How do you respond when someone doesn’t want to pay your price? Your reaction depends on three things: your motivation, your ego and your brand.

1. Reacting to Their Reaction

The sales conversation is going well – you want to work with this prospect and they are excited about you too. Then comes the “money question”: They ask how much and you tell them. And they go into shock. (more…)

Think about the words “old” and “experienced”. They have similar meanings. However if you advertised that you are the most “experienced” business as opposed to the “oldest” you’d probably receive a better response.

Let’s look at the definitions. (more…)

Emergencies such as earthquakes, fire, and flood are interruptions we can accept. We may even weave the unexpected experience into our future work. Telephone calls, visitors and unnecessary questions are interruptions that may make a writer a bit snippy. This is perfectly normal. If people do not want to hear you yell at them, they should leave you alone.

Novelist Judith Krantz places this sign on her door:

DO NOT COME IN. DO NOT KNOCK. DO NOT SAY HELLO. DO NOT SAY “I’M LEAVING.” DO NOT SAY ANYTHING UNLESS THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE.

Explain to your housemates: “I love you but I am working now. Working requires concentration and one brief interruption can cause me to lose a train of thought and lose an hour or more of time. Your brief greeting or question could cause me to lose a precious thought that will affect our income.” Set boundaries and unplug the telephone. (more…)

Throughout my career in the marketing, advertising, customer service and social service arenas, one thing sticks out foremost in my mind: the lack of advertising and marketing planning for businesses and non- profits alike.

I cannot count the times that I have seen intelligent and passionate people start a business or get behind a cause with the misconception that “if I build it, they will come.” People tend to be so enthusiastic about a product or service, they put a business plan in place without developing the strategic marketing and advertising component. (more…)

Curiosity. In this crowded marketplace, it’s not enough to be different. You have to stir the pot, sound the alarm, and drive home the belief that “without me, you will miss out.” The more curiosity you create, the more compelling you are to media, the marketplace and yes, potential clients. Below are three ways to present what you know and create the curiosity that makes people act. (more…)

My colleague and dear friend, Erin Blaskie, is hosting the first annual Summer Speaker Series featuring an amazing line-up of speakers including James Roche, Christina Merkley, Alexis Neely, Allana Pratt, Lou Bortone, Viki Viertel, Lynn Scheurell, Kathie Thomas, Debbie LaChusa, Wendy Weiss, Terri Z, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen and so, so, so many more.

Here’s the deal… She’s featuring TWO speakers PER DAY for the entire month of August (not including weekends because really, who likes working weekends?)

The best part is that this amazing series of speakers is priced VERY affordably. It’s going to be one of the hottest events of the summer and you’ve got an invitation from me!

Simply click through this link and register today. You won’t be disappointed and I’ll be there to speak as well!

You can purchase a seat in one track, two tracks or get audio downloads included too (along with your live seat) so what are you waiting for! I’ve heard there is a cap of 200 people due to the bridge line and with the speakers involved, that won’t last long!

Visit the Summer Speaker Series and register now… ‘see’ you on the calls!

Sheri McConnell

Technorati Tags: Erin Blaskie, Summer Speaker Series, BSETC, Business Services ETC, James Roche, Christina Merkley, Alexis Neely, Allana Pratt, Lou Bortone, Viki Viertel, Lynn Scheurell, Kathie Thomas, Debbie LaChusa, Wendy Weiss, Terri Z, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen, Sheri McConnell

As an exercise, write down the three types of people most likely to visit your site. Include their age, gender, occupation, and anything else you can think of relating to their needs, desires, likes, dislikes and so forth. For example, suppose you own a dental clinic. Maybe you offer relaxing music and specialize in trying to make the dental experience less traumatic for those who hate the dreaded drill. Visualize your best customer and then write the text as if you were talking to him in person. (more…)

Does any of this strike a familiar chord? For most of us we have all been there, you know where we dialogue; we hope for this, and hope for that, and there isn’t much more effort than that put towards it.

It ends up being just a form of verbal wishing. It’s common, and it is counterproductive! I tell all of my clients who come to me with the exact same dialogue coming out of their mouths. That’s where I am blunt as a spoon, and I tell them frankly, “hope is NOT a strategy”! But I would love to share with you what is! (more…)

I think it typically applies to humans but in this case, I’m going to talk about Spam Filters. I know that there are a lot of annoying people out there who create questionable emails and somehow blast it out to the universe expecting someone to go, “Oh, hey I’ve always wanted to buy vitamins from an unknown resource, I think I’ll click through.” Or worse yet, “I’ve always wanted to enlarge my XYZ [you get the picture], maybe I should get this.”

Who the heck purchases that stuff anyway? I don’t know. But thank goodness our server companies have spent countless hours and millions of dollars trying to prevent that gross stuff from arriving in our inboxes. (more…)

So, to spice things up a bit, I’m going to share some of what I feel are the very best ‘frontier’ tools out there right now (frontier as in alternative/cutting edge … or bleeding edge according to some folks). Tools that can be used to kick off your New Year’s with a bang ,or better yet, used consistently throughout the year for steady and accelerating results. (more…)