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If you are here to check out the web site GREAT! If you are a business professional and write articles, blogs etc, or want to, then this is where your opportunity rocks!
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Have them, carry them, never run out. Business cards are a physical reminder to others that you have had contact with them. Business cards should also contain all your contact details. This may sound extremely obvious, but it never ceases to amaze me when I run into clients or people wanting advice, who essentially have […]

Has the world changed so drastically that manners are no longer considered necessary? Is a thank you or a quick acknolwedgement of an email too hard to do in our busy and stressed out working lives?
How can we change this poor culture and start treating each other with some common courtesy and respect again?   
Here are […]

My client was dumbfounded. The answer wasn’t complicated, costly or hard to do. The question was, “How do I effectively engage people at the tradeshow?”
“All you gotta do,” I said, “is invite people to take a sheet of your letterhead, make a paper airplane and see if they can fly it into the open window […]

What’s so hard about branding?
I think it’s the little things that are hard sometimes. Well, at least it seems to me the little things can be the easiest to get wrong.

It was the fall of 1998 when I had just started my first business as a marketing communications writer. Most of my clients hired me for newsletters, brochures, and sales materials, but I would get the occasional request for something different. At the time I was too naive to consider saying “no” to any project […]

There are so many average businesses, so why are the excellent ones few and far between?
If you start out to do something, do you start with excellence in mind or mediocrity? I guess the answer is excellence, after all why would you want to create an average thing, where is the logic in that?
So go […]

I should have known better to say what I said, seeing how the caller was from an accounting firm. I merely suggested she put the firm’s logo on the back of a baseball cap. Her silence caused the sort of anticipation you experience when someone keeps blowing up a balloon until it pops. The words […]

So there we were ready to eat, looking at what’s on offer in a semi fast food joint… The good lady wife asks about the “Indonesian pork dish” the girl says, “She likes it” and smiles, good enough for my wife who after looking at a bunch of food joints is now salivating and wants […]

Can I share a secret with you?
I love working out. So much that several years ago I considered a career in fitness. I modeled for Reebok and Ironman magazine, made it to the final round for hosting a fitness TV show, and I moonlit as an aerobics instructor and personal trainer for several years while […]

How do you target a market as specific as left handed buyers of blue four door Fords? Pretty much the same way you target - mothers to be, pink toilet owners, and those who have a bobble-head on their dash.
First ask yourself, “Who has access to those I want to reach?” the answer is the […]

Sales letters, sent via e-mail or snail mail, are an effective and inexpensive way to get your message out. Even if your letter goes out to thousands of people, it can give the feel of a personal communication — IF you write it in a direct and conversational tone.
To get your creative juices flowing, here […]

Tried selling by walking in the door and telling them what you have? Lots of us have, here’s a thought though, try selling by not selling. Oh yeah you say how would that work?
Let me give you an example, two artist friends of mine want to be represented by an art gallery, so on a […]

Blogs Are the NEW Secret Weapon for Reaching Your Tarket. Just like you, I hate being marketed to. Every day we’re bombarded with over 3,500 marketing messages. And frankly I’m sick of it! But blogs are different. Blogs are a two-way conversation between blogger and bloggee (plus all the readers in between). Through commenting and […]

My friend Ken, the toy poodle breeder, called the other day asking about imprinted pens to give away at dog shows to promote his kennel. From previous conversations I remembered something about height restrictions. “Ken, isn’t there a rule that when a toypoodle gets to a certain height, you can’t show it any more?” I […]

“The words we use in a sales presentation all carry weight. Some weigh more than others. Some are more believable than others. Knowing the words to use can increase your credibility dramatically.”  
Wayne Berry

For example…
If you’ve got around 50 happy clients using the particular product or service, don’t tell your prospect, “I have around 50 happy […]

I hadn’t come unglued for quite some time and, I suppose, I was due. Cause when the guy in the TV ad said, “Satisfaction guaranteed. Or your money back!” … I lost it.
“If my satisfaction is guaranteed,” I shouted, “then what’s with the “or” part. A guarantee is supposed to be an absolute. It’s supposed […]

A newsletter is a piece of correspondence containing (hopefully) interesting insights into your business, which is distributed to your contacts via email on a regular basis. It is a simple and effective way of establishing yourself as an expert and building your list of contacts.To start, all you need is a working email, a bit […]

When I first got into selling I was told that to be successful I would have to learn how to CLOSE the sale. Indeed in that company, there was an elite group called “THE CLOSERS”.
This was a small band of highly experienced, highly regarded sales people, whom I was told, knew the “secrets” of closing […]

If you are a Sales Manager or run your own company with sales people, then you are in a leadership role.
I find that a great many sales managers however do not really understand what leadership is all about.
Let’s face it, leading a sales team to success is perhaps one of the most challenging leadership roles […]

The ability to ask questions is at the very heart of consultative selling and today’s most successful sales people are consultative sales people.
They use questions to understand their client’s needs and they also use questions to motivate their prospects to buy.
And some have developed the powerful skill of asking questions in such a way that […]

Use the Power of the Printed Word…
When you are talking with a prospect and you want to boost your credibility, where ever possible back up what you say by showing them something in writing. Research clearly shows that people are far more likely to believe what they see in writing, more than what they simply […]

Studies have shown that the top two issues affecting customer’s decisions to return to a store are personal recognition and then service. What this reinforces is the fact that all of us, regard ourselves as the most important person in the world, and rightfully so.
Service Awards Results.
This was clearly shown at recent Customer Service Awards […]

The story so far…
A business owner (Alan) informed me in a recent analysis of his business that he had been in business 15 years. I asked how long it took to become profitable. His reply, ten years! ‘Surely you were making a profit long before the ten year mark Alan’ I added with interest? Oh […]