Online FOREX Trading was seen as the way for the little guy to compete with the big professional traders but guess what?

The ratio of losers remains them same as it was before the rise of online FOREX trading.

How can this be so surely they should do better? The answer is no because traders make these common errors.

1. Blinded by technology

This happens to many novice traders they see the vast amount of news and indicators at their disposal and think they have technology on their side and will win.

Most over complicate their trading and lose.

Simplicity is the key to trading and this was so before the rise of online trading and is still true today.

There is no correlation between how complicated a system is and how much money it makes.

In fact, simple systems are best as they more robust in the face of brutal market conditions.

2. Day trading and over trading

The rise of online forex trading has seen the bulk of new traders try and make money day trading.

This is a huge mistake.

Day trading doesn’t work, as the logic it’s based upon is nonsense.

Day traders have no reliable data to work with.

It’s obvious that daily moves are random as daily volatility is random!

Day traders argue that trading short term is possible with online forex trading but this is not true you cant win if you cant calculate the odds.

Don’t believe me?

Ask any day trader for a real time track record of profits, they have made over the longer term and you wont get one - because it doesn’t work - PERIOD

3. Money management

The speed of the Internet in delivering information has increased volatility.

This means that traders have to be far more careful with money management than before.

Most traders in online forex trading are trying to restrict risk so much that they almost guarantee they will be stopped out and lose.

If you want to make money in forex trading your stops cannot be to tight or volatility will simply stop you out.

You need to take risks to make profits and this is as true as it’s ever been.

Placing stops close to entry may keep your losses small, but what’s the point of that if you are almost guaranteeing yourself that you will are stopped out?

To make money you need to risk it - It’s as simple as that.

The tools need to be applied correctly!

Online forex trading is seen as a way for the little man to compete on an equal footing with the big players but nothing could be further from the truth.

Online forex trading has lured many traders into a false sense of security where they think because they have all the tools they can win (but they don’t learn how to apply them)

Additionally, they think they can now catch short term moves and engage in the best way to lose money in forex - day trading.

Finally, they think they don’t need to take big risks to make big gains and end up eroding their accounts with consistent losses - all small but they add up.

Online forex trading has not seen any increase in small speculators winning and the three reasons above are the major ones why

MORE FREE TRADING INFO PDF’S & COURSES

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including articles, feature, downloads and systems and an exclusive Gann Trading Course visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Many internet people and even internet marketers have heard of the Rich Jerk and his program that can make you a millionaire very easily. Michael Cheney, one of the top marketing people based in London, has even talked about The Rich Jerk’s program. He even went further than this by talking about his website and what he claims to offer. The question is that who is the Rich Jerk and what does his program contain?

Rich Jerk (known as Kelly Felix) has been in the internet industry since 1995 and has done a great job in marketing his website and branding his name. He is an internet marketer who is prepared to share his secrets to becoming wealthy on the internet without any effort. He is also the founder of Credit Pro Inc and guesswhatiheard.com.

The Rich Jerk program (online or offline) includes information on writing great sales letters, how to make a lot of money generating leads, how to set up affiliate websites rapidly and valuably, how to create your own products, setting up an eBay Powerseller business and even examples of past Rich Jerk websites that have been huge money makers along with much more. Moreover, the Rich Jerk program offers free weekly updates, access to the member’s only forum as well as a Web pages ready to go created by the Rich Jerk staff and many other techniques.

Some people who have already tried the program feel that the information offered by The Rich Jerk does not work, one person claimed to have lost numerous dollars trying to execute the ideas.
While most people feel that the information provided in The Rich Jerk program is precious and supportive. The biggest disparagement was that it was only for advanced marketers who really know the basics for successful marketing strategies.

Visit: The Rich Jerk Program
Web Portal

The Art of Business is the Art of Relationships. After all, wouldn’t you rather do business with someone you know and like rather than with someone you don’t know or don’t like? So if that’s the case, doesn’t it make sense that the more relationships that you have, the more business that you will also have? So how do you create more relationships? Networking, that’s how.

I’ve said it many times, the art of networking is the most crucial skill to your sales career. Networking leverages your sales ability by maximizing the amount of eyes and ears that are working to send you recommendations and warm leads.

Networking is not about using people. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Networking is about forming deep and long lasting relationships with people that hopefully can help you to achieve your goals. And the best way to get what you want is to help other people get what they want.

I’ve been to networking functions and seen “sales professionals” walking around with a pocket full of business cards, just handing them out to anyone that will take them. They walk up, introduce themselves, hand out their card, ask for a card in return and then without much more investment of time, they walk off looking for someone else to do it again with. How much benefit do they really believe that they are going to get by spending an average amount of about five minutes with each person that they meet? How much can you really find out about someone in five minutes? How much real bonding is going on here. The problem is that unless there is an immediate reward, most people don’t want to invest much time in building a new relationship.

The other mistake that I see at networking functions is when the attendees seek out people that they already know and spend most of their time just chit-chatting. This is not networking. As long as you are taking the time to attend these networking functions, you might as well try to meet some new people. And when you do, take a real and genuine interest in them and their careers and look for ways that you can be of benefit to them. By taking an interest in them and their job, you are demonstrating to them the value of a relationship with you. When they realize that you are not trying to get something out of them, but instead you are looking to help them, the seeds of trust are planted and trust is the foundation of a strong relationship. But what about you and your needs? Well, the rule of reciprocity will take care of that. No one can be helped without them feeling a need to return the favor. And here is where a leap of faith comes in. Even if the person that you are helping is not in a position to return the favor immediately, somehow, someway, your benevolence will be reward, perhaps even from some unexpected source.

By repeating this process multiple times over the course of your career, you will create a network of valuable business contacts that leverage your sales ability by having more eyes and ears looking out on your behalf.

Hector Cadena is a 25 year sales veteran with a successful track history of building strong relationships with his customers. Cadena shares his proven sales knowledge with others on his web site at http://www.hectorcadena.com

I once called on a large Telecomm seeking to find out if there was a need for a certain type of software. As I sought this information, one of the first individuals I encountered immediately asked, “What are you selling?”

I replied, very simply. I’m not selling anything since I don’t even know if there is a need to sell something. Now maybe you can help me. We went round and round a few times until she finally understood what I was saying and transferred me to the individual I was seeking to speak with.

If you want to avoid sounding like another company trying to sell something, DON’T SELL. You’re thinking right now, “Ron you’re off your rocker.” What do you mean, don’t sell? That’s what I’m hired to do. To which I reply, I understand that making a sale is the overall goal of your position. However, before any sale (i.e. not a retail sale over the counter) of significance can take place, many questions need to be asked and answered and their answers agreed upon.

First, with how can you sell anyone anything unless you understand if there is a need to sell something? Therefore the solution is to STAY OUT of sales mode and STAY IN information mode. One of the many benefits of this approach is people let their defenses down when they feel they aren’t being “sold”. I find that people are more likely to assist you if you explain that you are not selling (and at this point of the sales cycle, in my opinion, you are not) but simply trying to determine if there is in fact, a need to sell something.

If you come off like a typical sales rep you’ll be putting the cart before the horse. Instead, try playing the role of a newspaper reporter or “Columbo”. Make it your first objective to seek “Just the facts and nothing but the facts” before trying to “sell something”. You will quickly avoid “sounding like another company trying to sell something.”

So when someone asks me what I’m selling, this how I reply. “How can I sell you anything unless I understand if there is a need for what I have to offer. I’m calling to determine if there is a need for my product or service.” Remember “Understanding comes before Selling.”(tm)

By using information mode and seeking to understand how a company does business before trying to sell something, you will find the answers you need to indeed make a sale. There was wise person who said, “Seek first to understand and then be understood.”

Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2007 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.

After more than ten years of controversy and scientific study, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved silicone gel breast implants for general usage. They are now available to all women ages 22 and higher for both reconstructive and cosmetic breast surgery.

The availability of silicone implants will greatly expand the options for women seeking cosmetic breast augmentation. In many situations, they have real advantages over saline breast implants. They tend to look and feel more natural than saline implants. They are less prone to rippling or crinkling which can sometimes be felt and occasionally can become visible under the skin. They are lighter than silicone implants. However, they are thought by some to have a higher rate of capsular contracture, which is scarring around the implant and can make the breasts hard.

In countries where both silicone and saline implants have been available the vast majority of patients and surgeons select silicone implants. This is testimony to their advantages. In the US, we are likely to see a large number of patients select silicone breast implants.

But there will still be a place for saline implants. Some people might simply prefer not to have silicone placed in their body. Silicone implants are more expensive than saline implants. In some cases, the implant is used as a sort of platform to elevate the normal breast tissue rather than to give the breast the entirety of its shape. In this situation, saline implants function just about as effectively as silicone implants.

Silicone implants have not been shown to cause autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and lupus, as had been feared. But patients should realize that any breast augmentation procedure is essentially temporary. Body shape and anatomy can change, there might be problems with healing or the body’s reaction to the implant. At some point, it is likely that additional procedures may be necessary.
At Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery, we are already doing quite a few breast augmentations with silicone implants. I expect we will see many more people interested in the procedure in the next few months.

Lloyd M. Krieger, MD is a plastic surgeon and founder of Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, California. More information is available on this plastic surgeon and about breast augmentation

What are disposable washcloths? Rather than a premoistened wipe, they are dry unscented washcloths. They don’t have lanolin or aloe vera. They don’t come in a fancy pop-up single use box. They’re expensive. So why choose them?

When you are choosing a disposable washcloth, whether for incontinence care, general invalid bathing, or home health care, you need to keep in mind the following points:

1. Is your patient sensitive to perfumes? Many people, especially the elderly, have skin reactions to the perfumes used in premoistened wipes and other lotions.
2. Is your patient sensitive to lanolin? Some people actually have allergic reactions to lanolin.
3. Are you looking for disposable cloths only for incontinence wipes or also as general bathing care? A disposable washcloth will meet your needs for general bathing.
4. Are you looking for flushable wipes? Many disposable washcloths are NOT flushable. Flushable wipes are available from some vendors. You must look specifically for flushable if that is a factor for you.
5. Do you need a pop-up box that you can remove a wipe with one hand while not touching the other clean wipes? Some disposable washcloths are sold in such a box. There are brands which present their premoistened washcloths in a box that allows for hygienic removal of one washcloth at a time.
6. Are you looking for a replacement for non-disposable washcloths? Disposability decreases the likelihood of contamination.
7. Is name brand recognition important to you? May sound silly, but when it comes to your confidence in your home health care products, you may feel better going with well known manufacturers whose quality track record is proven.

You may find that the disposable washcloths are exactly the solution you’re looking for. And if not, there are plenty of other wipes and washcloths online to choose from.

Samantha Rangen writes about home health issues. She has a BA in chemistry and has worked as a research technician for over 20 years in biochemistry, genetics, biochemistry, and cancer research.

Samantha markets Kendall Curity Washcloths at http://www.getinspec.com. Visit for a comparison of disposable washcloths and wipes.

There has been a great deal of questions in my workshops lately about how to use email in conjunction with leads coming off the Internet. How do you know if you have research before following up? How can you use email as an effective tool to create specific follow-up action steps? With that in mind, here is an example of an email I received from a company we’ll call ” WeKnowItAll Company”.

Our story begins with WeKnowItAll sending me an email inviting me to access their online company research subscription service free for two days. One of the things I love to do, is to use the WWW for doing research on my competitors, my clients, my client’s clients, their industry and competitors, my prospects, my prospect’s clients and my prospect’s industry and competitors.

The biggest danger of using the Web for research is you can find yourself in “analysis paralysis” and can often end up spending more time on the Internet then you do on the phone selling and generating revenue. My suggestion is to set up a specific set of questions to answer, which once answered should provide enough basic pre-call research. Ron, stop stalling, where’s the list of questions? Hey, relax and don’t worry, the list is towards the bottom.

Now I’m saying to myself, hmmm, free trial for two days. Oh boy, I’m going to have some fun and put this baby through its paces. Let’s see what types of information I can find that is really useful for my specific needs. I set a specific goal for this test. My goal was to identify certain personnel within target prospect companies I’m looking to do business with. I was evaluating based upon two criteria at this point. One, was what was the quality of the information provided? Secondly, how easy was it to access that information.

I start using WeKnowItAll online database by myself without any guidance and off the bat I’ve got a log-on problem. Rule number one; if you want someone to try something, without any assistance, providing clear and simple instructions is an excellent way to make a good impression. Finally I’m able to log-in, and the amounts of choices are mind boggling. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of simplicity and ease of use. This site, although very comprehensive it was also very cluttered and confusing.

I found myself going back and forth from one screen to another trying to find where the profiles of company personnel were located. Apparently, depending on the type of company (public or private), there may or may not be personnel information and it may or may not be always located on the same page. In other words you often had to spend a lot of time digging for it.

After about fifteen minutes I started to get frustrated with my free two-day trial and moved on to other tasks. Below is the email I received the day after my two-day trial (or in my case fifteen minute) was over.

In between the person’s statements, you’ll find my comments in [brackets]. Finally you’ll read my email response back to this person with a list of 12 pre-call research questions.

This is the email I received after my trial ended…

Hi Ron:

[Do I know you? I've never met you. Wouldn't it be wiser to err on the side of good manners? Change the salutation to "Hello Mr. La Vine"]

I just left you a voice mail message also.

[About what?]

Please let me know when you would be interested in scheduling a demo of the site.

[Why would I want to take my valuable time and schedule a demo of your site since it is not clear to me what value you bring to the table?]

As you may know, WeKnowItAll provides unbiased editorial coverage on over 18,500 large and medium-sized companies. We also show accurate details on each company such as contact names, products, competitive landscapes and financials.

[How would I know this? What's a competitive landscape? Is it a cross-matrix comparing one company's products to another's? Is it a simple listing of competitors, which I can get off of Yahoo's company profiles? Come to think of it, what information does your service provide that I can't get either for free or from one of your competitors?]

We also offer Advanced Search functions that would allow you to search for specific companies or contacts by title, industry, location, private companies, Fiscal Year End, or other means.

[And this means I'll be able to do what? What are the benefits of knowing this information? What will knowing this information enable me to do?]

There are two levels of business subscriptions:

[What are the specific benefits of subscribing? How will it enable me to do my job faster, better, less expensively (cheaper) or easier? What types of increases or decreases, more or less results can I expect based upon testimonials from other of your clients?]

WeKnowItAll Power Plus (all access + unlimited free lead downloads into Excel) WeKnowItAll Total Power (all access)

[If for some reason I don't have Excel, can it be downloaded into Comma Delimited Text Fields (name, title, phone number, etc.) What I really need is a CD-Version. I wonder if they have one?]

Sample WeKnowItAll Profiles: http://www.WeKnowItAll.com

Please give me a call if you have any questions or would like a demo of the site.

[You already let me have a free two-day demo without any kind of commitment. I might give you call, however first I've got to figure out (in this case by myself) how to get the service to work, so don't expect a call. Besides, I don't know your office hours or if there are alternative means to reach you such a responding to this email or calling your cell phone.]

Kind regards,

Ann Smartster 1.888.123.4567 ext. 1234 asmartster@ WeKnowItAll.com http://www.WeKnowItAll.com

[Where is your tag line explaining what you do? For example: WeKnowItAll enables you to easily turn raw online data into real revenue.

—

This is my response to her prior email.

Hi Ann,

I have a few questions for you.

1. Did you stop by www.ast-incorp.com and see what my company does?

2. Do you know who my clients are?

3. Have you determined the industry in which I specialize?

4. What size is my company in terms of gross sales and number of employees?

5. Based upon the size of my company and the type of information I may need, how profitable of a prospect is my company for you? Should you be investing your limited sales time with me? On what types of companies in which industries do you make the most money?

6. Is my company hiring and if so, what types of people for which types of projects?

7. Have you signed up for my company’s newsletter or requested my company’s literature to learn more about what my company does and what is considered important?

8. Did you read in my bio? If you did you would see that I was a past member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and the Association of Independent Information Professionals. Does knowing that information, help you create some rapport questions to ask me?

9. Are you prepared to show me examples of data gathered from WeKnowItAll on two or three of my clients as examples of the type of data I would have access to on my prospects using different versions of WeKnowItAll?

10. Based upon what I do and the types of companies I target, can you deduce what type of information I’ll be looking for?

11. What are two areas where I could possibly use WeKnowItAll?

12. Since my target market has a demand for your type of service, is there a possibility you can help me to help you sell more of your service to my target market?

I’ll wait for your answers and then we’ll discuss it. You can reach me in my office on Thursday morning when we can set up a time and date to see if there is a fit between our companies.

All the best to you,

Ron

—

Continued from above…

Set up a specific list of basic questions for pre-call research. Then think outside the box and look at all the possibilities including reseller and affiliate relationships. Maybe you do business with one of your prospect’s clients. Maybe you are affiliated with one of your prospect’s other suppliers.

After you do make contact, remember, at the end of every call or email, there needs to be specific a request that action be taken. For example, here is a request I use quite often in my emails. It works quite well since people enjoy giving advice:

Example:

“Please advise.”

Thanks, Ron

—

Another Example:

“I found an article on one of your competitors, I think maybe of value to you. Your assistant gave me permission to fax it to you.

“I’ll call this afternoon to be sure you received it and to discuss if there maybe a good fit between our two companies. At that time, I’ll also be able to provide you with some specific ideas where we maybe able to give you a competitive advantage”

All the best to you,

Ron

—

Another Example:

Hi Mr. Smith,

As we discussed, you are looking to hire more reps in the Business Intelligence /Information Management space. We also agreed that our selling philosophies a rather identical.

Your main goal is to teach your reps how to hunt effectively and ferret out opportunities in short order. Your reps are dealing with customers and resellers. I have an article from Software Magazine that I will fax to you. You may it of value to you when you go to cost justify the sales training to your management.

Since you need to have another two people on board before we can finalize the training dates, I sent you a list of web sites where you can find sales reps, sent the job criterion you e-mailed to me out to my job seekers list. I also sent you two possible candidates.

You have people in both Reston and Denver and all will be in Denver the week of September 9th before two weeks of ABC University. We spoke of setting up a two-day class during the week of September 9th.

You mentioned you need to run this by Tim, Dan and then Andy for budget approval. Attached is a sample Agreement with a fee schedule for your review and signature.

I will follow this email with more specific details about the live sales call-training workshop, which you can read at your convenience. This will include comments from people who mentioned they wished they had this type of training prior to their product training.

I look forward to speaking with you on Wednesday, September 28 at 8am PST when I will call you at: 303-555-1234 to discuss the next steps needed to put a live sales call training workshop in place for ABC.

Please call me at 818-991-6487 if you have questions before then.

All the best to you,

Ron

The Lesson…

Don’t send emails asking me to call you or to do something, unless you have provided information or topics of value specifically related to my company. This type of information may include insights you want to share about my clients, prospects, industry or competitors that would be worth me taking my time to discuss.

Separate yourself from the rest of the reps who do no homework and then expect that their products and services alone will generate sales.

Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2007 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.

Baby Steps to Web Design, this is a simple pattern or template to crawl before you walk. As you get more experienced you add more things and grow with your web site. Happy Web design to you.

5 Important Rules in Website Design

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

1) Do not use splash pages

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3) Have a simple and clear navigation

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4) Have a clear indication of where the user is

When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!

5) Avoid using audio on your site

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine. 5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!Generating Revenue With Good Planning

For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact, may websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace.

The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a “food” section, an “accomodation” section and an “entertainment” section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for further information.

When you have a broader, better-defined scope of themes for your website, you can sell space on your pages to people interested in advertising on your page. You can also earn from programs like Google’s Adsense and Yahoo! Search Marketing if people surf to those themed pages and click on the ads. For this very reason, the advertisement blocks on your pages need to be relevant to the content, so a themed page fits that criteria perfectly.

As Internet becomes more widespread, advertising on the Internet will bear more results than on magazines or offline media. Hence, start tapping in on this lucrative stream of profit right away!

To continue click or paste this Link:http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=431343

Woods/onlinebus1 Copyright 2007

As Dennis Miller would say, “Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant” but why have corporations and businesses made it so hard to do business with them? Are they trying to drive business away? In an age where customer loyalty is a prized plum, it never ceases to amaze me to what lengths corporations will go through to aggravate and alienate their customer base.

As I say in class over and over, it is not always the big things that make the difference. In fact, quite often, it is the little things you do or say or how your company operates that sets you apart from the competition and wins you the big deals. It maybe better service, friendlier people, attention to detail, greater accessibility or a better attitude.

Ease of use ranks high on my list when doing business with someone. When companies make it hard or un-enjoyable for me to do business with them, my first thought is “Where else can I take my business? “Where else will my hard-earned dollars will be appreciated and I won’t have to go through a war zone to get simple things done?”

For example, the bank I currently use allows you to bank online. I enjoy using the electronic bill pay feature. I can pay my bills from anywhere in the world. Here’s the catch. I have a business account and a personal account however they cannot access each other (this bank actually has a separate web site for each). This means for me to pay bills using each account, I would need to pay for two bill-paying services. Does this make sense? Of course not and yet it occurs.

Example number two. There is a next-day shipping company whose service I really enjoy. What happened? I closed one credit card account and opened another. The billing department automatically charged me $10 Declined Credit Card charge without notifying me rather than contacting me and asking why my credit card was not working, I called up customer service (at least three times) and explained the situation. I gave the person a new credit card number and requested that they make notes in their customer service system. They did and they told everything was fine and taken care of. Wait a minute, I just opened my mail and there’s another REPRINT OF ORIGINAL statement showing the same charges and that the bill is now overdue. To cut to the chase, I ended up calling the headquarters and explaining that because the people in billing could not access the notes from the people in customer service, his company nearly lost my account over $10.

Ron you’re saying, $10 is no big deal. You’re right however if you calculate the lifetime value of a client and then multiply by the number of clients you maybe losing due to what I call disconnects within a company’s product and service delivery system, the potential dollars lost rises dramatically. The person at corporate was smart (probably why he was working in the executive offices). He simply asked, “What do we need to do to fix the problem?”

I replied, “Reverse the charge, take down my new credit card number and say I’m sorry. That’s it. That’s all. Nothing fancy.” I also mentioned that if this is happening to me, I wonder how many other clients are being affected by the same situation. He said he’d make a point to check on their notification and CRM systems.

Do you know why I went to all this trouble to bring my business back to a company whom by all rights and means did not deserve it? It is because of the guy who picks up and drops off my packages. He always has a friendly smile and a happy hello. I like people like that and enjoy doing business with companies who employ people like that. He doesn’t know it but it is his behavior that saved his company at least one client and possibly many more.

In closing, as a sales rep or any member of a company large or small, ask yourself every once in while, “How easy is it to do business with your company?” “Are there disconnects in your company’s product and service delivery system (this includes a review of all departments, not one or two)?” “How easy is it to return something?” “When’s the last time Sales asked Marketing for some data and it fell through the cracks or vice versa?” “How well do your departments share information internally?”

Sharing internal information is a very important issue in corporations and maybe why Customer Relationship Management has become such a hot topic that is being looked at very seriously. Studies show over and over again, it can cost 7 to 8 times more to get a new client as it does to keep an existing one. So keep your existing clients happy by making their experiences or points of contact with your company as enjoyable as possible.

Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2007 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.

Recently an ancient ideology has resurfaced and bubbled up to the mainstream of society and pop culture, seeping into the sports world to lift dedicated golfers to a higher plane of play. Regardless of whether or not you believe the game of golf is really 80% mental, there’s no denying the fact that confidence and mindset play an important role in the success of your swing.

The Secret is a movie, a best-selling book, and philosophy that has changed people’s lives for the better. Even those who start out skeptical about the Law of Attraction and inviting good things from the universe eventually see positive results when they apply the lessons behind the media buzz.

For golfers, there are hours of preparation involved in bringing your score and handicap down a notch. Unlike other sports where physical prowess takes precedence, golf requires your mind and body to be in sync. Even a minor irritation during the day can cause your swing to become microscopically off-balance, sending the ball spiraling in the wrong direction.

You can probably think of different golf rounds you’ve played where you arrived at the course in a bad mood, expecting the worst. You probably got it - spending half your game getting out of the rough, the sand trap, or water hazards.

Other days you may have played more for fun than skill, allowing your mind to relax and enjoy the moment. Amazingly, this often results in the best round you’ve ever played - fairway shots, up and down on the green with ease, and a low scorecard that you’re proud to submit toward your handicap.

The Secret explains how you can use the Universe to attract what results you want, and it even works when you apply it to your golf swing. How often have you lined up for a shot and envisioned where you want it to land? It’s the same principle, only with The Secret, you develop a belief that what you envisioned will actually materialize.

Your confidence in stepping up to the ball and swinging the club will contribute to your back swing being smooth, your grip effortlessly leading your club through the down swing, and your swing following through to a parallel ending as planned.

When doubt and uncertainty creep into your game it can cause you to falter and stall or pause at the wrong time. If you’re faced with a water hazard and don’t want to lay up, but are worried you might not make it over, then chances are, you’ll wind up wet.

Apply The Secret philosophy and you’ll have an abundance of confidence and security in your abilities so that you won’t fall short - your ball will soar right over the water hazard and you wouldn’t expect anything less.

Tiffany Dow explains more about how The Secret helps improve your golf game here: http://www.squidoo.com/the-secret-to-a-great-golf-swing - Check it out now and start ridding your game of mental obstacles!