Let us assume that your business has fallen off or stood still in the last few months – after many years of continuous growth. If you are asked the reasons for this slump, do not immediately reply “It is the fault of the recession”. This is the common response from many delegates attending sales training courses.

Without doubt, the stormy situation in the general economy has a considerable effect on your business. Explanations such as “reluctance to buy”, “solvency difficulties” or “political uncertainty” are mostly only half the truth. If your business is regressing it may also be due to your sales force, to methods of acquisition, to the way they work.

Do your salespeople treat regular customers too routinely or too casually, because they think that their business is safe? Do they tell customers that they are happy with the business they have received so far, instead of working to extend it? Examine business from the most important customers over recent years. Where is there less business? Where is the business standing still? Analyse negative developments carefully. Consider the skills of your sales people, when was the last time they received sales training? (more…)

Have you ever experimented with various articles trying to find the perfect mesh to make a ton of money? Well, if your trials never quite lived up to your expectations the Secret Elite Article Marketing Tool might be your next best bet. Dylan Loh explains right in the headline how he was tinkering with something on a Sunday night and ended up making a lot of money in the process.

The Quick Rundown

When you start reading over Dylan’s sales page you’ll notice how he talks about the basics of using articles. Using the right keywords, submitting to directories and repeating, as well as ranking high in the search engines by doing this properly. This is the quick way of explaining what you do, and he gives you the tools to make it happen. However, you’ll also find various other techniques as well.

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The 9-5 work structures is not efficient, resulting in an inadequate economy and transitioning is now reoccurring, as with the Industrial revolution, the automation era, and presently the information era just to name a few. Now approaching at mock speed. The final frontier “micro business era”.

New Applications allowing individual to actually have a direct input on the economy. Imagine people individually creating phenomenal careers in the micro businesses era. We always relied on the power brokers, the 5% percent to govern the economy. But the complexity is a little different now, to survive in this new economy us as individuals will direct the economy as mini power brokers, governing our micro enterprises. Economically as a whole we will be a major force in the economy, creative intelligent are a must to be competitive for career creation.

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Ezine article writing is a proven method of generating traffic to your site. No hype here, it works, and it works well. After reading your interesting article, the reader clicks on your link in the last paragraph to learn more. Every article I have read about Ezine article writing has been quite honest in stating that Ezine is a proven traffic generator, but that it requires work. That is does. It you are a newbie, this article has information that will get you off to the right start. If you are an experienced article writer, let us review the steps to see why the process requires so much work, and what we can do to lessen the time required.

The first step is to write an interesting article on a particular subject. The article should be over 500 words, as that is a requirement of most submittal sites. Be sure to read the Submittal Guidelines of each site before submitting your article.

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Everyday, I get asked questions by business owners across this nation about their customers – e.g. who they are, how to get more of them or even how to get them to buy.

These questions are hard for me to answer as I am not a customer of all these companies and these questions usually relate directly to the company’s products or service or directly to its market or industry. But, while I cannot usually answer these questions with specific guidance, there is a very simple and common method in increasing your customer base and ultimately your business profits and that is to know your customers.

If you know your customer these questions would already be answered. Therefore, get to know your customers. If you are afraid to ask your current customers or potential customers questions regarding your business – then, how do you expect to sell to them – to let them know about your business and how your offerings can improve their lives? This is one of the simplest but hardest concepts that business owners face – talking to and getting information from their customers.

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Although Twitter continues to gain acceptance in the business community as a business communication and marketing tool, I’m still amazed at the number of small businesses that don’t see the value of using this micro-blogging service as a marketing tool for business.

Just in case you need a refresher, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a unique micro-blogging tool that lets users communicate with their “followers” in quick text messages of 140 characters or less called “tweets.”

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What is Viral Marketing?

“Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence.” [Dr. Ralph F. Wilson]

How can this be done? How can some small business create a domino effect where people are talking about them?

There is a well known computer store in Jerusalem where I have not seen them run any marketing campaign. It’s hard to find and when you get there you think you arrived at the wrong place.

What keeps them in business?

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it seems that a lot of big companies today (with big marketing budgets) have managed to jump right into social marketing and successfully use sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in their everyday marketing activities. However, it also seems that small businesses are lagging behind the social marketing trend, even though it is a very low cost marketing channel that almost any small business can afford (the sites are free to use; all it typically costs is time!).

So why are so many small businesses hesitant about social marketing, or seemingly scared of using social networking sites as part of their regular marketing activities?

It could be as simple as not having the time to take on a new marketing activity, or maybe a lack of familiarity with sites like Facebook and Twitter makes them seem hard to use. It’s also possible they’re concerned about negative comments showing up on social media web sites, or worried about employees using these tools appropriately for business. Whatever the reasons, social media marketing is here to stay, and small businesses are going to have to face their fears if they hope to leverage its value as a marketing tool and stay relevant with their customers today.

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Those of us who regularly shop on line are familiar with the array of free gifts, free bonuses and just plain freebies that are offered to a visitor to a website to encourage them to buy. How could you collect, select and offer free gifts, which will be valued as much as the original merchandise that is being purchased, put these gifts together and add them to your E-book? There are just three steps to do that very thing. They are:

1. Identify your key words in each chapter of your E-book. Now, type those words into your favorite search engine. You are looking for free E-books on the same subject in more depth, by a greater expert than you are, or by someone who gives a new and fresh angle to the topic. Add a link to the free E-book in each chapter of your E-book.

2. Research the Internet for related free gifts. Now you are looking for things that you could give as free gifts in your E-book that will make it more appealing and give it more pass-along appeal to your readers. For example: If you are selling gardening supplies, find a planting guide on the web that can be downloaded and include that as a gift in your E-book.

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Do these potholes ruin the smooth ride to your marketing success? Some of these potholes can get huge. Big enough to stop your business in its tracks sink the vehicle of your success and break the axle of your goals.

1. Ineffective spending of marketing dollars

A large majority of businesses spend their marketing dollars on things such as yellow pages ads, newspaper ads, radio spots, or other mass media methods. This is the most common as well as the most costly mistake made by most businesses.

The problem with this method is that the cost per lead is high because they use a ‘blanket’ approach in trying to reach your potential customers. The number of people they reach is high but the majority are not qualified nor interested in what you have to offer.

A better use of your marketing dollar would be to create a targeted campaign that you’re certain will reach prospects that are both interested and qualified.

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