Remember a few years back when all the fast food chains crowed about their "secret" sauces and ingredients? It sure added some mystique, didn't it? Nothing improved the flavor of a hamburger or drumstick like good old-fashioned secrecy!

Now let's transition to postcard marketing, where a similar concept applies. A small percentage of real estate agents have discovered the "secret ingredients" of postcard marketing. As a result, they enjoy huge success each time they conduct a mailing.

Other agents, however, do not enjoy such success. They send postcard after postcard, but, alas, no response. These agents do not know the secret ingredients of postcard marketing success.

Let's uncover some secrets, shall we?

Postcard Secret #1 -- Don't Rely on Technology
You first need to realize that technology alone won’t lead you to postcard marketing success. If it were that easy, all agents would enjoy record-breaking responses from their mailings.

In fact, technology is the most straightforward part of the equation. A postcard marketing service will handle all of the technology for you. But there’s the rub. Technology can help you deliver a powerful message, but it cannot create that message for you. That’s your job.

Nobody knows your audience or your skills better than you, and nobody cares about your success as much as you do. So the message, and everything that brings it to life, must begin with you.

Postcard Secret #2 -- Know Your Audience
When creating your postcard message, start by identifying your audience. This might seem obvious, but it’s a critical step upon which the rest of the process will rest. To identify your core audience, you simply have to ask yourself a series of questions.

What area do I want to represent? Am I focusing on buyers or sellers? Where might I find these people? What's important to them? What do they want to know? What do I have to offer that might motivate them?

When you've answered these questions, you should be able to write a paragraph from the combined answers. This paragraph is your audience statement, and it will help you set your postcard marketing objectives accordingly. Once you've defined your audience, you can more easily determine the kinds of offers that might motivate them.

Postcard Secret #3 -- Identify the Desired Response
Now that you know your audience (and assuming you’ve done some research to really get to know them) you can set the objective for your postcard campaign. Ask yourself, “What do I want to happen as a result of sending my postcards? What's the ideal response?"

Here’s the key to this step. Don’t ask your postcards to do more than they’re capable of doing. I see real estate marketers using postcards to try and convince recipients that they offer superior service. That’s a lot to ask of an 8" x 5" piece of card stock.

Scale back your objective until you find something that (A) gives the postcard a more realistic task, (B) follows a more natural sales progression, and (C) capitalizes on known behavior.

What's a good response to aim for? How about a phone call or an email? Now that’s something a postcard can handle, especially if you give people a good reason to contact you (like an insightful report on future construction in your area). And that leads to our next "secret"…

Postcard Secret #4 -- Offer Something Great
We know from statistics that most consumers end up choosing the first real estate agent they contact. So you can capitalize on this known behavior by aiming for that critical first contact. This is where your offer comes into play.

The value and relevance of your offer will determine the size of your response. That's a fundamental principal of postcard marketing that many agents overlook. A postcard without explicit value is a postcard destined for the trash.

Think of it this way. The postcard is only a messenger. A messenger without an important message is worthless. But if the messenger has valuable news or information, everybody wants to hear what he has to say!

Here's an example. If I lived in a residential area suffering from "commercial creep," and somebody offered me an exclusive report on future commercial development and how it might impact my home value … I would want that report! And I'd contact anyone to get it.

Postcard Secret #5 -- Leverage Your Website
Have a website? If so, you have a perfect marketing partner to complement your postcards. The reasons are somewhat psychological:

The goal of any marketing program is to gain new business, but sometimes you have to offer indirect paths as well as the direct ones. Direct paths are for direct people. A direct path on a postcard would be a phone number. Some interested prospects will choose the direct route and call you straightaway.

But those who are less direct would rather learn more about you first. They need to get comfortable before they "raise their hands." So why not build an informational resource section of your website and point to it with your postcards?

The point is to offer different response channels for the different personality types. A direct phone number for the direct people, and an indirect website path for the more timid souls. Then mention both paths on your postcards, and you've increased your chance for response -- be it direct or indirect.

Postcard Secret #6 -- Measure Your Success
Make sure you have some way to track the responses you get back from each mailing. This will allow you to compare one postcard message to another to see which one performs better.

First, establish a baseline response based on your first mailing (out of X number of recipients, X responded). Next, try to improve one element of the postcard, such as the offer. You won’t know if it’s truly an improvement until the test is complete, but that’s the whole point.

Lastly, send the new version of your postcard to the same list, the same number of recipients, and with all other things being equal. Track the results as you did before, and compare the two mailings. You’ve just completed a simple A/B test to determine which of two offers is more effective.

You can continue this testing in one of two ways: You can keep putting your winning offer up against new challengers. Or you can move on to other aspects of the mailing, such as the design, headline, list, timeframe, etc. The goal is to have a postcard that combines the best of all elements.

Conclusion
I hope you see now that the "secrets" of postcard marketing success aren't really secrets at all. They are proven methods that have been used by direct mail marketers for years. And now that you understand them, you have everything you need to create your own postcard marketing success.

Most small business owners have heard of direct mail marketing, but may not really know what it is. And there’s good reason to consider direct mail to promote your small business.

It’s versatile, effective and affordable. It allows you to give prospects one-to-one direct attention, and it allows you more control over growth than nearly any other type of promotion.

Direct mail marketing is one of several types of direct response copywriting. I suppose it’s somewhat confusing, but most tend to think of the two terms as interchangeable. There is however, a subtle difference.

Direct mail marketing can be defined as one-to-one communication sent by mail directly to potential clients with the goal of specific action by the recipient. Direct response copywriting is basically the same thing, but isn’t limited to snail mail delivery.

Direct Mail Marketing is Versatile

Direct response is one of the most versatile forms of small business promotion there is. You are in fact, really only limited by your imagination. Some of the more common types of direct response are:

* Direct mail letters
* Direct post cards
* “Lumpy” mail
* Business letters of introduction
* Direct response brochures
* Flyers
* Direct fax
* Direct email
* Bulletin board letters

Of the eight different types listed above, only the last three wouldn’t be considered direct mail marketing, but would instead be considered a different type of direct response copywriting.

Most of them are self-explanatory, but you may not have heard of “lumpy” mail. Lumpy mail is simply direct mail with the addition of something related to your message in the envelope besides just a letter. It could be as simple as a stubby pencil, a sample-sized bar of soap, or even a child’s toy. It might cost a bit more, but it often leads to a surprisingly big increase in response rates.

And perhaps you haven’t heard of bulletin board letters. Technically, they’re not a form of direct response, since they’re not sent directly to a particular recipient, but rather are posted on a community bulletin board where anyone in the local area can find them.

Community bulletin board letters can be nearly as effective as a direct mail letter, but have the added advantages of lower costs and reaching a larger audience. They’re most often hand-delivered, stapled to bulletin boards in towns, in storefront windows, or anywhere else you feel they’d be seen.

Direct Mail is Affordable

Whatever the mode of delivery, dollar for dollar, direct response copywriting is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your small business. On average, a direct mail letter costs less than $1 per recipient. That’s including paper, envelopes, printing and postage stamps.

A direct postcard can cost even less because it costs less to mail—total cost is around 70 cents. However, higher paper costs could even out the cost difference.

Direct Mail is Effective

With average response rates between 1 and 3%, it’s one of the most effective ways to promote your small business as well.

Unfortunately, most amateur copywriters (and many professionals as well) don’t have response rates nearly that high. They’re soon discouraged, giving up on direct mail marketing when their first efforts show a poor, or no response.

One of the reasons might be that they’ve chosen the wrong goal. Keeping in mind that it takes an average of 5 to 7 contacts before a potential client actually buys something from you, your goal should seldom be a sale.

Most of your contacts will need to get to know you before they spend their hard-earned dollars on your product or service. Don’t expect a sale. Rather, consider any purchases from introductory direct mail a pleasant bonus.

A much better goal might be to consider direct response as lead generation instead of sales generation. For example, you might want your recipient to visit your web site, contact you for a free report, or call you for more information. Those types of requests are more likely to result in the type of response you’re looking for.

Direct Mail Allows You to Speak Directly to Your Recipient

What other form of small business promotion allows you speak directly to your recipient? Not television, radio, billboards, or your web site. Besides, with the exception of a web site, TV, radio and billboards cost way too much for most small business owners to consider.

Addressing your recipient personally, as in “Dear Joe” or “Dear Ms. Smith” rather than using “Dear Colleague” or “Dear Homeowner” increases response rates dramatically. And it improves the chances that your recipient will actually open the envelope instead of throwing it away unopened. (So does using an actual stamp instead of a postage meter by the way).

Direct Mail Gives You Control Over Your Growth Rate

Growing your small business too fast is almost as dangerous as not growing fast enough! What would you do if you suddenly grow way past your company’s capability? It’s a danger you might think you’d welcome, but there is such a thing as too much growth.

With direct mail, you control your growth as simply as controlling the number of direct mail letters you decide to send. If your goal is one new lead a month, knowing the average response rate is 1 to 3%, you can send between 33 and 100 letters for one response

No matter how you’re promoting your small business right now, I hope you’re convinced to add direct mail marketing as one of your strategies. If done well, it truly is one of the most effective marketing strategies available to small business owners.

Eve Jackson owns Details Small Business Solutions, a company dedicated to helping small business do big business with marketing solutions developed exclusively for small business. We'll develop affordable marketing strategies and help you implement them. We help small businesses generate leads through direct response copywriting and small business web site development, including design and copywriting.

Don't make the same mistake many dealers make by automatically promoting your company's best salesperson to sales manager, unless he or she possesses the qualities necessary to manage, not just those qualities necessary to sell. The jobs are quite different.

There are ten basic qualities that all good sales managers possess. Fortunately, most can be learned. Here they are; make sure that if your current sales manager (or someone you are considering promoting to sales manager) doesn't currently possess these characteristics, he or she is actively working on developing them.

1. Likes people. If a sales manager is not people-oriented he or she doesn't have much of a chance of succeeding in this job.

2. Well organized. Organization is the foundation of just about everything in life. Without this skill, I strongly suggest that you provide your sales manager a secretary or assistant who is structured and possesses good organizational skills.

3. Sense of commitment. Talent falls through the cracks without commitment. I'd rather sacrifice almost anything than commitment; hold out for it. A committed manager will figure out a way to overcome adversity.

4. Strong desire for personal responsibility. Since sales managers are accountable for the results of the entire sales team, this trait is mandatory.

5. Persistent in pursuit of goals. Former President Calvin Coolidge said, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

6. Bring out the best in people. Treat people not as they are, but as they are capable of being. Sales managers must care enough about their salespeople to help them reach their full potential. This is no easy task. A great sales manager must be skilled at slowly, but surely converting individual liabilities into assets.

7. Tolerance. Give your sales force permission to grow through honest mistakes.

8. Flexibility. Don't throw the same pitch to every batter. New situations call for different actions. If a sales manager wants different results, he or she must have the willingness to try different things.

9. Introspective. Be willing to see themselves as others see them. Effective sales managers must be willing to ask questions about their management style and be willing to listen to feedback from both their sales force and their supervisor.

10. Enthusiasm. All the studies by the Dale Carnegie organization indicate that enthusiasm is the number one characteristic for success in life.

Defensiveness can be defined several ways.

One that I like is “Reacting to nearly everything that is said or done as if it is a personal attack on you.”

So, someone passes you in the hall at work and says: “Hello,” and you think: “I wonder what he MEANT by that!”

We can also become defensive with our clients, especially if they ARE attacking us or criticizing our products, or they’re thinking of bolting toward our competitors.

The same negative feelings crop up when we believe that they’ve already stopped doing business with us for good.

This isn’t a helpful concern to have if you’ve decided to contact your inactive accounts by phone. If you’re defensive, you’re likely to blurt out something like: “Why aren’t we doing business, anymore?”

This, of course, would put them on the spot, creating a defensive cycle, and they’d be inclined to attack back.

There is a better way to not only find out WHETHER they left, but also to being them back into the fold.

Start your conversation with the Thank-You Approach:

“Hello, Bill, this is Gary Goodman with Customersatisfcation.com and I’m just calling to say hi and to thank you for all of the business we’ve done together.”

Then be silent!

If they feel positively about you they’ll say they were thinking of you, or your name came up in conversation, or even that they have a new order for you.

If they’re reticent, you can explicitly ask them how they’ve been and how they’ve been taking care of their need for widgets, lately.

What’s the difference between selling to the US Government and selling to the Commercial market?

It’s like night and day.

Sales and Marketing to the government is truly the flip side of commercial activities. You really can’t believe how different these markets are--until you’ve actually come from one side--and tried to go over to the other. I emphasize, tried, because it usually doesn’t work out very well!

First of all, in the Government world, the term "marketing" is a standard term. But its meaning in the government world is very different from its definition in the commercial world. When you hear someone talk about “Marketing” to the government—they really mean SELLING. That’s in large part because those businesses that deal primarily, or exclusively, with the government really don’t do much in the way of marketing in the commercial sense.

Everything's Different

In a traditional government contractor, there is usually no one with a sales title. There are often a couple of people with grand titles like “Vice President of Marketing” or “Vice President of Business Development”. These people have very little in the way of real marketing responsibilities--they are the chief sales people of the company. They are usually former government employees, and in the case of a military contractor, often an ex-general or ex-colonel. Key to their hiring was that they are very well connected in the government or service branch that the company is targeting. Included in their charter are some “light” Marcom activities--putting together data sheets, and coordinating a few targeted trade shows. In addition to the dedicated “Marketing People”, much of the technical selling of individual deals is done at the project manager level.

Of course, it’s not just the sales & marketing functions that are so different in the government world vs. commercial. Almost everything is! The typical government contracting business model more closely resembles a grocery store, than it does a typical high tech company. Margins are very thin, but profit is pretty much guaranteed once you’ve secured a contract. Up front R&D (“IR&D” in government terminology) is generally discouraged, as it’s a great way to lose money. IR&D can also be funded by the government; that is utilized heavily, but it has limitations. Spending an amount(without government funding) that would be modest in the commercial world on up front R&D can easily wipe out the thin margins that the government contracting business yields. The government contracting model works like this: Hire an ex-employee from the agency that you are targeting your “marketing” at. Leverage that relationship to secure the contract, with a minimum of up front product development expenses. Then hire the people to staff the project, and of course do a good job executing the project. Add new “marketer” from another agency and repeat.

So for those purely commercial readers out there, this must sound pretty different than what you’re used to. That’s only because it is! There is no Product Marketing/Product Management function in a true government contractor. In the government world your “market” is one customer, or a small number of customers, who are basically specifying the product for you. There are a few sales people, but as I mentioned earlier, they’re called marketing people. The actual marketing tasks are few and far between—collateral creation, trade shows, a party here or there.

Difficult to make the Jump

As you imagine from the discussion above, it’s difficult to move between the two worlds. That’s the reason that nearly EVERY government contractor that has tried to enter commercial markets in any major way has failed abysmally. Government-oriented companies typically don’t have the entrepreneurial cultures found in commercial high tech companies. They lack fundamental Market Evaluation and Product Planning skills required for success in the commercial world—because it’s not required in their core market.

Senior managers at Government contractors are often profoundly aware of all of this. They may intellectually understand that they need to do things differently for their companies to make the jump to the commercial side. But especially if they have been very successful in the government business, a difficulty emerges that won’t be obvious on the surface. And this is the worst of all: Successful senior managers tend to fall back on their what I like to call their “Common Business Sense”, when they encounter new or stressful situations. Often they don’t even realize that they are doing it. Unfortunately, when an executive with a government contractor utilizes their “common business sense” to make a decision involving a commercial business, the results can be disastrous. The “right way” of doing things in the two businesses are so fundamentally different that it would work out better if they took the OPPOSITE path from what their instincts told them. Not an easy way to do business.

Commercial to Government

So what’s a C-level manager in a commercial company, which would like to secure some government orders, to do? Given the different business cultures of the two markets, it seems pretty daunting. Those poor government guys who have tried to go commercial have had their hats handed to them—does the same fate await me?

Fortunately, it doesn’t necessarily need to be so bad. If you are selling services, or highly customized products, you may need to closely replicate the government-contracting model, if you are going to be successful. If you are selling fairly standard products, however, it may be possible to gain significant government business leveraging your normal commercial marketing efforts.

A few years back, I was running a startup commercial software product group within a company that was otherwise a pure government contractor. It was a diversification effort for the company. Our sister groups within the company were all very successful, and extremely well connected within government contracting and procurement circles. I expected, and was promised, a lot of help in placing our products in large quantities within various government agencies and military branches. For a lot of different reasons, that help never materialized. But a funny thing happened—this startup software product group ended up with 40% of its revenue from US and foreign governments. This was without a government-specific product, no real marketing advantage provided by our well-connected parent, and no special government emphasis in our sales and marketing programs. Contrary to popular belief, if you have a great commercial standard product that has use within the government, the agencies and branches will find a way to purchase it. Our product was aimed at Network Administrators, and their needs were similar to their commercial counterparts. The government market is huge, and we did well in the government sector. With a few modest investments, however, we could have done even better. So what steps should a commercial company do to maximize its penetration in the government marketplace?

The most crucial factor for the success of a company’s direct mail campaign is the quality of its business-to-business mailing (B2B) lists. Targeted direct marketing fetches the best responses. Targets for B2B lists are constantly in a flux, however, with businesses constantly opening, closing, and relocating. Inaccurate lists or lists that contain dated information lead to missed targets, which brings the response rate down.

A trusted way to boost response rates further is by ensuring that the B2B mailing lists contain data on the companies that will most relate to the advertised product or service. For example, garment manufacturers will have little or no interest in the latest gaming software launched by Microsoft. All it takes is a little planning and research into the target market for a healthy response rate.

Mailing list brokers like AllMedia Inc (allmediainc.com) and The List Company (tclists.com) not only provide accurate and updated B2B mailing lists, but also help choose the list that will work best for a marketer’s campaign. These brokers also review the success rate of the lists in past campaigns, and determine the optimum list for a client’s requirements.

Trade associations are a great source of mailing lists, as they contain details of the major industry players. For local business players, associations like the Chamber of Commerce are best. Lists can be selected by business size, number of employees or SIC code, among other selection parameters. Dependable sources for lists at the library are the SRDS Direct Marketing List Source™ and the Oxbridge Communications National Directory of Mailing Lists.

The two main concerns facing the business mail industry are inaccurate lists leading to inefficient marketing campaigns and excess promotional material depleting the environment. The EcoLogical Mail Coalition was founded in 2003 to reduce the cost and minimize the environmental impact of inefficient direct marketing mail practices. The coalition members send information on outdated business contacts to the ‘Red Flag Database’, the B2B marketing industry’s only national, cooperative database, which enables marketers to eliminate these outdated contacts from their business mail lists. The database contains obsolete contact information from more than 6,000 businesses throughout the United States, including more than 200 of the Fortune 1000. Marketers pay a fee for each match against the coalition’s database.

Telemarketing sales lists play a vital role in making a business successful and profitable. But the lists must consist of handy leads. You have to make sure that the telemarketing sales lists are updated regularly. In needed, you will have to do away with your existing telemarketing company to opt for another one. Business houses require telemarketing sales lists to kick off any direct mail campaign. Companies undertake such campaigns to develop their business. So, the information mentioned in the telemarketing sales leads have to be up to date.

You can’t afford take chances with telemarketing sales lists. The lists should include all the verified names and addresses. The authenticity of the lists will have a significant bearing on your business prospect. The content in the telemarketing sales list must be relevant to your business. If you find it’s too difficult for you to maintain an up to date telemarketing sales lists, you can hire any telemarketing database administrator to do the job for you. However before appointing any telemarketing company, you have to ensure that it has got the experience and expertise to take care of your needs and requirements. The telemarketing companies usually offer reliable and affordable sales lists phenomenal in making all the difference in your business. If you opt for a proficient telemarketing company, you will definitely get some great sales leads. The business thrives on the quality of the sales leads it can generate.

That’s why telemarketing sales lists assume greater significance among the business entrepreneurs. If you want to give your business a favorable climate to prosper, there is no option left but to go for a great telemarketing sales lists. The telemarketing sales lists basically contain contacts of various prospective clients who may subscribe to your products or services. Maintaining such a list is vital to every business houses.

The first few minutes of an incoming telephone call are critical if you want to turn an inquiry about your company's products or services into a long term customer relationship. Research shows that you only have about seven seconds in which to take charge of the call and capture the prospective customer or client's attention. If you don’t gain immediate control of the conversation you could lose the chance of developing business for your company. The following examples show you how key phrases can turn a common, every day price inquiry into a selling situation, that in turn produces a new customer for your company or firm.

The Introduction

Typical opening: Good morning, ABC Company.

The caller will now ask a question and basically take control of the transaction. It's best to answer the call with a question.

An effective approach: Good morning (smile, it can be heard in your voice). Thank you for calling ABC Company. This is Mary Stevens, how may I help you?

By thanking your prospect you build rapport and make her feel good that she called your company. By identifying yourself, prospects are no longer dealing with an institution, they are now working with a “real person.” Then, by asking a question you are taking control of the conversation. In a transaction of any kind, the person that asks the questions is in control of the process.

The Inquiry:

Customer: What is your price on one grundle of your 301 Widgets in black,?

Typical response: I’ll have to look that up. Just one moment please. . . The price is $ _______ for a minimum order of one grundle.

A better approach: I’d be glad to give you the pricing on Widgets, but may I first ask, are you looking for an overnight delivery on the entire qrundle or are you planning to receive them in incremental shipments?

First you make a statement to transition into other questions.

Customer: Well, I’m looking to get the best price I can find.

Typical response: Well, our prices are competitive. A grundle in black costs $ ______ if shipped as a whole.

A more effective approach: Where are you purchasing your Widgets at this time?

Now use additional questions like this one to find out more about the customer and her specific needs. Here are a few samples to review:

• Does your present supplier offer a price break on your shipping approach?

• How do you use this style of widget in your production?

• If you felt you could get a competitive price on a grundle of black widgets andpossibly

lower your shipping costs, would you consider purchasing our 301s?

• Tell me about your specific Widget storage situation at your production facility?

Take some time after finishing this learning guide to write down some questions that you might ask about your products or services. Keep this list of questions where you can use them during future price inquiries. Refer to your list often until the questions are firmly set in your mind and are used on a regular basis.

The Close

Typical close: Well our prices are competitive and we’d love to do business with you. Best approach: We have several approaches to help you get the best pricing and delivery on Widgets, but I need to take 15, no more than 20 minutes to discuss them with you. Would it be possible for you to come into our plant or we could have a representative meet you at your office so that we could discuss these options further?

Realistically, many of your callers will decline your offer of assistance. Most prospects will just push you for your prices and then hang up. However, from time to time, this approach will strike a chord with a prospect. This caller will sense that you really care about his needs and will be willing to let you set an appointment.

Even though this approach may only attract a few new customers or clients out of the hundreds of people who call for information, over a period of several months, these few will begin to add up to a significant number. And remember, these are customers and accounts that may never have been attracted to your company if you had just given the caller your prices.

By putting a time frame of 15 no more than 20 minutes on your meeting with the prospect, your offer of help will appeal to more of these callers. People are concerned about time, so by setting a time frame for them, you help to reduce their concerns.

Nowadays, it is getting more difficult to land a good job — one that pays well and will allow you to bring home a reasonable amount even after tax deductions. This is one of the main reasons why people would rather put up their own business rather than have to go to work for a company.

There are several businesses one could venture into that do not require much capital and investment. These small businesses include setting up a repair shop for cars or appliances, a franchise for burger stands, a day care center, tutorial center, a computer shop, pet grooming salon and a retail store. The list goes on.

When choosing a business to start, one must choose the type of business that you have a working knowledge about. It is important to know the business you are venturing into. If possible, research and ask people who have their own businesses for tips on how they started. It would be easier, for example, if a technician would put up his own repair shop or for a food lover to start his own restaurant.

Of course, before you can begin, you must take care of all the important details. You must first obtain a business permit. You need to know what equipments you are going to need in order to operate. You have to pick the best location for your business. You have to know what it takes to maintain a business like yours.

In every business venture, however small it may be, you should always consider the risk of bankruptcy. This is the primary reason why starting a business must be properly thought out. The possibility for losses is imminent especially when you don’t know anything about the business. It is important to always consult with other people and weigh the advantages and disadvantages before making any decisions. You should also be prepared for losses on the first months of operation. The business may not be profitable in the beginning. The trick is to employ marketing strategies, like advertisements and promotions, for your business to be noticed and to attract customers.

Does your company rely on controlling temperature to maintain its stock? Of course, most businesses are affected by the performance of heating, ventilation or air conditioning (HVAC) systems – one just has to think about working in a hot office during the summer weeks, and the effects on staff production. But, when stock is directly affected by temperature, such systems take on a wholly different importance.

Monitoring becomes paramount; it can also be a mandatory requirement when it comes to handling chilled, frozen or hot foods. But, when there are a great number of different systems on the market (ranging from basic handheld models to complex set-ups), and there are monitoring services too, how do you choose a management package that fits your needs?

Here are a few things you could be thinking about.

Simple-to-use interfaces :
Technology has come far enough for monitoring systems to be user-friendly. There’s no excuse for over-complex interfaces, and so what you buy should be accessible with just a small amount of training. This means more people can run the system, and it means you’re not reliant on contractors. Try to use a company that can provide training – and training on a wide range of different equipment brands.

Maintenance package :
It’s better not to wait for failures to happen before you act – always think prevention rather than cure. Signing up to a good maintenance service will always be worthwhile. By keeping an eye on your systems, you can pick up on potential problems without them getting out of hand.

Performance reports :
Your system should be able to provide easy-to-follow performance reports. These can help you find out where operations can be improved, and you might make impressive savings on energy bills amongst other things.

Remote sensing :
GPRS technology allows you to monitor your equipment via the Internet. This means you don’t have to be on-site to follow performance – extremely useful if you really depend on minimising equipment failures, or indeed you have a multi-site operation. Technology improvements have made this service more affordable too. In some cases, there is no capital outlay on equipment and you just pay a daily rate.

Off-site management :
One step on from remote sensing is off-site management. This usually means a team will be available for round-the-clock maintenance advice, and that your systems are monitored for both performance and potential problems. In cases where alarm systems are triggered on equipment, these can be responded to as soon as they happen, so possible product loss is minimised.

One of the biggest challenges for business owners in the USA and in Canada is finding and securing the right type of financing for their businesses. Traditionally, business owners flock to banks when they needed business financing. However, the majority fail to get the business loan because they did not meet the bank’s tough lending standards.

As a rule, banks require that you have an extensive and solid business plan and countless financial projections. And if you are already in business, the bank will need three years of profitable operations before they’ll consider lending you the money.

But don’t be discouraged. If you own a business that is in operation you may have another option. This option is called invoice factoring.

But invoice factoring is not for everyone. It can only be used by businesses that are already in operation and sell to commercial or government customers. However, if you qualify, invoice factoring can be a lifesaver.

If you are like most business owners, waiting 45 to 60 days to get paid by your clients can be pretty hard. Especially because you still have to pay rent, suppliers and salaries while you wait to get paid. Factoring can eliminate the wait and get you paid in little as 2 days. This gives you the necessary liquidity to pay suppliers, rent and salaries. More importantly, it gives you the liquidity to grow your business.

How does it work? Simple. The factoring company buys your invoices and pays you cash for them. They wait to get paid by your customer while you get paid up front. As opposed to business loans, invoice factoring is easy to obtain. The biggest requirement is that you do business with reputable clients.

Factoring works well with software companies, manufacturers, distributors, staffing agencies, trucking companies and many other businesses. If your business needs financing, and you work with reliable clients, be sure to consider invoice factoring as your financial solution.

You can either engineer your business by design or let it evolve by default. While the choice is clearly up to you I would strongly suggest the former over the latter. Creating a formulaic approach to business is not only logical, but it is without question the best practices approach.

Some would argue that business is very fluid and that too much structure stifles creativity and entrepreneurialism. While the previous theory makes a good sound-bite, it has been my experience that those executives who use it as their mantra don’t foster creativity, they create chaos and disruption. It is never a question of whether structure and process work, but a question of whether it was designed, implemented and managed properly. Moreover a well engineered formulaic approach to business does not exclude creativity, it stresses innovation as a key component.

A structure built with sound underlying business logic not only enhances creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit, it accelerates it. I have always subscribed to creating a formulaic approach to business. I developed the following formula for corporate success almost 20 years ago and whenever I have been able to apply it good things have happened:

Vision (Integrity + Quality + Innovation + Focus)
Great Talent (Process + Accountability)

If you attempt to solve the aforementioned equation you will find that the answer equals sustainable, profitable growth. You will also note that the variables contained in the equation strongly mirror the topics that I most frequently write about. This is no coincidence, but rather a strong indication of how important I believe these key success metrics to be. Success doesn’t just happen by osmosis and it doesn’t just happen because you work hard. Rather success is created through a combination of planned, purpose driven, consistent and intelligent efforts.

The formula referenced above will allow you to create brand equity, recruit and retain talented employees, create a positive and productive corporate culture, maintain a competitive edge, increase customer lifecycle value and generate sustainable revenue and margin growth. Don’t sacrifice what could be by settling for a haphazard approach to business…Engineer your business process through best practices design.

Reward Power refers to the ability to deliver rewards or benefits to influence others. These can be financial, material, or psychological rewards. Reward Power is the fastest way to persuade.

This power is the opposite of Coercive Power. With Coercive Power you punish, and with Reward power you offer incentives. Reward Power is based on utility, which is an understanding that in every transaction there is a potential for exchange. Basically, utility power recognizes that there is always something I want and something you want. We can meet each other's needs by swapping what we have for what the other wants. Prizes are a form of utility power. They are a way to reward people for doing what you want them to do. The reward becomes the incentive for compliant action. Examples of utilities include sales bonuses, paychecks, incentive clauses on contracts, bonus miles on airlines, and bonus points on credit cards.

It is important to understand some incentives will work well with one person, but not with another. To some people, money is the reward. Still to others, recognition is the reward. As a persuader, you need to find the motivating force or reward for each person you work with - you must understand the desires of the person or group. Reward Power is extremely effective in changing human behavior and in increasing your ability to persuade. You get what you want with minimal effort. Let's face it - everyone has their price.

There are several inefficiencies to note, however, when using rewards. First of all, the law of diminishing returns quickly takes over when you employ this type of power. Diminishing return means the more you use the reward, the less powerful it becomes. When people become accustomed to an incentive, they can become bored with it and either expect more or drop performance standards if the incentive is removed. One example is the common practice of offering children rewards for reading in elementary school. They win pizza or other prizes after they have read a certain number of books. These incentives often backfire because many of the children think they need a reward to read. Reward Power ultimately leads to the desired outcome, but the incentive generally has to be repeated each time to get that desired outcome. The reward is only effective as long as the person doesn't see a "better deal." Your incentive will always be compared to the next person's offer. Rewards reinforce behavior, so as long as you are employing them, expect your prospects to keep demanding them.

Reinforcement Theory has a lot to do with Reward Power and Coercive Power. Basically, if a person knows a positive consequence will follow a certain action, then they will perform that action. Consequences influence behavior. The type of consequence involved influences what actions people will take and what actions they will avoid. There are three main rules of consequence. They are:
(1) Consequences giving rewards increase behavior.

(2) Consequences giving punishments decrease behavior.

(3) Consequences giving neither rewards nor punishments extinguish behavior.

Remembering these basic rules can be an excellent guide for deciding what to do in certain situations, depending on the desired outcome. Just be sure you take into account some of the Reinforcement Theory's limitations. Some examples of such limitations are listed below.

Limitations of Reinforcement Theory

1. What is considered reward or punishment will vary according to who you're working with and what the exact circumstances are.

2. As mentioned earlier, rewards can lose value over time. Instead of feeling rewarded, the person will feel like you owe her something.

3. Other sources of reward or punishment may interfere. For example, an employee may value the reward of esteem and friendship from other less productive employees more than what you have to offer.

4. If a person is just responding to a reward, then there has not really been an internal change. They will revert back to their old behavior if the reward doesn't remain part of the new routine.

5. Punishment is difficult to deliver well. It is a powerful tool, but it must be executed appropriately. Punishment must have the following elements to be effective: a) immediate, b) strong or firm, c) unavoidable, and d) consistent.

6. Punishment can breed anger, fear, and hopelessness. These negative emotions will be associated with the person inflicting the punishment.

The challenge you face when using rewards is the decrease in internal motivation. Once you condition them to expect something for their compliance, your prospects will always seek external rewards for their behavior. This causes them to do it only for the reward and not for any other reason. We have found that even if the person was willing to exhibit the desired behavior without the reward, once the reward was given the subject would not perform the desired behavior without the reward. An experiment proved this concept. Subjects, sitting together at a table, worked on a puzzle for a half an hour.

After the half hour was up, the experimenter told the subjects the solving session was over and they had to leave the room. The experimenters then began to monitor the behavior of the subjects when they went into the waiting room. What would they do during their free time? Would they play with the puzzles? Would they choose other activities? They study found that those subjects that were paid for doing the puzzles were far less likely to play with them for fun during their free time in the waiting room. And those who did not receive an external reward for their efforts were far more likely to play with the puzzles during their free time in the waiting room. Persuaders know that a behavior chosen out of free will last longer than a behavior rewarded by an external reward.

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Beware of the common mistakes presenters and persuaders commit that cause them to lose the deal. Get your free report 10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands and explode your income today.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! His message and program has helped thousands and will help you achieve unprecedented success in both your business and personal life.

It is impossible to motivate anyone but yourself. All a sales manager can do to motivate those members of the sales team, is to set a climate where staff members motivate themselves. However, some managers sincerely believe that formal goal setting sets a climate for self motivation. And, because managers believe that goal setting motivates, a variety of programs that use goal-setting strategies, like Management by Objectives (MBO), have been widely employed in businesses and professional organizations across the United States and Canada. But, longer term studies of these methods suggest that the success of these programs is minimal at best--because as some observers have found, while on the surface goal setting looks fairly easy. The truth is, that effective goal setting is a difficult skill to master.

Many sales professionals, through a lack of experience at setting appropriate sales objectives, set unrealistic goals, which in turn assures their failure long before they even start to execute their plans for achieving them. When they find they are not able to meet the objectives they’ve set, they not only experience the frustration inherent in failing, but many of them also receive criticism and in some cases, punishment from management. This failure, discourages future goal setting and if given the choice, a sales professional will not likely choose to use the goal setting strategies ever again to achieve success. Even when goal setting is used successfully, it is obvious that it is not the goal setting that is the motivator.

It’s the attainment of goal that motivates your sales staff to improved performance. For a comprehensive discussion on goal setting and how to establish appropriate sales objectives, check out the Coaching & Team Development and Getting An Edge self-directed learning manuals

Sales lead management is a business activity that tends to be cast aside when the going gets good. When the current revenue stream is flowing great, sales lead management is the farthest thing from people's mind. Unfortunately, when marketing activities are put on hold the likelihood that they need to be used increases.

One of the most dangerous things that happens to professional service businesses when they start generating lots of revenue, is that sales lead management suffers. Typically what happens is the owner starts to work more and more hours. This results in lots of billable hours. But, an increase in billable hours often comes with a decrease in marketing hours.

Poor Sales Lead Management Is Poor Business Practice

Sales lead management is neglected when there is less time available. Attending networking events and doing follow-ups and sales calls almost disappear. Phone calls from leads remain unreturned for days, even weeks at a time. Slowly, concern for the business diminishes and is replaced with concern about writing invoices.

This lack of sales lead management is a sure sign of future death. You need to be constantly adding new opportunities to your funnel. Going to more networking events, getting new people in your database, and getting more proposals out there.

Not all sales lead management activities, though, need to be this time intensive. Direct mail is an excellent sales lead management technique that can run on autopilot. It is also financially affordable.

Regardless of what type of sales lead management you use, you need to be spending much of your time on getting people into your funnel. Qualifying leads as prospects. Getting the prospects and getting them signed up for work. You never know when you will need to turn those leads into paying customers. It is much easier to do so when they are already part of your marketing efforts.

The Bottom Line on Sales Lead Management

The type of sales lead management technique you use is not the most important issue. The important factor is that you use sales lead management consistently, regardless of where your business is at in terms of sales and revenue volume. When you have hardly any customers, to when you have more customers than you think you can handle, your sales lead management will make a difference in your long term success.

Why do we generally only send a thank you note after we have received a present after a party or wedding? Naturally we should, after all it’s good manners, and that’s how we’ve been raised. But why don’t the majority of people do it in business? We receive a present worth $100 – we send a card. We receive a client contract worth $1,000 – yet we generally don’t put pen to paper and say thank you – we’re too busy, and more often than not, think “an email will do”.

Seriously, when was the last time you received a card from a business associate? It may have been so long ago you can’t remember. If you have received one, chances are you remember exactly who it was from, when and why you received it. It may even be still sitting on your desk, proudly on display.

In the high tech world of email, the art of sending a handwritten card in business has almost been lost. Yet it is one of the most powerful ways of making an emotional connection with your customer to build lasting relationships.

Here are 10 useful tips on how and why sending handwritten cards in your business will build better relationships with your clients:

1/ When we’re busy, and we all are - it’s easy to send a generic typed note on company letterhead or an email that has been pre-drafted. But how effective is it really? Millions of this type of communication is going around the world daily, achieving little in the way of impact. When you send a handwritten greeting card, you will be remembered especially if you do it in a way that shows you really care.

2/ It’s important in business to stand out, make an impact and create an experience with each and every customer. Just think, when a client or prospect looks at their mail, the first thing they will do is sort between bills, letters, and junk mail. If they receive a brightly coloured envelope that has been hand written from YOU, it will either be opened first in excitement and anticipation or last, to be savoured, and enjoyed. You will be remembered.

3/ When dealing with clients it is important that you make each individual contact feel that they are the most important person to you. Even though most clients understand that you have other clients, they want to feel like they are the most important.

4/ Even if you don't win that contract or get the business you hoped for, send a thank you card anyway. Maybe the successful provider will fail to deliver. Your potential client will no doubt remember your thoughtfulness.

5/ Carry blank greeting cards and stamps in your diary or briefcase. After leaving a client’s office, take a moment to write a short “thank you for your time” card and drop it in the mail on the way back to your office.

6/ Business is often done with people who take the time to acknowledge them. When you read the newspaper, or articles in email newsletters, send a card to congratulate people on their successes, whether you know them or not.

7/ Develop the habit of allocating a set time each week (or every day) to write your cards. These would include following up from networking functions attended, birthday cards, thank you cards etc. Ask any person who is number 1 in their profession, and they will tell you how important it is to create this habit.

8/ When writing cards, make them personal, it’s the little things that count. Include reference to a planned holiday, or something you discussed. And don’t worry about your hand writing, people will appreciate the effort you have gone to.

9/ “Thank you” are two very powerful words that are always appreciated. Remember the people within your network who have given you information, advice, assistance or some precious time. Sending them a card to say thank you, will certainly put a smile on their face and feel appreciated.

10/ Keep in touch with all your clients and prospects, even if they don’t need you right now. Make sure they remember you! You never know when they will need you, who they know and when they will recommend you.

When talking about business sales leads, it is important to understand the buyer, and to create a customer through this understanding. Buyer behavior studies can play a pivotal part in this regard. A lot of time and effort have been spent on this relatively new discipline. And every buyer-study has unfolded some new dimension of this discipline. The subject has been approached and analyzed from different angles and under different premises. Different inferences have been formulated. But the subject, too complex to beat, still remains a theorem without a proof.

What motivates the buyer? What induces him to buy? Why does he buy a specific brand from a particular shop? Why does he shift his preferences from one shop to another or from one brand to another? How does he react to a new product introduced to the market, or a piece of information addressed to him? What are the stages he travels through before he makes the decision to buy?

These are some of the questions that are of perennial interest to business firms regarding the sale of their products. It is around these questions that the product and promotion strategies of the business firm ultimately revolve. In all of their strategies and plans, firms make assumptions as to how the buyers would behave and respond to marketing programs. Knowledge of the buyer and his buying motives and habits is thus a fundamental necessity for getting business sales leads.

It needs to be emphasized at the very outset that there is no unified, well-defined, tested and universally established theory of buyer behavior. What we have, today, are certain ideas on buyer behavior. Some of these ideas have taken their cue from economics, others from psychology and yet others have drawn cues from several of the social sciences simultaneously.