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From the Desk of the Editor
Welcome to the 21st century and the first issue of MLM Woman Newsletter for 2000!
If you're like me, you've been contemplating how this new millennium will change your life for the better and are setting some lofty resolutions for the year 2000.
But if you are also like me and have set resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, get out of debt, or get rid of the dreaded clutter in your house, that pesky little voice is probably whispering in your ear right now, "That's what you resolved last year -- what happened? and what makes you think you'll do it this year?"
Well, here's what my answer to that: This year, I'm going to concentrate on becoming the person I need to be to achieve those goals. Instead of going on the latest fad diet or wishing that I was less stressed, I'm going to concentrate on being a healthy person who takes care of herself every day, and being a person who is prepared financially and emotionally to handle the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
The truth is that we are often waiting from someone or something outside of us to change, wishing "If only my boss would give me a raise I could buy a house or if only I had more time I could exercise more or be less stressed etc." and using it as the excuse for why our lives don't change from year to year.
I call this the Have, Do, Be method -- If I had more money, I could do what I need to and pay off my debt, and then I'd be happy. The problem with this method is that you are waiting for something external to happen to you like winning the lottery or getting a surprise inheritance, and letting the course of your life to be set by wishes which may never come true.
Instead I suggest that this year you turn this around and start by making the changes within yourself first or using the Be, Do, Have method. Be the person you want to be and then you'll do what you need to support that belief and you'll have what you want in your life as a consequence. And you don't have to rely on any one changing but yourself.
There are two books that I suggest you pick up to help you on the quest to become who you really want to be and to change the negative thought patterns that keep you from achieving your goals.
The first is The Speed Trap, How to Avoid the Frenzy of the Fast Lane by Joseph Bailey and the second, The Book of Mind Management by Dennis R. Deaton. Both are available from Amazon.com online.
Now, go out there this year and become the person you always thought you could be. You might be surprised about what you can achieve!
Linda Locke, Editor MLM Woman
Note: Did you get your Free copy of my new MLM Digest eBook? If not, it's still available at: http://www.mlmwoman.com/ebook.htm
Making and Breaking Those New Year's Resolutions By Dr. Kevin Polk Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved
Have you set your resolutions for the new year? Going to stop smoking? Going to lose weight? Maybe get in shape? No matter what your resolution is, how you achieve it will depend on how determined you are to reach the goal.
So how determined are you? Well, you are determined enough to make the resolution. At least you know you need to change something. Lots of people don't.
The fact that you set a resolution means that you are at least contemplating reaching a goal. Contemplating is good. You have to do that before you get anything done. Of course just thinking and thinking and thinking does not get much done. You need to go past thinking and into "planning." If you don't chances are you will break your resolution. It will probably slip out of your thoughts completely. At least until next December roles around.
So how does one go about planning to accomplish a resolution? The simplest answer is to think about the first step you will need to take to toward the resolution. If you're going to lose weight, maybe you need to see your doctor. If you are going to write that novel, maybe you need to set aside time to write. You really need to decide what that first step toward your resolution will be. Then plan how you are going to accomplish that first step. You might even be able to plan steps two, three and four.
Come January you will need to transform your plan into action. This can be a lot trickier than you realize because step one in your plan will require that you spend time. Sounds simple. It isn't. You need to face the fact that you made the resolution because you have not had enough motivation to spend time on it so far. That motivation is not going to come out of thin air; it has to come from within you. So what is it about this resolution that is going to motivate you to do it? The bottom line is that it needs to make you feel good. So imagine how good you will feel when you accomplish the resolution. Then take that good feeling and firmly attach it to step one. Don't let that good feeling go. It's the basis of your motivation to accomplish each step to your resolution.
Great! You did all the steps and accomplished your resolution. Have you ever reached a goal and then lost ground? Lots of people do this with losing weight. They just can't seem to keep the weight off. One reason for this is that once you achieve a goal it's easy to lose your motivation. You don't have that goal in front of you anymore. What you need is a maintenance plan. Just like your action plan to get to the goal, you have to stay motivated. So spend some time imagining how good it will feel to maintain your goal. Think of your improved self-esteem. Think of the fact that next December you can say that you kept and maintained your resolution!
As you can see, there can be quite a bit of mental work that goes into keeping a New Year's resolution. A lot less work goes into breaking one. You already knew that. The difference is that now you will know exactly what mental work you are avoiding when you break the resolution.
There is one resolution that millions of people have managed to keep with relatively little effort, however. They have resolved not to make any more New Year's resolutions. That resolution only requires a minimum of contemplating, planning, acting and maintaining. It may be just the resolution you were looking for!
About the Author:
Dr. Polk helps people deal with life. Get his free course in Creative Problem Solving. Sign up at http://timedoctor.com/lifeskills or send any email message to timedoctor@GetResponse.com.
Advice from A-Z
Give An Angry Customer Even More Than They Ask For By Azriela Jaffe, copyright 1999
In late July, my husband, Stephen and I parted with $250.00 of hard-earned cash to get our home air ducts cleaned. Our house was fifteen years old and the heating and ventilating ducts had never been serviced. It had been on the "to-do" list since we purchased the house. When we stumbled across a $50.00 off coupon in Clipper Magazine for a local cleaning service, "Pro Clean Environmental Services," we scheduled the work.
Jeff Lynn, the General manager, was in our home for two hours with all his pipes, hoses and machinery. When he announced that he was done, I wrote him a check for $250.00 and thanked him for his time. Later that evening, my husband, Stephen came storming down the stairs. Stephen is normally a very even-tempered man. One of the few things that really riles him is feeling that he has been ripped off by a service or repair person. Stephen fumed: "What did that guy actually do today?" I replied - "I have no idea. I didn't follow him around the house. He said he cleaned all the ducts."
Well, my detail-oriented and frugal husband had inspected each duct with a flashlight to be sure he was getting good value for his money. Good thing he did! Stephen was furious to discover that the ducts hardly looked any cleaner than before the Pro Clean visit. And, several of the ducts hadn't been touched at all, although we had paid to have all of the ducts in our house cleaned. Since we had paid by check, not credit card, we were vulnerable to being ripped off by an unscrupulous company we knew nothing about.
I called the company the next morning and spoke to Jeff, the man who had done the work. Jeff expressed great surprise and concern, and scheduled a return trip to our home the following day. Jeff could have said, "Too bad. That's the best we can do," since he already had our check. But as we came to learn, Pro Clean knows how to treat a customer.
The afternoon Jeff was scheduled to return to our house, a tractor-trailer overturned, spilling 1000 gallons of liquid asphalt on the highway and grinding traffic to a halt. Jeff called me an hour before he was supposed to arrive at my home to warn me that the accident would slow him down and delay his arrival. He had a reasonable excuse to postpone until the following day, but he didn't suggest changing the schedule.
Two and one half hours later, he finally arrived at our house. He had spent most of that time sitting in stopped traffic. My husband had carefully prepared a list of all of the ducts that were in question, but after glancing at the first one, Jeff replied: "We tried a new way of cleaning ducts at the beginning of this week. Obviously it didn't work. I should have caught that before I left and I didn't. I'm sorry. I will reclean every duct in your house."
He continued: "And to make up for the inconvenience, you can call me every year for the rest of the time you are living in this house. As long as I'm still in business, I'll clean your ducts again for free."
Jeff's offer was generous and more than we would have asked for, or expected. He proceeded to reclean all the ducts in the house. After the job was done, he thanked me for calling him and telling him of the problem.
He then stated: "You are the only customer who called to complain since we started using the new system at the beginning of this week. I'm going to call all of the other customers and alert them to the problem. If they aren't satisfied, I'll go back to their homes and reclean their ducts as well."
Jeff understands how to create a lifetime customer and a book of referrals out of a lost customer. Since ducts are usually cleaned only every two or three years, he could have said to himself: "Why should I go out of my way to make this customer satisfied? They won't be a repeat customer anyway for years, if ever." But Jeff understands the power of both positive, and negative word of mouth. He understands that as a dissatisfied customer, I would have spread the word to my circle of influence to stay far and wide away from his company. I might have even been angry enough to report the incident to the Better Business Bureau.
As a delighted customer, I will likely continue to tell this story about a "duct cleaning business that offered superior customer service." You can't pay for that kind of advertising. The original mistake is largely forgotten and entirely forgiven, replaced by admiration for their approach to remedying the problem.
When you are servicing customers, mistakes will always happen. It's how you respond to them that matters. When treated well, a dissatisfied customer will become your best ambassador.
Azriela Jaffe is a syndicated columnist and author of the New book "Starting from No: Ten Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection and Succeed in Business" and several other self-help books. She welcomes reader response and questions to PO Box 209, Bausman, PA 17504 or az@azriela.com. For free online newsletters for entrepreneurs, visit her Anchored Dreams website at: http://www.isquare.com/crlink.htm
How To Create a High-Impact Sales Letter -- Fast Copyright 2000 By Bob Leduc
A persuasive convincing sales letter is a valuable marketing tool. It's also versatile. I regularly use the same text successfully in all the following formats:
* Printed letter for postal mail * Email message (personal and on an autoresponder) * Posted as a Web page * Printed circular for postal mail
Over the years I developed a model to follow when I need a new sales letter. It consistently produces a profitable letter on the first attempt. This model loosely follows the well-known AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). But I organized the parts of my model letter in a specific sequence proven to work best. You can copy this same model to create your own successful sales letters.
SECTION 1: GET ATTENTION FAST WITH A LIST OF BENEFITS
A sales letter must capture the reader's attention immediately or it won't get read. Most people accomplish this by stating their biggest benefit at the top of their letter. I've found something that works even better. Start your letter with a list of 5 or 6 benefits. Place the biggest benefit first followed by other benefits in declining order of importance. Here's the format I usually follow:
How would you like to...
* Biggest benefit
* 2nd biggest benefit
* 3rd biggest benefit
* and so on . . .
Prospects won't be able to resist reading more when you shower them with all those benefits.
SECTION 2: BUILD INTEREST BY EXPLAINING HOW YOU CAN PROVIDE THE BENEFITS
Here's where you describe the features of your product or service. It's the least important part of your sales letter. Try to limit this section of your letter to only 1 or 2 short paragraphs. It may be important to mention the triple layer of new space age insulation built into your picnic cooler (a feature). But that's not why customers buy it.
They buy it because they want to enjoy ice cold beverages all day long when they're outside on a hot summer day (the benefit).
SECTION 3: DEVELOP A DESIRE TO BUY WITH LOGICAL PERSUASION
Most people buy things on impulse then look for logical reasons to justify their emotional decision. This section of your letter is where you inject 4 powerful tools to convert the reader's emotional interest in your product or service into logical reasons to buy. They are:
1. A compelling reason to buy from you instead of your competition. This is called your "USP" or "Unique Selling Proposition". It's a unique advantage customers get only if they buy from you.
2. Testimonials from satisfied users. (You do have some, don't you?)
3. Your guarantee. A strong guarantee can easily double the number of orders produced by your sales letter.
4. A powerful offer -- the best offer you can afford.
SECTION 4: STIMULATE THE READER TO BUY NOW
I often see sales letters and Web pages end abruptly with a weak statement like, "Order Now", followed by a printed order form or a link to an online shopping cart. You'll get more sales by gently maneuvering your customer toward the ordering process with the following 3 steps.
1. Command your prospect (in a nice way) to order or buy.
For example:
Don't delay. Take advantage of this Special Price Offer. Call NOW to place your order or complete the coupon below and send your order by email, Fax or postal mail TODAY!
2. Explain how to order. This can be part of your command statement like in the example above. Make it easy for customers by providing as many different ways to order as you can (Online, postal mail, FAX, telephone, etc.).
3. Provide an order form but make using it optional. This applies online and offline.
Follow this model when you create your next sales letter. You'll produce a highly effective sales letter -- FAST.
Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information... Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards". Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133
Tell Them Who You Really Are © By Wanda Loskot
There is a lot of talk about building loyalty and trust on the Internet. Various strategies and techniques have been discussed, different strategies orchestrated. Yet, it seems the majority of people miss the main ingredient of this trust-building process: being vulnerable.
The old advice "give before asking" applies here, as well. To earn someone's trust, we need to trust first. Just as people are preconditioned to smile in response to someone else's smile, we are naturally interested in people who display a genuine interest in us, and we find it easier those who trust us first.
A friend of mine will not share a picture of herself with visitors because she feels too unattractive. Another friend doesn't even want to disclose that she *is* a woman because she feels that some people will not take a female-owned business seriously enough. One of my male friends, a Black American, shared with me that he will never show his photo on the web, because he knows that some people will refuse to buy from him only because of the color of his skin.
I even know a business owner who is so concerned about the possibility of being harassed that he doesn't display his name, phone number or address on his website (funny thing is that the first thing you will see when you visit his domain is the annoying java script box asking you for your own name).
I agree that, sadly, some people refuse to do business with a woman only because she is a woman. And there are too many of those who will not buy from a person of color. Some buyers want to deal only with a large company, even if they know that you will solve their problem for less money. No matter how good you are, some people will reject you for a very superficial reason.
That's fine. A blessing in disguise, really. Consider that *they* didn't qualify to do business with you - not vice versa. After all, why would *you* want to do business with someone like that?
The Internet is a huge place, full of wonderful, progressive people with imagination. People who are able to make intelligent and rational decisions based on facts and on their own values.
Look for these kind of contacts on the Internet. Build your website and your Internet presence with them in mind - not with the others. And once they come to you, don't alienate them by hiding your face and by telling them half truths. Trust their intelligence and common sense.
The more truthful you are with your true prospects and customers, the more comfortable, safe, and non-threatening they feel with you. Don't be afraid of being vulnerable. A few people might be turned off by some of your characteristics, some might even try to ridicule you. But those you would really like to do business with in the long run will recognize who you are, will identify with you, and will be inspired to trust you.
Share with visitors who you really are - show them your values, your photograph, even your shortcomings. People will respect you for this more than you might think and they will drawn to you. Ironically, it is one of the major trust building factors.
Wanda Loskot is professional business coach -- sign up for her FREE teleclass "Seven Strategies For Lasting Internet Success" http://InternetSuccessCoach.com Are you tired of prospecting, cold calling, handling objections? Try "Referrals Unlimited" e-mail: newsletter@loska.com
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