Teaching Sells Telewebcast Tonite !
There’s a telewebcast tonite at 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST for those of you who haven’t signed up yet for Teaching Sells. There’s a banner in the right hand sidebar if you need to access the free report.
According to Brian Clark, there’s only 34 spots left before they reach their limit and raise the price, so you need to go now and sign up before the increase.
If you wait for tonite’s telewebcast, you may be too late.
Click thru and Discover Why Teaching Sells !
The Top 100 Business Blogs
I just noticed, via Drew’s Marketing Minute, that Simplenomics.com is sitting at #37, as I write this, on the list of The Top 100 Business Blogs.
To be on that list, compiled by John Crickett, is an honor for me.
Now, how can you make that list work for you ?
How about reading those blogs for 2-3 weeks and seeing how many are still keeping your interest after that time ?
How about asking them to guest post for you and you for them ?
Expand your reach, expand your knowledge and expand you networking possibilities.
Thanks John, I appreciate your efforts.
Determination Keeps You Moving Til The Victory Comes
The next submission in The Simplenomics of Sales People is without a doubt, one of the biggest single most important traits for all successful people, especially those in the sales arena.
Determination
Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round - remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped. ~ James Corbett
Being an old boxer, like there’s any other kind, I’m always looking for quotes by the old-time boxing champions. They seem to be a lot more intellectual, a lot more balanced and a lot more interesting than today’s versions.
James Corbett summed it up pretty well, in the quote above, but I will add that the resolve to do right supplies the fuel needed for determination to take root and fire up my git-r-done muscles.
I get some sales purely thru the “will to win“. A “do or die” attitude keeps you pointing down the highway towards your next stop, even when you’d rather stop and play golf, stop and look at the sights, stop and shop or just stop.
My company expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
My family expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
My conscience expects me to keep moving and selling, so I do.
Knowing that the next call might bring a big victory keeps me moving.
Knowing that it’s the right thing to do keeps me calling when the victory doesn’t come.
Wanna Hear About My $253 Cup Of Coffee?
It’s rare for me to share any off-topic, personal life here on this blog, but I know you’ll want to read this, if only to make you happy that it wasn’t you it happened to.
Most of you know I’m a road warrior type of sales consultant. Most days see me tick off 250-350 miles a day in my ‘07 Camry.
Today I had to drive to Murray, Kentucky to meet with one prospect about his need for the products I represent.
It’s 145 miles each way. Luckily, my iPod was fully loaded with sales and marketing .mp3’s. When those run out, I’ve got Sirius Satellite Radio to fill in the time between making and taking phone calls.
After an hour or so of spittin’ and grinnin’, the prospect and I shook hands on his agreement to help line my pockets with cash and I said thanks and left. Typical day.
But, since it was almost 4 PM and it was 145 miles home, I thought I’d stop at a coffee shop I saw on the way to his office.
The traffic was so bad, I had to park on the north side of 5 lanes and hustle my 6′2″ 250 lb. frame across to the south side of the street just to get to the Murray location of Fidalgo Bay Coffee.
I ordered a White Chocolate Mocha, medium size and a sour cream scone. They quickly and cheerfully completed my order and I hustled across those 5 lanes again and started my jaunt back to the place I love, to see those who love me.
The first traffic light was half a block up and as soon as I came to a complete stop, I reached down and grabbed my heavenly little beverage and then all hell broke loose !
The rather flimsy cup, with the even flimsier lid that popped like a pre-pubescent teen’s first pimple filled my Camry’s console with several inches of steamin’ hot White Chocolate Mocha !
Even worse, that happens to be where I keep my iPod, my flash drive and my Jawbone Bluetooth earpiece !
That $3 White Chocolate Mocha had just turned into a $253 drink from Hades !
Wanna know what’s even worse ? After I used up every, single napkin in my glove compartment cleaning up the milky, brown drink of destruction, I tried the sour cream scone and it was not very good, to put it mildly.
Lesson learned. Never stop at a coffee shop that uses cheap lids that don’t have a distinctive snap when you place them on their less than stellar, somewhat flimsier cups.
The only consolation to this fiasco was when I got home and my wife told me that she had gone to a McDonald’s in our hometown this morning and the young lady who was handing her drink out the drive-thru window looked back at just the wrong time and spilled an entire Diet Dr. Pepper on her at around 8 AM. Nice way to start your day, huh ?
Good thang it wasn’t coffee 
PS - I went to that other coffee place and bought a cup of tea to compare the lids and cups and the one from that other coffee place takes more effort to remove and has a more distictive snap, making me think that it would be better and have less of a chance at having this happen.
Of course, that’s a very unscientific study, but it’s my blog, so I’m right 
What Business Person Would You Like To Have Lunch With ?
I just read part of the news article about some guy shelling out over $600K to eat lunch with Warren Buffet. Proceeds went to charity.
That made me think, which is sometimes hard to do, as I’m usually behind where I want to be, by about 8-16 hours.
Some people are serial entrepreneurs, I’m a serial idea guy.
I have 1-200 good ones every day and don’t have a big enough staff to put them all in motion.
If I ever figure out how to sell all the ones I can’t use, I’ll be retired, seeing a scene like this every day.
But for now, all I can think is about that lunch. Who would I pay an enormous sum like that to eat lunch with and what 10 questions would I ask them ?
How about you ?
Who would be the one business person you’d want to pay to eat lunch with and what would you ask ?
I Am A Tea Snob
Okay, fine. I admit it.
I like hot tea. No honey, no cream. No sugar.
Just a really flavorful cup of hot tea, as I slowly get away from SO MUCH coffee.
I’m not giving it up, just cutting back.
My local Starbuck’s has allowed me to try several, several tea’s of late.
BTW - My company made the integrally colored concrete blocks for this store and supplied the rest of the masonry materials.
My favorite so far is one from Tazo - Wild Sweet Orange.
It’s really intense and extremely flavorful. Multiply that by 3 or 4 and you may be close to the experience you’ll get from it.
Here’s what the Starbuck’s website says about it:
” Wild Sweet Orange: A full-flavored, juicy infusion of lemongrass, citrus herbs, licorice root and orange essences. Ingredients: Lemongrass, blackberry leaves, citric acid, rose hips, spearmint leaves, natural flavors, orange peel, safflower, hibiscus flowers, rose petals, natural orange essence, ginger root and licorice root. (Caffeine free). (Available only in filterbags). “
Run down and try a cup and let me know what you think.
What’s this have to do with sales, you ask ?
While I was there, the manager told me he could hardly keep it in stock.
I recommended he order more that he’d been ordering.
There. That’s a great sales tip for him.
5 Down, 2495 More To Go
Okay, so I’m a little behind a curve … or two. I just noticed over at Technorati that 5 people, 5 really fine, outstanding, super-kind, very smart, forward thinking superstars, have made Simplenomics one of their favorite blogs.
Last time I checked, there were like 2500 of you per day that dropped by, so the fact that only 5 of you really like me enough to make me a favorite means I’m not doing enough for you, not the obverse.
So today, I’m gonna make a special deal of dropping some link leak on the 5 special people who made my day.
If you happen to mark this blog as one of your faves after today, I’ll be doing the same for you and hopefully sending some of those 2500 your way.
The fact that these 5 people are really good bloggers makes my job an easy one.
Jeff Jenkins hasn’t added any posts in over 130 days and his blog seems to be down. Anybody know what happened to Jeff ?
Brandon Hull gives us a quick, down and dirty, yet actionable post about telephone etiquette. Kinda simple, which I like. But you knew that already.
Thanks to these 5 fine friends of Simplenomics. Please join them in making Simplenomics one of your favorite blogs over at Technorati.
Why should you ? Well, as Al Purnell would say, ” ‘Cause it’s goooood ! “
Good Guy Style Marketing Still Lives
I’ve been reading a fairly new blog for a while now and I’ve just got to link to it and the guy who writes it.
Terry Dean was around when I first started to get into Internet Marketing.
He’s a small town Indiana boy, much like I’m a small town Kentucky boy.
We actually don’t live that far apart even now.
He’s probably a little bit better spoken than I am. We do, however, share a love for Hawaiian shirts !
I’ve been watching him and his blog carefully after a period of marketing hiatus for him and I’m ready to proclaim him null and void of hypey, gimmickey, crappy marketing.
Terry’s just a good man, there’s no other way to put it.
Feel free to click thru to some of his posts that I spread a little link leak on and subscribe to his RSS feed. he won’t disappoint you and he won’t be going bad later. Count on it.
Here’s a little bait to get you to cruise over to his blog:
Marketing Is NOT a Dirty Word.
Copywriting…The Vital Business Skill.
How To Get A Copywriting Education For Under $100.
Customer Service or Customer Annoyance ?
Surely one of those will get you to click thru and read some good, clean marketing information.
Nick Faldo’s Life Lesson As Good As His Golf Lessons
In honor of my 44th birthday today, I’m going to share a life lesson that I wish I had learned in kinder garden, instead of later in life.
It works for salespeople, teachers, doctors, lawyers, Indian Chiefs, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.
On page 72, February 2007 edition of Golf Magazine, during an interview conducted by Connell Barret, this great piece of advice sneaks out of the mouth of the oft-married, never at a loss for words Englishman:
CB: Now that you’re almost 50, what do you wish you knew at 25?
NF: I’ve learned that it’s not the first impression you make - it’s the last one. Whether it’s the checkout girl or the president, you have to ask how you want people to remember you when you walk away. Well, I want to leave them with a smile so they say, ” I don’t know who he was, but he smiled and asked me how I’m doing.” I wasn’t good at that before, but I’ve learned how to be more communicative - to show more empathy towards people. The other thing I’ve learned is simple: Find at least one thing to enjoy every day. It’s not always easy. Sometimes you sit on a plane and it’s delayed, and you say, ” How the hell do you find something to enjoy here? ” And suddenly you see the sunrise from 35,000 feet and you go, ” Okay. That’s it. That was fantastic. “
As this hits the web or your RSS feed reader of choice, I’m driving from 5:30 AM CST to about 5:00 PM EST to Greensboro, NC for a 3-day brick industry forum. I have to be there by 6 PM EST for a dinner, after a 10 hour drive, which includes a stop in Gatlinburg, TN to pick up a co-worker.
Long drive, long day, long dinner, away from my family, yada yada, blah, blah. Oh yeah, it’s also my birthday, which I’ve spent on the road 10 of the last 12 years. Where’s the one thing I’m gonna find to enjoy ? I don’t know, but I’ll let you know when I get back.
4 days away from my peeps, blogging, NewsGator and email may do me in. I’ve loaded up all my blogs beforehand and my laptop won’t be here for 2-3 more weeks, so if I don’t get your comment approved or if I don’t answer an email before next weekend, forgive me.
I’ve got a great book for those long hotel nights - 3 Nights In August, by Buzz Bissinger. I’ve been waiting a long time for a chance to read it … uninterrupted.
As I try to enjoy my birthday, in spite of the circumstances, you try to find a way to incorporate this new lesson into your repertoire.
The impression you leave your customers, your family, your friends, your coworkers with, will be the most important thing you do today.
And look for something to enjoy and then share it with us … one of us may really need it … badly.
The Birth Of A Better Salesletter
It’s time to try and simplify a very complicated subject. Just today, I read a 50+ page PDF ( manifesto ?) from copywriter Michel Fortin.
In it, Michel goes on at length about why long-copy salesletters are less efffective than they used to be. The funny thing here is that he took 50+ pages to say it.
If people aren’t going to read long-copy, why would he take 50+ pages to tell us ?
Because he knows the truth is that people will read 10,000 pages of content that interests them. Salesletter, novel, magazine article … whatever.
Are online salesletters changing ? Yes.
Is long-copy dead ? No.
Direct-mail copywriters will be using long-copy for a long, long time.
Online, the salesletter format is changing, but the length is not. The amount of copy needed to convey a point, to change a mind or to sell a product is as long as it has to be. No less will do. No more is necessary.
The real point here, and Michel makes it around page 25 of his manifesto, is this : Long-copy salesletters are here to stay, long-scrolling salesletters aren’t as effective online as they were 5 years ago.
Why ? Because of stupid people who used them poorly. They knew nothing about sales, persuasion or marketing, but they thought they could get wealthy by using screamin’ headlines, lots of bullet points and 10 colors per page.
Why ? Because of technology. The advent of AJAX, Flash and other means of making the content more interactive.
Why ? Because of evolution. Simple.
Long-copy is still going to be used, it’s just going to be in the form of audio and video. In fact, because it’s audio with or without video, there may be even more copy (text) used.
The amount of text will be the same - as much as is needed to make it work. It’ll just be in the delivered in a form that won’t require you to do all the work yourself. Reading is hard work for humans. That’s why a majority of them don’t do any of it after they leave high school.
Educating and entertaining your prospect, making him/her aware of their problem and presenting a solution will always work, because human nature will never change. It hasn’t since the dawn of time and won’t between now and the end of time.
If that sounds like what a salesman does face-to-face, you’re right. Want to have a more effective website, learn to sell.
If that sounds like what a white paper does, you’re right. If you think that they’ll be growing in popularity in 2007, you’re right.
The online salesletter writer, in the future, will need to simply know more about the sales process, be more credible and experienced in the field he’s writing about, will need to be a more effective speaker ( or user of audio ) and will need to be a better story teller.
Quite frankly, I’m glad.
And I prefer to think of it as the birth of a better sales letter.
Want to learn more about human nature ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.
Want to learn how to sell ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.
Want to learn to be a better story teller ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.
Want to …. whatever, just subscribe to my RSS feed. Simple.
