and not computer generated. Make sure your respondents will be geographically specific too, from countries that you wish to target. For example, Canada or the USA. If you have your own domain you are fortunate, as you can benefit from an Ad Tracking tool that tracks all your promotional activities and traced to your website domain address. 5. The fifth common mistake I see online marketers making is very straight-forward. Not being realistic or giving it enough consistent time and effort to see results. I know we live in an instant gratification world but if you are new to online marketing you will need to be more realistic. Promotion takes a lot of CONSISTENT effort using a number of strategies at a number or web sites. By tracking your ads you can see instantly where your efforts are being productive. Be prepared to try various copy, be cognizant that some products will sell better than others, some advertising resources will deliver better than others. Vary your offers, change up your products as needed, update landing pages, post to a number of sites and track the results. Take some time to learn about some of the terms used in this article. Be honest with yourself about what you are doing. Are you serious about earning money online or are you doing this as a hobby? Your level of hunger and ambition to succeed will be your motivator. The good news is that once you have built your mailing list, and found niche sites and advertising resources that work, your job to promote gets easier but NEVER goes away.
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Massive Passive Income: What is Autoblogging All About?

Autoblogging is simply a methodology for automating blog content. Traditionally, when you set up a blog you then either create the content by hand yourself, or you hire a freelancer to create the content for you. Either way it is both time consuming or expensive. But with autoblogging and the Massive Passive Profits system, you simply set up the blog once, set up the automated content stream and the blog updates itself on auto-pilot generating passive income for you while you focus on doing other things. But isn't autoblogging a 'black hat' technique that will get your site banned? I can hear you asking that question and I will tell you that if you set up your blogs properly following a proven method such as Massive Passive Profits your sites will not get banned and you will finally start generating some real passive income from blogging. What is Massive Passive Profits? It's a mass deploy autoblogging format that automates the creation of Wordpress multiuser sites and content. No longer do you have to sweat about your sites getting banned, and Wordpress multi-user platform saves time and effort of logging in and out of and maintaining multiple blogs. With this elegant solution, autoblogging becomes a complete no-brainer and you are free to point and click to create and launch new blogs on the fly and watch you bank account grow as you add new blogs. With autoblogging your blogs will generate income in much the same way as a traditional, hand written blog, but because they are so quick to set up, and effortless to maintain you can focus on generating a large quantity of blogs and on generating traffic to those blogs. You would begin by doing your keyword research to find profitable niches, install Wordpress, add then follow along with Massive Passive Profits to set up your niche blogging empire. Now bear in mind that these are not going to be pretty, award-winning blogs that you'll be inviting your family members to visit. What you will be doing, is gathering up and providing useful content around your chosen topic to your blog visitors that are searching for information on your topic. You?ll choose ads and CPA offers that will appeal to those visitors and eventually these blogs will start generating cash for you automatically. Setting up an autoblogging empire does not take a lot of time or effort, and once everything is set up and humming along you can move on to other projects while your little blog farm continues to produce month in and month out. So, if you are willing to invest just a little bit of time to set up the Massive Passive Profits system you will soon see lifestyle-altering income streams flowing in from you ever growing autoblogging empire.
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Massive Passive Income: Does Autoblogging Really Work?

Autoblogging is quite a hot topic these days in the Internet Marketing social circles. In case you have not heard all of the recent buzz and are scratching your head about what autoblogging is, it's a method for creating blogs in a ?set it and forget it' kind of way that have plugins in place to automatically post content daily. This essentially takes much of the labor out of creating unique content and posting daily or even every few days. But, the question of the moment is, does autoblogging work? Can you really generate a ton of passive income just from setting up these little niche blogs and then leaving them to fend for themselves? Here are some things that you might hear about autoblogging: Autoblogging is nothing but a scam Most likely written either by folks who have tried it and failed, or who simply dismiss the concept out-of-hand because they firmly believe that they only way to blog is by creating unique content daily. Autoblogging is your gateway to untold Internet Marketing riches At the other end of the spectrum you might here claims that autoblogging is your ticket to riches and fame. Those messages are most often promulgated by those who are selling an autoblogging product. The truth about autoblogging Somewhere in between the idea that autoblogging is a black hat scam, and the idea that you can auto-blog your way to untold wealth is the truth that falls somewhere in between those extremes. With autoblogging you use automated plugins that grab content based on your keywords from RSS feeds, article directories, your own stash of PLR content, and videos. You are aggregating all of this content and presenting it under your chosen category along with adverts that would appeal to the particular audience that you are targeting with your content. You also need the tools and technology to make setting up and maintaining multiple blogs simple and straightforward. Wordpress is the perfect platform for your auto-blogs because it allows you to host multiple, individual blogs with their own domain names on a single installation of the Wordpress software on your server. Autoblogging has many moving parts, so it's good to have a proven system to follow to help ensure your chances for success. Trying to patch together a solution and work through trial and error on your own can cost you valuable time and money. If you follow a proven system and if you are willing to invest some time, thought and strategy on the front end, you can set up an empire of auto-blogs that will generate a healthy stream of passive income for you.
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10 Tips for Writing Business Communications that get results!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Face it. If you're like most people having to write is... worse than getting a root canal. You're not good at it... you know you're not good. You hate sitting down to write... even though you have things that need to be written... and need to be written NOW! It's not a pretty picture. Cheer up. I'm about to solve your writing problems forever with a handy check-list you can print and keep readily at hand to be consulted each time the situation calls for something written by you. 1) Be clear on what you want to say... what you need the recipient to read. A major reason writing is so difficult for so many people is because they have not considered the objective BEFORE writing a word. WRONG. Good business writing is based on stating a clear objective, like this: I want my customer Linda to order her Venetian blinds today for installation 30 days from now. Knowing where you're going... and what you want to achieve... makes getting there a whole lot easier. 2) Be clear on what the customer gets. The person you are writing to -- your customer -- is the most important person on this planet at this moment. Your job in writing to her is to ensure that she understands EXACTLY what she is getting from you... and exactly what you want her to do and HOW you want her to do it. ALL business communications that work are based on just 4 vital words: YOU GET BENEFIT NOW. Before you write a single word write down each and every benefit the customer is getting from you. Start each of these benefits with the words YOU GET... and make what they get clear, compelling, and motivating. 3) Make an offer and make sure that offer is meaningful. As I write the economy is punk, anaemic and anything other than robust. So what? That just means that in order to motivate your customer, you must improve your offer, adding another scoop to the ice cream cone you are offering. Craft this offer before using it. Make sure that what you're offering is valuable... and that you present it in such a way that it jumps off the page and seizes the recipient's brain, thereby inducing that "I've got to get this" feeling that ensures success and money in YOUR pocket. Offers are everything... when you're making a grand one, say so in no uncertain terms. 4) Keep what you write short and sweet. People hate reading only slightly less than they hate writing! http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 15 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Dwight Eisenhower, who after all was a military man, required his cabinet secretaries to present their policy recommendations in memoranda not more than 1 page. The president's point was simple: if you're clear on your objective, one page is sufficient to get your point across. 5) NEVER use text language in a business communication. Text language is sloppy language; it's also language that can easily be misunderstood. The essence of business writing is enabling your customer to get the gist, the essential point promptly and easily. Text message s are often confusing and unclear, the exact opposite of what you want: just because people get it fast, doesn't mean they get it accurately! 6) Make sure you give your customers crystal-clear instructions on what to do and how to do it. Before asking a customer to follow your instructions... follow them yourself. You might find the results instructive. The sad truth is, far too many instructions for customers have never been tried by the people providing these instructions. As a result, they are muddled, confusing, incomplete, and unclear. Ouch! That's why you must try them before you send them. Do that now! 7) Make it clear how to get in touch with you. As humans we have created a network of communications which enables us to connect instantly with people worldwide. Problem is, we're less dazzling about providing the necessary instructions enabling us to profitably use this network. Be different! Give your customers the complete and essential communications information required to connect with you... and make these details clear and easy to follow. This information should include, but is not limited to: * telephone * fax * cell phone * e-mail, etc. 8) Review your communication before sending it. Receiving as I do dozens of business communications daily, I can assure you that if proof reading is not dead, it most assuredly is on the critical list. People nowadays claim to be so "busy" that they beg your indulgence for sending communications that would embarrass a schoolboy, sloppy, sloppy, sloppy in the extreme. That's why you must never forget this: people, fairly or not, evaluate your ability to handle a project by not only how quickly you deliver your words... but by the accuracy with which you present them. In short, presenting properly is an important ingredient in whether the customer decides to do business with you at all. That's why the most important writing you will EVER do is ...re-writing! 9) "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." Now for the acid test. Does it move? The less experience you have had in writing prose that both informs and moves people to action, the more important is this step: reading what you've written before sending. A word of caution: this stage can be painful, very painful indeed if what you've written is full of grammatical and other errors; if it's turgid, sluggish, like walking through a bog. Yes, it can be painful indeed. Remember, you can only advance if YOU deal with such problems before you inflict them on your http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 16 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success customers! So read what you've written and be glad to correct before your unfortunate customers wince at the same words (and errors). What you're looking for is not only accuracy but a lilting cadence, clear, agile, pleasant to hear, irresistible to read. It takes time to create... but it pays off for a lifetime. 10) Say it with conviction and sincerity One more thing, an absolutely essential thing: make sure that what you write is sincere, honest, and based on strong convictions. If not, what you write can never be truly convincing because it has not convinced you. To write without belief is to create something which, at heart, is hollow and lifeless. It cannot work with others, because it has not worked with you. Thus, before you even think of writing, make certain you believe in what you're writing. Feeling and injecting this confidence into what you write is the best way to get and hold the attention of all customers. After all, they value and require want sincerity, truth, candor, too. They want to know that you stand behind the words you're sending. If you present your message in such a way, you are well on your way not merely to writing a persuasive communication but to establishing and cementing that all-important lifelong relationship with your customer . Congratulations! Your writing has come a long, long way!
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Achtung! Internet Readers BEWARE! People are deliberately misleading you online. Here's why...
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Psst........ Michelle Obama is a lesbian who brings adolescent girls to the White House and Camp David! Hillary Rodham Clinton seduced Tom Cruise at her private chalet in Russian River, California! Bill Clinton is never invited there! President Obama has moved over $4 billion of your taxpayer dollars to Switzerland where he has a secret bank account! Hot "news" like this can be found any hour of the day online... as one "insider" story after another, each more scintillating, titillating, and scurrilous than the last catches fire online and captures your attention. Problem is, every single one of these "hot insider facts" is not only wrong, but is deliberately invented (like the ones above) to suit the purposefully invidious and always selfish and self-serving purposes of the poster. The question is: why are so many people all over the world perverting the Internet by posting deliberately erroneous, always hurtful, and completely false "information"? Let's take a look... Maladjusted kids with too much time and Internet savvy Did you ever make a prank telephone call when you were in grammar school? I did... and I suspect most of you did too. Now, however, the pranks are not directed at one person, but at millions. And the Internet is so configured that one maladjusted kid sitting in his basement in Kalamazoo can (within minutes) prank the whole world. To pimple-faced Johnny who's a wash-out with the chicks, this is a thrill that just won't quit. Unfortunately, the viruses he invents and disseminates, the misinformation he circulates are very real and cause, as he wanted, maximum dislocation and harm. He's the man! With malice towards all and charity towards none (pace Abe Lincoln) We live in the era of the empowered haters where daily people as psychotic as Hitler and as malevolent as Stalin take center stage. These people are hooligans on speed. Shunned themselves, they are determined that the successful of the world shall answer to them....or else. In the "real" world, such creatures have limited influence even if they turn into uni bombers, stalkers, and those who (with cunning and skill) reduce their own pain by inflicting it on the great of the land... or merely on an unfortunate soul who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now the socially inept and clinically dangerous have scope for their inadequacies. For such people the Internet is a dream come true.... because now, without leaving their homes, they can hurt, really hurt, brutally hurt people who have neither heard of them... nor offered so much as an offending word. The empowered hooligan doesn't care... to hurt is his objective and if he determines to hurt... he has no need whatsoever to justify the heinous act. He hurts, therefore he is. Misinformation as pay back Got into an argument with your brother-in-law lately? Got cut off on the turn pike and wrote down http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 18 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success the license plate number? Chastised by your boss in front of your colleagues (never mind that he was right). Got blown off by the waitress you made a pass at? You want pay-back, and you want it NOW! Voila! The Internet's at hand. Post! Publish! Hurt them... feel vindicated, powerful, happy. Such commentary, posted by the vengeful daily, floods the Internet. These comments are invariably abusive, misspelled...and anonymous. You want to hurt the boss all right... you want to show that girl to be sure... but hold the name with the mayo. Cut them down to size... but never,ever tell them who you actually are. Hurt and hide, the coward's formula through history. "Expose" your competitors by riding in on your white horse This is a biggie. In business? Got successful competitors? In a hurry for success? Then use the Internet to besmirch your competitors. Make up "confidential" information about them. Pose as the readers' friend... let them in on the "secret" about your competition. What matter that every word you post is made up.... when YOU can benefit from the lie. Paint with broad strokes: use innuendo, suggestion, go for the big lie. Poor as you are, hiding behind email and anonymity, you have license to prevaricate. This format is used regularly by people in a hurry, by the corner cutters, the self-appointed "truth tellers", and by people with an axe to grind. They know that online they can not only appear to be virtuous but ride to the top of the search engines on the coat tails of their well-known competitors. Such messages are a magnet for the gullible and the credulous, for people whose "business" is to manipulate the lazy and uniformed from whom they conjure money without compunction -- and then disappear, the privilege of the harlot throughout the ages. Bait and switch Back in the good old days of mail order there was a famous ad that ran SEX Now that I've got your attention, let me tell you about our terrific air conditioners. A variety of this ad is launched daily on the net which is why ads like the one with Hillary Clinton above are created. Sex, as every marketer knows, sells. And the more licentious and lubricious the better, no matter than the message is false from start to end. Reader Beware! Today you will be the recipient of online lies, smut, and vulgarity. That is why today you must be chary and cautious about what you choose to believe and the judgements you make. * Ask yourself whether what you are reading is likely. If the claim is outrageous and exaggerated, it is unlikely to be true. * Is the claim signed? Is someone willing to take responsibility? If not, it is hearsay and rumor in which case who is benefiting from it? * Has the person attacked been given the chance to respond... or is the claim advanced by one person who attacks... but will not let his victim respond? Fairness is never in the repertoire of the irresponsible. * Is there a clear beneficiary for what is being written? Is this person assailing because they will benefit thereby? Below the surface of seeming honesty, there is always avarice. * If the claim is attributed, does that person have anything to lose? Established persons and http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 19 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success institutions are responsible at least in part because they have much to lose by being irresponsible. Those with nothing to lose can make the most irresponsible claims with impunity... and so they do. That they do is a sure sign of their insignificance and unaccountability. Consider the source When I was growing up in Illinois in the 'forties, my father had an expression: "Consider the source." When some comment or rumor reached us, he'd say these words. I now think of them often as I, like you, receive the filth and lies deliberately disseminated by those who may be Internet savvy but are bankrupt in all other ways. My advice to you is to ignore, beware, and in all cases consider who is benefiting from the lies, misrepresentations, and fabrications before us. When they cannot touch us, the perpetrators y shrivel and die, fulminating still but powerless and pathetic.
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What to do when your customer says No!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant It's sad, but it's going to happen to you today: a prospect is going to say no to your offer. That, however, is NOT important. What is, is knowing what to do when it happens. That's what separates the men from the boys; the business people who will profit from those who won't! 1) Prepare for the decline People who succeed in business do not expect every single prospect to purchase what they're selling immediately, effortlessly. No way! Instead, they anticipate that while some will buy, many will not. Their job is to anticipate those declines and to prepare in advance what to do when they get them. 2) Write down every potential objection you will hear. Then answer them. The worst possible way to handle an objection is spontaneously, on the fly. To render the best reply, you must consider the best reply, crafting, improving it as you go. Face it: some people are going to decline your offer. You should be prepared to respond immediately when it happens. This means brainstorming all possible objections... and coming up with the best, most telling responses. Your use of these responses must be swift and sure. There's no time for improvisation when your sale hangs in the balance! 3) Ask customers why they've declined your offer. Successful business people, people who get rich from business, are never daunted by hearing "No!" from a customer. They see this response, however adamant, as nothing but a milestone on the way to making that sale. Successful marketers know that any "no" means "tell me more", not "go away, get lost." 4) Ask why The first step upon hearing the customer decline your offer... is to ask why. Treat "why" as an essential tool in making the sale. The minute your prospect starts telling you why... you are on your way to a certain sale because the very act of answering this question means the prospect is willing to work with you to reverse the very answer they've just given you! Thus asking "why" is essential to getting to yes. 5) Listen carefully While your customer is explaining why she declined your offer, LISTEN. The natural tendency is to barge ahead, overwhelming the customer. This is a mistake. Instead, ask the customer why she declined; then give her the time and courtesy to listen to her response without any interruption whatsoever. 6) Make sure the customer understands your original offer. By asking the customer why she has declined your offer, you may discover that she doesn't really understand what you are offering. If she doesn't, present the offer again, making sure the customer understands absolutely everything you are offering and its substantial value and utility. 7) When your initial offer is not enough http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 21 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success If you have presented your offer clearly... if you feel the customer understands it but is still not willing to bite, it's time to IMPROVE YOUR OFFER! Now hear this: before you ask a single customer for a sale, you must brainstorm every single thing you can offer prospects to induce them to buy. You must NEVER try to improvise an offer when you are speaking to a customer. Instead, you should have at your finger tips the extra goodies you can offer a customer, goodies that will make the sale without breaking the bank! "Ms. Prospect, I see you want to get our widget... and I want you to have it. I'm going to improve my original offer to make sure you get it! Let me show you what you can get if you purchase today!" 8) When money -- or lack thereof --is the problem Be prepared to hear from customers over and over again that money is the problem. This may or may not be true. Your job is to be prepared either way. Ask your customers if they would purchase your product if they had the money. If they say yes, then your job becomes improving the offer until the customer understands it would be foolish not to buy. Improving the offer may well induce the customer to 'fess up and buy... or risk losing the terrific offer you have made. Improve the offer and in a minute or two people who have just told you they're broke will magically "find" the funds. With improved offers, this happens time after time! Note: make it clear to your prospect exactly what this improved offer contains. Also, be sure the customer understands that this is a limited-time offer and that it cannot and will not be repeated. Make sure the customers understands; this is essential in ensuring acceptance of this offer! 9) When lack of money really is the problem Of course, some people -- particularly in our difficult economic days -- really are broke. They need a different approach. For this situation, too, you should have planned in advance. Can you offer * improved payment terms * readily available credit resources (like those at www.paypal.com) * details on how to secure a pre-paid credit card, etc. In short are you ready to be helpful when your interested, but cash challenged, customer is ready to act? That's mandatory... if you want this sale! Turning a no into a yes is what determines your business success! Let me be blunt: you cannot achieve maximum business success and the profits that go with it unless and until you can turn no into yes. Therefore, mastering the steps in this article is essential to your maximum well being. Thus, start today. Never let a prospect go until you have exhausted every approach to securing his business. Treat this as a great game, a game constantly testing your skills and ingenuity; one with the greatest possible benefits to both your customer and yourself. For you, hearing the word no only focuses and concentrates your efforts. After all, YOU are prepared for this moment. You know what to do and when to it. You are more determined to make this sale than the prospect is to decline it. As a result, this is not just a sale you will wish for; it is a sale you will get!
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Is it a Scam? Here's how you'll know!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Hundreds of thousands of folks worldwide have been bilked by Internet scams to the tune of millions of dollars. Now hear this: not one of these people had to lose a single penny. EVERY scam under the sun can easily be identified.... and hence avoided. Here are the signs of clear and present danger: 1) Scams prosper by telling people they can get rich without work. Here's a dead give away! Real businesses can and should make their offers as good as possible, always maximizing advantages while minimizing what you must do to achieve results. But scams cross the line, touting success without effort. Here's where the old saying comes in, "If it seems too good to be true... it isn't!" Your mother told you this, and your mother was right. 2) Scams never feature how long they've been in business. Why? Because they aim to arrive, defraud the maximum amount as quickly as possible... then pick up silently and leave. Real businesses are proud of the number of years they've been helping people. You'll find this information prominently displayed. They want you to know they've been here... and plan to remain here. Scams don't. 3) Scams are not accredited by The Better Business Bureau or other professional associations. Real businesses understand that people may have hesitations or doubts about doing business with a new, untested company. They, therefore, make it a point to earn professional designations which give their new customers peace of mind. The Better Business Bureau, for instance, the world's best known consumer protection and consumer advocacy organization, has a business accreditation program. After such extensive "due diligence", you can bet the business will proudly display their seal of accreditation. Scams don't, because scams can't. 4) Scams do not incorporate where they are subject to legal regulations and scrutiny. Ask a scamster just where his business is incorporated and who regulates it. Answer will come there none. Legitimate businesses are willing to submit to government oversight and review. While every business person under the sun bemoans the extra work this entails and the inevitable "red tape," in fact they welcome government oversight and review since it tells the public they are real and reputable. Scams are neither, so they don't bother to incorporate. 5) Scams don't sell real products. In actual fact, what they sell is greed. Talk to any business person in the land about their products and services and they'll happily burble on for hour after factual hour. Not so scamsters. A scam has no product or service. It doesn't sell anything worth having; it's all about tapping into and controlling you through your own potent avarice. Real businesses are ecstatic to talk about what they can do for you, the beneficial details. Scams don't dare tell you what they're all about, so they tap deep into your own greed and use that to blind you to what they really do! http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 23 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success 6) Scams don't provide real name, real address, real phone numbers, etc. Real businesses, legitimate businesses are here today, here tomorrow. They live or die by treating old customers well so they return... and motivating new customers to come and visit. This means providing these customers with necessary contact information. Scams are different. Go to their website. Can you easily get address, phone, etc? No. In fact it's just about impossible to get any genuine contact details. Remember, scams don't want you to know who they are, where they are located, how to contact them. Quite the contrary. 7) Scams don't tell you the names of the principals and their credentials Remember, scams profit by dazzling you with riches without work. Such mundane details as the names and credentials of the principals -- always trumpeted in real businesses -- are never provided. Scamsters, remember, count on you being so excited about your imminent prosperity that you won't notice you have no information about the people at this enterprise who are responsible for providing its benefits. Last Words There have been scams as long as there have been humans. The Internet, however, has empowered scamsters as never before. Luckily for you, every scam in the world can be easily detected. You simply must control the avarice that makes scams so attractive... and apply the common sense admonitions found here.
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The 4 MOST Important Words In Business Success

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant There is a secret to success in marketing and business and that success in contained in just 4 words... YOU GET BENEFIT NOW! They are the Philosopher's Stone delivering one sale after another... and profit even in the worst of times. YOU! One of the worst mistakes you can make in business is to create marketing communications that speak to no one in particular. WRONG! Successful marketing is about talking to and never deviating from a focus on the EXACT person you are determined to motivate. KNOW THY CUSTOMER... and ALWAYS speak directly to her. For example, if you were selling any gizmo your ad copy should NEVER begin with the name of your business. That's about YOU. Instead it should focus on the person who has the ability to make or break you: the all-important customer! Have you considered the person you are speaking to? Have you visualized this person? Is he in your mind as you create EVERY marketing communication? If you write marketing communications -- ANY marketing communications -- that focus on YOU, you will squander the opportunity to motivate action from "you, the customer." That is fatal. GET The whole of business is about a transfer of assets... about the person who offers and the person who accepts that offer. Successful marketers remind themselves, over and over again, every single day that their success is completely centered on what the customer gets, NEVER on what you, the business owner, get. Thus, when you sit down to create an offer you need to remind yourself: I can only be successful to the extent that my customer is heaped high with "you gets". Visualize this process as an ice-cream cone. See yourself building an offer by adding one scoop after another. The more you add, the faster you can induce customer action... so add liberally. BENEFIT And just what are you adding? BENEFITS! The average business owner is so immersed in the mundane and prosaic details of running her business (what, another form from the government to complete!) that she loses sight of the purpose of it all: improving the life of your customer. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 25 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success What does a customer want? Benefits! Why does the customer come to you? To get those benefits! Why does the customer give you her hard- earned money? Because you have made the strongest case that YOU have the benefits to confer! Do you have a benefit file for EVERYTHING you want to sell? Probably not. You probably know what's in this thing... but have probably never systematically written down just what the customer gets from you when he uses it. MISTAKE! Take the time to brain storm each and every benefit your customer gets. You get........this. And you get........ this. You also get this. Get the picture? Benefits motivate. More benefits motivate faster. NOW! There is only one time in marketing... and that time is NOW! There is no past... there is no future. There is only this particular moment! Your TOTAL focus must be on motivating the prospect to act NOW. Have you offered enough to make this happen? When you make an offer you know. Either people are leaping to get it... or they are not. Bad offers NEVER get better over time, unlike a fine wine. Either they work AT ONCE... or they NEVER work. Your job is to experiment with your offers so that they generate response after immediate response! Last Words Serious about business success? Want as much as possible? Then start out EVERY day by reciting the "You get benefit now" mantra. The more it becomes part of the fiber of your business life, the more successful you will become. Guaranteed.
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The Fine Art of Business Follow-up

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant If you are using your business to get rich (the objective of the smartest entrepreneurs), you'll devour this article. Why? Because follow-up is what differentiates those who get rich... from those who just barely scrape by. In short, the stakes couldn't be higher. Face it, people -- and every single one of your customers -- need follow-up Consider this. You've been in contact with a customer. You have explained the benefits of what you're selling and made a motivating offer. The customer has expressed an interest and asked for time to consider. To you, it seems that the order is in the bag, with nothing left to do beyond banking the profits. Thus, you sit back, relax... and keeping waiting for... the order that never comes. What went wrong? Lack of follow-up is what went wrong. And until you become the master of essential customer follow-up, you'll leave deal after deal on the table and allow loss after debilitating loss. 1) Make sure you have all the customer information you need for follow-up Do you have an organized, inviolate procedure for collecting customer data, including name, street address, phone number(s) (including land line and cell phone), and e-mail address? Business people who have mastered the art of follow-up first made sure they have all the details needed to make this follow-up possible. 2) Review your business to determine just when follow-up is necessary and will be most effective. Every business is different. The follow-up calendar for one may not be most effective for another. That's why you must review what you do, to determine on follow-up procedures with maximum effectiveness. What you need to determine is how long to give the customer before following up. It's a fine point. You must give the customer enough time to consider what you have provided... yet not too much so that the customer loses focus and forgets. 3) First follow-up call: make sure customer has received what you want her to have Sending material by email? Whenever possible, call within the hour to confirm receipt. Remember, sending e-mail and receiving e-mail are two separate things! Sending material by post? For folks who are local, call 48-72 hours following mailing; for those who are out-of-town check with the post office to see how long receipt should take. Then add 48 hours to this time for follow-up. 4) What happens when you have difficulty reaching the customer when you follow-up? First, if there is no answer when you call, make sure you ask the customer to respond to your message. Always leave all the details the customer needs to respond; never assume the customer has them or that they are readily at hand. Leave such a detailed message twice in the first week; then once a week for the next 3 weeks. (If there is still no customer response by that time, put in a tickler file to call and email again in 30 http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 27 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success days.) When you reach the customer, be sure to ask for the sale. Never assume that you will get it. Work for it; after all, YOU are getting the profit. If the customer declines your offer, ask why. Most often, particularly in times of economic confusion, people take longer to make decisions, even if the benefits are clear and substantial. Your job is to find out why the customer has declined or postponed a decision... and to both improve the offer whenever possible... or, at the very least, ask when the customer expects to be able to proceed, in which case further follow-up is necessary. Last Words Make this your rule: don't initiate any customer contact unless you are fully prepared to follow it up. Remind yourself that customer follow-up is what makes you the money. Follow-up will distinguish you in your customer's mind as a person of energy, enthusiasm, motivation, and good habits. Which is just how you want them to see you.
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Is Your Business REALLY Customer Centered?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Ok, we all know that getting and keeping customers is the lifeblood of any business. I mean, we do all know this, right? Then you've got to treat these essential beings with all the care and consideration they need and require. So, why don't you? Here are some of the bone head things any customer can easily experience from businesses like yours on any given day: 1) Telephone calls that aren't returned This is a constant lamentation from customers: "Why can't I get my calls returned?" The plain fact is, most businesses are supremely careless about returning calls. Indeed, we seem to have reached the point where the returned call is the exception, not the rule. This means that businesses are actually willing to throw business away and antagonize customers, rather than implement and adhere to a "calls must be returned promptly" policy. Incredible! Don't let this be you. Make it a point to return ALL calls every day before you leave, earlier if possible. And do the same for all e-mail messages, too. 2) Keep customers up-to-date on their business What customers (rightly) resent is being kept in the dark about their affairs. They expect, and are right to expect, that people they employ are empathetic. This means keeping customers fully up-to-date on what is happening with their account. Either a phone call or an e-mail message can do nicely. The important thing is ensuring you give the customer a clear and detailed report, focusing on what that customer wants to know to be kept fully informed and anxiety free. 3) Do what you say you're going to do When you were courting your customer, making a pitch for their business, you made promises. Are you keeping them, now that you got the business? Customers rightly complain that there is a gap between what was promised and what is delivered. Solving this problem is not so very difficult. Keep a clear list of what you promised, and check off these items as you do them. Be sure to inform the customer, so there is no confusion. "I promised this; I have done this." That's the thing! 4) Provide easy customer support If you provide a service requiring customer support, make it clear what you provide and when you supply it. Customers rightly complain when promised support is not available, and they have to chase you to get assistance. This very quickly goes stale and results in deteriorating relations. Again, be clear on the support you provide... then deliver exactly what you said you would! 5) Don't gossip or chat in front of waiting customers This one gets customers hot under the collar real fast. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 29 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success The plain, unvarnished truth is that far too many business people regard customers as either a) invisible or b) pesky distractions from the thrilling task of keeping their co-workers current on the vicissitudes of their roller-coaster life. Unless your object is to make customers see red, STOP the chatter, now and for evermore. 6) Stick to business Just yesterday I called a local business to get details on a possible purchase and instead of focused, professional service... I got an earful about the life and times of an unstoppable loquacious business owner. WHOA! On the whole customers do not need to have either a current report on your health issues past, present and future, or the ins and outs of your business for the last quarter century, or so. The K.I.S.S. principle applies here: Keep it simple, Sam. Don't overwhelm the customer with your personal trivia. It is a real turn-off for most. 6) Say thank-you for the business, and smile when you say it. Quite simply, you cannot thank a customer enough for her business. Further, you cannot smile enough as you look that customer in the eye while delivering heartfelt words of appreciation. Thank-you's must NEVER be perfunctory. They must be warm, sincere, radiant and frequent. Remember, the customer ALWAYS knows when they're genuine and bestows future business accordingly!
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The great secret of business success: The MORE you GIVE AWAY, the richer you get!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Want to use your business to get rich? Of course you do! Then why aren't you giving away more? Counter intuitive though this thought may appear, it contains the key truth of business success: the more you GIVE AWAY, the richer you get! How much did you give away yesterday? How much the day before? Right this minute, with the worldwide economy in the doldrums and likely to remain so for some time, millions of business owners are scratching their heads for ideas on how to spur crucial sales. All sorts of ideas, from the daft to the expensive, are being advanced. Yet the solution to getting more sales is plain: Don't just sell your customers something, dazzle them with everything you will give them in addition to the actual product or service they pay for. Focus the customer on an absolutely stunning offer Look at everything you sold in the last few days. Were your customers buying products... or were they motivated by offers packed with additional benefits, benefits you were giving away as inducements to motivate faster sales? In other words, did you make sales because you gave away one thing after another, which made purchasing the items in question an absolute no-brainer? Start by brain storming what you can give away Most businesses have NEVER made a systematic effort to determine just what they can give away to induce more sales faster. This, however, is key and must be done at once. Go through every single product and service you offer. What can you give away: * more of the product or service * free delivery * free shipping * discount coupons for future sales * a special limited time offer * service and support Get the picture? Before you can fashion high-octane offers, you must develop a list of EVERYTHING you've got and can give away to motivate more present and future sales. Study other people's offers and give-aways The great thing about being in business is that paying attention to what other businesses are doing (and not just competitors either) can benefit you every single day. Thus, wherever you go, review what companies are doing to get your business; can you use or adapt them to your business success? Develop a "give-away" mentality. Business, you have been told, is all about closing sales, in other words about "working" the customer. If you buy into this point of view, you're in for a lifetime of drudgery and hard work. STOP IT! Instead, consider yourself in the business of crafting spectacular bonus offers that enable you to make sales the very easiest way: by so exciting customers about the freebies and great offers they get that they'll do anything to get them! Doesn't this sound a whole lot easier and more fun that "closing sales"? http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 31 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success "closing sales"? Start today, review today, improve today Right now you're probably still trying to get your head around the concept that the more you give away the richer you'll get. Fair enough. But don't wait because of that to get started. Today is the perfect day to start... as well as the perfect day to review what occurred AND to make improvements (like giving away even more). You see, as long as your objective is maximizing your wealth... you're in the business of increasing the amount you give away and enhancing customer motivation. And if wealth is your goal, you must do what it takes to become a world-class expert in giving away, giving away, giving away. Because that is the sure-fire way to get wealthy.
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Here's how you get success from the very FIRST DAY of your home-based business.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Thinking about starting a home-based business? Millions of people are. This could be the smartest thing you've done.... or the most stupid. It all depends on how you approach the matter. FACT: The failure rate for home-based businesses is astronomical FACT: Many of those starting home-based businesses do so not because they want to run a business at home, but rather because they want to be home and out of an office. FACT: Too many people launching home-based businesses have done so with inadequate planning and consideration, with the result that they're simply another failure statistic waiting to happen. Don't let this happen to you! Start planning your home- based business at least one-year in advance of your launch date Because you're most vulnerable to failure in the early days of your home-based business, do what it takes to maximize early profit and success. This means rigorous, hard-headed planning... the very thing too many home-based business owners eschew. 1) Do a budget How much money will you need to work at home? This is where a good, honest budget comes in. You must factor in your salary, your health insurance (don't stint here), and all the usual costs of running any business. This is the moment for hard-headed realism. Towards this end, once you've finished your budget, multiply it by an additional 30%, this being a fund to cover all unforeseen and miscellaneous expenses. ONLY those who are realistic about all the costs of running a business stand any chance of success. 2) Look at what you intend to sell. How many units of this must you sell to cover your financial requirements? Again, you must be entirely realistic here as you contemplate the number of sales you must make to profit. 3) Start diversifying at once Successful businesses develop product lines; that is, they don't just sell one thing or another. They may start with a single product, of course, but as soon as possible they begin to add additional products to their repertoire, products which enable them to make multiple sales to their customers and develop a reliable, income-producing following. 4) Develop your prospect lists As I have frequently said, "Your list is the business; the business is your list." Thus, you must start developing your all-important customer list right from the get-go... and you must NEVER stop developing it until the day you retire. At this point you are well advised to consult a technician who can assist you in the set up and easy accessing of your list. It is money well spent since you will be working with this list every single day you're in business. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 33 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success 5) Work on your offers What differentiates successful home-businesses from the also-rans? In a single word, "offers." Successful businesses make it a point to review offers from other companies (particularly competitors)... and improve them to facilitate more and faster sales. Note: The whole point of making offers is to get people to respond faster than they would then if just the product or service was being sold alone. Towards this end you may well, in the first days of your home-based enterprise, make offers you may never make again. Remember, you are at your most vulnerable in your earliest days; prepare, then, to make (quite literally) "one-time only offers" during this period, in order to bring in much needed cash. There is nothing wrong about doing this to get off to a successful, cash-plenty start. But don't give away the ranch for too long! 6) Make arrangements with suppliers If you are selling other people's products (and you probably will be doing at least some of this), start working with your suppliers as soon as possible. Gather all the information you need about them, including order details, contact names, email address, phone, fax, shipping requirements, etc. Make it a point to introduce yourself to supplier contacts and develop good business relations. These people are part of the essential network helping you get rich. Treat them accordingly. Start a year in advance, preferably while you are still employed elsewhere I said it above... but this important advice bears repeating here. Rigorous planning starting 365 days before you open your doors (when you still have a job) is the key to ensuring an opening day with orders and profits. Last Words There's no reason under the sun why your home-based business cannot become the vehicle that makes you a millionaire. There are plenty. Why aren't there even more? Because too many home-based entrepreneurs didn't follow the steps above... thereby torpedoing their own success. YOU, however, know what to do. Begin today. You've got a profitable home-business in your future!
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Warning! You may be one of MILLIONS of people leaving money on the table because you won't work the phone!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Have you looked at the economic news lately? The so-called recovery is still weak as a new born kitten. People are still being thrown out of jobs. Home foreclosures continue. Financial and social instability blanket the land. Yet you who says you're in business... You who tells me you want to squeeze every single cent from your business, won't pick up the phone to talk to prospects and so are leaving big bucks on the table. Is that crazy or what? Now hear this: e-mail did NOT replace the telephone as a crucial business money-maker Listen to some people, and you'd think the telephone became obsolete when e-mail was invented. "Oh, I never phone anyone anymore. I e-mail them!" If you're one of the silly ones singing this tune, you need to stop, look, and listen to the vital information I'm about to deliver: as far as connecting, working with and developing long-term relationships with customers is concerned nothing beats your Alexander Graham Bell. E-mail is spectacular... but it NEVER can or will replace the way phones enable you to communicate directly with your prospects and DO BUSINESS! In plain English, the phone is a money machine. You must learn to use it as such. 1) Review your current use of the phone Do you make it a point to telephone your prospects, introduce yourself, ascertain what you can do to assist them, follow up with all you prospects to make the sale, and (a little while later) make sure they're happy with what they've purchased? If you are remiss in some or all of these vital categories, it's time to make changes in your use of the phone... or continue to leave dollars on the table. 2) Do you end each day drawing up a phone list for the next business day? The key to maximizing phone potential and profit is planning; knowing who you want to connect with on the morrow... and having whatever you need to do so readily at hand. Create a computer file for each business day. This file should contain * name of prospect * prospect phone(s) * prospect fax and, yes, email * what prospect is interested in * then space for a record of all contacts, including what the prospect said and what you promised to do (and then did). Review tomorrow's phone list BEFORE leaving for the day. That way it will be fresh in your mind http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 35 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success when you start calling tomorrow. 3) Call your easiest prospect first We're human. We all function better when we get off to a good start. In business, this means calling your easiest prospect first, the prospect you know and have a good relationship with. They'll be glad to hear from you; they'll be happy to place that kick-off order. When that order is in , the success of your day is ensured! 4) Be clear on the objective for each call. Because the telephone is used both personally and for business, it's easy to lose track of why you're calling folks. Personal telephone habits spill over into business time. That's fatal to your bottom line. Before you call each prospect, review just why you are calling. It is NOT just to say hi and chat. It is either to start a new business relationship, foster an existing one and, above all else, get the sale! 5) Keep good notes The average telephone business user is casual (and hence ineffectual) to a degree. Sometimes they take notes on their prospects calls; sometimes they don't. This catch-as-catch-can approach to the telephone is not good enough... for you. YOU know the importance of good notes. The time to enter them into your computer file is the MINUTE your phone conversation ends. Indeed, if you have your computer screen in front of you while speaking to your prospects, enter your notes as you go. 6) No answer? Call back. No answer? Call back again. Over the years, I have been consistently astonished at the high level of self-delusion that permeates the business community about incomplete calls; that is calls which do not result in direct conversation with your prospect. Any call you place, including calls where you just leave your prospect a message, must be regarded as incomplete calls; that is, calls which must be made and made again until completion (that is direct customer contact) takes place. 7) Regard your customers as assets who need the time and considered attention of any other asset If you are one of the legion of business people who don't call prospects, a major change in attitude (and procedure) is necessary. From this moment on, think of each prospect as an asset for your business and as one of a string of assets from which you derive wealth. Would you take a corporate bond and abandon it in a taxi? Would you leave the deed to your house on a picnic table in the park? Of course not! Then don't be cavalier with your customers and efficiently calling and following up. They are ASSETS, and they must be treated accordingly. One phone call at a time. Starting today.
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What you want your customers to say over and over again.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Have you ever consciously considered just what you want your customers to say to you? Probably not. Yet the exercise is important. The clearer you are about what you want your customers to say to you... the more likely you will do what is necessary to hear it. 1) 'Thanks for getting back to me so fast!' When was the last time you heard this? When was the last time you deserved to hear it? The plain fact is, too many businesses these slothful days don't have fast customer response as a priority. If they respond to the customer promptly, fine; if they don't respond to the customer promptly, no problem. It doesn't seem to faze them either way. WRONG! It matters! Customers use your response time as an indication of whether you are customer-centered, or not. Buying decisions and long-term relationships are thereby determined. Prompt response is good... prompter response is even better. Remember, if you're not hearing compliments from your customer about what you do... it's quite clearly because you don't deserve to! 2) 'Your staff was so helpful and pro-active!' When was the last time you needed some help at a particular establishment -- and didn't get it? To tell the truth, it happens to all of us all the time, right? We either can't find a staffer. Or wait while that staffer finishes text-messaging his lady love. Or, even worse, we get a staffer who doesn't know his job or what he has available. You know what I'm talking about because it happens to all of us all the time. Instead of leaving this important matter to sort itself out, be clear on what you want your customers to say to you -- each and EVERY customer, mind -- and do what's necessary to hear it over and over again! 3) 'Thanks for working with me!' Start from this proposition: if you want long-term customer relationships, working with your customers cannot be something episodic and casual; it must be the essence of what you do and what your business is all about. Like it or not (and you'd better like it), all customers are not the same; they all do not have the same situations. People who thrive in business, customer-centered people, understand there is no cookie-cutter approach to customers. Approaching them that way is just like one of Cinderella's sisters stuffing her foot into the glass slipper. It ain't gonna happen! Customers need you to see their situation not as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity demanding sense and sensibility. Do that and you will have earned their business, now and later. Fail to do that and you will deserve a customer's ultimate punishment: 'I'll take my business to someone who values it.' Ouch. 4) 'What a great offer! I'll take it.' Haven't heard this lately? Then you're not making offers which are good enough... or frequent enough. As such, you're leaving money on the table. To be in business is to be in the business of making offers, lots of offers, constant offers, daily offers; to understand that a day that goes by without a motivating offer is a money-making day gone forever and ever. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 37 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success forever and ever. Is that the kind of business person you are? Casual? Neglectful? Lazy? Yikes! If you want people to compliment offers (and put money in your pocket), do what's necessary... today! 5) 'You didn't have to do that! I really appreciate it!' Okay, customers can be a drag. They can be and often are rude, demanding, insistent, egotistically out of control and a total nuisance to boot. Yep, that sounds like customers we know. They are also crucial to your business, profits, and your wealth and comfort. The plain fact is, customers can and often do need extra help. They may need you to go the extra mile or two. To do this is often inconvenient for you. That's absolutely true but also absolutely irrelevant. The customer needs... you must help. If you don't, you have set the limits of your business, your profits, and your growth. 6) 'I thought service like that was gone forever!' In olden days some of us are still young enough to remember, there was a thing called customer service. It was embodied by a young man at a filling station who hopped to it when you pulled in, filled the tank, cleaned your wind shield, checked the pressure in your tires... and did it all with a bona fide all-American smile that wouldn't quit. Where has this lad and all he represented gone? If you aim for success and for customers to sing your praises, we'de better find him (or her) in your establishment! Think about the service you have enjoyed from others. What made it good? What made it memorable? What made it obsolete in so many businesses, (perhaps including yours)... until now. To offer 'wow' service is a decision. It is something you choose to do, or not. If it isn't present in a business, it's because that business decided to get by doing less. If everybody offers mediocre, entirely forgettable service it doesn't matter very much. But the minute a get-ahead business person does more that person gets a terrific advantage. Now that you've considered the matter, that person better be YOU! 7) 'I could tell you really cared!' There may be, as P.T. Barnum famously said, 'a sucker born every minute', but most people can tell a phoney from the real thing. Which means they can tell without difficulty someone who is insincere, disinterested, and going through the motions without energy or conviction. That better not be you and yours. Set the goal: getting compliment after compliment from customers who are staggered by your service, your conviction and sincerity worth telling their friends about. Why did this happen? Because you determined it would happen. Because you understood that having the kind of business people would stop in their tracks about was the only kind of business worth having. Congratulations! You are now not only a better business person, you are a better person, too. And that's just the person we want to do business with. A Dedication http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 38 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success A Dedication I dedicate this article to my long-term colleague and friend, Sandi Hunter of Worldprofit, Inc. Sandi 'gets' service. She understands it cannot be episodic and irregular. Instead, it must start in commitment and radiate through all customer contacts, on days when you feel like it... and, more importantly, on days when you don't. You probably wondered, Sandi, whether we noticed what you do. We do... and the customers do, too!
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What is absolutely crucial for your business success? Joy, that's what! You either have it, or you've had it.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant What would you say about a business owner who said these kinds of things about his occupation? You say your job is like "mopping the floor" and "cleaning up the mess." You complain that what you do is "confining" and "frustrating". You moan and groan that "nothing beats a day where I can make an escape, I break out." You whine about how difficult your challenges are because "I'll be honest with you. This is really hard." What would your opinion be of such a person and his chances for success? Would you want to be around this person, to emulate that negativity? Would you want your children to grow up ready, willing and able at the drop of a hat to ladle out such lamentations and self pity by the bucket, like the man who spouted these telling, quoted words? That man is the President of the United States, Barrack Obama, the pampered resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The man with the biggest, most important job in the world... a man whose golden prize offers immeasurable possibilities for transforming lives... but seems to give him no joy at all. Seen a photo of the president lately? His lips are pursed, brow furrowed and intent, the body language contained, controlled, the famous "don't touch me" quality, smiles cool, fleeting, and unbelievable. Is it any surprise his presidential ratings have dropped like a stone? We all want to like him... but it's becoming increasingly difficult because he doesn't seem to want to like us... "the people" he is there to serve, inspire, motivate, and enhance. Do you approach your business looking like you were weaned on a pickle? It was the irrepressible Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of a president, married to a speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who nailed Calvin Coolidge forever more, declaring he looked like a man weaned on a pickle. Coolidge, too, was the master of frosty distances and the laconic. Again, it was just so hard to like him! Is that you? Do you bring everything to the table except the one thing that trumps all the others: joy! Then you are hurting your business, your fortune, and to a certitude, yourself. Start with Robert Burns, perceive yourself In his celebrated poem "To a louse" , Burns writes of a young woman coming to the kirk inappropriately dressed to kill, preening and posturing, little sensing she is also showing off a louse, lazily trespassing her over-combed locks. This sight, and Burns' poetic talents, turn this incident into stunning insight: "O would some Power the gift to give us To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion:" The first thing to do is review yourself "warts and all", to see yourself as others see you. Is there a business person in the world who actually wants to be a person putting off others, the very people whose respect and admiration he should be doing everything to garner and maintain? Evolving into a person whose joy is manifest in all aspects of her job means undertaking a http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 40 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success self-scrutiny which must be honest, candid, stark, and unyielding. After all, you may well find one painful trait after another and must be ready to see them as in a spotlight. Walk yourself through a day in your life Your model here is Frank Capra's ever relevant classic film "It's A Wonderful Life", where a man is forced to see himself as he is and see how many lives he has touched. It's a good beginning for your own self tour. Start with your smile A smile doesn't mean all is well. It is not some cosmetic to mask reality. Rather, it is a statement that, whatever else is going on, bad, even catastrophic, you intend to be a beacon of welcome, someone striving to lighten the load for others, not to contribute to it by your gloomy visage and off-putting demeanor. In others words, you intend to make a heartfelt difference, one smile at a time. Each smile is a sign of possibilities, unlike a frown, scowl or evident disapproval which is a door shut and locked in the face of all who unhappily come across you. Do you welcome your customers... or merely (and inadequately) acknowledge them? Watch yourself as you perform your daily customer contacts. Are you easing the way for others with a manner congenial and forthcoming? Even the great French King Louis XIV, master of the greatest of kingdoms, used always to doff his bonnet with celerity and style to EVERY woman he encountered, be she serving wench or marquise. Count the moans, groans, whines and all the renditions of "poor little me" in a single day As is clear from his quoted remarks above, President Obama, is a man with an unflattering tendency to invite folks to feel sorry for him. Him! President of these United States! Him! Waited on everywhere he goes... with access to the world... flattered... consulted... revered... deferred to. Rich, powerful, caressed, cosseted to a degree we can only imagine... yet wanting us to feel sorry for "poor little me", whose job is so hard, so demanding, so limiting. Come on! Your customers want what we want from our chief executives: the power of potential; a feeling that here, right in front of us, we have a person of care, empathy, concern, and sincere interest; a person who enthuses us about the road to come, difficult yes, challenging to be sure, but replete with possibilities for all. Is that how you approach your customers, as a person of possibilities, an empowerer, for whom the glass is always half full, not discouragingly half empty? With whom do you think your customers want to do business? Joy the sine qua non It takes many things to be a business success, conjuring sales and profits wherever you go; products of value, excellent personnel, offers that cause folks to pause in their tracks. ALL are necessary. But no single factor is as important as the joy you bring to your job, because that joy will inspire all and ensure success. Joy enables and empowers. It attracts and motivates. It takes the difficult and transforms it into the wished for future. It is your gift to the world... and to yourself.
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How to stay focused and make money on days you DON'T feel like it!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Did you lay in bed this morning unwilling, unable to get up? Did every fibre of your body demand more time in the sack? Was it a struggle to open an eye... and get up? Sure enough, if today wasn't like this, some of your many tomorrows will be. You need to be prepared for such inevitabilities... because they can and will occur and can and will sabotage your ability to make money. Here are some suggestions that'll help you rise and shine... suggestions I use myself when getting up and getting going are most decidedly NOT my first priority! 1) Create a "to do" list before you go to bed. The key to making tomorrow organized, efficient, and profitable is what you do today. Make it a rule before you retire for the night to draw up a clear, clean, specific "to do" list. Write it, read it over, put it next to the bed... then turn off the lights. While you're sleeping your subconscious mind will be busily at work helping you organize and implement the items on your list. Even when your body is screaming for more sleep and all the creature comforts it can get, the brain -- and your crucial "to do" list -- will be helping you get up and at 'em. 2) Take a cold shower. The British empire, the largest the world has ever known, was practically built on a cascade of frigid water. Its young men, pillars of the imperium, were shipped off to prep schools and immediately subjected to the jarring temperatures which will work for you as well as it worked for them. Don't stand there and debate.... turn up the cold tap and plunge! You're about to be invigorated, rejuvenated, primed to run your empire. 3) Do some exercise. Are you huddling in a corner of your kitchen, hands gripping a cup of joe, comfy in your bunny slippers? Whoa! This isn't helping getting your act together. You need some brisk, bracing exercise... the kind guaranteed to send vital oxygen to that all- important brain. Put the steaming liquid down and kick up your heels... or quick-step around your back yard or up and down your street. With every step your brain will exult. The key isn't coffee... it's oxygen. Move bristly and infuse it where it must go for maximum good. 4) Give yourself an easy, immediate success. Don't feel like doing anything? Then give yourself an easy, immediate success. This should, of course, have been indicated on your "to do" list. Before you go to bed be sure to post on your list an easy thing, a thing that will start today's sequence of successes. Once begun, as we say in New England, is half done. What could this "easy" thing be? It could be calling a long-time customer to get a nice re-order or following up with a new customer to whom you've already sent a proposal and quote. One success engenders another. Even a small success is sufficient. Start successful, remain successful. It all begins when you least feel like it. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 42 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success successful. It all begins when you least feel like it. 5) Put on your head phones and engage with some stirring music. Still need help getting into gear? Go to the play list on your computer and choose something rousing. What? You don't have such a play list? Start it today. I can assure you, you are going to need it. Here are some of my sure-fire upbeat selections, guaranteed to get you going: Wake up Little Suzie by the Everly Brothers (most appropriate, don't you think?) Think by Aretha Franklin. Natalie Cole's version of Pink Cadillac, and J.P. Rameau's always motivating Tambourins I-II from Dardanus. Your list may well be different from mine; the important thing is to have a list you can access at once. Turn up the sound... and move your body. Your uplifting selections are moving you towards another successful day. 6) Visualize what you'll get when you turn this day into a success. All too often we work without conceptualizing why. We work today because we worked yesterday. This is not nearly good enough. Remind yourself just why you're working and what special thing today's successes will help create. In my case, for instance, I have a pile of auction catalogs stacked high next to my computer. I motivate myself on days when such motivation is needed by looking at the things I want from auctions coming up quickly. Getting myself focused and together is a precondition for maximum acquisition. Visualize success; then do what's necessary to achieve it. 7) Still not alert and moving? Then take the day off formally and properly. Like most people these days, you are working more and longer than either your parents or grand parents. We are the most leisure-challenged generation ever. The plain fact is, you may be unable to get up and resolutely face the day because you're just worn out. If so, take the day off... sleep in, sleep properly, sleep, relax and goof off without guilt. You'll be the better tomorrow if you take what is necessary and do not regard it as an indulgence but physical need. Enjoy!
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Beware of any 'business' that relies on recruiting family and friends for your success!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant It all sounded so good. Incredible earnings potential! Work at home! Big profits in your spare time! Yours, all yours, if you only recruit a few family members and friends... who would then recruit a few family members and friends... who would then recruit a few family members and friends. Easy! Get started today! Just pay a monthly fee and stockpile a few "they sell themselves"" products... and all those eye-popping benefits (and the money you so need) would be yours. Unfortunately... it all went wrong, so terribly wrong and in such a short time, too. No money! No snug business producing guaranteed extra income! And family members and friends angry at you for involving and misleading them, with collateral damage for years to come. What went wrong? "Warm marketing" is the culprit! Consider any company you know from major household brand names to local "mom and pop" operations. Do these companies reply on their family and friends to prosper? Certainly not. In fact, the question is absurd. These enterprises, every one of these enterprises, relies on the quality of their goods and customer service -- and their own never-ending marketing efforts -- to attract people to their stores and develop long-term relationships. If you asked such business owners if they were relying on their family and friends to get by, they'd dismiss the notion in a minute as ludicrous. And so should you! Why "warm marketing" doesn't work Warm marketing is based on the proposition that people know people and that by everyone doing a little bit of presentation and recruitment, everyone benefits. Nice idea. Unfortunately, it has as many holes as swiss cheese. The premise of "warm marketing" is that people will buy whatever you're selling because they know you, and you ask them. By contrast, in real businesses people buy not because of their personal connection, but because of their need for the product, the eye-catching selection of what you have available, and the particular motivating offer you're making. Selling to their parents and best friends is most assuredly NOT the basis of their success!!! So, who benefits from "warm marketing" then? The parent company -- and no one else. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 44 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Does the opportunity charge you a fee for joining and/or a monthly "membership" fee. Bingo! They're making money off you.... even if you never make a penny. Does the opportunity require that you buy a certain amount of product every month? Bingo! They're making money off of you ... even if you never make a penny. Does the opportunity require that you maintain a certain level of sales to get paid? Bingo! They're making money off of you ... even if you never make a penny. Let's be very clear: their objective is to make a profit for the company. Whether you make one or not is never their concern. What companies relying on "warm marketing" never offer ALL businesses, warm or otherwise, need a steady flow of prospect leads. Regular companies master the art of lead generation early... or they go out of business fast. Warm marketing companies don't spend a nickle instructing you on marketing mastery. No need! Instead, they just hand you a prospect script and tell you to call all your family and friends ASAP, since that's the sure-fire way to success. WRONG! Real companies that have dealer programs bend over backwards to accommodate your need for prospects and to help you educate and close these prospects. The better the company, the more focused they are on your success, the more you can expect them to provide, such as * a training program that shows you how to generate and work with your prospects * multiple lead-generating services * ad copy that works * proven prospect scripts * company-provided incentives to stimulate prospect identification and action * company provided live and recorded presentations for prospects, delivering key information and answering queries. Real companies don't say "recruit grandma and all will be well." Instead, they focus on providing you with EVERYTHING you need to generate and close leads, including (and this is absolutely vital) the hot new automatic recruitment software which only cutting-edge companies make a point of offering. This exciting, money-making software enables you to generate * unlimited * guaranteed * targeted * specific * unique http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 45 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success traffic to your website... and to do it AUTOMATICALLY and for FREE! Related software delivers the Number One position in every search engine on earth... including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Alexa, etc. again AUTOMATICALLY and FREE! (I bet you didn't know you could do this in under 5 minutes, automatically. And for FREE, if the company gives you this amazing software!) Real companies are happy to give this to you free because they know that traffic is king and that your success (and theirs) is dependent on it. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the outmoded companies advocating "warm marketing" remain in the dark ages.... snagging you with a system that seems easy but is the worst imaginable, not least because it leaves you with a trail of strained and broken relationships with family and friends you have irritated and angered. To avoid this and all the other pitfalls of this notoriously inefficient and ineffectual marketing system, just remember Nancy Reagan's famous line: "Just say no." It will save you a world of grief, frustration, and a lifetime of bitter, recriminatory comments from family and former friends. It will also enable you to continue your search to find the best opportunities... those which eschew "warm marketing" altogether, and rightly so!
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Six things you can do to ensure constant good service. Hint: tipping isn't one of them!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant How often do you complain about poor service? About businesses that seem to specialize in gratuitous irritants and mind-boggling ineptitude in the care and feeding of worthy customers... like you! Such commentary in our rude days is voluminous, constant, and largely pointless. After all, what is to be done with what is so obviously a general, universal melt-down and daily deterioration in manners? Plenty! That's why this important article is so important. Constant complaining won't do much. However, there are things you can do every time you visit any business that'll ensure constant good service. Let's dig in: 1) Smile. Have you looked at the members of the human comedy as we (for I include myself) go about the business of living. Review the faces you see. How many exhibit such off-putting expressions that would make Ebenezer Scrooge seem like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? Answer: a number that seems to grow by the hour. Indeed, the "get lost; leave me alone; don't you dare speak to me" expressions are so characteristic of our time that the Rolling Stones hit "I can't get no satisfaction" should become our national anthem. That's why we need to put "smile" at the top of the list. Smiling costs nothing and opens a world of possibilities and easier-going relationships. Thus, your goal is to proffer a smile whenever possible... and, by smiling, motivate the people around you to return the favor. 2) Always greet people, whenever possible by name. People like to be called by their names. This being the case you have to wonder why more people haven't figured out that greeting a person by their name not only is courteous; it's a vital way to ensure good service. So, how do you get the name? In many businesses personnel either wear name tags... or else they often have a name plaque (like banks). Make a point of looking for the name... and then using it. "Good morning, Betty. You look cheerful today!" In such a simple beginning is a future replete with good natured help and assistance from Betty; which is just what you want. 3) Offer a cheerful remark. If you want cheer from otherwise morose and self-centered personnel, make it a point to break the ice with a positive comment, like the one above delivered to "Betty": "You look cheerful today!" Count on the fact that you will be one of the few people in contact with this person today who will be cheerful, upbeat, with a hail-fellow-well-met attitude. Remember, the run of homo sapiens will be scowling instead. Thus your remark is guaranteed to stand out... and get the response you want, namely regular good service from someone positioned to assist you, if she would! 4) Look the person you are addressing in the eye. The general population moves listlessly through life eyes cast resolutely down, making a point to avoid eye or any other contact. This makes it difficult to secure the best service possible; in fact, it is http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 47 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success a prescription for the exact opposite. That's why you must look your potentially helpful but current unhelpful person in the eyes. Eye contact is crucial in establishing long-term good relations and the superior service you desire. 5) Has someone been helpful to you? Tell the manager or responsible individual before you leave. Every day most employees manage to do a reasonable job. If you want good service from these people, tell their supervisor that they were most helpful to you. Now here's the key point. Maybe these employees have been particularly helpful... or perhaps they are just a tad above horrible. If you want to make a good impression and open a bridgehead to better service in future, you will find something to commend to the person in charge; you will tell the employees you intend to put in a good word for them...and you'll put in that good word before you leave the business. Doing it now -- and letting the employee know you've done so -- marks you as an action oriented individual... and a person to be remembered and treated with the kind of respect only a few holy persons and an occasional monarch get. A live commendation puts you in this select society... and gets you the superior service you desire. 6) Write a congratulatory note or send an email. In a society as service-challenged as ours, there ought to be a law ordering congratulatory comments like those above. Sadly, there is not...which is why so much good service never gets more than a thank-you at best. But not from you... Your job, if you are determined to secure better service from the establishment and its employees, entails getting the good employee's name, the manager's name and mailing or email address. Then writing a brisk, focused message lavishing compliments and praise. In such messages there cannot be too many compliments or excessive flattery. Use both... for they are important in getting you the better service you desire. Make sure such messages are sent the very day of the good service. Delay diminishes their value, which would never do. So, who gets superior service... and why? The bottom line: if you want a lifetime of superior service... become a superior customer. Don't expect the people you deal with in business to give you what you will not give them: good manners, an ease of manner, not a jolting "I exist. Serve me" attitude. Thus, the key point of this article is not merely to provide helpful hints that guarantee superior service, but to make it abundantly clear that those who get superior service are those who deserve it. And by "deserve" I do not mean that they are big shots who arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine. Indeed, no. People deserve better treatment because they give better treatment. And that's the way it should be!
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Tips for profoundly irritating your customers. Here are the words that'll do it.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant This is an article a lifetime in the making. It's about the power of words... in this case the power of words to irritate your customers and make them see red. It's about carelessness, arrogance, vanity. It's about the needless loss of one customer after another, thoughtlessly thrown away, repulsed, antagonized. And all by you... you who worked so hard to get them in the first place! Irritating words: "I will get back to you at my earliest convenience." Want customers to call you to do business? Then undoubtedly you have an answering machine message for those times you are unavailable. (You do have such a message, don't you?). And if you do, there's a very real chance you are irritating your customers with it. Take a look at the message above. The irritant is "at my earliest convenience". Customers, not surprisingly, want you focused on THEIR convenience, not yours. Thus, this message should read: "I will get back to you today. Leave a detailed message and phone number with area code where I can reach you now. I'm anxious to assist you!" See the difference? The selfish marketer never does... and pays a very real price as a result, as he affronts and loses customers with every message. To avoid this sad situation, review all your marketing messages (and, yes, your answering machine message must be marketing copy, 100% focused on your customer.) Nothing should be focused on you; everything must be focused on the customer. Irritating Words: "Something important came up." Tens of thousands of would-be customers will have to call back businesses like yours again today... after being blown off yesterday. When they call back and ask why it was necessary, many will be insulted with these offending words. As a result many will, quite simply, decide to take their business elsewhere. Wouldn't you? (calling back customer): "Why didn't you call me back yesterday?" (offending business person): "Something came up." Let's examine this irritating phrase carefully. What the business person is saying is... "you are distinctly less important than what I decided to do. No doubt I should have called you back, but I didn't. Buy from me any way and support my selfish ways." Of course, returning all customer calls before you leave would ensure that the offending words wouldn't have been said at all. Failing that, the key is NEVER making the customer irritated by suggesting that their business is less important than yours. Irritating words: "I can't do that because..." "I can't do that because my car ran out of gas." "I can't do that because I have to run Pookie to the vet." http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 49 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success "I can't do that because I stubbed my toe." These little factoids of total insignificance deeply irritate and rankle. And no wonder. Consider, the person in touch with your business wants a thing accomplished. Your pithy excuse not only tells them that what they want has not been accomplished (bad enough)... but calls on them to commiserate with you about an incident both trivial and banal. Understandably, they are deeply irritated being forced to do so. Irritaitng Words: "You know how it is. I got tied up." Every day businesses like yours ask their customers to condone and forgive their inept and unsatisfactory behavior with these words. Now think a moment. Why should a customer, any customer, give you their empathy and understanding for your ineptitude? Yet ask for it you do, each and every time you use these irritating words. First and foremost, customers want to know, have the right to know, just when you will be accomplishing the task for which they have contacted you. Your communications, your messages, your total focus should be on 1) doing the task, and 2) informing the customer that the task has been accomplished. ALL other words are entirely beside the point. Failing to understand this and communicate accordingly, gives your customer a very good reason for eschewing you and your services in the future. Irritating Word: "Whatever!" The most irritating single word in the language. (Would-be customer): "I have called your company on three separate occasions about this matter." (You): "Whatever!" Or how about... (Would-be customer): "I have been on hold for nearly an hour waiting for customer assistance." (You): "Whatever!" Never before in the long history of customer irritation has a single word, so short, generated such universal execration and raised blood pressures. It is a cosmic ultra-irritant delivered with total disdain, insolence and an infuriating shrug. This single word is an unmistakable stink bomb thrown at your customers. Short though it is, it combines full portions of hauteur, arrogance, condescension, selfishness, and the full insult of the all-American raspberry. Oh, and by the way, it costs you every time uttered, eliminating immediate sales and long-term, profitable relationships. Is this what you really want? Every word you use either helps your business, or not. No word, no action is neutral. Billions of words are uttered in business every day around the globe. Having read this article, you may well speculate on just how many of them are inappropriate, hasty, wasteful of the funds expended to attract customers and therefore destructive to your business and profits. To avoid this sad result, be chary of your language. Do not allow yourself the luxury of language misuse with the expectation that your customers will "understand." They won't... and why should they? You are irritating them, profoundly irritating them, and, believe me, they will repay the favor http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 50 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success and happily so.
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Five Things You Don't Know About Closing Sales Which Are Eviscerating Your Profits
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant It isn't just that most people are lousy at sales... far more shocking is the fact that most SALES PEOPLE are lousy at sales. If you're one of them, this article is for YOU! The plain fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of sales people rely on their charm, gift of gab, and ability to "wing it" to make sales... instead of being prepared to make sale after sale. STOP IT! Following these sensible steps means more money: 1) Closing sales is not a matter of motivation or pressure. Instead, it's a question of having the right information readily at hand, so you can answer customer questions quickly, easily, thoroughly. Thus, consider what you have readily available when you are talking to a customer. 2) Do you have (readily available, mind) a sheet of "you gets", that is a list of PRECISELY what your customer gets when using your product/service? Dollars to doughnuts, neither you nor any member of your business has sat down and written out the features of what you're selling; then converted each and every feature into a benefit that the customer gets. Treat each and every benefit like scoops on an ice-cream cone; the higher you stack 'em, the more enticing to the customer! 3) Do you have a sheet of offers? Products do not sell themselves; a sales person bragging "Our product sells itself" is wrong, naive or both. What sells products is offers; the better the offer the faster the sale. Thus, have you got a sheet of offers; "add-ons" you can use to motivate immediate customer action? This list should make it very clear just what the customer gets for fast action. AND when the customer must act, for ALL offers must be limited by time, quantity, etc. 4) Do you have a sheet of results testimonials? People what to be assured and re-assured about what they will get when using your product. Here's where "results" testimonials come in. These not only provide a happy customer's experience in using your product ("I loved it"), but the specific results that customer achieved. The greater the specificity and the benefits, the better and more effective the testimonial. Note: whenever possible ALL testimonials must include full customer and such relevant details as title, location, etc. In short, testimonials must be detailed and complete to be completely credible. 5) A page of objection responses and rebuttals Face it, not every customer will leap for joy upon hearing of what you are selling. That's why you must be prepared for the nay-sayers, the procrastinators, the cautious, and the merely foolish. For these folks, a list of every possible objection and your strongest response is required. Commmon objections include: "I must ask my spouse." "I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks." http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 52 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success "I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks." "I have to check you out." "I don't have the money." Now hear this: there isn't an objection under the sun which cannot be effectively answered, only not by "winging it." EVERY successful sales person knows that preparation here is mandatory; the rebuttals may seem spontaneous... but they must ALWAYS be rehearsed. Brainstorm all objections; then work on the responses. As new objections surface, add them to your list... and, again, perfect the perfect, objection- demolishing response. Last Words The key to sales success is NEVER a "wing and a prayer." It is ALWAYS a matter of total, complete, deliberate effort. Such effort can turn a mediocre sales person into a stellar performer. That, of course, is precisely what your goal must be, and now you know how to achieve it!
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5 Things You Should Do When Your Customer Buys (if you want more business in the future!)
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant You SAY you want more business and the money that comes thereby. But unless you do these 5 things, you're just whistling "Dixie". 1) Smile & Say Thank You Do a little survey. For the next few days, take a look at how you're treated in the various stores you patronize. When you buy do you get a radiant smile from the check-out clerk and a warm thank-you? Or is the action meagre and perfunctory; or even absent altogether? The warmth of the thank you, the brilliance of the smile are indicators of just how much you value this customer and desire his business. P.S. Whenever possible, use the customer's name. "Thanks so much for your business, Mrs. Smythe. We do it appreciate it you know!" And be SURE to make eye contact. This is essential. 2) Hand the customer a bonus coupon. ALL businesses live or die by repeat customer business. That's why you need to give each customer a bonus coupon, First, make the bonus a valuable one, nothing cheap and insubstantial for your vital customers, please. Second, make sure the bonus coupon has an expiration date. Remember, offers work because they are meaningful in value... and because they expire. Third, hand this valuable gift to the customer and deliver with a smile! 3) Offer to carry the customer's purchase to her car. Want to make an especially good impression... the kind the customer will convey to her social circle? Then carry her purchase to her car! This courtesy may not always be possible; you may be the only one in the store, for instance. Very well. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water. If you cannot always offer this special courtesy, do not for that reason never offer it. And, remember, in offering this special benefit, don't stint on the accompanying smile... or customer's name. 4) E-mail the customer a thank you and bonus offer. What should be awaiting your valuable customer when he gets home? A terrific bonus offer e-mailed at once! Speed here is everything. That offer should be e-mailed right away. The speed with which you send http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 54 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success this bonus offer will be a clear indication to the customer of how much you value her business. You're able to achieve this result if and only if you have created one or (even better) more offers before you need them! It goes without saying that you must have the customer's e-mail address. You do request it from every customer, don't you? Semper paratus is not just a motto for Boy Scouts. 5) If your product runs out, make sure to e-mail the customer when you've estimated he will need more. THAT is your moment to appear supremely customer-centered... and put more money in your pocket, too. Say the average customer uses up this product in 60 days. E-mail a bonus offer 30 days before renewal is necessary... then 15 days... and 7 days. Make SURE you include a special offer with every e-mail and make sure this offer has a clear expiration date: like 5 days from e-mailing. Last Words As every smart business person knows, your success (and comfort) derive mainly from one source: your customers. Right now you SAY this... but you may not run your business properly to derive maximum profit from customers. This article should help. Read it! Print it! Live it! You will start seeing the pay-off at once!
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Four things successful business people will do today... that you won't!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Friend, let's get one thing straight from the get-go. Successful people are going to do things today that you won't. Read this, and you'll discover what they are. 1) Successful people don't just let today happen.... they plan for today... yesterday! What did you do before you left your office yesterday? If you're successful, you planned your success for today, determining your clear objectives and laying out the documents, materials, and other things you need. In other words, you knew what you'd need, and you had it readily at hand so you could, without special effort, pick up first thing today what you so carefully planned.... yesterday. Organization, a constant focus on time management and efficiency, not caffeine , are what the successful bring to the table. They cannot and do not consider yesterday concluded... until it is organized as the spring board to a successful today. 2) Email a stupendous offer just before you leave your work. Want to walk in tomorrow to sales? To lots of great prospect leads? Then email a terrific offer BEFORE you leave. Most people, bushed, fatigued, tired, upon leaving their offices are contemplating the pleasures of the rest of today. But not the successful. Successful people are mad keen on organization and efficiency... and constant bank account pleasing cash flow. They know that today's dollars are the result of yesterday's offers. Successful business people force themselves to stay, no matter how tired they are, no matter how pleasurable the day's forthcoming events, until they have crafted the stunning offer that ensures cash flow throughout the hours they are not present. This offer must be a lollapalooza... the best yet. As I write, much of the United States, much of the rest of the world is mired in an anaemic economic recovery that is, at best, just limping along. Yet, by staying focused at all times on the main event, successful business people will flourish and achieve even the most ambitious of business and financial goals. The key is having cash readily at hand.... and the means to generate more.... at will. This means offers, better offers, the best offers, never-ending offers. Because you will be tired at the end of the day, craft your end-of-day offers earlier. To ensure that it delivers the big success you insist upon, shape that offer when your mind is fresh and your abilities keen. Aim to make your offer better than you have ever made before; aim to make it a stunner, head turning, a cash gusher. What the most successful business people know is that cash is king, especially when other people, people who do not have and do not use such offers, don't have it. If you focus as on your #1 Priority the shaping and constant sending of eye-popping offers you will have the cash, and thus the http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 56 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success freedom, your less focused and clever colleagues lack and will always lack. 3) Call three prospects who have been hanging on the fence, uncertain about buying, and tell them you have the talking turkey offer of all times... if they will act now. Offers come in many shapes and sizes... but one thing they all have in common is the "act now" factor. Offers to work must have deadlines... and the very best offers mean prompt, immediate response... no dithering allowed. Most people, you see, even most business people, dither, offering excuses when decisive action is called for. In fact most people are not decision makers; rather, they are decision avoiders. The offer is made for such people, for only a truly superior offer will get these torpid ones to act at all, much less act on your speedy schedule. Now, be honest. Did you, before leaving your office yesterday, call at least three people with a special, once-in-a-lifetime, knock 'em, sock 'em offer? Or did you just turn off the lights and lock the door? Want money?Then outline a "for my best customers" offer... and call them to discuss it. (You may also use email to send the offer... but never expect such an email to close the deal. For that the phone is the key). Pick up the phone, I say, and, upon reaching these prime (if delaying) prospects, verbally embrace them, "Mary, you and I have been in contact for many years. I was thinking of you and wanted to make you a spectacular offer. Have you got a minute?" Then deliver the offer of offers, tellingly delivered, resoundingly delivered, convincingly delivered. This is a Special Offer.... for a Special Person. Deliver it accordingly. 4) Select 5 customers and give them a special unexpected gift. People have always liked and will always like to get presents. It makes us feel wanted, warm inside. The most important people in your business are your customers; we all know that. However, what have you done lately to warm the cockles of their hearts? Not much, right? Change that today. Pick a few customers, 5 is a good number, and give them a special gift, report, some free product, any kind of emolument... something that says simply, honestly, "I value you!" Then send it out. Your customers will be pleased, gratified, impressed. No wonder. In our busy world, too few take even a little time to do the right thing; that thing that identifies you as a quality individual, well deserving of such customers. Out of the enhanced good will such valued offerings engender will come business, lots of business. You deserve it. Are you going to be the business success you say you want? You now know what to do. The question, therefore, is whether you will do it,and when. 24 hours from now, as you reflect upon this day, you will know just how successful you will be, based on what you have (or have not) done. It won't take any longer than that to see how well you're going to do. You see, now as always, the success you get (or forego) will be upon the actions you take and how well you do them. In short, it's all about you. Bon voyage.
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What Kind of Online Marketer are you? A Dabbler or a Doer? Your Answer Matters.
By Sandi Hunter Every day I talk to people who are trying to earn an honest buck in an online business. These are average people who come from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe. The common goal they share is the desire to earn money online in any number of online affiliate or reseller type programs. Although the goal is the same, the approach to making this happen is always different and so too are the results. I have outlined here the marketing approaches that I observe everyday, the ones that are effective and the ones that aren't. See if you recognize yourself in any of these examples. The Dabbler. The Dabbler's marketing approach involves putting a little bit of effort into this and a little bit of effort into that. This type of marketer will post a few blogs, send a few tweets, join a safelist or two and participate in a handful of traffic exchanges. This person has a basic understanding of what is required to market their online business. The problem is they simply won't commit to rolling up their sleeves, digging in and doing what is necessary to consistently promote and build results. They are too busy talking about it, planning it, and getting organized. The Dabbler sometimes doubles as an excuse-machine. They readily offer up reasons for not having completed the necessary tasks to build their business. Or, they easily assign blame to others for their lack of success. It has always puzzled me how it is so easy to find reasons for not being successful. What about all the reasons why you CAN be successful? The Internet offers burgeoning earning opportunities! The Learner. This type of marketer is a professional online student. They read continuously, watch videos, sign up for everything to get even more details and more help. They are so busy learning, and soaking up knowledge they never actually DO anything or apply what they learn. They are never ready to START applying what they have learned. They want to study more, take it all in, buy more books, take more courses. The Internet itself, and marketing strategies are constantly evolving. You will never know every last detail about marketing and when you think you are getting close, technology will change again. Stop with the learning and start with the doing! Everyday you focus ONLY on learning, is another day you have not made a dime. Dive in, get wet, start promoting your business, products and services - now - RIGHT NOW! Yes, there is much to learn about online marketing, never stop learning but be sure to never stop MARKETING. The Sweat and Tears Syndrome This marketer is the saddest one of all. They promote with a frenzied intensity in short bursts spending hours in all the wrong places, promoting all the wrong things. They furiously tap away for hours at their keyboard "working their business" late into the night for 2, 3 days, maybe a week or more. Their blog is bursting with good key word content, they've tweeted like a mad person, they've bought leads with great promises from a sketchy vendor that seemed to good to be true. Exhausted, they pause and wait for the results. When they don't get instant results, the sweat turns to tears. Frustrated they swear, stomp, tantrum and move on to the next greatest online money-making program ever - that is in pre-launch! The insanity begins again. This type of marketer has no patience, and leaps from one program to another, with no loyalty or commitment. The Doer
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The Unique Path To Online Business Success The DOER is the marketer that SUCCEEDS! The DOER is the one who doesn't get caught up in all the details. The DOER is a courageous beast. They blunder, make mistakes, but carry on. They understand the sheer power of the web to market products to the world and to profit from their labour. They understand that with the right products and tools they can sell anything! The web is fat with buyers. DOERS understand that you MUST have patience, and MUST work a business constantly, knowing this means consistent promotion every day. DOERS accept that there will be frustrating times, failures, and obstacles on the path to success. The DOERS I know, aren't always the people you might expect. Many of the DOERS I know are average people, with very little sales or technical background. Their gift is that they are not afraid to try, they don't give up, they dig in and work hard. There are DOERS all over the world right now marketing their products, services, and affiliate programs in all corners of the web, turning a profit each and every day. This type of marketer has tapped into the right resources, training and tools, applies them consistently, setting realistic goals carrying a positive attitude. Here is my advise to you as an online marketer on your way to success. Every single day when you wake up, set a goal for yourself. Make your goal realistic and measurable. Post your goal on your computer, date it. Initially your goal may be to simply find 5 great places to promote your business. Then your goal may evolve into actually posting your ads, product, service or opportunity to 5, then 10, 20+ sites each day. Once the promotion is is place, set goals for the number of sales each day. As your business grows never lose your focus on that goal. Don't get distracted. Remember, at the end of the day you want to actually have made money! Tweeting, face booking, article submissions, and blogging HELP your business grow but are not direct profits in your pocket. Yes, promotion, networking and Search Engine positioning is important and you should work at this but it takes time to do this. Do not let these activities overwhelm you to the point where you forget to make money! Keep your eye on the prize. Set a goal for a minimum earnings per day. Start off realistic. If you don't make that amount today, set a new goal for tomorrow. When you start making money, adjust your daily goals accordingly. For those of you who are new to online marketing you CAN make money every single day provided you have the proper tools and resources to do so and of course great products and services to promote. Just make sure you are the DOER described in this article. I close with a quote from one of my favourite DOERS, Ray Kroc, McDonald's Corporation. "Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."
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Another look inside the millionaire mind-set... how millionaires look at the Internet... very different from you... and far more lucrative.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant The Internet is divided into two quite distinct parts: people who make money every single day... and those who not only do not but can not. I am firmly in the first category. Sadly, you are most probably in the second. If you are serious about profiting online this candid, detailed report is not only useful; it's an absolute must. Don't just read it once, either, and expect to get everything out of it. Study it as if your online life and prosperity depend upon it... for they do. It is part of a series of such articles you can find on my blog, details below. Each article in the series takes up a different, crucial aspect of the Internet millionaire's mind... resolved to put you in that mind-set as soon as possible, the faster to generate the profits you desire. Energy I shall commence today with a problem every person online has who is not a millionaire: sloth, laziness, endless vistas of wealth and prosperity... but torpid, meandering, a poster boy or girl for lassitude, indolence, intolerable sluggishness. I have been on the Internet profitably now since 1994... and among other things have been teaching the essentials of online business success. The degree of inertia and just plain lack of consistent effort and dogged perseverance is staggering. Let's be clear with each other. You cannot succeed online if you exhibit consistently poor and inadequate business habits. Good habits are the foundation for Internet success. Treating your online business differently from your offline business will ensure its complete and total failure. To establish the best possible habits and make the best possible use of the time at your disposal, you need to understand when your energy is at peek... and when, therefore, to do the essential tasks which require the most energy. I am writing this article at 4:25 a.m. Eastern time. I have learned over time that this is the best time of the day to write the 1,500 words of publishable prose I write each day and post on my website and blog. Millionaires, online and off, are expert at reviewing all their assets and deciding just when they should be used for maximum advantage. Now, I've gotten off my chest something I've been meaning to write for some time; success comes to those who understand what they have available... then using these assets to generate other assets, maximum energy being an absolute necessity. Stop Buying, Start Selling. One of the Internet's wisest entrepreneurs, George Kosch, has been reviewing and analyzing online wealth seekers for decades. It is both vocation and avocation and his knowledge of such people is encyclopedic, insightful, and often extremely funny. He has identified one group as online business wannabees with the "Shiny New Package Syndrome". These folks are engaged in the never-ending, completely futile, and drainingly expensive task of buying every new thing that appears online, the better to ensure that they have the latest, best, cutting-edge do-dad which, immediately upon purchase, is hastily reviewed, then cast on top of the gigantic, only just balanced, stack of dozens, even hundreds of once "must have" items, enticing, purchased, discarded, forgotten. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 60 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success This syndrome is a killer for building wealth and misses the essential point for how you can use these glittery products with the breathless descriptions to profit. There is a way, an easy way, but it involves changing your thinking from buyer to seller, for one essential and irrefutable reason: product sellers make money... product buyers do not. You say you are online to make money, right? This being the case tell me when you last reviewed all the product descriptions and purchase opportunities and offers you receive hour by hour online? If you are reaching for an answer that doesn't come, let me refresh your memory: you never do this, not today, yesterday, or ever. You do what the overwhelming majority of so-called online entrepreneurs do: you trash these advertisements, irritated that you receive them, fast into the dumpster, so there. This conclusively proves you are not, just yet, millionaire material, since you are ignoring, overlooking and destroying just what can help you succeed. Product review never stops... but, sadly, with you has probably never started. Every company determined to grow, even in times of strenuous economic challenge like ours, sets about reviewing products to augment, extend and make more profitable their line. Day in, day out such entrepreneurs make a point of searching out new products that their all-important customer base and lists can monetize for them. Each day is a day for adding new products. The question before the house is: why aren't you doing this, you with the big dreams and great desires? Thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to discover products worldwide and build worldwide business relationships, all from the comfort of your at-home PC and Internet connection. How Christopher Columbus and all the great European explorers would envy you... for at your fingertips this very minute, you have the means of building one or more huge customer lists and of reviewing and adding new products every single day. Product review and product selling hints. First, what I've written above obviously necessitates a sea change in how you regard your email. New product details and offers must no longer be considered as "junk"; rather, look upon them as helpful information sent by people who desire you to get as rich as possible as soon as possible. When such materials arise (minute by minute online), either review at once... or transfer to an online file so you can review later. Make it a point to review this file regularly, transferring the data you want to another file, while discarding items which seem unlikely to excite the folks on your lists. Develop and send a stationery letter to the prime source/developer/owner of each product. Advise them you wish to add their product to your catalog/website/list. Indicate your traffic statistics and how you can sell their products. Then ask for the discount terms, name, email address, telephone number of the person handling this product. Be sure to include all your follow-up details. Note: if this message is not answered within 48 hours, re-email and place "second attempt" at the top; you're a serious player and the company you're contacting needs to know it. Efficiency always helps. Your desire for success, your ability to achieve it online is determined by how many of these letters you send... and how many new products you email to your lists. Remember, doing so is not the work of an hour, a day or a week. If you want to do what you say you want to do, namely make money online, you must understand that you will do this until you wrap up your online enterprises for good. In my case, that will only take place when I'm six-feet under... and you should have a similar date. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 61 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Just one more thing. The products that you used to pay for, emptying your wallet... you'll get them free from the companies producing them as soon as you show them just what a crackerjack sales machine you are. That starts now!
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If you're lucky and work hard, you get the partners you need to be the business success you desire. Here's a tribute to mine.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. I didn't have to think twice about the music to accompany this important article. It's "Friendship" recorded in 1940 by Judy Garland and Johnny Mercer. You'll find it in any search engine. Go now. When you find it, give a listen. It's a peppy little number, touched by American corniness and with a special message for wartime: we're in this together. And not just in war, either. The well-lived life is a series of absolutely essential relationships... parents to child, sibling to sibling, spouse to spouse... and business partner to business partner. Luck, of course, the kismet that erratically injects itself into the business of living, is a always an unpredictable factor... but so is the ability to seize that opportunity when it knocks... and to grow it into your personal empire. This is the story of one particular man who when serendipity came, seized it with gratitude and enthusiasm, riding it for a lifetime of security, profit, and, yes, affection, the plus perfect beneficiary of partnership, its care and maintenance. "A fairy tale." My 87-year-old father, a lifetime of business success under his belt, one day startled me with his description of my nearly 20 year relationship with:Sandi Hunter and George Kosch. "It's a fairy tale," he said. "That's what it is." What he meant was that this was a relationship which, on the surface, was improbable, even unlikely; but which once existing one could never imagine being without. Let me tell you how it happened... One day nearly 20 years go, the telephone rang in my Cambridge, Massachusetts office. It was George Kosch. This call was the result of a crucial business marketing insight and tactic: always make it easy for your customers to find you and connect with you. I was, I believe, the first author in the history of authors to include follow-up details (and a catalog, no less) in every copy of every book I wrote; (to date there have been 18 such). Such vital, business-building details were also included with every article as well as with the usual business marketing communications. They were also, and powerfully, supplied to the world each time I went on radio, television, and ultimately the 'net. Over time this constant infusion of total follow-up information provided a fruitful critical mass that resulted in a constant stream of leads... and lucrative, fortune-building business. George was one of the many people who responded... and responded... and responded. For I was that most normal and prosaic of prospects: the one who wasn't paying much attention to what the marketer was trying so hard to get me to see. Like all prospects, when George The Marketer rang my phone (as, remember, he had been invited to do in one of my books) I had other fish to fry, other places to go, other people to meet. Now from a distance of 20 years (and everything therein) I shudder when I think of how nearly life might have been so very different. Here the "what if's" surface... What if he hadn't bought the book? What if he hadn't read it? What if he hadn't believed my invitation to follow-up and so didn't do it? What if he had not followed-up when I, already comfortable and with too much to do, didn't pay http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 63 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success attention... since follow up was necessary and required to make the future happen? Faced by such questions, one at last, and perforce, comes to believe, no matter how rooted in rationalism you may be, in the power of kismet... what my father called the "fairy tale". But George knew this about marketing: that if you have carefully selected your prospect... and you are sure of the benefits you can deliver... then, to get the benefits you want, you must try and try again to induce your prospect to stop! Pay attention! Get enthused! And, finally, desire what you wish him to desire. And George did just that, introducing me to a subject I knew nothing about... which was to become the basis for the remainder of my life. George Kosch, then as now, was a visionary... far ahead of everyday reality. I didn't know it, although it is to my credit that I quickly came to see, but I was firmly rooted in the past... while he was a link to the future. I had made a fortune from publishing books, specialized card-deck advertising, and from the laborious, fatiguing and very lucrative lecture circuit which at its height saw me lecturing on a regular basis at nearly 30 colleges and universities and at one professional association after another. It was a grueling pace. George offered something better: he offered the future... and no man can ever be offered a better, more compelling gift. "The Offer". George snagged my attention finally and for good when he offered me, via his electronic bulletin board, the opportunity to bring my popular business columns (which appeared in both print and in my nationally syndicated radio program) to a wider audience. I didn't need to be offered twice. Here's why... In those days, these bulletin boards were wildly popular. From our vantage point with the glorious Web in place, it may be difficult for some to conjure up their attraction, but it was substantial. I remember one never-to-be-forgotten dinner party I attended where every guest, posting messages throughout dinner, kept jumping up to see all the avalanche of responses which just kept pouring in. It was rude, of course... but it was undeniably exciting and eye-opening. George Kosch offered a way into The Way Things Would Be, Like It Or Not! I so liked it, and was so intrigued, that I flew to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada... because, by then, I had an inkling that in this unlikely place, with its uncongenial temperatures, my future was to be found... and I was right. There at the airport, young, good looking, friendly, curious of course about their guest, were George Kosch and Sandi Hunter. I can see this moment sharply in my mind's eye. It was a meeting full of possibilities which became, through careful stages, probabilities... then certainties. I have been a student of humanity since the day my eyes first opened on the human comedy... here I found two of the best. The first impression was impressive; nothing that has happened since has done anything but improve it. The three of us promptly decided on a partnership which I think I may safely say has proven so beneficial to us all -- and the world we have served. Here are some of the reasons why it works so well: 1) We each have our fields of expertise and so defer to the experts in their area. George takes care of the technology he knows so well; Sandi is an expert in Web design and handles all the myriad "back office" and customer service details. There her deft touch, efficiency, organization and, above all, kindness are put to the test daily. She never fails. I remain what I have always been, the marketing man, the creator of endless blog copy. 2) We say less than we know. A successful relationship is predicated upon empathy, discretion, a http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 64 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success carefully nurtured ability to know what to say, how and when to say it. It means giving up the often destructive luxury of saying anything that comes to mind. This is what the young and careless do, thinking they are honest, when they are simply immature. 3) We value the others and say so. We are, they from Ontario, me from Illinois, by heritage reserved. But that only make our words, when given, the more affecting. We make it a point to remember... for it easy to take for granted that which must always be recalled and celebrated. We do not take each other for granted. 4) Above all else, we are there for each other. I have never had to struggle to make these fine people adhere to any undertaking; they have never had to remind me to do something promised. Lifelong relationships flourish because the people involved do what they say they are going to do... their word indeed their bond. With such people, success, while never inevitable, is likely... and so it has been. Which is why, soon to be 65, I embrace each day with unbridled enthusiasm... for I know that I am making the next portion of the great adventure of my life with just the right people. When you find yours, grab on to them as if your life depends on it, for it does...
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After 17 successful years online, I know the secret of Internet success. I'm spilling the beans right here.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. Because today, August 1, 2011, is such a happy day, I wanted something suitably grand and festive to accompany this article; the kind of music that makes you want to jump up, throw up the sash on your window and, at the top of your voice, shout "Huzzah!", because you want the rest of the too weary and downtrodden world to be as excited as you are. I've found that music. It's a royal German military march called "Hohenfriedberger marsch", and you'll find it in any search engine. Go get it now and let one of the most soaring of marches lift your spirits and put you in the right frame of mind to develop your own online empire into a place where such grandeur is an everyday event... and where you do so well your generosity of heart, mind and spirit match mine on this anniversary day. Over the last 17 years online, I have talked to literally thousands of people who have begged, wheedled and pleaded with me to reveal the "secret" of Internet success. It is now my pleasure to tell you, tell all, withholding nothing. 1) Never say "How do I make money online?". Say instead, "How can I help my customers achieve what they want?" People who succeed online make a fetish of helping people. They know that if you give enough people what they want... you will surely and most assuredly get what you want. This sounds easy enough, doesn't it? A piece of cake. However, you must never underestimate the powerful pull of human ego, selfishness, and self- destructive avarice. In short, humans find it difficult to focus on others, rather than themselves. Yet it is and will always be these others who control your ability to get rich online. I tell my marketing students "Your money is in their pockets," the "their" being your customers. The only way to get it out is by completely changing your focus from yourself to.... them. Cautionary note: Like everyone reading this article, you will pledge your online operations to complete customer centeredness... and for a day or two you will be an empathetic paragon. Then imperceptibly you will slide back into the inveterate selfishness that condemns so many Internet entrepreneurs to humiliating, unnecessary failure. Remember: humans are born selfish, but it is only the customer-centered who succeed. Post this message so that you never forget, for to the extent you do is the extent to which you'll undercut and block your own success. 2) Make it easy for your customers to connect with you. We live in an age of true communication marvels with a myriad of ways to connect, connect fast, connect now. The problem is, we don't use them properly, rather infuriating customers by misusing these tools, or, worse, not using them at all... so that the age of instant contact becomes instead the age of thwarted contact. Are you one of the culprits? First, review each and every means you have for people connecting with you, including email, telephone, fax, etc., etc. Then review them as if you were the customer. Look at how you use them. When you use them. Even whether you use them. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 66 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Are you a customer enabler... or are you a customer frustrater and avoider? You'll SAY that you are doing everything humanly possible to expedite and improve customer contact and communication. But in all likelihood you're not. The only way you're going to know is by acting like a customer, ascertaining just how easy (or difficult) you've made things. You're likely to be amazed at the maze and obstacles you've erected to frustrate customer relations. As soon as you know, re-arrange things so that you don't just THINK you are customer-centered, but actually are. 3) Make an offer... then make a better offer. To make money, give things away. To make more money, give more things away. The richest people online are those who give the most away. They spend their days not just creating and discovering useful new products and services. That's necessary and essential for success... but it isn't the key variable. That key variable is the extras, the special offer you're going to give customers for acting NOW! In other words, the all-important offer. Now hear this: OFFERS are what get people to buy now... thus, the better the offer, the faster the sale. It's as simple as that. So, let's see what you're doing now and whether the offers you're making will take you to the financial destiny you desire. First, are you making any offers at all? You'd be surprised at how many entrepreneurs have a "take it or leave it" attitude about what they're selling... punctuated with this killer proposition: "what I'm selling is so good, it sells itself." This is one of the most foolish of propositions. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sells itself. But if you don't have a special enticing, motivating offer with what you're selling then you've cooked your own goose. Immediate re-thinking is necessary. If you're making some kind of offer, good for you. At least, you've got you r foot on the right road. Now let's see whether you've got what it takes to move ahead. Review your offer in the light of what your competitors are doing, easy enough on the Web. If what you're offering to induce immediate sale is only as good as (or less than) what your competitors are offering... then you've got a serious problem... and you need some serious action at once. The offer you make, the offer that delivers the sales and the cash, must be demonstrably better than anything offered by anyone... and the customer must be able to see this at a glance.... 4) Create a customer-centered blog and use it daily. Over the last 17 years online there has been one astonishing development after another. One of the most important is the creation and development of blogging; it's a device that every successful Internet entrepreneur understands and uses daily, the better to achieve more substantial success. You will succeed online only to the extent you understand blogging and blog daily. Let's start by helping you understand why it's so important. A blog gives you the opportunity to send out advertisements daily, without risking your list as people do who email ads and nothing but ads. Your blog is anchored by useful articles and information. These client-centered articles and information protect the integrity of your list. So long as your ads are accompanied by this useful content, you can email your list regularly. Sending ads alone cannot achieve the desired objective; instead you'll list will dwindle into insignificance. Enjoy the game. Successful online entrepreneurs know they've participating in the greatest game of our time, a game that delivers customers and customer sales 24 hours a day and can turn even the smallest home business into an unstoppable cash cow. And isn't that just what you want? Don't wait another minute to get started. Put a smile on your face and set about the task before you, http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 67 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success making liberal reference to these recommendations. It's the way to ensue 17 years of success online, as I've had, with many more successful years after that.
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Home truths from an old hand about what it takes to succeed online. You may not like them but you need them!
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Every day thousands of people worldwide wake up and, hey presto!, have a great idea: I'm going to set up a business for myself online. Tons of people have done that and oodles of money is being made. Now hear this: you are now and truly entering the twilight zone... and I want to help you get through it with maximum success and minimum frustration. Who am I? Well, I am an old Internet hand who, since 1994, has made his primary work place the Internet and has reaped over the years a very ample reward. Now it is time for me to share with you some of the lessons of these years of learning, growth, and profits. I know what you're thinking: "Yikes, another old geezer from ancient times trying to help me by offering useless advice that never in a million years could possibly apply to me and my situation." Is that how you feel when those more experienced than you are (and more successful) offer up their nuggets of wisdom? If so, reconsider and feast your eyes on this: Item: Most home-based Internet businesses fail unless they have certain crucial criteria in place. Without these factors, you will fail, too. Item: Your online business is most vulnerable if you have never previously been involved in business and have limited Internet experience. The failure rate here is staggering. Item: You are at severe risk if you are trying to run a one-person online business and have no one else to advise and counsel you. This is very likely the situation in which you find yourself right this minute. You will soon discover why one is the loneliest -- and least successful -- number. Now, have I got your attention? The minute you decided you wanted to make money online, you became a failure waiting to happen. That's why you must pay close attention to the recommendations that follow. Not only are they the result of many successful years online, they are heartfelt, because online helpful friends are few and far between... and should be listened to with the utmost respect, even if you don't like what they're telling you. Home truth number 1: Life online for most would-be Internet entrepreneurs is nasty, brutish and short. It looks like this: decide to have an online business, get a website, then.... absolutely nothing. No traffic! No customers! No money! You will know this description applies to you very, very soon if you are being at all honest with yourself. How long have you been trying to make money online? How much have you made? How much have you spent to launch this e-enterprise? How much time have you wasted? What makes you think tomorrow will be better than yesterday? These are tough questions... and most online business wannabees never do demand answers from themselves... or at least not before it's too little too late. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 69 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Home truth number 2: You don't know enough about developing your crucial prospect list. People who make money online know that the list is the business and the business is the list. Do you know this and are you focusing your expertise, time and money in developing that all important list? Or are you focusing on such inessential factors as the colors used on your website, your domain name, how many business cards you should order, etc? All such questions collectively do not have the importance and significance of this single query: what did you do today, yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that to build the list, the list that is the business and from whence all your profits will derive, now and forever? Home truth number 3: You have no marketing experience or success. Who succeeds online? People who know what marketing is, have important marketing experience, and know what marketing they must know and do daily. Sadly, the wannabees have absolutely none of these things and their lack is both obvious and fatal. You cannot succeed in business online (or off for that matter) with only rudimentary marketing skills, hoping that that will be enough. It won't be. A thorough practical knowledge of reality-based marketing is essential. You proceed at your peril without it. Home truth number 4: Success online means having the ability to write cogent advertising and other copy. How are your customer-centered writing skills? The truth, please, and nothing but the truth. Successful Internet entrepreneurs are to a person good customer-centered writers. Or if they're not they have solved that problem by hiring someone who is. Thus, your question is this: can I write the necessary copy that gets prospects to stop in their tracks, pay attention, peruse the offer and product details, and act? Merely "thinking" you can write such copy is just not good enough. Would you go sailing in a leaky boat? Then don't deceive yourself here either. Excellent copywriting skills are a must. Home truth number 5: You're not selling nearly enough products. Want success online? Sell lots of products. Want even more success? Sell lots more. Success online directly correlates to how many products you sell and your skill in presenting them. How many products are you selling today? How many yesterday? The day before? If you are not adding new products daily, you are handicapping your ability to make money online. Every successful online entrepreneur is engaged in a strenuous search and discover mission aimed at finding more products. Are you? If not, your Internet obsequies are near at hand. Home truth number 6: You are not skilled in essential traffic generation techniques. In real estate, it's location, location, location. Online, it's traffic, traffic, traffic. The sad truth is you traffic generation skills and experience are minimal, certainly inadequate to generate the necessary traffic that ensures success. Hopefully you'll admit this is true. Then, assuming you are willing to knuckle down and master http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 70 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success traffic essentials, the better to create and grow your list, you at least have a prayer. However, if you do not have the necessary traffic generation skills... and remain unwilling to say so and do something about it, you're DOA... 100% certain to fail. Home truth number 7... but I must cease and desist as my space for today is now at an end. There is, of course, much more I can tell you... and undoubtedly will. For now, promise me this: that you will attend closely to these deeply honest observations. And when you implement them successfully, you'll let me know. I'd like to know how you're getting on, with my help.
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21 Recommended Books for Entrepreneurs

Often when I am consulting with clients, I am asked to recommend books for entrepreneurs. I have compiled a list of titles on my shelf that I think are worth reading. Success in business means constantly learning and evolving, what better way to do so than sitting down with a good book. These are in no particular order. I hope you enjoy them as I have. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy Cash Copy by Dr. Jeffrey Lant The Wealthy Barber and The Wealthy Barber Returns By David Chilton (these will appeal especially to Canadians reading this article) Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don't by Donald J. Trump and Robert Kiyosaki The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Micalowicz 7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness by Jim Rohn Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack by Donna Fenn Illusions of Entrepreneurship by Scott A. Shane Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim Magic of Thinking BIG by David J Schwartz How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (His book, The Outliers is really a good book too but less related to Entrepreneurs) Why We Buy by Paco Underhill The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox Screw It, Let's Do It by Richard Branson Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed by Brian Tracy The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey You Need to Be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Own Business by Barry Moltz Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar Of course these are print books. There are lots of superb blogs and websites targeted at entrepreneurs. I will save that list for another post as it will be a very long list. For now I think you have some reading to do? Enjoy. NOTE: Let us know what you think. We've love to hear which are your favourite titles. Open minds http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 72 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success invite new ideas, sharing ideas makes us all a little smarter.
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Want to make money online? Here's 10 Proven Ways!

In tough and uncertain economic times, people are taking charge of their economic future and turning to the Internet to earn money. The Internet is filled with legitimate ways to earn from home if you know what to look for. This article provides realistic advise on how to earn from reputable online sources and run your own profitable home-based business successfully. Let's get started. Here's what you need to know to make money online consistently and legitimately. 1. Do set yourself up with an online place of business - get a domain address. For $10 or so per year, it's worth it to book your own domain name. It makes you look more reputable, permanent and more accountable. Separate yourself from the sketchy programs out there by having your own domain name. Your website with a domain name is your place where you do your business and the location for all your programs, products, services or resume. If you have other websites from various affiliate programs you are involved, that's fine, you can add the links to those programs on your domain based website. 2. Do book a website hosting account with a reliable hosting company. It doesn't matter if you use WordPress to create your site, or a Content Management System provided by your host, but DO get an account that gives you 100% control over your site to add content, pages, widgets, images, video, search engine optimization, stats tracking, sub-domains etc. The days of a 3 or 4 page bland static website are long gone. Today, website owners can (and should) add tools, gadgets, blogs and other resources on their site to make it more customer friendly, search engine friendly, and social media friendly. Effective sites engage the visitor with live chat options, video, member areas, commenting and more. If your hosting provider doesn't include site analysis and traffic tools, Google offers a free program that is very helpful for tracking important data related to your site traffic. It's called Google Analytics. Website hosting will be in range of $10 - $50 per month. Now let's look at proven successful revenue sources. 3. When it comes to earning from online sources here are some proven successful ways to making money online: a) Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing means that you sign up with a company as an Affiliate, refer business to those companies and you collect a commission for sales. You will be amazed at the growing number of large brick and mortar companies that offer affiliate programs. You've likely heard of Amazon but what about the Affiliate programs offered by WalMart, Pay-Less Shoes, Orbitz, Old Navy, G.I. Joes, ABT Electronics and American Express to name just a few. How each company pays commission and how much varies but with a high traffic website and precision marketing you can generate tidy income from affiliate marketing sources. Don't be afraid to look outside of recognizable retailers for good Affiliate Marketing ideas. ClickBank.com for example, allows you to promote thousands of digital products. Vendors post their digital product to ClickBank, you promote it, when a sale is made you collect a commission. ClickBank handles payments and refunds so your only job is to pick the products you want to sell, promote, and collect commission. Pick a number of solid reputable affiliate marketing programs, but only a few so you can focus on those and only those to see success. I have to include a shameless plug here for my own company, Worldprofit.com. Worldprofit includes in our Earn-At-Home Program a number of Affiliate Marketing products, reseller opportunities as well as a comprehensive sales and marketing training program. As the economy has fumbled, affiliate marketing and work at home programs such as what we offer at Worldprofit have exploded. b) Blogging: Don't stop at Affiliate Marketing, money can be made from popular blogging sites by adding in advertising revenue from sources like Google Ad Sense, this is called Monetizing. Food http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 74 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success bloggers, celebrity gossip bloggers, expert columnists and many more are generating sweet advertising revenue by including ads on their high traffic blogs. The ads are generated from an Advertising program such as that offered by Google and many others. They key to this revenue source is high and ongoing traffic. You will also need really unique frequently posted niche content to generate a following and get steady traffic. c) Sale of Products: Of course you have seller options such as E-Bay for selling products either new or used. E-Bay is not a new idea for making money online but it is a source that many people have been relying on for years. Wholesale items, overstock products, collectors novelties, bankruptcy sale items, fire sale items, garage sale items - even houses - are just a few examples of what people are selling on E-Bay. Those who are reliable sellers earn status as trusted sellers and can earn significant money selling products. d) Site Flipping: Flippa is a website that through an auction process, allows you to buy or sell complete niche websites, many with an existing customer base and verifiable traffic. If you are clever and have built up a successful online property you an sell it on Flippa. It's a similar concept as buying a home, fixing it up and selling it. In this case though you create a site for a nice market, monetize it, grow traffic, a prospect list and a customer database, then simply sell the site. For someone who doesn't have the interest in creating a site and all the work of building traffic and customers, a ready-made website can be purchased. Take a click over to Flippa.com to see new for sale listings, active listings, browse, price range, sold sites and more. e) Freelancing: If you have a specialized skill or knowledge, have a look at freelancing sites such as Elance.com. Over 1/2 a million jobs are posted every year on Elance. This is a site where you can post your unique skills. Both companies and freelancers (called contractors) can post their jobs/skills. It's unique in that you can access specific jobs including work for programmers, writers, designers, consultants and so forth. There are so many options, take some time to review these mentioned and keep an open-mind about what is available. Other sites offering a similar service include FreeLancer.com and Freelancejobs.org By posting your profile to these sites and taking on contact work you can earn considerable income. f) YouTube.com Not everyone is destined for instant success like Justin Beiber after simply posting a video to YouTube. There IS money to be made with YouTube, that fact is a certainty. YouTube's partner program allows you to post videos and earn revenue as your audience grows. Remember the scared baby video? What about the talking dog videos? Those videos and lots more are generating a steady source of income for someone due to the popularity of those videos. Initially the income can be very small, but if your video becomes hugely popular your commission checks will grow at the same time. Get good at it, get a following and then release videos to keep that source of income growing. Visit YouTube's Partner section of their website to read success stories and how the program works. g) Multiple Streams of Income. Here'a final thought on earning from online sources. Multiple streams of income is the key to consistent revenue, pick a few programs or options and focus on those to EARN something before you move on to the next. Make sure you are not spread to thin and can devote adequate time to building those sources of revenue. You need to have the time, commitment and an advertising budget to promote on a consistent basis. 4. Realize you must work your business every day to expect to see results. Don't expect overnight success, or even success after a few weeks. If you are in this for a hobby fine, but if you want to build an online business with a steady source of full time income realize that it will take time. It's a slow build and a lot of work. 5. Understand that CONSISTENT marketing and promotion is critical to your success. Ever notice that Coke is always advertising? Coke is continually in your face reminding you they are there. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 75 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success that Coke is always advertising? Coke is continually in your face reminding you they are there. They sponsor events, they run TV ads, Super Bowl commercials and taste-test booths. The reason is simple. Every business, big and small must constantly promote their product or service. Your online business is no different. Promotion is a daily task. How much you earn is directly related to how much time and effort you invest in marketing your product. Learn about the power of social media including FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, YouTube, and so many more. If you don't have a blog get one, and post unique content daily with rich key words related to your products/services/business and include integrated links to social media for maximum exposure. 6. Factor in that you will have to allocate and spend some of your hard earned money on advertising. Any successful business requires that you put money back into it. If you think you will build your earnings relying exclusively on free methods of advertising you will be disappointed. Yes, you can promote your business using free sites, and free services, but accompany that with actual paid ads at reputable sites. Don't limit yourself to the major search engines like Google and their Ad Words program. Also consider Safelist Advertising and Traffic Exchanges. Safelist advertising once spurned as the poor man's advertising vehicle has gained popularity and is free to get started with very low cost advertising options. Traffic exchanges work in a similar way and are worth consideration. For best results in either Safelists or Traffic Exchanges be prepared to pay for ads to see the best results. If you are on a tight budget combine both free and paid methods of advertising, and make sure you have an Ad Tracker software program so you know which ads are generating clicks and from which source. 7. Set goals. Are you going to make $100 today? $500 this week? How much? Once you have set your goals, set your plans for how you will accomplish this. What are the daily, weekly, monthly tasks you will do to make your financial goals a reality? Don't allow your self to get distracted or pulled down with tasks that don't get you closer to where you want to be. If your day ends with no commission report or sales report that says you earned SOMETHING today, rethink your plan for tomorrow. Get up early and get busy. 8. Have a positive attitude, I can't stress this enough. Put a smile on your face, believe, then do. In my work as a trainer and consultant, I talk to people everyday who have had mixed success in building an online business. The people I have watched grow and build their own successful business are those who think positive and take action. Don't be brought down by negative people, the know it alls, the ones that rain on your parade. Be mindful that while they are talking you down, you are doing something to improve your financial situation. Let that negativity slide off your back and propel you forward to work harder, and smarter. 9. Accept that you will have failure. Get over it. Learn from your mistakes. Move on. If it was easy to build a successful online business everyone would be making millions. 10. Find a mentor or training program that fits for you. The web is filled with software, e-books, training programs, webinars and more. You have all of this information at your fingertips. Find the best sources and get started. Don't make the mistake of learning, study, analyzing but never actually DOING anything. You won't find success thinking about it, success is the results of DOING something to make it happen. **** What are your thoughts on online money making programs? Submit your comments below.
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Worldprofit: A Review of Developments in 2011 and Sneak Peak at Plans for 2012.
The year 2011 has been an exciting one for both Worldprofit Members and Management. Early in 2011, we surpassed one million members who have joined the Worldprofit Home Business Network. As the year winds down we review some of the services released this past year to our valued Members and also provide a sneak peak at what we are working on for 2012. Over the past year our focus has been on providing Members with free and low-cost services to increase the value of the Worldprofit Membership. We understand well that the success of our Members requires ongoing support, specialized training, tested tools and up-to-date resources to help generate traffic, sales and income sources. Feedback from our Members has been that you want easy-to-use automated gizmos and gadgets to build traffic and proven strategies for making sales. In these tough economic times, you told us you wanted more ways to earn from home from trusted reputable sources. To that end, in 2011 Worldprofit released a number of new Member services. In February 2011, MoneyMakerSafelist.com was released - a new safelist for affiliate marketers around the world. The Article Directory was built and grew to over 400 articles for the exclusive use of Worldprofit Members for use on their sites, blogs and other promotional purposes. Dr. Lant personally penned well over 365 articles, all available for Worldprofit members. Creation and implementation of Article Publisher to provide Members with an automated way to add hundreds of articles to their websites saving them time and effort. A new Content Management System was released in March 2011 to provide Members with an option for more integration of social media, more design flexibility, ability to feature products etc as well as integration of Google Analytics, site map and RSS feed. The Credit Transfer area allowing Members to transfer their own Safelist credits to another Associate or Silver or Platinum VIP member Mid summer, DragonSafelist.com was overhauled for more options, user friendliness and speed. 40 LIVE interactive bootcamp training sessions were held throughout the year - that's over 80 hours of personalized instruction and assistance that our Members have enjoyed. This training is recorded for the convenience of Members not able to participate in the live sessions. This training is all hands on with desk top sharing so that members can learn by seeing as marketing expert George Kosch demonstrates step-by-step how to make money online. These sessions are popular as Members can ask questions live, interact with other members of the community. We learn from our Members during these training sessions as Member feedback helps us plan training, support and new product development. Over the last year, Dr. Jeffrey Lant provided once weekly dealer sales training for 50 weeks to help Members achieve their sales goals. Dr. Lant's tireless work ethic is tremendous as he works alongside our members in the Live Business Center every day providing assistance as needed. The Worldprofit Monitor network continued to grow in 2011. Members step up to the challenge to learn how to make sales and help all members of the Worldprofit Home Business community in our http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 77 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success 24 Hour Live Business Center. We cannot thank each of you enough for your contributions and dedication. Continued additions were made to the PLR Store and also to the Money Makers program. Our goal is to provide members with multiple streams of income and additions are made with hot selling products. The Amazon Store Front was added to list of options that Members can install on their website adding jus one more way to earn income from their site. CPanel hosting accounts and WordPress Blog hosting services were added to accommodate the request by Members. Worldprofit's suite of webcast services including the Instant meeting Center and Instant Seminar system were all overhauled to increase video and audio quality as well as speed. Also included easier method of loading videos to YouTube and other video sharing sites. The Live Face Chat Application was added. This tool allows Members to integrate into their site, and landing pages, a LIVE CHAT window. Site owners can then chat on video directly and immediately to their site visitors. The tool is "easy-to use, instant, and puts a FACE on your online business activities, literally, as YOU the site owner's video image appears on the site in real time. Late in 2011, the Dealer Lounge was created for informal discussions and to facilitate assistance among members of our Worldprofit home business community. The Personal Live Business Center (PLBC) was released. This is a mini version of Worldprofit's Live Business Center to allow members to use the power of this technology to host their own Live Business Center and promote any and all of their own affiliate marketing programs. The Home Business Bootcamp online training was expanded to over 50 lessons and still growing. Topics cover basic to advanced training on marketing, online sales, social media, software, traffic generation, article marketing, blogging, backlinking, Clickbank sales, affiliate marketing, and more advanced topics including SEO. We worked hard to expand the Member profile area to incorporate more social media links, photos etc. More landing pages were added so Members had more access to advertising aids. The Solo Email Blaster was integrated into the Member area and is proving very popular among both paid and free Associate Members. In December 2011, Worldprofit released the new Safelist Exchange service which allows non-techies to own their own Safelist Exchange and profit from online advertising revenue. A sneak peak at our plans for 2012. Our goal continues to be one of providing as many effective and easy to use tools as possible for our Members. We are developing one-click solutions for traffic and lead generation. - Landing Page / Splash Page Builder is on the drawing board so that members can easily create their own Landing pages without being a techie. - SEO service. We are in talks with a number of companies as we seek out a reputable SEO service for our Members. - Development of new Design templates and enhancements to current content management system. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 78 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success - Continued upgrade and enhancements to the Worldprofit member area for ease of use and navigation. - Development of an IPhone app - Creation of more articles and blog content for exclusive use of our Members. - We continue to test and integrate tools for Traffic, more SEO Tools and more automated marketing tools including Social Networking applications. - Continued commitment to speedy friendly Account and Technical Support. - Continued updates to online Bootcamp Training Course for simplicity, understanding, Member graduation. - Continued research and development of trusted Profit Partners so Members have even more products available for resale (more earning options). - Ongoing pursuit of partnerships or agreements with related companies offering products and services that will benefit our Members, including exploration of purchase discounts. - Development of new and updated marketing materials, landing pages, capture pages, ad examples. - Continued Monitor Training and Sales Development under personalized supervision of Dr. Jeffrey Lant. And much more is still in the research and planning stages that we are not ready to reveal at this time. Rest assured our daily commitment is to making your Worldprofit Membership so valuable that you can't even think about giving it up! Since humble beginnings in 1994, Worldprofit has grown to be recognized as the Home Business Experts and the # 1 choice for online home business training. In 2012, we look forward to continuing to help people from around the world learn how to earn from home.
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You SAY you're in business, but that proposition is dubious, as this article reveals in shocking detail.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. One of Broadway's happiest and most enduring musicals is "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." Written by Frank Loesser; it was released in October, 1961 to immediate acclaim -- and a Pulitzer Prize to boot. Most recently it was revived with Daniel Ratcliffe -- famous for his eponymous role in the Harry Potter films -- starring in the lead role originally done to mischievous perfection by Robert Morse, simultaneously menace and mastermind. I have selected one of the lesser tunes from the production for the occasional music to this article. It's called simply "Coffee Break", and you should go to any search engine now to listen to it. It's about how the absence of coffee -- and therefore the coffee break -- raises more anxiety and lamentation than a plague of locusts and completely stops the whole company, convinced that the end of the world as they know it is at hand. Oh, my! So much grief for one missed cuppa. However, the real shock is not that the coffee was late for the company coffee break, no indeed; the real shock is that more time, trouble, energy, irritation, and anger was expended on this event than on anything else that entire day... including the company's business they were hired to transact...until the outrage about the coffee break was surpassed by certain stale items on the lunch menu... thereby diverting everyone's outspoken attention to this even greater snafu. The sad part is that this kind of ludicrous "crisis" and massive waste of time does not occur solely or exclusively on Madison Avenue or in Broadway shows... it is most likely the way you are running your "business" and why it doesn't prosper. That's why today, I am going to put you and your "business" under the most minute scrutiny, the better to help you understand that your business, as you currently organize and run it -- cannot make the desirable profits of your imagination... until such time as you rethink everything -- absolutely everything -- so that the focus of your energy and action every day is NOT the coffee break... but actually doing BUSINESS. And as this analysis develops right before your very eyes, you are most likely to be chagrined, embarrassed, and horrified - and that's just for openers. On the acute need to perceive what you are really doing every single day. You say you are in business, correct? You say you want substantial, increasing profits, correct? You say you are a hard worker; indeed that the sun never sets on all the work you do, the tasks done, the challenges confronted, correct? In short you are about as swift, intelligent, able and valuable a business person as business has ever seen and that your DNA should be donated to the nation so that generations yet to come may have the benefit of you and your unmatched business expertise and execution. You, of course, are even now nodding your head in sage agreement with this flawless description of you and your business acumen. Modest though you are, you cannot but admit that you are the very paragon and model sketched above... just like Kansas City, you've gone about as far as you can go. It is this proposition swallowed hook, line and sinker by the overwhelming majority of business owners of every kind that keeps you trapped in a business that doesn't grow, expand, prosper and that does not make and will never make the profits you consistently and repeatedly say are the reason you are in business to get and enjoy. YOU and your business under our microscope. http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 80 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success Now, it's time to knuckle down to the important, sure-to-be-shocking analysis of what you do during your "business hours"... for you cannot improve your business until you know precisely what you do and precisely when you do it. Business is about two things and two things only... Quick! Can you guess what they are? The correct answer is 1) the generation of qualified prospects and 2) contacting these prospects, making them the most lavish, persuasive offer ever, then closing the deal forthwith. This is the two- step dance that keeps you in business, expands your business, and leads to money, money, money... yours, all yours. Now let's see just what percentage of your average day focuses on these two key points... and what percentage of your business day goes to anything but these two essential tasks. You'll need a pad, a watch, and total honesty. To make this crucial scrutiny work, you will need to be clear about what you do, when you do it, and how long it takes to do it. In other words, you must start by creating a detailed picture of your average business day... and why it either works to produce the prospect leads and orders you need... or why it doesn't. Give this essential project which can launch the most profitable epoch for your business your fullest attention. Nothing will come of this project unless you are careful, thorough, and complete. Your first task is to list all the things you do during your average business day. These will include but will certainly not be limited to * all breaks, kind and duration; * non-business related telephone and other communications; * time spent "surfing" the Web, especially at sites unsuitable for visits during business hours; * gossip with friends and co-workers; * writing ad copy; * creating offers that make sales; * time on the telephone etc where you connect with prospects, and either upgrade them to be qualified prospects, or close them by making sales. Get the picture? What you're trying to do is this: show yourself in unanswerable detail what you do on the average day that has absolutely nothing to do with the identification and closing of prospects... and how much time and effort you expend generating prospects and closing them. Reforms must follow identification of what you are doing wrong, over and over again. Chances are, you will be shocked and abashed by what you discover, for instance now seeing that you spend far more time surfing the Web and gossiping on the phone than you do on that same phone contacting prospects and closing deals. Such pernicious reality must be dealt with at once, for it is costing you money every single day. Start today. Do you care whether your business succeeds or fails? Do you care whether you make more money than less? Do you care whether the limited time you have on this planet is transformed into the maximum amount of coin of the realm, and so serenity, security, satisfaction? http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 81 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success That is why you must do this necessary exercise, and do it today. For you see, succeeding in business without really trying makes a dandy theme for a witty musical... but can in no way be regarded as a truth to build your ever more prosperous business by. That truth will be vividly apparent to you as you implement the recommendations of this important article. *** We invite you to post your comments to this article below.
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I accuse you of doing everything you can to sabotage your online success.... and what you must do -- at once -- to change that and profit.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, artillery captain for the General Staff of France, was charged with treason and espionage... thereby inaugurating one of the most outrageous and ignoble events in the entire history of France. It was a story of lies... but not by Dreyfus. It was the story of evidence made up... evidence tampered with... evidence destroyed... but not by Dreyfus. It was the story of grave injustice... deliberately done and with malice... but not by Dreyfus. It was the story of a man attacked, mauled, censored, imprisoned, humiliated, villified because of his religion... but not by Dreyfus. And above all it is the story of how one man with brilliant, slashing language changed the entire debate... securing at long last freedom, restitution and justice for Dreyfus. This man was celebrated novelist Emile Zola who took just two words and transformed them into the most powerful weapon on earth... two words that galvanized a nation, securing the attention and support of the good people of France who, because of Zola, were outraged by the terrible and enduring blot on the honor of France... and who joined their voices to his in the service of truth. J'accuse! These are the words -- I accuse -- which by making the outrages clear -- began the healing process that saved France from ignominy and redeemed her. Now I intend to use the great model created by Zola and to save you from business ignominy... to redeem you... and enable you to profit online... for you have been doing everything possible to fail... and little or nothing to succeed. To help you on your way I have selected the soaring 1937 score Max Steiner wrote for the Best Picture of the Year; "The Life of Emile Zola" starring Paul Muni. Such grand music must enable success... so go to any search engine now and play it. We are ready to begin the transforming process that starts with "I accuse..." and ends with "I salute...", wafted on our way by the grandeur of Steiner's composition. I accuse you of not understanding what business is... of understanding that business is now and always will be about two things and two things only: the generation of prospect leads... and following up with each and every one of these leads to make offers and close business. I accuse you of engaging in endless trivia every day, focusing on anything and everything instead of generating prospects... and calling these prospects, to work with them and begin the development of the business relationships necessary to secure success. I accuse you of trying to run a business solely by email... trying that is to motivate people to buy without doing the most important thing to profit: picking up the phone, calling prospects, engaging prospects, building relations with prospects. I accuse you of sloth, laziness, of sitting around and waiting for success, instead of doing what is necessary -- everything that's necessary -- to build the business you say you want... but for which http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 83 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success there is absolutely no evidence that you have ever done on its behalf any meaningful thing at all. I accuse you of the sin of inertia... of waiting, waiting, waiting, for, what?, a sign from Heaven, an email from God? I accuse you of not knowing what needs to be done, of not educating yourself so that you know how to do it, and not doing the least thing to secure your success. I accuse you of spending more time gossiping on the phone with people who cannot make you richer (your best friend, your bowling buddies, the chick you met bar hopping last week) instead of using the phone to do what it does so well... connecting with the people who can buy from you, buy now, and make you money every single day. I accuse you of trying to build your online business alone, all by yourself, when all the evidence says this is not possible, is absolutely impossible, because there is too much to do...too many things to master... and insufficient time to learn them, then do them. You need a team... and you need it at once. I accuse you of the sin of talking about success far more than doing the necessary deeds and actions that ensure success. You have become, thereby, a specialist in the endless rhetoric and bombastic language of success, while achieving nothing. It is time, therefore, past time, to cease and censure the flatulent babble and get on with the doing. I accuse you of not staying at your post every day until you have achieved the financial objective you have set for yourself for this day, focusing, persisting until you have achieved this goal... every penny of this goal. I accuse you of coddling yourself, of a too prompt tendency to forgive your inadequacies, overlook the negatives, whitewash your poor performances, rationalize your failings, pooh pooh each and every peccadillo, extol too greatly minor triumphs instead of pushing on to make the insignificant significant. The words used by Zola to end his famous declamation to French president Felix Faure, January 13, 1898: "I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered too much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul." I couldn't say it better myself, so won't try. Zola's letter changed the world... my hope is that this changes yours. ** We invite you to post your comments to this article below.
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100% sales. The 'must read' for business people who want more money and want it NOW!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. I have the inestimable privilege of training some of the brightest business people on earth... people of wit, intelligence, good humor... and a fierce determination to be successful, climbing the greasy pole, making more money, and living just the way they want. I find this work enthralling, exhilarating... and (I'll admit it) frequently frustrating... as I watch even the best and the brightest muff it. And so, today, I am writing about the one essential thing these fine folks -- and that now includes YOU -- must do every single minute of every single day that you want more money. For, let's not kid ourselves... if you understand this crucial article and follow its directives... you are going to make more money, lots more, and leave your lackadaisical and languid colleagues in the dust. And won't that be sweet? To put you in the mood for my insistent message, I have selected a dance number that once made you gyrate and awe... "I Want Your Love" by a group named Chic. It hit the charts in 1978, and it made its point early and often: "I want your love. I want your love. I want your love. I want your love." In other words, they kept on message, driving home the point of their endeavors until even the most mentally challenged "got it". As a teacher with a sledgehammer, repetitive delivery, I like that... I like it a lot. And so to set the stage for what follows, look this tune up in any search engine now and move that overweight, arthritic body; because you're about to recapture your alluring youth... and be the person who got what you wanted, oh yeah! Painful, so painful. It happened again yesterday... and it gets me, right in the solar plexus, each and every time I see this fundamental error. The sales person I was training was operating solo. In other words, they had progressed sufficiently far in their instruction to where they get to fly all alone. I am there, of course; I am always there... but I try to remain as silent as the grave and unobtrusive so that I am seeing the student and just the student. And make no mistake about it... this situation (as every parent knows) can make you as nervous and frustrated as all get out. Lights, camera... think! Picture the scene. All parties are on the 'net. I am present in my video box, the student is in his... and the "real life" prospect enters... like a bull at a corrida. Everything happens in real time.... and has real world implications, for good... or for ill. Ok... the student (and, remember, my students are established business people, not wet-behind-the-ears kids) goes into closing mode. This starts by greeting each and every prospect by name; then asking each prospect to watch a 20-minute video packed with the vital data that both excites the prospect and instructs her. These steps are crucial... and the students know I am a stickler for ensuring that they occur. In other words, make SURE the prospect has the critical facts before any further action can occur. The prospect is prepped... are you? http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 85 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success "As soon as you've finished the video, return to me for a spectacular one-time-only offer." These words usher in the next phase of the operation. We make it clear what must be done (watch video) and what is coming thereafter (spectacular offer). So far... so good. Close but no cigar. The first mistake the students make is to present the offer before the prospect has been adequately prepped. This is a critical error. Prospects must have the necessary facts... or they end up asking a ton of unnecessary questions; questions which have already been answered -- and in precise, clear detail, too -- in the video. The video, the whole video, nothing but the video. As soon as you have confirmed that the prospect has watched the ENTIRE video, proceed to the "Big rock candy mountain," your scintillating offer. It IS scintillating, isn't it? For if it doesn't snap, crackle, and pop you've just thrown away a sale. Sales occur because the offer sizzles, excites, is just too thrilling to decline. You ARE making such an offer, I trust. And if you're not, you'd better make its improvement "Action this day," which is what Winston Churchill did when as Prime Minister of England he demanded instant attention and RESULTS. And now... the critical moment that turns you into a master... and puts another sale in your pocket: 100% sales. To remain an average closer, keep doing what you're doing.But to fly high as one of the world's sales masters you must set the desired goal... then do everything possible, everything necessary to achieve it. That is... 100% sales. Is this what you do? Make your objective immediately clear to the prospect: "I want you to get the benefits of this widget... and I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen." Don't just say these words... mean them. Because once the prospect knows you're serious, they can be serious too, working with you for fastest, most complete mutual advantage. At this moment, the prospect may well start back peddling saying things like this: "I don't have any money." "I can't do it today." "I need to tell the little woman. We're a team." And so forth. Your job is to thrust these obstacles out of the way and CLOSE THAT DEAL. To do this, you must remind yourself AT ALL TIMES that you have a 100% closing goal... and that you are going to make this close. If the prospect stalls or blocks you, keep things going by asking for the prospect's undivided attention and for an all- important OPEN mind. Make sure the prospect understands what the offer is.... and if necessary improve it; always making it clear that this offer expires the second the prospect leaves. In other words, there is a premium for staying, working things out, but irrevocable loss if they won't. Now, gun it. Keep in mind at all times, with the terrific offer you are making, the prospect will be better off... if... http://www.SuccessPunch.com Copyright Brenda Shaylor - 2012 86 of 88
The Unique Path To Online Business Success and only if... they take immediate action. It is your job to drive this home NOW... making it abundantly clear that action now is the only sensible course. Do this, and do it with enthusiasm, gusto, and good humor, and you will not only want that sale... you will get it! For as Chic sang, "a better love you won't find today..." or a better offer either. *** What do you think? We invite you to post your comments below.
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About The Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online through automation. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000 free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice! Republished with author's permission by Brenda Shaylor http://SuccessPunch.com.
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