Emotional Detachment and the Zen of Golf
About a month ago, I played golf for the first time with Number Three Son (N3S). I was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon. I imagined fresh air, healthy sunshine, and that father-son banter that women who don’t understand men categorize as superficial.
READ MOREOvercoming Customer’s Price Objections
Let’s say you’re a roofing salesman and you get a call from a homeowner who’s concerned about a leak in her ceiling. You do an inspection and realize that what she needs is a $500 repair. But $500 is a lot of money. So, to convince her to do it, you might use a persuasion technique called “perceptual contrasts.” You’ve probably read about it in ETR.
READ MOREDouble Your Personal Power by Mastering One Skill
Words are innocent and powerless in themselves, Nathaniel Hawthorne said, but they become immensely powerful in the mouth of someone who knows how to use them to persuade others to follow his lead.
READ MOREHow to Surprise and Delight Your Customers
Roy Flora, Group President of Microtel Inns & Suites, over-delivers by randomly giving away free stays at his hotels. Better yet, he encourages staff members to do the same. It’s one reason that Microtel has ranked at the top of the J.D. Power & Associates North America hotel guest satisfaction survey seven years in a row.
READ MOREDon’t Fall Victim to Office Gossip
Like so many things in life, office gossip is a temporary indulgence with long-lasting, undesirable side effects. For one thing, it damages team spirit. This is no small cost if you are concerned with team productivity. For another thing, it demeans your stature. Even your co-conspirators will think less of you for doing what they themselves know they shouldn’t do. If you consider the kinds of activities you can engage in at work, this falls into the lowest category. It’s not only unproductive, it’s destructive.
READ MOREHow to Encourage Customer Loyalty
An entourage is a group of devoted fans – in this context, an elite group of VIP customers who love your products (and buy them frequently), customers who appreciate your message, admire you, trust you, and want to be associated with you. Entourage Marketing is all about attracting these people to your online business and creating strong relationships with them.
READ MOREThe Most Powerful of All Success Skills
In any organization, power moves inexorably to those who have mastered the art of persuasion. Whether you express yourself online, on the phone, or in person doesn’t matter much. What counts is your ability to convince people that your ideas are worthwhile.
READ MOREWhy You Must Send a Confirmation E-mail
You see, an existing customer – someone who’s already pulled the trigger and made a purchase – is much more valuable to you than a no-name prospect. As marketing expert Clayton Makepeace says, “Making secondary sales to existing customers is one of the cheapest and lowest risk actions a company can take. Response on promotions sent to existing customers is usually six to eight times higher (sometimes more) than promotions sent to cold prospects. Average sale is substantially higher, too – sometimes as much as two to three times higher.”
READ MOREHow to Outsell Your Competition by Treating Your Customers Like Kings
Ask any soft-offer marketer and he’ll tell you: Promotions that create unrealistic expectations for the product invariably result in lower pay-up on the back end. Hard-offer marketers know that over-the-top promises result in much higher cancellation rates and much lower response to secondary sales and renewals.
READ MOREDo Your Personal Goals Take a Back Seat to Work?
Early in my career I became quite adept at setting a schedule for my workday and sticking to it. This “time tasking” made me very efficient and productive. But I had a heck of a time doing the same when it came to my personal and social goals. I was so involved in moving my business and financial goals forward, I simply ignored the rest. And because of that, I wasn’t making my time outside of work count for much of anything!
READ MORETalking Trash About Customers
If you run a business where your employees interact with customers, clients, business partners, vendors, etc. (pretty much any business), you must have a zero-tolerance policy for “trash talking.” Employees should put on a public face when anyone outside the company is around. No gossiping, no insulting comments about former associates… nothing negative.
READ MOREBusiness “Don’ts” for Difficult Times
You can’t open a newspaper, flip on the television, or open an Internet page these days without seeing something about the current economic crisis.
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