Bullet-Proof Your Business

Written by Kelley Robertson


Continued from page 1

Do you keep a data base of clients and stay in regular contact with them? Do you know and use your customer’s names? Do you give them a reason to continue doing business with you? Do you know what your customers want or expect?

The benefits of investing your time, effort, energy and money to create loyalty include: more referral business, higher margins, and reduced advertising costs. It’s important to note though, developing customer loyalty is not something you do once in a while, it isrepparttar way you conduct and run your business. Deliver outstanding customer service. Virtually every business recognizesrepparttar 104172 importance of delivering excellent customer service. Yet, few actually consistent execute. The excuses run from “I have to reduce my head count” to “My employees are just here to collect a paycheck” to “I can’t be inrepparttar 104173 store twenty-four hours a day.” Again, it comes back to why you are in business. Obviously, if you want to deliver great customer service on a consistent basis you won’t berepparttar 104174 lowest priced vendor; it’s economically impossible to achieve this goal.

To deliver outstanding customer service you need to get personally involved. You need to determine what great service means to you and, even more critical, what it means to your customers.

Improve your selling skills. Constant refining of your sales skills will help you close more sales and/or increaserepparttar 104175 value of each sale. I don’t suggest you adopt or use aggressive, hard selling tactics. Instead, I recommend you develop your skill at uncovering your customer’s needs, suggesting solutions that are appropriate to their needs, and overcoming objections. Learn how to engagerepparttar 104176 customer inrepparttar 104177 sales process and how to ask for a referral. There are many selling skills books onrepparttar 104178 market; review a few and adapt some ofrepparttar 104179 concepts to your specific situation. And make sure you teach your employees how to apply these concepts too.

Running a small business is not easy. Define your business, give people a reason to buy from you, hire and trainrepparttar 104180 right employees and get involved in your community. These strategies will help you remain competitive now and inrepparttar 104181 future.

© 2004 Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees. He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen – Proven sales techniques to turn browsers into buyers.” Visit his website at www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com and receive a FREE copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to his 59-Second Tip, a free weekly e-zine.




Money - Money - and More Money

Written by John Assaraf


Continued from page 1

Rule One

'Definerepparttar overall market potential forrepparttar 104171 product, service or talent you have'

This is pretty easy...do a lot of people need what you do or have...or is it just a few? The more potential there is for what you have or do...the more total money there is for you to attract. For example:

...If you are a doctor, a salesperson, a secretary or a baker...there is a clear need in our society for what you do. The same holds true for professional athletes or musicians. There are some professions and products that have less need than others, therefore less earning potential.

Rule Two

'I get paid in direct proportion to how replaceable I am... or how replaceable my product... or service is'.

In other words - how good are you? This is where earning money starts to get a little competitive. If you are easy to replace becauserepparttar 104172 entry to what you do is easy, then you have to be very, very good to do well in that field. Otherwise you will have to sharerepparttar 104173 potential intake between lots of people. The harderrepparttar 104174 entry,repparttar 104175 higherrepparttar 104176 potential intake is because there are fewer people to share it with.

The same is true if you have a product or service that is easy to duplicate. Rarity increases value: - Think of surgeon vs. a general doctor.

- Think of a rare original painting vs. a print. - Think of an excellent salesperson vs. an 'OK' one. - Think of how much Michael Jordan earns vs. a rookie... - Think of any service you currently use that is so-so vs. another one that is excellent.

Who do you prefer to do business with? These 3 question areas should get you thinking about some ofrepparttar 104177 basic stuff like...

1. How good is your product or service? If you aren'trepparttar 104178 best, or close.... then why not?

2. What reasons are you 'internally' telling yourself for not being better? What is this costing you in financial intake and your life style?

3. Plain and simple - is your product, service or talent easily replaceable?

Rule Three

'I get paid in direct proportion to how many people I can get to use and pay me for products, services or my talent.'

Think about this for a moment; compared to other people in your line of work, how good are you at getting people to know what you do and what you have to offer (your products and services lines)? And how good are you at getting them to use your products or services?

If you are honest with yourself aboutrepparttar 104179 answers... I think you'll agree that in one or more ofrepparttar 104180 areas ...there is room for improvement.

I'd like you to imagine what it would be like to double or triple your intake or revenues right now, what would you buy, where would you go, what would you have that you don't right now?

I ask you these questions because I was asked them when I was 21. I likedrepparttar 104181 answers I came up with, so I decided to really go for it and learn and do what was needed.

If you don't keep growing and learning, you've made an internal agreement with yourself that you are fine with how much money you are earning right now and with what you've got right now.

Until next week...

Create a great day!

------------------



John Assaraf, aka The Street Kid is a New York Times & Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author, Trainer & Entrepreneur. Go to: http://www.thestreetkid.com to discover his "Secrets To Building A Multi-Million Dollar Business – Guaranteed!" Go to: http://www.TheStreetKid.com/seminars to register for your No-Cost eCourse, "The Science Of Making Tons Of Dough."


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