Remembering to Listen: Making the Most of CommunicationWritten by Ron Sathoff
A lot has been written about communication aspects of marketing. Unfortunately, most of it has focused on "sending" function -- writing perfect ad, creating killer sales letter, or making a great sales pitch. We always seem to focus on what we are doing TO a customer, rather than what customers might be saying to US.We have to remember that all communication is two-directional. In order to truly be great communicators, we have to improve our skills when we are receivers. In other words, we have to become great listeners as well as great speakers or writers. Fortunately, there are a few simple things we can do to help improve this aspect of our communication with our customers: 1) Treat all communication as important. From time to time (more often than I like) I have to deal with a salesperson who only seems to be listening for certain things -- what I'm ordering, how much I'm going to pay, and when my money will arrive. After a salesperson like this gets what they want, they just tune you out. Luckily, these are usually salespeople who don't last long. Truly great salespeople, on other hand, know that EVERYTHING that a customer has to say is important. In a lot of cases, especially with business opportunities, a customer is more interested in advice than they are in your product. If you take time to listen to their concerns and can provide them with insight (along with your offer), your customer will be much more satisfied than if you just delivered "goods."
| | An Interesting PhenomenonWritten by Tom Busch
Being a student of internet marketing and marketing in general, I don't pretend to have it all figured out. This article probably won't give you all of answers, but I hope it at least gives you a few good questions.I subscribe to dozens of newsletters/ezines because I'm always looking for more and better information, solutions, strategies, answers, tips, tricks, etc. I don't think I'm unique either. In fact most people who are determined to make their living online, get as many or more newsletters than they can handle. In past few weeks, I've begun to take notice of an interesting phenomenon. Two new ebooks, and a program which is supposed to bring you more traffic, were all introduced around same time. I happen to subscribe to newsletters of prime sources for each of these new offers. Both of ebooks come with resale rights. The traffic program, which is free, has a multi-level scheme, whereby a user's benefits increase by introducing new users who in turn introduce new users and so on. Now here's where it get's interesting. Within a day or two of receiving these offers from prime source, same offers started pouring in from all sorts of newsletter publishers. In other words, they bought ebook(s) and/or signed up for traffic program, got out their lists and got busy. And they wasted no time. Now, this probably happens all of time, but it was first time that I actually stopped to watch it take place. This "phenomenon" brought up folowing questions. 1) Is there any money to be made on products when resale rights are so easily obtained? Money is money and even a couple of sales will cover purchase price and a put a few extra dollars in your pocket. But I think there is a deeper question here. Is it worth using up some of precious but limited amount of attention your audience can give, on offers like these, or are there better ways to take advantage of it?
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