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Investing In Your Own Customers: A Neglected Skill
Most businesses spent time attracting customers to a product or service, trying to win their trust and then ending the whole process with a sale. That tactic seems obvious to most people. What often is neglected is the post-sale follow up with customers, particularly when it comes to online businesses. We should look at the time after a sale as an opportunity not only to improve our products but also to establish long-lasting relationships with our customers.It takes much more effort to win a new customer than to maintain a relationship with an existing customer. But maintaining current customer relationships is just as critical and I’d even dare to say, more important than gaining new customers. What can we do to keep our established customers feel appreciated? You need to follow up with your customers.Following up may be as simple as writing an email or giving a phone call to a customer a few weeks after a sale. Does this take time? It sure does. Is it worth it? Absolutely! Not only does this allow you to get good feedback from customers in order to improve your products and services, but also it establishes a more solid, long-lasting relationship that goes beyond the point-of-sale.Most people will be surprised that you would be willing to talk with them and will be touched by the personal attention they receive. People don’t like being ignored and definitely like being heard. There are many businesses that are ignoring their

ews releases. They haven’t yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous improvement.

This is where the blood, sweat and tears of the copywriting business is truly found. It gets even tougher when another professional publicist wrote the news release for the client. Now the client is getting opposing advice from two professionals. One says “Make it Hot” and the other says “Cool it”. What’s a publicist to do?

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients s

Why Your Press Releases May Fall into the Junk Category
I talk to lots of editors, both print and electronic, and they cry a similar refrain when it comes to press releases: "Most of what I get is junk."Speaking as a former newspaper and magazine editor, the worst part of that scenario is that once an editor receives a press release that is junk, he or she is unlikely to open future communications from that business again, unless that business is a large corporation that cannot be ignored.Since most of us don't fall into that category, I can hear the flushing sound of far-too-may public relations campaigns swirling to the bottom of the toilet because their media communications are ineffective.Why are 90 percent of all public relations junk? I think there are three primary reasons:1. Those creating and distributing press releases or media advisories don't understand their audience, which in this case is made up of busy, busy editors. Editors want news and compelling stories that resonate with their readers and viewers. To understand what specific editors want, you should study the publications and electronic media on your distribution list and create a profile of the kinds of articles and stories those editors run. Because editors are working to produce materials that their audiences want, these profiles vary only slightly from year to year.2. Businesses fail to hire a public relations specialist or outsource the work to a consulting form. The result is that those busin

Sorry about my otaku with this issue (otaku = more than a hobby, a little less than an obsession).

Many of you may know me, since I run Imediafax, the Internet to Media Fax Service. I send out over a million news releases a year for people via fax and email. You probably think that I’ve got news releases failing on me day in and day out.

Actually, I don’t. The news releases I write and send out for people do quite well. My clients are quite happy with me because they are successful with their outreach efforts.

It’s the draft news releases that people send to me that are my problem.

Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes forever. It is also very painful.

I’ve seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what the key problems look like and how to fix them.

My plight as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients trying to get them to understand the psychology of dealing with the media.

The rubber meets the road in the news release because this single sheet of paper is the key nexus for all communications with the media. The importance of the copy on a news release cannot be overstated. It has to be free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media interest and response. One fatal error and it’s all over.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

The issue is that when people send me news releases, it often takes a long, long time to identify and communicate the problems, and then more time again to explain and negotiate all the word changes with the clients, and more time still to finalize the news release and have it ready and approved for transmittal.

Honestly – it can be very painful for all involved. I’m quite brutal on my clients, since their success is all that matters. I don’t pull any punches. My comment process can bruise a lot of highly inflated egos of some otherwise very accomplished people, on the way to a problem free news release that maximizes the chances of success when finally sent. Lots of people think they can write a news release. Very few of them can do it very well.

They simply haven’t followed the media response to enough news releases to learn the errors that are made when they write news releases. They haven’t yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous improvement.

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients s

Under Promise-Over Deliver
As I sat at lunch with the young insurance executive, he raised a question. He had an exclusive contract with an insurance company to sell only their products, but his agents wanted to sell a competitive product as well. My friend wanted to know if it would be morally right to do this through another company in which he had a vested interest. I reminded him that he had made a covenant, a promise. His word or reputation as the most valuable possession he had. Short-term gain would lead to long-term broken promises and pain if he pursued this course. I asked him to consider the intent of the contract, not just the letter of the law.Business is about relationships and relationships are built on long-term commitments and established trust. Most of us violate promises every day on the job. We commit to be at a meeting, or to get a report completed by a certain time, or to deliver a new product, or to ship by a certain date, or to pay within terms. Most inefficiency in business is caused by broken promises and lack of meeting deadlines. For example, the customers may not give a shipping order when promised. The custom goods sit on the dock awaiting shipment. Everyone makes little promises that are not kept. They meant to give the purchase order, or ship the part on time, or make the service call promptly, but intention was not fulfilled. What would happen if we did not “over promise” to get the business or “under deliver” after we got the job o

>Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes forever. It is also very painful.

I’ve seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what the key problems look like and how to fix them.

My plight as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients trying to get them to understand the psychology of dealing with the media.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients s

Franchisors: Where to find franchisees for your franchises
One of the best sources for prospective franchise buyers is relatives or family of long standing customers of your outlets. Long-standing customers really do know the kind of sales volume you bring in your outlets as they can figure it out pretty quickly. Even the non-educated person can figure out that your outlets are making a hell-of-a-lot more than they are. Many of these customers will admire your franchising company for the great idea and your strong brand name. They will admire their local franchise who they patronize for their hard work ethic. They may also realize that they themselves do not have the energy level to run such a business but they probably know someone who would be interested. It’s usually a son-in-law, nephew, son or person from their church. This person nine times out of ten will fit your franchisee profile mold. This person they are thinking of usually reminds them of your local franchisee; energetic, athletic, out going, upbeat, positive and successful.New customers of your franchisees also make good franchisees themselves. Many times a new customer is in such awe over this new type of service, product or business model, that they will stand there in the parking lot out front of the store for twenty minutes and think about it. They will start asking lots of questions of your franchisee about the business.You should explain to your franchisees that these are valuable leads and ask them to pass them on

free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media interest and response. One fatal error and it’s all over.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients s

The Power of the Forklift for Your Business
The forklift is one of the most powerful pieces of equipment for any warehouse operation, and every manufacturing or shipping company will need at least one forklift in order to conduct its daily business.The operation of a forklift is of course quite easy to understand, and every person reading this article no doubt already knows what a forklift is and what it does. In addition to the traditional forklift, of course, there are specially designed fork trucks that have been designed for moving pallets around by hand. These fork trucks can be very valuable for moving products around where space is tight, and no special training in driving a forklift is required to operate this piece of equipment.Of course where large pallets, or large numbers of pallets, must be moved, it is the forklift that will be required to move them. Without a forklift it could take many, many hours to move products that could be moved in a fraction of the time using a forklift.Of course using a forklift requires special training, and it is important that all forklift operators receive such training before being turned loose with this powerful piece of equipment. Many job openings for warehouse work specify proficiency in operating a forklift, and there is no doubt that the ability to operate a forklift efficiently will improve the employability, and potentially the wages as well, of any warehouse worker.For those warehouse workers who arrive at

dy and approved for transmittal.

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients s

Track Employee Output & Not Time
In many companies the HR department and Accounts love to have the salary of an employee deducted on the pay day based on their on-seat attendance time. This one is too harsh and especially for someone who has to sit facing the monitor continuously is a pain in the neck and eyes.At one place employers want to have every single possible check on their employees and keep looking for ways and means to deduct salary. On the other hand they also want employees to be retained for a longer period by the HR department. Something here to understand is in organizations where someone is paid on an hourly basis, this can go well, however an monthly salaried will never appreciate this pattern of workplace. They will definitely like to switch to a better workplace.There is a basic difference between employee and slave. In modern industry employees are hired not on the basis of how much time they can spent working but on the basis of their performance, output & results they can deliver.With technology advancing at a rocket speed even employers need to grow and give more space to employees. Three companies implementing the latest web based tracking system to calculate employee time sheet. One wants this system to check whether any employee is misusing the facilities provided to employees, other wants to know how much more they can deduct from an employees salary and the third wants their employees to have access to their time

ews releases. They haven’t yet learned what the mistakes are, so there is no learning from continuous improvement.

So my motivations for doing this article are really quite selfish. I want to spend less time doing this. My life will be significantly improved if my clients send me news releases that take less time and energy to fix. Very simply, for each and every news release that comes in and doesn’t have these problems, I’ll free myself to spend more time doing things that are more profitable for my clients and me.

The issues listed here have all been identified as reasons for the failure of a news release. This is based on over 20 years of experience in dealing with the aftermath – the actual number and quality of responses generated from the transmittal of a news release.

So here are the most common reasons why news releases fail:

1. You wrote an advertisement. It’s not a news release at all. It sells product. It fails to offer solid news of real tangible interest, value-added information, education or entertainment.

2. You wrote for a minority, not for a majority of people in the audience. You simply won’t compete with other news releases that clearly are written for a larger demographic of the media audience.

3. You are the center of attention, not the media audience. You focus on your business and your marketing, instead of things the editor and his or her audience will be interested in.

4. You forgot to put the five W’s up front. (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED). You didn’t clearly and succinctly tell the media why the audience would be interested in this.

5. You are too wordy and text dense. You focused on details and minutia, instead of the most important ideas, issues, factors, facts, and news angles. You fail to address the real significant impacts your story has on people.

6. You place too much information on one page – the one page news release has a font size so small an editor needs a magnifying glass to read it.

7. You included corporate logos and other non-persuasive low value added graphics that distract the editor from your key message. You may have also used an unusual fancy font or a file format that turns to gobbledygook when it goes through a fax machine.

8. You wrote a personally biased article for the media to publish, instead of pitching the idea to the media and the objective reasons why the media audience will be interested.

9. You wrote about features and facts, and forgot to explain what it means to real people. Tell a story about real people. Add in real life human interest.

10. You wrote about how your news ties in to someone else’s fame a

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There are peculiar natural qualities needed to make a good salesperson, and if you do not have these, you’d better turn your attention to some other career, for you cannot succeed here. Yet two men who are equally good salesmen, may be almost totally unlike. Almost. They must be good judges of human nature. How shall you become a good judge of human nature? You might as well ask me why the violets are blue; I cannot tell you.

Creating a vision statement that creates interest can be a daunting task for any company. Ensure that you describe your business goals in a statement that allows others to truly understand your ultimate goal while at the same time exciting them to come on board.

Learn how to get better results out of your business from someone who has been there done that. Learn what to do to get better results out of your business from home. You will learn how you can fall forward fast in your business.

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