June 8th, 2008
Every business owner should have a picture of his or her ideal customer. When I picture my ideal customer, I see a business owner struggling to find time for all that needs to be done, someone passionate about what they do, someone striving to find answers to make their business run better. By picturing this person in my mind, I am able to develop products and services that I know will benefit that customer. But what happens when a not-so-ideal customer enters the mix?
Recently, I moved from a suburban location to a very woodsy location. One of my first orders of business was to set up my bird feeders. In my mind, I saw my ideal customers as cheerful, little songbirds. I also knew that I would get my share of chipmunks, squirrels, and field mice. I knew the products I was providing (sunflower seeds and suet) would satisfy all those customers.
And then, along came the bear.
And with the bear, came trouble. Feeders emptied, poles knocked askew, and a suet feeder missing in action.
Now, I have nothing against bears on a personal level. They’re really delightful creatures. They are also, however, dangerous and can cause a great deal of property damage. In short, the bear is NOT my ideal customer.
So, what do you do when you attract a customer who is too much trouble, too much work, and costs you far too much time and expense? For the health of your business and for your own sanity, you need to discourage those customers from using your services or buying your products.
That’s a tough thing for most business owners to do. Especially when money is tight and you feel like you have to accept every sale. But the cost of trying to satisfy a customer who isn’t the right fit will, in the long and short run, do more harm than good.
Suppose I decided to take on my bear as a customer. I would spend so much time, money and energy trying to feed my bear that my other customersthe ones I wanted to attract in the first placewould get no product or service. The bear would take up all of my resources and cause much damage along the way. He would become that exhausting, irritating, no fun to work with customer that we all end up with at one point or another.
Bears are easy customers to discourage. The birdfeeders come inside in the evening now, removing the primary attraction. If he still comes sniffing around, we’ll progress to loud noises and other tactics that bears find obnoxious.
So, if you have a customer, like my bear, who is taking up all your resources without contributing to the success of your business, find ways to discourage him. Raise your prices, refer him to a competitor, or set clearer boundaries on your time. Doing so will allow you to take care of the customers who are the best fit for your business.
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April 26th, 2008
Something about the video guy set off my internal alarm.
I got the feeling he wasn’t quite on the up and up; you couldn’t count on him to do his job well.
Still, his is one of the few outfits that can transfer video from a European to an American format, and I wanted this tape I own to work on my playback machines.
He called, said it was ready, and I paid and left with it.
The next day I returned with the DVD he had burned because it didn’t work right in my machines. He blamed them for being too old, and the obvious implication was, tough for you, buddy!
“Buy a new VCR!” he chided.
I said, more or less, if you thought there was any chance what you were going to make wouldn’t work on my machine, you should have warned me in advance. Then, I could have made an informed choice, weighing the risks and rewards. In light of the fact you didn’t, you should either refund my money or take another shot at making a video that will work.
Again, he stonewalled.
Finally, I’d had enough.
“Look, you’re straining my patience,” and with those words I reached into my wallet and plunked onto the counter a card.”
“I’m a lawyer, and we can do this the easy way or the hard way. If you like we can take it to Small Claims Court, and the judge will tell you just what I told you, but you’ll miss a half or full day of work.”
Within a minute, we settled the matter, amicably.
There is an implied warranty of fitness and use that comes along with most products. The law provides this; you won’t get it on a printed document that comes with the product.
Call it a guarantee, provided by law. The video guy, by placing into commerce the DVD’s he makes is saying, implicitly, they’ll work for their intended purpose, and they’ll work on your machine.
And they must, or you can rescind your contract; i.e. return an item when you first learn about the defect, and demand a refund.
There are some exceptions such as products that are sold on an “as-is” basis, where you are notified, in advance, that the sale is final.
Don’t be suckered into thinking you’re out of luck just because some blowhard says so.
His intimidation can’t stand up to the law!
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.
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April 11th, 2008
I haven’t sold items online but I have joined auctions. There are so many good finds on auction sites. And the reasons are the cost of items and goods we could find online. Most of the items that are valuable are gadgets and their parts. Second would be clothes, cosmetics and stuff.
From a buyer’s point of view, the things that I check first is the quality of the items sold. Second, the price. Third, feedbacks on the seller and lastly, mode of payment. And as a buyer, I should also understand the terms before I agree and buy goods.
To be successful at selling on auction sites, one has to know the rules and build good reputation just like what we do at other businesses online. So online sellers has to stick to their rules and to the auction site rules, too. We have to take note of that like placing our items in the right categories and posting them with specific descriptions with photos. This is one way to do it right.
Like what most entrepreneurs and business owners do, sellers give special treatment to clients and customers. So it’s good to be accommodating and answer their questions or inquiries as much as possible. If any circumstances man happen, it’s good to inform for them and not to lose their trust. Also, making online shopping convenient for buyers is one thing they are up to. It’s better to have a number of options for payments. For me, it’s good to encourage feedback, too.
They say, ‘timing is everything’. It applies to selling online, too. Good listing time for auctions is one of the ways to do it. Of course, pricing, too. There are so many tips I have read on being successful selling stuff online. It’s good to research and try suggestions which could be effective for you, too.
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April 9th, 2008
Copyright 2006 Jim Edwards
One of the most frequent questions I get goes something like
this:
“I don’t have a lot of money. How can I start an online business
or expose my existing online business to the world without
spending a fortune to do it?”
Basically, people want to know how they can exploit the power of
the Internet to grow their businesses with the least amount of
time, energy, effort and money.
My answer: Ride the coattails of the huge websites who’ve done
all the trailblazing you’ll ever need to kick-start your online
business.
According to Alexa.com, the following websites rank among the
Top 10 sites on the Internet out of the billions and billions of
websites available today.
As I list them, pay attention to how they can help any
“bootstrapping” business, no matter what size.
1. Yahoo.com - This perennial search giant not only helps you
research online, but can help get traffic to your site. Most
notably their advertising subsidiary, Overture.com, can attract
visitors to your site starting as low as a dime per click.
2. MSN.com - Microsoft’s portal site can lead you to free email
accounts (Hotmail.com) and free instant messaging
(Messenger.MSN.com) to make online communication free and easy.
3. Google.com - Currently the Web’s most popular search engine
and all-around media powerhouse, Google can help you, among
other things, buy clicks starting at about a dime
(AdWords.Google.com) and expose your full-length, full- motion
videos to the world free of charge (Video.Google.com).
4. eBay.com - The Web’s #1 online auction site, eBay.com gets
millions of visitors daily, all of whom want to spend money on
something. You can spend less than a dollar to put up some used,
damaged, or older merchandise from your business to gain
exposure to new customers and create a new revenue stream.
5. Passport.net - Passport.net is related to MSN.com and should
get grouped with #2.
6. Amazon.com - The Web’s largest bookseller is also one of the
largest online retailers of consumer goods. You can grow your
business by targeting Amazon’s millions of visitors with your
own books, CDs, DVDs and more for surprisingly little cost.
Also, the Amazon Marketplace makes it easy for you to sell new
and used merchandise directly through Amazon.
7. MySpace.com - Allows you to create a website that’s part
blog, part chat room and part networking space. MySpace.com
provides a fast way to post and share information with
associates online.
8. Microsoft.com - Besides providing the vast majority of PC
operating systems in the world, Microsoft.com also boasts one of
the largest available clipart and photo collections on the Web.
You can quickly find and use these professional images in Web
sites, brochures and more.
9. Google.co.uk - The popularity of Google’s United Kingdom site
demonstrates that if you sell anything online, figure out a way
to sell it to people in England too! You can automatically
advertise on this site through Google’s AdWords program (see #3).
10. AOL.com - America Online’s portal site enables you to get an
email box with 2 GB of storage along with their classic AIM (AOL
Instant Messenger) to facilitate all your online communications.
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April 4th, 2008
Planning to sell a group of Resell Rights products? Well, I do have some success tips to share with you!
[1] Ensure that the products are of the same theme.
For example, if you are targeting the writers market, then the Resell Rights products you acquire must be writing-related to form the group of products. The more focused your package is on your target market and the bigger your target market, the higher chances of success you will sell your package.
[2] Sell a group of products at one affordable price.
The reason I said “affordable” and not “cheap” is because you want to convince your prospects of the value they are getting from purchasing your package and the same time, make a reasonable amount of money on your part.
[3] Write your own persuasive sales letter.
Most Resell Rights product authors allow you to freely use and edit their principal sales letter. Therefore you can create your own sales letter that pitches the benefits of each product to your prospect simply by copying and pasting the benefits pitched by the principal sales letter for each product.
Also, you must convince that your prospect will be getting a whole lot more for only one price, and that it would have cost them even more if they acquire the Resell Rights products individually.
Copyright (c) Edmund Loh
Edmund Loh cuts through all the hype like knife through butter and delivers to you strictly the facts on how you can profit from Resell Rights in just 3 simple, profound steps. Get a copy of his report at http://www.ebizmodelsyoucancopy.com/resellrights For more Reseller’s tips and strategies, check out The Resell Rights blog at http://theresellrightsblog.blogspot.com/
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