We've all heard term "sell sizzle, not steak". Well, if you're selling anything, you had better pay attention to "sizzle". In today's market, your potential prospects have one thing in mind. "What's in it for me", and if you're into sales, you must realize this. While "nuts and bolts" of your product or offer are important, that is not normally what gets someone's initial interest and makes sale.

People don't buy products or services. They buy benefits. If you are selling an opportunity, people want to know realistically how much they can make. Promises of hundreds of thousands of dollars a month will usually fall on deaf ears. Why, because it is not realistic. You do have to point up benefits someone will receive however, but if you make outlandish claims, they will simply "click away".

Let me digress - years ago I was running a data processing center and we were only running limited applications. We then had a job added to our responsibilities, which resulted in about three additional days of work, for three people once a month. Not having staff to do this job, in addition to our daily work, we had to hire temporary help.

A look back - we were dealing with "punched card technology" then, you know - like "hanging chad" problem in Florida during last presidential election. While we didn't have that problem, we were dealing with same technology. We were having pressure put on us to add even more applications, and it just wasn't possible with constraints of our current hardware and staff.

We started to shop around for a computer, and a number of companies were contacted. One salesman extolled virtues of his hardware, and we didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about.

If you are working from your home, it is easy to "lose control" and slip into bad habits. You must exercise same discipline that would exist in an office, where you had to arrive at a certain time in morning, and work a full day.

While you can basically start your day, and end it when you wish if you work from home, you must maintain some semblance of discipline. Simply being there for a certain number of hours is not answer, if those hours are not productive. But beauty of working from home is that you do not have to have a regular schedule.

If your business is people oriented, you have to be available when your prospective clients are available to you. If it is product oriented, it really makes little difference when you work. Some people are morning people and achieve their best productivity then - so do it then. Others are "night owls" and that is their best time.

If you aren't in a situation where you have to be available during certain hours, pick whatever works best for you. A better way is to establish goals to meet. If you meet your goals each day, it doesn't matter when you accomplish them. Personally, I prefer to meet all of my daily goals in morning when I'm fresh, and then, do what I wish for rest of day.