10 Ways to Get Your Marketing Unstuck

By: C.J. Hayden

Have you ever found yourself knowing exactly what you need to do about marketing your business… and then not doing it? You are not alone. Many self-employed professionals find that the hardest part of marketing isn’t figuring out what to do. What’s hard is actually doing it.

Marketing yourself can be a confronting process. Making phone calls to strangers, writing marketing letters, and talking about yourself and your accomplishments can bring up fear of rejection, harsh commentary from your inner critic, feelings of incompetence, and the discomfort of performing unfamiliar activities. If you let them, these inner saboteurs can stop you dead in your tracks.

The good news is that you don’t have to completely eliminate these internal roadblocks in order to move forward in marketing. It is possible to feel afraid or uncomfortable and still take useful action despite the presence of these feelings. Here are ten ways to quickly break through internal barriers and get your marketing unstuck.

1. Recreate your vision. When you’re feeling blocked from moving forward, remember why you wanted to go there in the first place. What was your original vision of the business you are trying to build? Who will your work benefit? What fulfillment or satisfaction will it provide you? Write down your vision of a successful business, or if you’ve written it down before, pull it out and re-read it. Allow your own words to re-inspire you to do the necessary hard work.

2. Design a reward. Sometimes your vision may seem a bit too far off, and you need some more immediate gratification. Choosing to reward yourself for a job well done can provide you with a positive near-term benefit for effort that might not pay off for a while. Promise yourself simple rewards for completing difficult marketing chores like making follow-up calls or writing web site copy.

The prospect of a special dinner, a movie with your significant other, or a new gadget for your favorite hobby can help you to push past the blocks and get things done. Rewards don’t even have to cost money. Sometimes the promise of a bubble bath, walk in the park, or an hour reading a good book is all the incentive you need to take on a tough marketing challenge.

3. Tame the inner critic. Often when you’re feeling stuck, what’s going on in your head is a conversation with your inner critic, who seems to have a lot to say about sales and marketing. It’s difficult to work on promoting yourself when you are hearing a constant stream of comments like: “You’re not good enough,” “They won’t like you,” or “Who do you think you are?”

It can help to remember that the inner critic often says things that simply aren’t true. One way to counter this negative dialogue is to respond with the objective truth. For example: “Clients tell me I’m good at what I do,” “Many people say they like me quite a bit,” or “I’m a competent professional, thank you very much.” When you answer confidently with statements of fact, messages from the inner critic often begin to lose their power.

4. Face your fear. One of the most common obstacles to being successful at marketing is fear. Marketing activities may evoke fears of rejection, disapproval, embarrassment, and a host of other catastrophes. Instead of pretending the fear isn’t there, or attempting to ignore it, you may find it more effective to confront the fear directly.

Try to identify exactly what you are afraid of. What do you fear will happen if you make that call or go to that meeting? If you can identify the specific fear that is blocking you, it may be possible to soothe it by providing reassuring information or positive experience. For example, fear of rejection can often be lessened by setting up practice selling sessions where a role-playing partner responds with “yes” to every suggestion you make.

5. Get a pep talk. When you become discouraged, don’t be afraid to ask for outside help to cheer up and start feeling positive again. Ask a friend, colleague, networking group member, or your coach to give you some words of encouragement. Sometimes all you need to hear is: “It was tough for me in the beginning too… Eventually my efforts paid off… You’re doing all the right things… I know you can do it!”

6. Complain and clear. Feeling frustrated and negative can sometimes immobilize you. One method of clearing negative thoughts is to voice what you are experiencing to a caring person. Spend a full five minutes complaining about everything that’s going wrong with your marketing, making sure to say exactly how it makes you feel. Then ask your listener to reflect your feelings back to you. Knowing that someone else hears and understands you may be all you need to let go of a negative attitude and get back to work.

7. Read your fan mail. In the regular course of serving your clients, you’ve probably received thank-you notes, grateful voice mail messages, and other evidence that you’re doing a good job. Make a habit of saving these in a “fan mail” folder, and when you are feeling low, revisit all the nice things people have said about you. Remembering what a good job you do when you are working can encourage you to do the necessary marketing to get more work.

8. Quit; then start fresh. There may be days when you feel discouraged enough to just throw in the towel. Maybe you should do it. The act of quitting can be very cathartic. Proclaim: “I quit!” Perhaps even write yourself a resignation letter. Then take off the rest of the day, and don’t even think about work. It’s a good bet that after you have a chance to blow off some steam, you’ll be ready to come back the following day re-energized.

9. Change the scene. Marketing can feel difficult and lonely when you’re always slaving away by yourself in your home office. Try carrying out some of your challenging marketing tasks from a different location or with some company. Make cold calls from the patio, write a marketing letter in a busy coffee shop, or take turns with a colleague helping each other set up a good contact management system. Seeing a different view or enjoying companionship while you work may help you to complete tasks you have been avoiding.

10. Act as if. Whenever you feel incompetent about some area of marketing, you may be able to tackle those activities anyway if you simply try to act as if you were competent. Try playing the role of someone you admire. For example, what if you were Lauren Bacall? How would she make a follow-up call? Or how about if you were Martin Luther King? How would he introduce himself in front of a group? A short time pretending to be someone you think of as confident and capable can make those qualities rub off on you.

The next time your marketing feels stuck, try one of these methods to help you get back into action quickly. Marketing tasks are really only as hard as you think they are, so if you can find an easy way out, why not take it?

About the Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at http://www.getclientsnow.com

Block Rocks!

By: John Carpenter Dealey

Eric Butterworth wrote a book called “In the Flow of Life”. In it, he said ‘As the removal of earth by a farmer digging a ditch, opens up a channel for water to flow to his crops, so does the removal of obstacles by the student, open up a channel of energy to flow into his being.’

This quote got me thinking. Here in Texas, we call something that interrupts the natural flow of things a Block Rock. A ‘Block Rock’ can be something that causes disruptions anywhere in your life - in your physical world, your emotional arena or even in your spiritual realm.

Recently, I was watching the 1993 classic movie, ‘Tombstone’ about part of marshal Wyatt Earp’s life. Many people consider this to be one of the five best westerns ever made. In this movie, Wyatt arrived in Tombstone and heard the story of the Oriental Saloon.

As the movie goes, one day, months earlier, a bully had arrived in town and took up residence in the saloon. With his obnoxious and dangerous ways, he ran off all the good clientele from the once thriving Oriental Saloon and the flow of business and profits dried up.

Now, let’s look at this again and see what happened from a different perspective. This bully had, in effect, become a giant Block Rock to the owner. He dropped into the stream of business and upset the natural flow of abundance in the Oriental Saloon.

In this example, the normal flow was for a great quantity of customers and other profits to pour into the Oriental Saloon. Our hero, Wyatt Earp, arrived on the scene, identified and removed the Block Rock, thereby re-opening the channel to restore the flow of abundance and profits.

The moral of this story is that from time to time, in every business, and in every life, a Block Rock will fall. Is it possible that you might have a Block Rock restricting the flow in some part of your life?

Most of the time everything in our lives works great. So, when a Block Rock falls into your life, you see it and just remove it. But, Block Rocks come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes they are hard to find. Often you will see the results of the obstacle before you actually see the problem and you will notice a restriction or that things seem to be harder to accomplish than normal.

When the flow is gradually choked off, it is much harder to recognize. Sometimes, one Block Rock falls and you leave it there, thinking ‘that’s not so bad’. What then happens is that another Block Rock falls and you ignore that one too. If this pattern continues, with another and another block falling, all of a sudden you are faced with a really big Block Rock problem and the bigger they are, the harder they are to solve.

Remember another old proverb… “A stitch in time saves nine”. What this proverb means is that it’s always a good idea to take action as soon as you recognize a constriction in the flow of your life.

Many times a Block Rock will appear to be one thing, when in reality it will be something else entirely. Correct identification of the Block Rock is often 50 percent (or more) of the solution. This means it is always good to step back from a situation that is troubling you and look at it from a distance and from different perspectives.

Ask a friend or co-worker what they see. For particularly troublesome situations, call together one or two trusted friends to form a mini-mastermind group to come up with creative solutions and once you see the situation more clearly, list several alternatives to dig out your Block Rock. Then, ask your mastermind team to help you figure out which way will work best.

After you have identified your Block Rock and have chosen a solution, then you need to take action! As soon as you remove your Block Rock, your flow of abundance and profits will be restored with ease and grace.

Today is a good day to check and see if there is a part of your life that might have a Block Rock disturbing the natural flow of abundance for you. Anything starting to fade, wilt, or show signs of lack? Do you have a project underway that seems to be stalled or running low on energy? Is there an area in your life that is merely surviving and not completely thriving?

It is possible that if you chose to ask yourself these questions on a regular basis, you could find a way to improve something, so that, in a few weeks, you could say with joy, ‘Wow, that was one of the smartest things I ever did for myself!’

Eric Butterworth also once said: “Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.”

Remember, you can take advantage of the obstacles and Block Rocks that appear in your life. Use them to strengthen your powers of observation and accomplishment. Keep those channels open to allow your energies to flow freely. Flex that achievement muscle! Prosperity and abundance are yours!

About the Author:

John Carpenter Dealey is dedicated to helping people solve problems, recognize (and take full advantage of) marvelous opportunities available to them and helping people reach their dreams and goals with “ease and grace.” Visit his website at:http://dr-mastermind.com/home.php

The House of 1000 Mirrors
by: Author Unknown

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.”

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

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Today, your life can start to become truly extraordinary!

Because in just one afternoon, you can learn…

“How you can take control of your destiny… and achieve what has seemed impossible until now.”

“Most people’s attitudes work against them. That’s why they are not coming close to achieving the success they want.
This important book can change that - and it’s so easy to understand and put into practice.”

Is a Franchise Your Best Route to Entrepreneurial Success?
by Richard Parker, and Barry Lenson

Should you buy a franchise? Will owning one give you entrepreneurial riches and independence?

Trump University Professor Richard Parker can answer those questions better than anyone else. He has been buying and selling businesses - and starting them too - since he was in his teens. In this recent conversation with Trump University’s Executive Editor Barry Lenson, Professor Parker shares insights from The Art of Buying a Business, the life-changing course he developed for Trump University.

Barry Lenson: Many people believe that owning a franchise minimizes the risks of owning a business - that there are systems, policies, and procedures in place that will minimize the hazards. So is it really smarter to buy a franchise than a non-franchised business?

Richard Parker: When you buy a franchise, you may have some better data to predict your profits and the overall success versus a brand-new startup business. That is because franchises, unlike other startups, follow a mass recipe that has proven successful in other locales. And yes, those systems, policies, and procedures are already in place.

However, any good non-franchise business has those same ingredients too. The difference is that franchises might have more credibility with consumers than other businesses do, thanks to a recognizable brand name, advertising and familiar products. But the bottom line is, any good business needs a recipe to succeed. Most franchises really only give you the ingredients.

BL: Many people buy franchises to avoid the cost of marketing, advertising, image-building and the rest. That seems like sound thinking, right?

RP: Those are major benefits, but they come at substantial cost. And you are never going to avoid those costs altogether. You will be paying a franchise fee right off the top line for them. Some of the strategies about how to handle advertising and marketing are laid out for you when you acquire a franchise. The question is, can you do a more effective job of reaching those same goals on your own? You may be able to do it for less money than the cost of a franchise.

BL: Are there any individuals who should avoid franchises altogether?

RP: Franchise ownership is not for everyone. It is best for people who don’t mind following orders, who are comfortable embarking on a middle-of-the-road venture with no major upside and (hopefully) no major downside.

Many people buy franchises because they lack confidence in their ability to run their first business. That makes you wonder whether those people couldn’t learn the skills they need at an institution like Trump University and quickly know how to run a business and make more money.

So to summarize, a franchise is not for you if you have an ultra-strong entrepreneurial drive, a burning desire to break new ground or challenge the status quo. Nor is it for you if you are unwilling to put the needs of the parent company before your own.

BL: So what do you tell the person who really wants to own a business and is leaning towards a franchise?

RP: Let me list the considerations.

First, take an honest inventory of yourself. What are your goals? Your strengths? Your weaknesses?

Second, decide if you can live with, and thrive within, the confines of a franchise.

Third, make certain to educate yourself about the specific franchise you are considering. Franchise companies employ the slickest sales people you’ve ever seen - people who could sell you just about anything. So please be wary.

Fourth, if you’re absolutely convinced that a franchise is for you, buy a resale. One that’s already proven successful with customers in its current location.

Fifth, if you have an ounce of doubt about buying a franchise, then it’s probably not for you. Take the time to research and investigate non-franchised businesses for sale. You really are better off, in my opinion, getting into a non-franchised business.

Sixth, and most importantly, whether you buy a franchise or not, education is the key to your entrepreneurial success. Take the time to learn what’s involved and know what you need to do in each stage of the buying process. Ultimately, your knowledge will determine whether you succeed or fail.

Trump University Professor Richard Parker developed Trump University’s self-paced multimedia home-study course, The Art of Buying a Business. Barry Lenson is Trump University’s Executive Editor.

Networking University Presents

Ten Tips for Terminating Telephone Terror

By Wendy Weiss

1. Sell something in which you believe - something that offers value and a benefit.

2. Make telephone calls. No one will ever say “Yes” if they do not know of your existence.

3. Stop making cold calls. (Too scary!) Instead, think of this process as making introductory calls. You are calling to introduce yourself, your company, your product or your service.

4. Think of your call as the beginning of a sales relationship.

5. Constantly reality-check your negative thoughts and feelings. If you feel that “My prospect is avoiding me,” ask yourself, “Why?” Why would a stranger - someone who doesn’t even know you - be avoiding you?

6. You can choose your beliefs. You can choose to believe that your prospect is not interested in speaking with you, or you can choose to believe that your prospect will want to speak with you. Both beliefs are made up, but the first one is self-limiting and the second supports your efforts.

7. Make cold calling into a game, and reward yourself when you succeed. For example, for every “yes,” put a dollar (or $2 or $3 -it’s your game) into an envelope. At the end of the week, take the money and treat yourself - even if it’s only an ice cream cone!

8. Eliminate “negative noise” in your head. When you find yourself thinking negatively - let it go. Replace those thoughts with positive ones.

9. Think of your prospect as someone you know, someone who is open and interested. Visualize a customer that you have, someone with whom you have a good relationship and someone who is open and receptive to you. When you make calls, pretend that you are speaking with that customer and not a stranger.

10. Make your telephone calls with the expectation that your prospect will say “yes.” Create your own self-fulfilling prophecies.

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~~ The Outstanding Results in Marketing ~~

Leading Small Business Marketing Newsletter

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Welcome back to Outstanding Results in Marketing!

In this issue:

1. Golden Rule #6 of Successful Advertising.

2. Objection handling - the fifth step in
Advanced Successful Selling.

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1. Golden Rule #6 of Successful Advertising.
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The more information you give in your ads, the more you’ll sell. As a general rule, 2 minute TV commercials will out-sell a 30 second commercial.

And a 30 minute infomercial out-sells both again.
Remember your ads are targeted at the ‘players’.
These are the people who want what you are selling and have the money to pay for it. They will read your ads (or watch them) if what you say is interesting and relevant to them.

Some of the most famous long copy ads include …

6,450 words for Merrill Lynch Stockbrokers. One insertion in the newspapers brought 10,000 responses from interested investors.

5 pages of text for selling Schlitz beer. Within a few months Schlitz beer went from fifth in sales to first.

600 word ad for Puerto Rico by David Ogilvy got 14,000 readers to send in a coupon. Dozens built factories in Puerto Rico as the result.

800 word ad for Mercedes Benz headlined “You give up things when you buy the Mercedes Benz 230S. Things like rattles, rust and shabby workmanship” This ad increased sales from 10,000 cars a year to 40,000 a year in the U.S.A.

A copy-rich Yellow Pages ad got a $40,000 per month increase for the owner of a video repair shop the moment the Yellow Pages came out.

What more can I say? Except that Demtel built a $50 million dollar a year business virtually overnight with their 2 minute ads. And I could give you dozens more examples. Remember this saying… “The more you tell - the more you’ll sell.”

This is the absolute truth for selling just about anything.
And if you test and monitor your ads you’ll soon find out it’s true. This is also something that 99% of the ad agencies and people who sell advertising have no clue about.
So, if you want to make some real money…

Don’t listen to them. Test it out for yourself instead.

=========================================================
2. Objection Handling - the fifth step in Advanced Successful Selling.
=========================================================

You’ve done your best. You’ve explained all the features, advantages and the benefits of your product or service. You done several trial closes throughout the presentation…

What is trial close? The trial close is a question that allows the astute sales person to gauge the prospect’s interest level.
“Would you agree John, that having 7 seats in your next car is going to be particularly useful for your extended family?”
“Do you see Mary how this dishwasher is going to save you valuable time?”
“If this [product /service benefit] is going to address your [needs /wants] it would be of your interest, wouldn’t it Mrs. Prospect?”

The more prospect says YES, the Greater are the chances that you are on the right track. As you arrive to the final question … Have you you’ve guessed it?

… the final question would be “Can I have your money?” - you answer all their questions and addressed all their needs. You’d wait for their answer in anticipation and here you get it…

“Hmmm… I have to think about it”

Your shoulders Drop down along with corners of your mouth. Your Sure deal just turned into another “Tire kicker”.

Well, if you have this objection, you most probably didn’t qualify them properly (check out here how to do it -MySalesSuccess)

Secondly: you may not have presented all the benefits of your product or service. See how to do it here: MySalesSuccess

Thirdly: did you trial close your prospect and measure his/her emotional response?

There are different theories about objection handling. Some say that if you qualify and present properly, you shouldn’t have any objections. In real sales situation you are always going to have them. And here’s what I have to say - learn to love them, because …………..

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* Objections are Buying Signals. *
**********************************

Objections mean that your prospect is not dead, but evaluating your products and services. Is it going to work for them? Do they really trust you? - It’s your job to help them to make a decision.

Being an ethical sales person - Once you have identified a genuine need for what you have to sell, your task is to educate your prospect, address their concerns and close the sale for the benefit of both parties - yours and your prospect’s.

The good news is that there are only 6 most common objections in most of sales situations.

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* “Have to think it over” *
**********************************

is the most common one and it’s false one too. If you asked them whole way through the qualification and presentation processes if they see the benefits of the subject for them and they say “YES” all the time, then there’s nothing to think about.

This objection is not Real. And As an astute and ethical sales person, you need to find what is their REAL reason for postponing the buying decision.

The way to do it is very simple: “I understand that this is big commitment for you Mr. Prospect to buy the product/service you’ve told me that you need, want and see the benefits of it. Just for my advantage could you tell me what do you have to think about?”

…Or…

“Obviously you have a good reason for wanting to think it over. May I ask what is it?”

— “Oh I think it’s awfully expensive” - here it is - the MONEY objection. And you start addressing it: “Comparing to what else they have looked at?”

— “Ah, we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work”
You may say: “Well, if you don’t mind sharing with me what exactly has happened?”

The same way you’d plan your Qualification and Presentation you may consider to prepare for the Objection Handling stage. It pays to list all possible objections and 2-3 rebuttals for each of them.

==========================================================
This is a recent result from one of my clients:

“Axel has worked with me for 2 month now. Before him I found it
hard to find right staff, he suggested a very simple approach and as
a result I have 21 enquiries from good quality sales people, we then
selected one and he literally changed the way we sell - the new
sales person is the cash machine! Also, Axel ran the in-house
sales training that further enhanced the skills of our sales team.
He has helped me with designing PR campaign - one ad has resulted
in 20 sales over 10 days period, previously I was not selling
this many per month… A referral program Axel helped us
with has netted $4,000 profit in 2 weeks as well as 6 well
qualified leads. More sales to follow.”

Would you like to know how similar result can be achieved
in your business, drop me a line: Axel@myprofile.com.au
============================================================
In Next issue:

1. Golden Rule #7 of Successful Advertising.
2. Ask for order - the sixth and most important step
in Advanced Successful Selling - don’t get it right
and miss sale.

=========================================================

And finally two thoughts of the month:

Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.
–Karen Ravn

“Seldom does an individual exceed his or her own expectations.”
–Unknown

Good Things Come to Those Who Ask
by Jack Canfield

Asking for what you need is probably the most underutilized tool for people. And yet, amazing requests have been granted to people simply because they’ve asked for it!

Whether its money, information, support, assistance, or time, most people are afraid to ask for what they need in order to make their dreams come true.

They might be afraid of looking needy, ignorant, helpless, or even greedy. More than likely, though, it is the fear of rejection that is holding them back. Even though they are afraid to hear the word no, they’re already saying it to themselves by not asking!

Do you ask for what you want? Are you afraid of rejection?

Consider this: Rejection is just a concept. There is really no such thing as rejection! You’re not any worse off by hearing no than you were before you asked. You didn’t have what you asked for before you asked and you still don’t, so what did you lose?

Being rejected doesn’t hold you back from anything. Only YOU hold yourself back. If you are told no, ask for what you’d have to do to get it, or ask again at another time when the circumstances have changed. Ask if they know someone else who might say yes. When you realize that there’s no merit to rejection, you’ll feel more comfortable asking for things. But you may need a bit of help learning how to ask for what you want.

First, ask as though you expect to get it.
Be confident in your request coming from a perspective that there’s no reason why you wouldn’t get it. Or they say no, you can ask them why, or what you would need to do to get a yes. You might need to form a better business plan before you will get a loan. You might need to take a course in computers before you will get a promotion. You might need to spend more quality time with your family before you will get the loving support you need. By getting this feedback you are able to make adjustments and ask again with better chances of getting a yes.

Second, assume you can get what you want if you only ask for it.
You want a window seat? Assume all you have to do is ask for it. You want an ocean view? Cheaper tickets? A scholarship? A better deal? Just ask for it as if that’s all you have to do to get it.

And finally, be specific about what you want or need.
Do you want to make $5,000 more a year? Then don’t just ask for a raise. Ask for $5,000 more a year. Vague request produce vague results. Don’t just ask for more time with your spouse, ask for a date on Friday night. Don’t ask for help on a project, ask for what you want that person to take care of.

Getting a good perspective on rejection and learning how to ask will make a world of difference for you as you work toward your goals. Practice asking and you’ll get very good at it! You’ll even speed your progress by getting what you need, or improving yourself in order to get it later.

Make a list of what you need to ask for in all areas of your life, then start asking!

Networking University Presents

Start Listening to Your Prospects

By Dr. Joe Rubino

You are proud to be associated with your wonderful company. You believe in your products. They’re unique and everyone needs them. And your opportunity is simply life-changing! If your prospect knew what you know, he or she would jump in without hesitation.

In your enthusiasm to share everything you know about your company, products and opportunity, you dump a truckload of information on your unsuspecting prospects in the hope that something will be of interest and impress them enough to take action.

Then Mr. Prospect tells you, “Thanks, but I’m not interested.”

What? They can’t be serious. Ah! They must not have enough information to make an intelligent decision. Perhaps, you need to mention about the rare and exotic ingredients in the formula or maybe tell them all about the exciting seminar you just attended. Or you can tell them about your revolutionary compensation plan that pays double eagle commanders all the way to infinity!

“You’re saying, Mr. Prospect, you’re still not interested? How can that be?”

If you are like most new, excited distributors, you have probably played out the above scenario on at least a few occasions. In your rush to convince your prospects that they absolutely must join you, you forget to listen to them, discover their needs and desires and look to see how your company, products and opportunity might impact their lives.

You must first listen to them in order to create an opening for them to want to listen to what you have to share.

If this critical “listening” was missing, Mr. or Mrs. Prospect likely tuned you out. They were off in the Bahamas, thinking about the million things on their minds that day while you were rambling on and on about 101 things important to you…things that they could care less about at this point!

So, how do you get your prospect’s attention and have a conversation that effectively generates interest and opens up rich possibilities?

Your prospect must first get to know you, like you and trust you before you can hope to be heard. Be a friend. Show them that you care about them and are interested in more than just getting them to do something you want them to do!

Get their permission to ask them a few questions in order to get to know them better.

Your questions can be about their family, where they live, their occupation and their passions, hobbies and things they enjoy doing in their spare time. You can remember these four areas as FLOP (family, live, occupation, passion).

Simply say something like, “Sally, before I share a bit about our company, products and opportunity, would it be ok if I ask you a few questions to get to know you better so that I might learn how what we have to offer might be a fit for you?”

“Great! Please tell me a little bit about yourself, where you live or where you are from, a little about your family and what you do for a living.”

Ask additional questions as your prospect offers information about who they are and what’s important to them. Discover where the “pain” is in their lives, those things that are not working or may be missing.

Perhaps it’s not enough money to realize their life goals and dreams. Maybe it’s not enough time to spend with their family or do those things they love to do. Maybe they are tired of their job and are looking for a change to a more rewarding and stimulating lifestyle. Use every opportunity to deepen the relationship and develop the rapport with them.

Then share a little about your company, products and opportunity as it relates to those things they told you were important to them or missing in their lives.

Stop frequently to ask questions and get their feedback. If you are doing more than 50 percent of the talking, a red flag should go up for you! Any time you catch yourself monopolizing the conversation, take a breather and ask a question that gets them sharing again.

Speak your commitment to them and to their success, should they decide to join you in partnership.

They must have absolutely no doubt that you are or will be successful and if they join you and follow your lead, they will as well. Your tone must be confident and enthusiastic.

Your posture can never be pushy, arrogant or argumentative. Give up your right to make your prospects do anything and simply look for a way to contribute to their lives.

Make a request that brings your prospect closer to taking some action that supports their interests.

Perhaps it might be to listen to a conference call, review a package, attend a meeting, speak with your sponsor or purchase some products. The request must clearly be in the prospect’s best interest and never self-serving, otherwise your prospect will have little motivation to comply with it.

When you have built a solid foundation of trust and respect by listening to where your prospect’s life can be enriched by your products and opportunity, they will naturally be attracted to you and to what you have to offer.

TRUE OR FALSE?

Is it true or false that hiring the wrong person can cost your business over a million dollars (even if your business is new and you don’t HAVE a million dollars)?

Here’s MY answer:

TRUE: Hiring the wrong person can not only cost you more money than you can imagine, it can also cost you AGGRAVATION and wasted time…
not to mention making good customers and other team members stop working with you. More on this in a minute.

HIRING THE WRONG PERSON…

…How Much It Costs And How To Avoid It…

Let me throw some big, scary-sounding facts and numbers at you (and I’m talking about facts and numbers you’re probably not even going to believe- but stay with me, because this is VERY important if you want to save a lot of time and money):

-Most people that are hired are the WRONG person

-If you HIRE the wrong person, you’ll be afraid to fire them (and firing them will be a huge hassle, if you can even get up the nerve to do it)

-If you KEEP the wrong person, they will make your business and your life HELL

-In YOU find yourself in any of these situations, it is DEFINITELY going to cost you a lot of time and money

I often quote my friend Brad Smart, who wrote a fantastic book on hiring called “Topgrading”…

Brad did a study, and calculated that the AVERAGE cost of a “mis-hire” (meaning hiring the wrong
person) is…

…can you guess? I’m serious, take a guess…

…OVER TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

(Did I mention that you probably weren’t going to believe my huge numbers?)

By the way, I said AVERAGE. That’s right, it’s not the “high end” of how much it costs.

So how could this be? Seriously?

Consider the following:

1) The cost of finding the person in the first place, in terms of your personal time, the money you invested

2) The time it took you to interview the person, follow up with them, make them an offer, and actually do the hiring

3) The money it cost you to “set them up” in your business - including all the stuff you didn’t even realize you’d have to buy for them

4) The time it took you to train them and teach them how your business worked

5) The actual money you paid them, including the “extra” you paid for their social security tax, their worker’s comp, any other benefits… etc.

OK… that’s the obvious stuff. Got that all in your head?

Now how about…

6) The things you WEREN’T doing because you were spending time looking for, interviewing, hiring, training, and talking to this new person

7) The opportunities you missed because you were focused on getting your new team member “up to speed” in hopes that they’d save you time later

8) The “catch up” you had to play after they left and YOU were the one who had to wear two hats just to get back to “even” again

9) How far behind you are because now you have to start over looking again… considering the time and risk that the next person you find is very likely to wind up being the wrong person AGAIN

10) The secrets they learned and took - and maybe even the reality that they went into business as your competitor (don’t shake your head, this just happened to a friend of mine)

So what’s all that worth, in terms of cold, hard cash?

A few bucks, for sure. Let’s say it took you three months to find them in the first place, and then six months to get them trained to the point where they weren’t taking up more of your time than they were saving…

Can I get you to agree that this might COST you a lot more than you originally thought it would?

AND THAT’S THE BEST CASE SCENARIO… by the way.

In a more typical scenario, you’ll run into things like these:

1) It takes longer than 3 months to find someone you want to hire

2) You don’t realize you’ve hired the wrong person for more than 6-12 months

3) The person you hire does things to make it so that you CAN’T fire them (or so it’s very hard and
painful)

4) The person you hire makes friends with others on your team, your good customers, or your vendors or partners, so you’re afraid to fire them because you don’t want your GOOD people to leave out of fear or resentment (or your customers and partners to stop working with you)

5) You come to rely on your bad hire, to the point where you “get comfortable” and wind up TRAPPED with them in the long-run

THOSE ARE MORE LIKELY…

And I haven’t even started talking about the BAD situations that are far more common than you might imagine.

Am I exaggerating here? Not even a little. And you know it.

THE WRONG PEOPLE TO HIRE

Before we move on, let me give you a few clues to help you avoid hiring the wrong person.

Here are some “danger zone” hires…

-Someone who is “just like you”

This one is dangerous, because we tend to feel very attracted to people that remind us of ourselves.

But hiring someone like you, who thinks like you, who wants to START A BUSINESS like you did, is only working with you to learn the ropes, so they can eventually start their OWN business. You’ve been warned.

-Someone who “needs a job”

If you want to MAKE SURE you have problems in the future, hire people who can’t find work.

This is a great way to put a “glass ceiling” on you and your business that is UNBREAKABLE.

I am in no way recommending that you behave like a heartless person in business. No way. But when you are trying to GROW your company, you can’t afford to have ANYONE working around you that isn’t HIGHLY motivated.

Trust me. I’ve screwed this one up MANY times, in many ways, and it’s never worked out well.

-Someone who’s related to you.

If you and your relative each have 10 years of solid business experience combined with emotional maturity and healthy personal boundaries, then forget what I just said, and work together.

If not, then plan for something bad to happen down the road.

It doesn’t ALWAYS go bad, but my experience is that it will strain your family relationship in about 95% of cases.

I’ve been there. It’s painful. In my own personal situation and experience hiring a relative, the conflict happened almost 10 years ago, and it STILL causes my family stress.

-Someone you want to help.

If you want to contribute to the world, my advice is to hire STARS to work with you in your business, earn a lot of money, and THEN give back.

Don’t try to mix business and philanthropy when it comes to hiring people… unless you have a lot of extra money, and you don’t care whether or not you get any kind of return on your investment.

If you want to help people, become successful, strong, and financially independent - then give.

MY POINT:

When I look around at the businesses that are started, owned, and run by people I know, I see the above mistakes in almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of them.

And these mistakes are causing more friction, hassle, loss, and conflict inside of their businesses… than possibly any other factor.

THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO HIRE

In our business, we have a term that we use for the “right” people to hire:

STARS.

We call them Stars because we want to be VERY clear that we’re looking for people who have natural talent combined with high aspirations, a sense of pride in developing themselves to their highest potential, and the persistence and determination that it takes to achieve massive success over the long- term.

And that should be who YOU are looking for as well.

Don’t hire your friends, family, and the people around you who can’t find other work. Don’t hire to “help” people. Don’t hire because you LIKE someone.

Promise yourself (and me) right now that you’re going to take a little extra time to FIND the right people in the future.

Promise yourself (and me) right now that you’re only going to hire STARS in the future.

And promise yourself (and me) right now that you’re going to LEARN how to interview people correctly…
that you’re going to LEARN how to ask questions that get you HONEST and VALUABLE information… that you’re going to LEARN how to make double-sure that you’re hiring people that aren’t going to waste your time and make your life HELL.

So, is it true or false that hiring the wrong person can cost you over a million dollars?

I don’t know. But I DO know that it will cost you so much in time, energy, hassle, and lost opportunity that you’ll wish it never happened.

I recommend that you invest a little time to learn how to hire people the right way.

You can do it on your own, you can hire someone to teach you, or you can come to our training program.

Whatever path you choose, just do it.

Of course, I want you to come learn it from me and my team of experts. We’ll teach you the shortcuts for finding, interviewing, and hiring Stars…
including the exact system we’ve developed and refined over YEARS… that has resulted in us recruiting DOZENS of the most amazing team members I’ve seen in any business.

Oh, and you’ll ALSO be trained by the guy I mentioned earlier - who literally wrote the BOOK on interviewing and hiring “A Players” for your team.

It’s all happening here, so apply for the program while there’s still space:

http://www.myprofile.ph

Axel “The Wizard Of Wealth”

P.S. I want to hear your success stories - and I want to hear your questions. If you’ve used any of our techniques to improve your marketing, hire a great person, install systems in your business, or partner with a big company… then drop me a line.
I want to know what’s on your mind. Email me at:

SuccessStories@myprofile.ph

Career Building Tips: Avoid the Top 5 Career-Killing Mistakes People STILL Make & Get the Paycheck You Deserve

By: Linda Lopeke

Unless you are very wealthy or extremely good at winning lotteries, you can expect to be working for 40 years of your life or more. And while not everyone has what it takes to become a top executive, you do have complete control over how far you go and how much you earn in your career.

You can crack the corporate success code! But only if you stop making career-killing mistakes…

Here are the Top 5 Career-Killing Mistakes People Still Make & Then Wonder Why They’re Not Advancing Their Careers:

Career-Killing Mistake #1: Not knowing the real purpose of your resume.

Of all the things critical to landing a great job, having a great resume isn’t on the list because that’s not its real purpose! And you cannot create a killer resume if you don’t know what that purpose actually is.

The purpose of your resume is not to get the job. It’s to be selected for the short-list of people that the employer wants to interview. This decision is made in less than 10 seconds and NOT by the hiring manager. It’s usually an administrative assistant who looks at the submissions and it takes him/her at least 3 seconds to look at your name! Not understanding this means most resumes are thrown in the trash immediately

Career-Killing Mistake #2: Not getting the answer to the most important question of all before you start answering your interviewer’s questions.

The hiring decision is made in the first four minutes of a job interview. Everything that happens after this only serves to reinforce your interviewer’s decision. You HAVE to get the answer to this question before time is up: Are they looking to hire MORE people like those they already have on the team/in the department or are they looking for people who are DIFFERENT from those already on staff to inject new blood/fresh thinking into their organization? The answer to this question will determine how you respond to their questions. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting their time and yours.

Career-Killing Mistake #3: Believing the key to success is working hard and putting in long hours then making sure your boss knows about it.

Most people believe ensuring people know how hard you are working is the #1 key to getting ahead. No — A thousand times no! This is actually one of the fastest ways to hold yourself back in your career! In fact only 3% of people working hard ever experience success. And this career-killing mistake is not good for your health either.

Career-Killing Mistake #4: Not doing the one thing that renders all on-the-job competition irrelevant.

The one thing is taking ACTION.Taking action requires no special tools or intelligence. And 98% of your co-workers will NOT be doing it.

In any organization there are always a bazillion things that need to be done. However, 10% of the employee population will make professional commitments to getting thing one with enthusiasm. And only 2% ever actually take action.

Management has to constantly CHASE and FOLLOW UP with the other 98% if they want to make sure things are getting done. So what this means is if you work in a department of 100 people, only 10 people will have high potential and only 2 people will be in direct competition for raises and promotions

So, if you’re not taking action you are automatically keeping yourself from getting ahead and won’t be taking home the paycheck you deserve.

Career-Killing Mistake #5: Not setting up an employment file at home and not checking what the employer has in your personnel file once a year.

No one will ever care more about your career than you do. Create your own employment file and keep it at home.

Also, once a year, make an appointment with Human Resources to review your personnel file. Mistakes happen. Only you can make sure all the good things that should be in your file are actually there. Opinions (strong ones) of your worth to the employer are formed on the basis of what is found in that file. Don’t let the wrong ones be made about you.

The Best Way to Avoid These Career-Killing Mistakes

These career-killing mistakes and many others people still make at work have one thing in common. They are all easily preventable. The best way to do that is to get a good mentor. Someone more experienced, who can guide your way and keep you from making these mistakes in the first place!