I’d like to pick up where I left off yesterday and get a little more specific about staying focused.

We talked about the power of your subconscious mind staying focused on the things you need to do by programming it with a specific objective you’re trying to reach.

Napoleon Hill called it your Major Definite Purpose, in “Think and Grow Rich”.

In the 2nd part of this post, I’d like to share with you what helps me stay even more focused.

There’s Pareto Principle of 80/20, that states that in life we get 80% of the results from 20% of the efforts.  It can be applied in other areas, like 80% of your sales come from 20% of the sales people.  Or 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, and so forth.

As it relates to our topic, I’d like to point out, that we get 80% of productivity from the 20% of the activities that we do.

So to help stay focused on the specific things that you need to do, it’s good to also prioritize your activities.  I make a list of things that need to get done, and then circle the ones that I personally need to do and that are the most important.

In my case, it would be marketing and promotion.  The other things still need to get done, but they’re not as important, and also some could be delegated or outsourced for someone else to do.

It also helps to keep a list of things in front of you.  For example.  If you’re marketing with writing articles online as part of your strategy, then it’s good to keep a list of all these directories on top, in one place, so you don’t have to search for them, as it could get extremely time consuming.  Or if you’re doing social networking, and you have a bunch of sites you need to go to, you can do the same.

Copywriters also keep a swipe file of letters and ads near the top of their pile, so they can refer to it easily.

The point is, that whatever your most important activities are, get a little organized and keep everything in one place.

I know that it may not seem like a big deal, but trust me, it’s a HUGE time saver and it also helps you stay focused on the project you’re doing, instead of focusing your energy on constantly looking for all the things you need.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on what you do to stay focused.

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I’m in the process of getting a new house now, and I was looking for window price online.

I did a Google search, and a bunch of typical sites came up.

But there was one that jumped at me.

Every other one said a bunch of stuff about windows, sizes, etc….  But there was one Google Adwords ad, that simply said – “Looking for New Windows?”

Now is that simple or what.  But guess what, made me click, because it was EXACTLY what I wanted.  I was looking for new windows.

Great ads, they pick up on the conversation the prospect has in their head.  This was the most perfect match to what I was looking for.

Most businesses would say, we have the cheapest, the best windows, we’ve been selling windows since 1955, the largest selection, and on, and on, and on …. Who cares?

Nobody cares about all this stuff.  The only thing a person cares about is what’s in it for him.

So when your prospects are looking for something, what are they looking for, and are you picking up on the conversation they’re having in their head?

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A big mistake most marketers and entrepreneurs make in their advertising is talking too much about the product or service they offer and NOT what it will do for their prospect.

Now I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times if you studied any sales or marketing courses or books, and that is, sell the benefits not features.

BUT that’s not the only thing I’m referring to.

I want you to recall one of the most fundamental rules in selling and marketing, and that is that people buy emotionally and NOT logically.

They make their decisions on emotion, and then justify it with logic.

Ok, so when you sell the benefits you are appealing to their emotions. Doing that you will probably be ahead of 90% of businesses out there.

But in this post I’d like to go a little deeper, and give you an advanced copywriting technique.

Are you ready?

Here it goes, Read the rest of this entry »

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A friend of mine, who is in the printing business, recently put a magnetic sign on the side of his car, “5000 business cards for $119”. When I asked him if he’s getting any calls from that, he said that he’s got several in the 3 days since it’s up. He also had all the salespeople put the signs on the side of their cars.

Now isn’t that a brilliant idea. I’m sure you’ve seen similar signs, but they typically say general things, like “we do printing” or “computer repair” or “plumbing” (I had a post about this one recently.

My friend created a direct response offer. It’s not just “we sell business cards”, it’s very specific, “5000 cards for $119”. Anyone who is in business, or is self-employed and needs business cards from time to time will obviously be interested in that and will respond.

I would, wouldn’t you?

I’ve said that before, that I live, in a supposedly “declining” area of United States. That’s Michigan. According to the news and what people say, this is one of the states that got hit the hardest economically.

Yet for $70, Read the rest of this entry »

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As I’m in the process of buying a new house and having to deal with a whole slew of people, it amazes me how few people actually do what they’re supposed to do.

Today’s post is about excellence.  Whether you’re in selling or marketing or both, you have to deal with people.  Even if you sell through a website it’s people that buy from you, not machines.

I’ve been fortunate to have spent over a decade in personal one on one direct sales, which taught me some very important lessons about this concept of excellence.

If you want to attract more people to do business with you, here’s an idea: Read the rest of this entry »

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On my way home today I saw a plumber’s van, with big bright letters Bill’s Plumbing, and logo with a phone number.  The logo said – “Tonight you can sleep without hearing a drop”  It’s written in big, bright letters.  It’s cute, but you gotta think, does it really get someone to call?

I give credit to anyone that does anything to market their business.  But one big mistake that most businesses make, and when I say most, I mean 99.9999%, is that they come up with either some cute or loud logos that mean absolutely nothing.

Let’s break this down.

The only purpose of any kind Read the rest of this entry »

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Last week Ebay announced something that shocked a lot of people.  They’re discounting the sales of any digital download products.  Now at first that was a shock to most people, and still is.

There are sellers that all they have is digital download items, that means that their business is gone overnight.  I myself, have quiet a few products that are completely digital and are only available by download.

At first, my initial reaction was just like everyone else’s.  I was shocked, disappointed and somewhat upset at the whole situation.

But then I quickly asked myself, what good can come out of this?

And after pondering for sometime here’s what I came up with. Read the rest of this entry »

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In today’s economic climate, in fact in any economic climate, people are very cautious about dealing with strangers. That means no matter how great your product or service is, you have to overcome 3 major hurdles.

1. You have to find the right target market.

2. You have to convince the potential purchaser that your product or service will give them the results that they really want to buy.

3. You have to convince them that you or your company will deliver as you promise. In other words, you have to develop a certain degree of trust with them.

To some extent, you may overcome these hurdles with a money-back guarantee, testimonial, or a free-trial offer. However, you’ll do far, far better if you . . . Read the rest of this entry »

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I’d like to share with you another powerful business attraction concept.

When I first started in the financial services business 13 years ago, being at very young age for that kind of a business, I was happy that anyone would see me.

I wasn’t focusing on trying to get some big accounts. If someone simply opened an account with me, and invested $25 a month, I was excited.

Of course as time went on, I moved on to bigger accounts. But the habit of providing good service regardless whether the person had invested a lot of money or little stayed with me.

Over the years, a lot of the people who originally started with small amounts with me, invested a very significant amounts of money.

As a matter of fact in all of my career, some of the best and biggest customers came from these small initial accounts.

Very recently Read the rest of this entry »

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