Three big concepts you should not forget.

1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prosp
   Intuition and Your Career - 6 Ways to Harness Your Intuition for Making Career Decisions
   Many of us have had a major stumble at some point in our careers. (Okay, well I haven't, but let's just say that I have "a friend" who's made plenty!!) Perhaps you made a bad hiring decision, took the wrong job at the wrong time, or trusted the wrong colleague with sensitive information. You had a sense, or a feeling about it, but for whatever reason, you choose to ignore it.Consider these scenarios: You wake up on Monday morning, and the name of a former co-worker pops into your mind. You wonder what it means, but you brush it off and instead of calling them, you let it go. Later in the week you learn that this same co-worker, who works at a great company, just hired a new product manager. Yep, you guessed it: the perfect position for you
   This Newsletter is one of a series which aims to help you grow your sales and increase your margins by giving you access to the best marketing strategies around.

   The Collins English Dictionary defines marketing simply as the provision of goods or services to provide customer needs. The ‘marketing mix’ includes the variables such as price, promotion and service to meet customer or consumer needs.

   Wikipedia says Marketing is a social and managerial function that attempts to create, expand and maintain a collection of customers.

   Most organisations tend to have a marketing function, alongside finance, production, distribution and HR. There is no doubt that without marketing most businesses will fail. In our wide experience it is more a philosophy and management style and must not be confused with selling.

   At one level marketing is very simple stuff. However, people take degrees in the subject and it is a vital element in top class MBAs. For others it is a black art directly linked to TV commercials and subliminal selling.

   There are many books on Marketing. People who have created and implemented marketing plans and learned from their mistakes have written some of the best books. Many are written for multinational organisations with large budgets. For SMEs, you must keep marketing as simple as possible.

   So why are so many small to medium organisations ‘marketing challenged’? Believe me marketing is easy. You just need to follow a few steps, testing and checking as you move from step to step. If a step suggests it, you should not be afraid of changing your plans or indeed scrapping the idea altogether.

   Three big concepts you should not forget.

   1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
   2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prospe
      Selling Stories to the Media-Five Points to Consider
      How do you make one of the daily newspapers or the TV channels do a story on you, your business, your company, or your client? What does it take to sell a story to a journalist? You can send off an email or pick up the phone and speak about your story idea to the journalist. But will the journalist bite it?These are some key points that I gathered from my interactions with the scribes over the years:1. The quality of the story peg - Wherever you go and whichever media we pitch to, it is a good story that sells. What makes a good story peg are relevancy, topicality, and how useful will the story be to the business community and/or newspaper readers. When we offer a good story to a journalist, not only are we helping ourselves but also the journalist in getting
      tomer or consumer needs.

      Wikipedia says Marketing is a social and managerial function that attempts to create, expand and maintain a collection of customers.

      Most organisations tend to have a marketing function, alongside finance, production, distribution and HR. There is no doubt that without marketing most businesses will fail. In our wide experience it is more a philosophy and management style and must not be confused with selling.

      At one level marketing is very simple stuff. However, people take degrees in the subject and it is a vital element in top class MBAs. For others it is a black art directly linked to TV commercials and subliminal selling.

      There are many books on Marketing. People who have created and implemented marketing plans and learned from their mistakes have written some of the best books. Many are written for multinational organisations with large budgets. For SMEs, you must keep marketing as simple as possible.

      So why are so many small to medium organisations ‘marketing challenged’? Believe me marketing is easy. You just need to follow a few steps, testing and checking as you move from step to step. If a step suggests it, you should not be afraid of changing your plans or indeed scrapping the idea altogether.

      Three big concepts you should not forget.

      1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
      2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prosp
         Starting a Cleaning Business and Successfully Growing It
         Many websites will tell you that starting a cleaning business in just a few days is easy, and that you can start a house cleaning business for a very small investment. What they don’t tell you is that finding customers and running the business can be frustrating, time consuming and costly. Most people who start a house cleaning business go out of business within the first six months due to lack of knowledge and preparation. Don’t be one of the failures! Research the industry and know what you are getting into before you invest in starting your own cleaning business.Here is some professional advice that will help you start your own cleaning business with minimal investment and maximum return:A professionally designed logo will help to brand your comp
         philosophy and management style and must not be confused with selling.

         At one level marketing is very simple stuff. However, people take degrees in the subject and it is a vital element in top class MBAs. For others it is a black art directly linked to TV commercials and subliminal selling.

         There are many books on Marketing. People who have created and implemented marketing plans and learned from their mistakes have written some of the best books. Many are written for multinational organisations with large budgets. For SMEs, you must keep marketing as simple as possible.

         So why are so many small to medium organisations ‘marketing challenged’? Believe me marketing is easy. You just need to follow a few steps, testing and checking as you move from step to step. If a step suggests it, you should not be afraid of changing your plans or indeed scrapping the idea altogether.

         Three big concepts you should not forget.

         1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
         2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prosp
            Business Management and Fair Compensation
            Organization run smoother when every one gets to sit at the table and eat and no one is forced to eat scraps, treated like a lesser or not paid fairly for the job title or the work that they do. If you are economically enslaving your work force or are turning your vendors into a cash flow bank in slow payments then you will not get their best efforts.If you pay people less than their labor is worth they will not give you 110% of their efforts and that goes for the top CEO down to the mail-room, which maybe CEO some day, remember that. And who better than someone who understands the company from the top to bottom too? Indeed the shareholders want to be paid by increased value of their holdings and you better make sure your customer is also satisfied with your products
            emented marketing plans and learned from their mistakes have written some of the best books. Many are written for multinational organisations with large budgets. For SMEs, you must keep marketing as simple as possible.

            So why are so many small to medium organisations ‘marketing challenged’? Believe me marketing is easy. You just need to follow a few steps, testing and checking as you move from step to step. If a step suggests it, you should not be afraid of changing your plans or indeed scrapping the idea altogether.

            Three big concepts you should not forget.

            1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
            2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prosp
               A Strategic Look At Do's and Don'ts of Board Meeting Minutes
               Do you serve on a board of directors and experience significant inaccuracies and inconsistencies in board minutes? Do you know that board minutes are really a very important resource to governing boards? Minutes of board meetings provide evidence that a board has exercised care in decision-making. The minutes also substantiate that a board is operating in accordance with its Bylaws and other documents and rules.Although there is recognition that board minutes are important, many organizations continue to have inadequate records of board meetings. One of the most common mistakes made in board meeting minutes is the tendency to record too much. This may take the form of casual but inconsequential statements made during the meeting to the ultimate mistake of recor
               ecking as you move from step to step. If a step suggests it, you should not be afraid of changing your plans or indeed scrapping the idea altogether.

               Three big concepts you should not forget.

               1. Customers are more important than prospects. Satisfied customers will buy again and recommend you to others.
               2. Benefits come before features. Customers and prospects are more interested in what you can do for them than in how you do it.
               3. Offering a continuous low price does not work. Customers look for added value. Most mistrust ‘low price for ever’ strategies. Most will not shop around for the lowest price.

               Five Steps to Successful Marketing.

               Don’t spend serious money and time unless you have followed these steps. Each step becomes progressively more expensive.

               Step One. On one side of A4, clearly define your product or service, quantify your immediate objectives, describe your target customers, as you see it describe the benefits to them and why they should choose you above competition. Check with people not directly involved with the project. Does it make sense? Would they buy it? Seek objective criticism. Make changes and re-check. If it is a commercial project, when does it start to make a profit?

               Step Two. Gather as much information as possible about your customers, the market place and your competition. Start in your files, read customer complaints and customer endorsements, interview any staff with a direct connection with customers, discreetly speak to your customers, ask trade bodies for information, search the internet, visit business libraries, become a prospect for a competitor, if low cost buy competitors product or service, acquire specialist market research, if you have the time attend trade shows, exhibitions, networking events and seminars. Use the information to