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What’s More Important? Features Or Benefits

By Author: Tim Williams
Article: Features are the characteristics of a product while benefits are solutions based on the needs of the client. Let me give a simple example to throw light on the thin line of difference. For a car, where acceleration is a feature, then speed is a benefit. And the salesperson identifies this difference and harps on the benefit the feature will have on the client. This identification of the client needs is the key factor in corporate sales training

Corporate sales training helps one in understanding the difference and the benefits that follow when you attach a personal touch to a commodity and when you sell a what I call a soul less commodity. I want to ask you a few questions. What sells the most in the world? Is it what you sell? Where you sell? Or when you sell? Well, not the type to surprise with the obvious but this time the answer is no, the way you sell is what decides the salability of a product.
Wonder why sometimes you end up buying more than you intend to? Think deeper and you will have the answer. Remember the salesperson at the department store? Weren’t he too sweet to be ignored and the way he advised you on what to buy, like it was for his own self? Well, as humans we will always adore any kind of attention and show an involuntary drift on things more human, more relatable! And this is what the Modern Day Service oriented business requires the most, in short a sharp understanding of corporate sales training.

Things are best understood when you can relate to them in some way. A line of thought best understood and explained under corporate sales training, a program of various tools of understanding the importance of not only weighing a clients problem but also seeing the problem by being in his shoes and thus arriving at more than just one solutions. Let me quote you another example, let’s assume a thoroughly professional executive who brings his clients the best solution, not just once but each time they come to him. Then why does the client still not give him the first preference? And instead wishes to work with another professional who not only does equally good work but also gives him future solutions. You might wonder why I rate him better than the first professional, who after giving the solution to one problem, waits for another to follow while the second one almostarticles his next chance by already providing the client with a solution. And their lies the difference, because our second professional is not just reactive, but also proactive and hence more profitable in the long run. These are traits that a person who has undergone corporate sales training will understand like no one else. In short corporate sales training program, helps you to not just develop on your sales skills but also helps you hone a more personal approach! Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com Tim Williams founded Deakon in 2004 to provide Sales Training and Sales Training Courses in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. His Sales Course, Fear – The Art of Selling differs to other Sales Courses as it focuses on hunting, developing and closing new business.

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

Effective Direct Marketing For Real Estate Investing

By Author: Simon Macharia
Article: Your marketing materials can only be read if they are opened. To be opened, they must be noticed first.
If your mail piece looks just like all the others, it will be trashed with the rest.

So how do you make your marketing pieces stick out?

1) Letters
When sending letters, you can make sure it sticks out by

a) Colored envelops
A colored envelop always sticks out. In my testing I have found that the old style “air mail” envelops with white and blue stripes on the edge seems to have more effect. However it seems these envelops are for overseas mail, are rare and expensive.

Yellow envelops seem to be quite effective especially because they are quite noticeable. In my area I get them quite cheaply, just a few dollars more than traditional white envelops. Instead of printing directly on the envelop, I always use a sticker.

I use an over-sized huge luminiscent green stickers printed in custom hand-writing fonts. These fonts are freely available on the internet.

I prefer envelops that are non-traditional, and that stick out.

Every week, I send out 100 to 200 targeted letters in my real estate investing business. It takes me less than 1 hour to print the letters and stickers and to insert the letters to envelops and seal them – I have equipment for this.

I then spend a few dollars to pay someone to put stickers and stamps.

b) Whatever medium you use, you must be sympathetic, not aggressive. You will look more real than the other screamers and they will respond to you.

Remember motivated sellers are distressed and need to be treated with sympathy. If your letter connects with this, your mail piece will be a winner.

2) Post cards
The post cards you send also need to be brightly colored. I always prefer yellow or bright red post cards.

In my real estate investing business, I use glossy post cards. I use a huge sticker with a different screaming color you cannot ignore.

I like a bright red or green luminescent sticker. Yes, I like to use an over-sized sticker.

The messages on the post cards are always short, direct and all-inclusive. Brief post cards are more likely to be read.

A cluttered post card with too many words is likely to get ignored.

3) Repetition
One of the most important things in direct marketing is to send more than one mail piece. I send out 2 mail pieces spaced 30 days in my real estate investing business.

You are likely to get as much as twice as much response when you follow up. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com In order to be successful in real estate investing, it is necessary to close as many deals as possible while spending as little time, money and effort as possible. Learn how you can achieve this by automating your real estate investing business with an automated real estate investor website .

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

Trade Away This Bad Negotiating Technique

By Author: Paul Johnson
Article: As I look around my basement, I realize that maybe I’m hanging on to too much stuff. When I trade for goods and services (some call that “negotiating”), I realize I’m also pretty good at hanging on to my profit when I’m the seller, and my money when I’m the buyer. How good are you at hanging on to what you already have? One simple technique can make you much better at it.

This works even when no money is trading hands. Perhaps just your time is involved. Maybe your boss wants you to take on “just one more thing.” Or you’ve been scheduled for one more meeting. Pretty soon you’re overwhelmed and kicking yourself for saying “Yes” a few too many times. Maybe you can’t say “No” either, but there is another option.

Bad Negotiating Exemplified

Let’s imagine for a moment you’re a seller engaged in a dialog with a potential buyer that goes like this:

– Buyer: “You’re higher than your competition. What can you do when you sharpen your pencil?”
– Seller: “I am authorized to match our competition’s price.”
– Buyer: “Great! Unfortunately, I see your standard shipping is 2 weeks, and I need it on Tuesday. Can you do that?”
– Seller: “I can expedite shipping for you. You can have it by Tuesday if you order now.”
– Buyer: “Nice! But I won’t be able to use it without the accessories kit. Will you include it at no charge if I buy?”
– Seller: “Sure, I’ll do that just for you, because you’re special.”

Let’s stop our example there, although the dialog (and the concessions) certainly didn’t stop there. Notice that at no time did the Buyer commit to the purchase, despite the fact that the Seller has discounted away profit and increased costs by expediting shipping and giving away accessories. The Buyer is “on a roll”; why wouldn’t they keep asking for more concessions?

They will, because they are grinding, a negotiating technique that enables them to continue to sweeten the deal until they either take pity on the Seller and stop, or the Seller makes them stop.

A Fair Turn

Stopping a grinder is easy. Simply replace concessions with trades. Whenever you are asked to give something up, prepare to trade for something of perceived value.

When your boss asks you to do “just one more thing,” ask what can come off your current projects list to make room for the new one. When one more meeting comes up, ask which deadline can be pushed back to accommodate the new unplanned need for your time. When your buyer asks for a price concession, ask for… well, what CAN you trade?

Bring In Your Trade-Offs

When negotiating, it can literally pay to be prepared. Anticipate the potential concession requests you may encounter. As a seller, you can prepare a list of possible trade-offs, which might include:
– Reduced feature set
– Slower (less expensive) shipping
– Accepting delivery (and making payment) sooner
– Faster payment terms
– Cash instead of credit
– Adding a “bonus” instead of reducing the price
– Increasing the order size
– Testimonial letter
– Referral to a new prospect
– Booking the order NOW

Being prepared is key. When the Buyer asks for a discount, the Seller better have something ready to trade. When your boss asks for “just one more thing,” it helps to have that list of current projects ready so you can agree on which one to cross off or postpone. When you’re prepared, your dialog can sound like this:

– Buyer: “You’re higher than your competition. What can you do when you sharpen your pencil?”
– Seller: “I’d be happy to discuss reducing the price. Which features of my offer would you like me to delete so that I can deliver only what my competition is quoting?”
– Buyer: “Well, we need everything you’re quoting but, unfortunately, I see your standard shipping is 2 weeks, and I need it on Tuesday. Can you do that?”
– Seller: “I can give you expedited shipping to hit your Tuesday deadline for free, if we can increase your order quantities by 10% to hit our free shipping minimum.”
– Buyer: “Well, OK, but I won’t be able to use ANY of it without the accessories kit. Will you include it at no charge if I buy?”
– Seller: “I’d love to do that to get a great new customer like you. Tell you what: if you buy now and agree to give me a glowing testimonial letter when you decide you’re thrilled with us, I’ll get the accessories kit included for you. Have we got a deal?”

Negotiating the Give and Take

When you make trades instead of concessions, you can walk away from both formal and impromptu negotiations with more of what you want. Notice that you never have to say “No”; you simply have to be prepared to say, “I’ll give you what you want if I can have what I want.” Prepare, and become a trader that stops the grinding in day-to-day negotiations. You’ll find you’ll have more of what YOU want, including time to clean out your basement.

Copyright 2008 Paul Johnson. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com Paul Johnson the Trouble Breaker works with organizations to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Discover breakthrough concepts at http://ShortcutsToResults.com. Visit http://ConsultativeSelling.com/ for more insights about Consultative Selling.

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

Interview with Steve D’Esposito on Fair Trade Jewelry

By Author: Marc Choyt
Article: I conducted this interview with Steve D’Esposito:

MC: Given EARTHWORKS’ highly charged “Dirty Gold” campaign which many perceived as hostile to the jewelry industry, how it is now that you have now coalesced support to sponsor this jewelry summit? Can you outline, briefly, what led you to this position and the role of the Madison Dialogue?

SD: That’s a misperception. The campaign calls for “No Dirty Gold.” It’s not a campaign against gold. It’s a campaign that says we need to add new values to those that society already assigns to the act of buying, giving or owning jewelry.

Let’s take a wedding ring, it’s about adding the values of protecting people, water, mountains, and creatures to those of love, commitment and romance. Therefore, the idea is to make jewelry even more valuable. That’s a winning proposition for everyone and I think that’s why there is interest from all sectors in finding ways to work on some of these issues in a collaborative fashion. This doesn’t mean everyone who will participate is in agreement on every issues, it simply means that we agree that it is important to work together, where we can, to help promote ethical, responsible sourcing of jewelry in the small-scale mining sector. Actually, if you look closely at these issues, what’s highly charged isn’t the campaign; it’s what happens in communities and to the environment when mining happens without care for people or the environment.

After all, the campaign simply holds up a spotlight and points it at what’s wrong-to create pressure to do things better. The “Madison Dialogue” was set up last year to help foster collaboration across sectors on issues of responsible sourcing in the jewelry sector. Since there were so many emerging projects and initiatives a number of us felt that it would be good create a vehicle that allows us to talk to each other, collaborate and share information. If you go to the website you will also see that the “Madison Dialogue” has also helped publish a number of Issue Papers on key developments in this sector like the work of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) on the emerging gold standard and the Development Diamond Initiative (DDI).

MC: I would think that such a conference would have TransFair USA (the certification agent for Fair Trade) as a central player. Are they going to be involved at all? Are there going to be any other sponsors besides your organization?

SD: Yes, FLO Internationial/TransFair USA is on the steering committee that has been formed to plan and carry-out the meeting. Other steering committee members include EARTHWORKS, Jewelers of America, the Assocation for Responsible Mining, CASM, Rapaport Group, Ethical Metalsmith, DeBeers, and Partnership Africa Canada. We will also be seeking sponsors to help cover the meeting costs.

MC: What are the objectives of the conference?

SD: This Summit aims to bring together the civil society, community, government and commercial organizations (from mine to retail) that currently are working to address social, human rights and environmental issues in the small-scale mining sectors that supply raw materials (including diamonds, colored gems, gold and other precious metals) to the jewelry industry. It will also include processors and fabricators of recycled materials.
The Summit’s goals are:

* To agree on credible definitions for the descriptive terms that currently are being used to market so-called “ethical” jewelry. These terms include: “fair trade,” “green,” and other adjectives.

* To recognize credible efforts to develop robust standards and third-party verification systems for ethically sourced minerals.

* To build and/or strengthen partnerships between sometimes-diverse stakeholders interested in ethically sourced minerals, so that responsibly produced jewelry can begin to reach the consumer market in a timely manner.

* To establish next steps both in terms of the development of standards and processes and concrete projects, trials and other activities.

MC: One of the concerns I’ve had is that up until now, many of the “ethical” initiative in the jewelry industry have been dominated by large players. Yet I have learned from my research that in many cases, with the exception perhaps of the Rapaport Group and Hoover and Strong, the smaller companies are doing the authentic, ground breaking innovative work around ethically sourced jewelry. How are you going to assure, through the organizational structure of the conference, that all people involved, not just the large players, get an equal voice at the table?

SD: You put your finger on a very important issue. My assessment of the sector is that there is, and should be, space for all types of participants looking to advance these issues. I suspect that certain types of activities and projects are a better fit for smaller companies and other types of projects are more suitable at a larger scale. It seems to me that given the small scale of many of the early efforts, the inherently small nature of many ASM projects, and the time it will take to actually bring supply on line, most of these ethical projects are likely to start relatively small and then build. At the meeting we will try to ensure that there is a diversity of participants and an agenda that gives voice and space to all.

MC: Who is invited to come and are there any costs involved for the participants?

SD: Given space constraints there will be a limit on participants-but we will seek participants from all sectors. The steering committee will soon circulate a meeting concept paper that outlines all of this-and there will be a point person for each sector-so that those we are interested and approach the steering committee and request an invitation.

MC: Anything else that you would like to add?

SD: Three things:

1) Your website on Fair Jewelry, is great.

2) It’s important to emphasize that while EARTHWORKS has been a catalyst for this meeting, it’s not our meeting-we are one of the organizers but the meeting will only succeed only if its is owned by all of the participants.

3) We still have one threshold to cross to make sure that the meeting occurs-we need to raise enough money from sponsors to cover the projected expenses and we plan to begin outreach to potential sponsors ASAP. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com Marc Choyt is President of Reflective Images, an award winning jewelry company, www.celticjewelry.com that sells wedding rings sourced by artisan designers online at www.artisanweddingrings.com. His company produces fair, eco-sourced, fairly trade jewelry. Marc also authors www.fairjewelry.org supporting green, fair trade, socially responsible jewelry practices.

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

Plastic or Wood Pallets – Which is Greener? Debunking the Environmental Myth of Plastic Pallets

By Author: Michael Smith
Article: For all the green rhetoric being tossed around today by the manufacturers of plastic pallets about their sustainability and recyclable nature, the facts are still the facts. Wooden pallets made from the unusable trims of the lumbering process are greener, cleaner and more environmentally friendly by any measure.

A recent press release issued by a manufacturer of plastic pallets stated their desire to “be responsible stewards of the environment” and described their pallet as being “100% recyclable.” The real questions are: What does that truly mean from an environmental point of view? And can you be a responsible steward of the environment when your product is made from plastic?

Putting all the greenwashing aside, when you follow the supply and manufacturing chain of a plastic pallet from oil well, to refinery, to oil tanker, to the plastic processing plant — and add up all the pollution and environmental stress that accumulates along the way, even something that ends up being “100% recyclable” doesn’t necessarily end up to be a champion of the environment.

Nor does it take into account the long and often dirty history of any plastic product, recyclable or not, in the amount of pollution they contribute to the earth. The simple truth is plastic, in any form other than its possible color, isn’t green in any measurable degree.

Consider the current controversy raging over plastic bottles and plastic bags. It’s grown so bad that many communities have begun to ban their use. Though that plastic, like the plastic that goes into plastic pallets, may be 100% recyclable, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a staggering 88% is not recycled and ends up in landfills instead. How much is that? More than 40 million bottles a day that can take up to 1,000 years before they begin to decompose once buried.

Now consider the manufacturing facilities plastics are produced in. That’s another dirty little story waiting to be told. Among the 47 chemical plants ranked highest in carcinogenic emissions by the EPA, 35 are involved in plastic production. The long and short of it is just because a product can be recycled, doesn’t mean that it is environmentally conscious when you look at its history. Plastic, whether in bags, bottles or pallets is high on the enemies list of any environmentally-conscious group or person.

To prove the point, the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a toxic island of garbage made up of 80% plastic and weighting more than 3.5 million tons, is currently floating in the Pacific between San Francisco and Hawaii. Right now it’s twice the size of Texas – and growing.

Wooden pallets, on the other hand, have a story and a product that is sustainable. According to the EPA, when wood pallets reach the end of their useful life they can be converted into value-added products like wood flooring or replacement parts for other pallets.

When a pallet is recycled in this way, it generates approximately $0.25 when sold as boiler fuel, $1.00 for replacement parts, and potentially $5.00 to $8.00 when processed into products such as flooring.

The U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and its partners are currently proving the technical and financial feasibility of reusing and recycling wooden pallets. They have already begun the first phase of a process to test reusing wood pallets as flooring and paneling. The pilot program will take a “negative value” material and process it into a finished material with a $4.00 to $5.00 per square foot value and increase manufacturing jobs while it decreases waste.

A win-win for the environment and all of us.

After all, wooden pallets are born green. At companies like Palnnet, they are made from the scraps left over from the lumbering process as opposed to old growth hardwoods. When round trees are harvested, they are first “squared off” in a saw mill so the logs can be converted into lumber. These trims, instead of ending up in our already overflowing landfills, are turned into pallets and shipping products that are highly sustainable and highly useful in the shipping process.

Wooden pallets like these are the greenest part of the supply chain. They are constantly repaired and recycled and when no longer useable, they’re ground up into mulch or stove pellets. They’re green from cradle to grave and actually help clean up the environment by reducing waste. And nothing is greener than that. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com Michael Smith is the C.O.O. of PALNET, a national, environmentally-friendly pallet supplier. He can be reached at 877-PALNET-1.

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

A Landlord’s Guide To The Eviction Process

By Author: David Gass
Article: This article is aimed at owners, who want that their tenants to move out of a property. For removing the tenants from the property, landlords must utilize the help of eviction process. With the help of this process, also known as Summary Proceedings, the lawful owner of the property takes possession very quickly.

Many Steps Involved in Eviction Process
There are several steps described in the overall landlords guide to the eviction process. It begins with the landlord issuing an eviction notice. After the notice, a series of court appearances and a trial takes place. The chances of your success depend much on how better you present your arguments to prove your case. You may get an order of eviction if you succeed in satisfying the magistrate. After the issuance of this order, it is the responsibility of a court officer to vacate the rental property by removing the tenants and their belongings. However, in most of the cases, long before the stage of physically evacuating arrives, landlords and tenants agree on a settlement. Landlords should never try to physically evacuate the person.

When You Can Start The Eviction process
According to the landlords guide to the eviction process there are seven reasons to start the eviction process. Here is a list of the reasons.

1. Not paying the amount of rent.

2. Continuously damaging the property

3. Any severe health hazard.

4. Involvement in any kind of illegal article activities.

5. Violating any of the terms of the lease.

6. Unauthorized entry such as forceful entry.

7. Not moving out even after expiry of lease term.

How To Evict More Than One Tenant
Is it possible to remove tenants, who are paying partial rent, just because their roommate has left? The landlords guide to the eviction process says yes, you can, because getting the full amount of rent is your right. You must include a joint and several liability clause in the agreement that gives you the right of collecting the full amount of rent from any of the tenants. In addition, in the case of non-payment of rent or violation of any other term, this clause also gives you the right to force any or all of the tenants to move out.

How Much Time To Wait Before Issuing Notice
The landlord must wait for a definite time period for each reason. Depending upon the reason, this period may be one day, one week, or even one month. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc. His company publishes a free weekly e-newsletter on Small Business Consulting at their web site http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

How to manage your Call Center using the PEST Analysis?

By Author: Hani Masgidi
Article: PEST analysis means strictly the Political, Economics, Social, and Technical analysis, which can be applied perfectly at any time. The following paragraphs will explain this analysis.

Political Issue
During the operation of managing your Call Center, you can apply the political issue in most of your unique programs. You may need long inclusive enforced copyrights. Thus, for your Call Center to show its political awareness, it must direct its topics to the involved clients in your origin country, which may consider a powerful source of votes during elections.

As an example, your Call Center can lead a voter registration campaign debuts at its web site. It will show how to practice the political rights online. In the site, there may be online polls, to give the users the chance to vote on some basic topics of the present days. Introducing an ad to encourage audience to vote in election will be great too.

Economical Issue
Applying the economical issue is very easy. From the beginning, you may wish to keep barriers to entry high. Thus, you can begin your entry to other markets. As an example, promoting your advertising online to be able to reach more customers in other countries will be great.

Understanding the economical elements, such as supply, demand, price, inflation, deflation, and marketing will be important. You must try to insert the existence of your Call Center into the frame of globalization.

Social Issue
Considering the social elements will be incredible. You may target to involve young people in good causes. Releasing a new web site to realize your aim will assist your management operation to great degrees. Hence, the new web site could provide young with a wide social place to get information and cooperate with others too. However, all categories of ages could recognize the basic social topics along with exchange their cultural issues, via your Call Center’s social web.

Technological issue
Following the latest technology must be provided as well.
For your information, you can get strong digital rights management. Thus, when you continue to use this tool as a comprehensive framework, you can guarantee the success of your Call Center’s management target.

You may be in a necessity for an automated system. Therefore, you can keep trace of your huge advertising sales from many proposals via scheduling and invoicing. On the other hand, you may desire to decrease the time-consuming and error-prone processes of manually entering and reconciling advertising schedules of your Call Center as well. Of course, this could provide a seamless workflow for your sales and scheduling staff.

Through the operation of management of any Call Center, you must aware how to select well your items of PEST analysis. Providing your employees with more training is advised in all times. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com Call Center Reports ,documents
and

call center trainings in one place

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011

Handling Complaints: Available But Out of Stock

By Author: Michelle V
Article: For business owners computer software is an expensive necessity. We all invest in the newest and best software in the hopes of generating more revenue, content, productfor less.

The origin of today’s post is a thrifty shopping excursion by a small business entrepreneur, yours truly.

Recently, a cost saving and useful piece of software, Software X, went on sale at a number of local electronic and office product retailers at a significant price reduction. Excited by the thrill of a bargain, I went on a hunt for my very own copy.

The hunt, a word I use less than ironically, took me on an adventure to three different retailers in an effort to secure my treasure. Now, I am not opposed to investing time, money (in the form of gas for my car) and energy in pursuit of my goal. What I am opposed to is retailers wasting my valuable time and the time of their employees.

Let me explain

At all three locations, the process for securing Software X was consistent. Shopper enters big box retailer looking for a specific product, shopper meanders (with purpose) looking for the prerequisite aisle of booty. Each time shopper is greeted by empty boxes with a repulsive “For Display Only” sticker affixed to her prize. At which point the shopper then must locate a helpful, if slightly ill-informed staff member with the golden key to unlock the storage area.

Where the waste in time and energy comes in was finding out from 2 out of 3 employees that the product was out of stock. Retailers would save their staff and customers a significant amount of time, energy, and frustration (handling complaints) if the staff added a sticker to the 5 plus boxes on the shelf a little tag that said, “Temporarily out of stock.” In an ideal world, the tag would also tell the customer when the next shipment is expected to arrive and be available for sale.

Instead of having staff run around and search databases to determine which other location has the product the customer is looking for, or trying to determine when the next shipment will arrive, communicate with staff about shortages of product and make them aware; especially when a sought after product is in limited supply.

Small changes like those mentioned enhance the customer’s experience at the store, alleviate stress for staff as a result of delivering less than exciting information to the customer, save time and money for all those involved, and generally demonstrate that the retailer has taken an interest in the needs of their shoppers.

Knowledgeable front line staff and effective service goes a long way to ensuring return customers. If you appreciate and respect your customers’ time, they will return to do business with you again. Syndication Source: ArticleMind.com http://eye2eyeconsulting.com/pages/handling-complaints-available-but-out-of-stock

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By Wealth Method – March 24, 2011