Archive for November 22, 2011

Small Business – The Selling Secret Every Small Business Owner Should Know

If you sell millions of dollars a year in products and services from a platform each year like I do, then you know that small business owners could stand to learn a few of the secrets that mark master sellers.

Small business owners have a million headaches to juggle: taxes, regulations, arcane business laws, long term payday loans problems, employee benefits, employee conflicts…the list goes on and on.

So you can almost forgive small business owners for overlooking one of the most important ingredients to their success-selling.

But there’s no getting around the fact that thriving businesses sell and sell often and well. As Zig Ziglar likes to say, “You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have.”
That’s why small business owners must understand and apply one killer selling secret that I and my fellow seven-figure salespersons use to close sales and show customers why the services and products we have to offer them are smart investments.

So what is the killer selling secret that can move minds and ignite action?

I’ll tell you.

It’s learning to “Pay For The Product Upfront.”

Let me explain.

Every sales pitch you ever devise should immediately reveal to the prospect why their investment in your product or service is, in effect, cost neutral. For example, let’s say you sell a product that costs $2,000. Before you ask for the order you must first show the customer how the product will save or, better still, make them at least that much money-guaranteed.

For example, my coaching clients understand that their five-figure investment will boomerang back into their pockets within the first year of their time with me. Why? Because I educate them on the return on investment (ROI) BEFORE I even think about asking for the sale. If more small business owners monetized the value of their service or products in detail (as in down to the penny) before they made their pitch, they would see a dramatic and near instantaneous increase in their business.

So why don’t more small business people do this? Why don’t more people apply the secret selling weapon? After all, most entrepreneurs are smart and driven. They cover all the details except the strategies and tactics of power selling. Why?

Well, I think it’s because they are burdened with the million other things that compete for their attention. And from experience, I also know that many have never been mentored or coached in the art of sales, persuasion, or the power of personal influence. Does that make them bad people? Of course not. Does that make them less success in their entrepreneurial endeavors? You bet.

That needs to change, and it needs to change now.

Be great!

Effective Business Card Designs For Travel Agents



The business card is, perhaps, the least expensive and easily used advertising device available in the world of commerce. Many people do not give the time and proper consideration to the design of this very cost effective tool. It is very possible that your business card is going to create the important first impression of you and your service. Since business cards are often kept and even slid into wallets for later use that first impression might end up being a second or third impression as well.

Therefore it makes sense to put that little bit of extra effort into the design of yours. Custom business cards should contain as many as eleven different and important elements. Several of these elements are for proper identification of your business. These include the business name and the company logo. If you are an independent agent, you can focus your efforts on the remaining elements which will allow you the chance to utilize more graphics.

Regardless of what type of business you are engaged in, contact information is the basis of the business card. Contact information includes your name, phone number, address, email, and even the url of your website. A business card that lacks this information is going to be very ineffective. It is one of the great dangers of business card design. Make sure your graphics do not replace the basic content information. This is especially true of color business cards where the danger is that contact information is not easily read against the colored background.

A travel agent’s card should create the image of travel. This could be done with graphics of airplanes or boats. It could also be accomplished with graphics showing highly recognizable landmarks. Folding business cards are very effective for travel agents. The cards open to reveal a much larger inner area where bulleted lists of services can be listed. The idea of the design is to induce the customer to save the card, and easily recognize it when he is in need of travel agent services. Another value to a smartly designed color business card is that they can be left on bulletin boards and other public places. This is when the carefully selected and travel related graphics will come in handy and make your card jump out at the customer. Do not treat the design of your business card as an unimportant part of your advertising planning. It is very likely to become one of your most important tools.