Another productive day – I anticipate stuff will slow down as I get through all my little to do lists

First off the business cards arrived from Printwell today – nice quick service – at first I thought it was bit pricey but in real terms the speed of delivery outweighed the extra money – I got 1000 piggy cards printed both sides delivered to the door in 3 days for around £52. so each card costs 5.2p – So not a big deal when you consider that NOT having cards can cost you business. I always have doubts about folks who turn up at meetings without cards – rightly or wrongly I just feel that they’re playing at it for some reason!

Just before the cards came I did a Distributor presentation with a trusted business friend – Gary and I go back a long way, so I felt comfortable pracising my pitch on him – he asked a lot of tricky questions too [awkward sod!] But that’s helped me to focus on objection handling!

Well despite my ineptitud, the company  profile and product range must have worked, somehow? – he’s agreed to take utility services at home and is looking at the Distributor opportunity seriously. I’ll be making a home appointment for early next week to sign him up!

What swung it? I think he was most impressed with the single bill idea – as a family they have always been good at budgeting and straight away he saw the possiblity of another tool to control household finances!

I noticed that when I was chatting with him this was the area he picked up on – so that’s the thing I focussed on. I think the same rule will apply in most situations like this – it will be a question of staying alert, spotting what they are interested in, and talking to that aspect – telling them what they most want  to hear really.

If a prospect seems interested in feature A, why bang on about B and C?

This ploy has worked for me in my IT business – although PC’s and Software can do many things, the prospect only wants to know about the stuff HE wants it to do – so waffling on about other stuff is not needed and may indeed prove to be undesirable as it bores the client, and distracts him from the feature that he sees as most beneficial to his personal situation.

That’s just my take on it; Feel free to disagree!

Rule number one?

Be prepared!

I was glad I read everything in the email that came back  from the event booking system on the extranet – so I turned up with the right kit at the right time, having first completed the online training modules [took a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon].

The session started bang on time, that’s always the sign of a well run job.

Again the thing that most impressed me was the ordinaryness of the people attending, and I say that not in a bad way – I was really encouraged by the down to earth, practical nature of everyone there.

The room was full of normal everyday people from very different backgrounds – a young lady who makes bespoke jewellery, a police officer, a young guy from a call centre, two or three IT folks, a driving instructor, an accountant and around 15 other trades were represented at the session.

Importantly though, despite their many differences  -they did have one thing in common,  they wanted to learn how to make money! And that’s a good thing!

The training was extemely comprehensive, very intensive and positive – so by around 3pm I was flagging a bit!

It’s forty years since I sat in a classroom situation and/or had to focus on anything for more than a five minute stretch!

Coffee, buns and a bit of role play after the first break helped to gee things up, and by the end of the day I felt I had learned a ton of stuff – there’s definitely an air of ‘Information Overload’ towards the end!

Most training of this kind costs someone good money and it’s usually the participants who stump up – This session was free, and you can attend as many times as you like, for free.

Seems to me that this company is as keen on personal development as getting sales and that can only be a good thing.

I’ve already booked to go on the same event again, this time in Hull on August 15th – to meet new people and to refresh the stuff I must have missed last Monday!

Right now though, I need a dark room and a good lie down!

It’s not a very big parcel – But be prepared for what’s inside!

The pack is jam packed with goodies, and of course like anyone faced with a box full of goodies my first instinct was to get ‘em all out!

That was the first mistake!
Remember when you tried to make something or fix something when you were a kid and always had a piece left over?
Well its a bit like that with this starter pack malarkey!

All of that stuff came out of the box ok, but it showed a marked reluctance to go back in!

I quit trying after a couple of days of picking stuff up, reading it, putting it down and losing it – there’s so much different stuff  to read and find out,  it didn’t take long before I had paperwork all over the house!

But today I cracked – I went to Staples and got some stacking paper trays and sorted it out. 3 hours well spent!

Order returns to the home office!

I used stacking paper trays – Another way would  be to get a ring binder and some Expandable Inserts – these would probably do the the same thing and be a bit cheaper too.

Funny thing is, being organised with the physical side of the business seems to help with getting the mind organised too – it has a settling effect.

All this paper based excitement happened after I completed my first Getting Started Training session yesterday – a real eye opener!

Following that I figured that if I was going to do anything at all with this business, I’d better be able to at least find the right paperwork before I stumbled  out of the door!

Email marketing: the features
Our email marketing service contains a full set of features designed to help you manage every aspect of your  email marketing outreach.  Here’s a quick overview of some of these noteworthy features:

There are 3 main sections built into the system Audience, Campaigns and Response

Audience
The audiences feature helps you import, store, manage and grow your permission lists. You’ll be able to:

•    Create unlimited audience groups for organization and targeting
•    Search & segment your  audience based on demographic, response data and more
•    Customize your database using standard fields and wildcards you create from scratch
•    Create personalised signup screens and confirmation emails to help grow your list
•    Import large lists easily and automatically clean them for duplicates and errors
•    Easily move members  and reorganize audience groups as you go
•    Export your audience lists and data at any time

Campaigns
Our campaign features  help you create stylish email campaigns and send them using our sophisticated delivery network. You’ll be able to:

•    Create stylish html campaigns without using html, or upload your own freestyle campaigns
•    Personalise your emails with first names and more
•    Prepare html and text versions, and deliver the right one automatically
•    Rate your campaign for problematic content before you send
•    Include our send-to-afriend feature with every email
•    Control your own ‘from’ names and addresses
•    Let recipients manage their preferences at any time
•    Send your campaigns at any time, or schedule a future delivery

Response
Our response section gives you easy access to your results, in real time. You’ll be able to:

•    See real-time totals for emails received, opened, clicked, forwarded, signed up and more (and details
•    for who did what, and when)
•    View response details for entire campaigns and for individual recipients
•    Have bounces (hard and soft) and opt-out requests handled for you automatically
•    Store your past campaigns and results in your online archive, and easily link to past campaigns from your website
•    Create an instant, side – by- side comparison of multiple campaigns and their results
•    Get assistance on delivery-related matters whenever you need it

More on the way
We add new features (and refine the ones we’ve got) every month. So the above list continues to grow to meet your evolving email marketing needs.

Email marketing: an introduction:
Email has become a critical part of any firm’s communications and marketing plan. It can help retain customers, keep members informed, increase sales, fill seats, raise brand visibility and help you grow your business. Email is faster and more affordable than traditional print mail, and, by some measures, it offers the best return on investment of any marketing medium*.
It’s possible email might even wax your car or take the dog for a walk. It wouldn’t surprise us. But to work, email has to be done well. Content needs to be clear and compelling. Graphics need to be visually appealing. Campaigns need to be personalized and relevant. Delivery needs to be timely and accurate. And results need to be thoroughly tracked and applied to future mailings.

And that’s where we come in: We make it easy for you to …

Manage your audience lists…
You can easily organize your recipients into groups, or use our advanced search-and-segment feature to find (and send to) people based on their interests, their geography, their past response and more. Your customizable signup screens let new people sign up from any spot on your website, and your customizable database lets you collect and store as much information as you like.
Utilize industry best practices…
Whether it’s following the rules of permission marketing, handling opt-out requests quickly, interpreting bounces or making sure you’re sending a well constructed email every time, our service can help make sure you’re on board with the latest industry trends and best practices that will increase your delivery rates and improve your results.
Create and send stylish email campaigns…
Create stylish email campaigns using our intuitive click-and-build screens, or upload your finished html campaigns. Either way, we’ll help you prepare and preview your campaigns, proof them for problematic content, and send quickly and accurately every time. And your past campaigns are stored for easy access and linking later.
Deliver with success every time…
Our world-class delivery network ensures high delivery rates through our personalized sendoff, ISP relationships, and delivery policies that can be fine-tuned down to the individual mailing if necessary. Our engine handles every aspect of delivery for you, and our industry know-how helps ensure the highest delivery rates possible, every time.
Track your results in real time…
You’ll see who opened your campaign, clicked on every link, forwarded your campaign to friends or signed up to get your future emails. You’ll find out who bounced (definitely didn’t get your email) and be able to follow up with them. This is just part of our real-time response tracking that lets you know just about everything that happens to your campaign, as it happens. And because we store your results over time, you’ll be able to learn from past efforts to make your future emails enjoy even greater success.
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*Direct Marketing Association Response Rate Study, October 2003