I had to order checks for my business account.
Based on the amount of business
I do with the bank,
I insisted that there be no additional charge.
When the account manager didn’t argue,
I said “guess you get this request all the time.”
No, actually he didn’t.
He did for personal accounts
but never for business,
no matter how small the cashflow was.
Foolishness.
Expenses are expenses,
whether they’re business or personal.
Don’t overpay for either.
About once a month,
I submit a post to Romancing The Blog.
In these posts,
I always, always mention
two or three authors and books.
Why?
Because readers respond to specific examples.
It better serves my customer.
And by doing so, I help someone else.
I may never see a benefit
but as it didn’t cost…
When you can, help someone else.
In an interview with Joel Peterson,
the founder of Ravenswood Winery,
he talked about wine tasting
at the tender age of 11.
He would taste and
his Dad would ask him for descriptions.
Why?
Because “kids have better words for wine.”
Its all about keeping it simple, understandable,
approachable for the average person.
That’s how you sell.
No product is ever perfect.
There is always something to be tweaked.
Maybe the blue on the package
could be more blue
or the copy one word shorter
or one more bug taken out of the program
or…
That is why deadlines, even artificial,
are important.
Stick to the deadline
and get that product out.
If its successful and money flows in,
then consider “upgrades.”
Recently I overheard an argument
between a publisher and an author
(online of all places).
The author was upset about his book sales.
The publisher suggested
he market the books more.
The author felt that was the publisher’s responsibility.
That’s fine if he didn’t care about results
but he did.
My general rule is…
if I care, I take responsibility.
Not doing so causes stress.
Not doing so and whining,
makes one look like a putz.
Dan Hill, President Of Sensory Logic,
reads faces for a living.
A useful skill as
most reaction is subconscious.
The prospect doesn’t even realize
how she is responding to
a sales pitch, commercial, new product.
The key area of the face to focus on?
The eyes.
Hill claims that individuals
have very little control
over the muscles around the eye.
That’s why it is so easy
to spot a social smile vs a real smile.
Hidden within Kelley Robertson’s great article
on dealing with time wasting prospects
is this truism
“the person who asks the questions
is the one in control of the sales process.”
That’s why I answer the phone with
“What can I do for you today?”
That’s why I ask more questions
regardless of being the interviewee
or the interviewer
(that and people like to talk about themselves).
That’s why when I attend seminars,
I arrive with questions prepared.
Asking questions is powerful.
Jeff Cornwall writes
“A local entrepreneur, Charles Hagood,
co-founder of The Access Group and
Healthcare Performance Partners,
always tells my students that
if he had just one dollar left
to spend in his company
he would spend it on marketing.”
If I had one dollar left to spend,
I’d spend it on an immediate sales driving activity
which marketing often is not.
Sales and cash flow today
keeps companies alive for tomorrow.
Zane Safrit writes that “38.8% of companies
with more than 20,000 employees
employ staff to read and analyze
outgoing email content.”
The subordinate of a friend of mine
went on vacation for a week.
He forwarded his email and voicemail
to my friend (his manager).
During that week,
his inbox was filled with personal email
including a conversation by a competitor
about his interview the week before
(If you think competitors don’t talk,
you’d be wrong).
My friend is glad to see the back of this employee.
In the era of cellphones
and throwaway email addresses,
using the company’s resources
for personal use is simply stupid.
An orange juice company I worked for
tried to change the perception of
not-from-concentrate vs from-concentrate juice.
Despite the from-concentrate juice
scoring higher in blind tastes,
customers insisted that the
not-from-concentrate juice was “better.”
Decades and millions of dollars
in advertising later and
the perception remained.
The juice company finally gave up
and launched its own
not-from-concentrate product.
A couple weekends ago,
my writing group had a forensic scientist speak.
He insisted that the crime shows (like CSI)
had it all wrong.
So which source of information
should we use in our romance novels?
The crime shows.
Why?
Because that is what the customer expects.