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• Network With Randall

  

  

  

Working at home and not selling

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she told me she needed to find a job working from home but didn’t want to sell anything. Since I work from home, I was her go-to person and she wanted to know what opportunities are out there that don’t involve any sales.

The only one I could think of was Mystery Shopping. Unless you can get in your car, have a route, and do it 40 hours a week (or more) you’re not going to pay your bills Mystery Shopping - you’re going to spend a lot on gas, and really, if you have to get a sitter for the kids there go the rest of your profits.

So she asked again "But there HAS to be somethign I can do without (insert visible shudder) SELLING something!"

I asked her what she considered selling. When it came down to brass tacks, it seemed the problem was that she didn’t want to tell people that she was doing something and ask them for money. (For those of you that are wondering, I do manage to keep the shocked expression off of my face when people say things like this to me!)

Thinking just my words weren’t going to be enough, I went for an example, "Have you ever gone in for a job interview?" I said…"Of course!" she said. Well guess what…if you’ve been on a job interview you’ve sold something, or not, depending on the outcome.

The blank stare at this point was pretty classic. But then the blank stare changed, and my friend squinted a little while her brain went into overdrive.

This is step one of realizing that life is marketing, and sales is everywhere. It’s a tough perspective to grasp, because so many people are conditioned to "hate" sales and think of negative images associated with sales.

She was still squinting, and looked like she needed just one more nudge. "You’re married, right?" She nodded. From the day you met the man who is now your husband to the actual ceremony…how long was that? "Two years" she said. That’s called a sales cycle. Sometimes it’s shorter, sometimes it’s longer, but for your marriage you went from introducing the product to the potential customer to closing the deal in 2 years.

She countered with, "But he chased ME, I didn’t have to do anything!"
I replied, "Did you put on makeup? Did you wear nice clothes to go out to dinner? Did you laugh at his jokes?"
Yes. Yes she did.

The most important sales cycle is the marriage, because at the moment of the ceremony it exemplifies all that is good and right about sales. Two people just feel they’ve found the person that’s the perfect fit. No one feels they were "sold" on the other, and yet, both were. The preening and nitpicking over what outfit to wear is like making a presentation to a potential business client.

And when a client hires you, or buys your product…if you’re selling and marketing yourself and your product the way you should be….your customer won’t feel like they’ve been sold anything, they’ll just be releived and happy to know they have you.

Black Friday Bash and Special Offer

We had a very powerful offer that we presented today at the Black Friday Bash. What we offered was simple, powerful, and really just pretty darn awesome all around.

Either of the following were offered for $20

1. Group Sales Call
   • Great for product OR service businesses!
   • No more than five participants per call - so everyone has a chance to participate actively.
   • Quick worksheet so you’ll be able to start the call with a plan.
   • Safe non-judgmental environment.
   • At least one real sales strategy you can use by the time you’re off of the call.
2. Keyword Research
   • Five top keywords being searched for in your niche.
   • Five long tail keywords you can be found on page one of Google for.

You can use these keywords in your headline and body of an article if you do any article marketing. You can use them in press releases. You can use them on niche websites or in forum posts. You can even use them in your signature line or comments on other people’s blogs.

All Keyword research is done by our Google AdWords Professional.

The part that makes it a TRUE black friday deal is if you want both of the packages…we’re offering that package for only $30! (at least until Monday…then the deal goes away forever…so sad…)

If your business needs a jumpstart (or just some powerful keywords) this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to get it at a super-low price.

If YOU want to get in on this awesome deal, send an email to jennifer@marketingcurve.com letting me know if you want to schedule a group sales call, keyword research, or both and we’ll take it from there.

Have a great weekend!

Jen
p.s. You can forward this to someone you think needs keyword OR sales help and as long as they send me an email by Monday…they’re in!

Come on baby, Kindle my fire…

Ok, so I keep hearing about Amazon’s amazing new electronic book reader, the Kindle. Today it’s in the New York Times, even.

But what’s a dyed-in-the-wool book lover to do? Sure the white, sleek holder looks like something I could keep in my purse and happily pull out for a quick few page break. But it’s plastic, and I don’t know about you but for me the thought of replacing my paperback with a plasticback is disgraceful.

And, the free wireless broadband access alone makes it nifty for checking web based email and (of course) downloading MORE books. Free wireless broadband. That’s a heck of an offering, even if the price tag of the Kindle is $400, that will pay for itself pretty quickly if you use the Internet.

Every report I’ve heard says almost the same thing about the technology involved for actually reading books:

The screen uses the same astonishing E Ink technology that Sony’s Reader uses. It looks like black ink on light gray paper: no backlight, no glare, no eyestrain — and no need to turn it off, ever….The “ink” is so close to the surface of the screen, it looks like it’s been printed there, so reading is satisfying, immersive and natural. At page turns, only a distracting black-white flash reminds you that you’re not viewing paper anymore. (excerpt from article by David Pogue)

I know, you’re thinking…don’t turn it off?? I thought the same thing, but of course there is a simple answer, it only uses power when you turn a page. Kind of like a human expending energy to turn a page. Interesting and vaguely disturbing.

That’s because E Ink draws power only when you turn a page. At that point, millions of particles are drawn into a pattern of letters (or four-shade gray-scale images) by a brief electronic charge — and there they can stay forever, even if you take the battery out. You don’t turn this thing off; you just set it down, like a book. (excerpt from article by David Pogue)

So free internet forever, books cost half of what hardcovers do, can be downloaded in 60 seconds…and you never have to turn it off.

Books are the one area of my life where I am old fashioned. I like the way books smell, the way they feel, they way they look. The pages of a paperback are a very distinctive color that only looks good for the pages of aforementioned paperback. Anywhere else in nature the color of those pages would be downright ugly, but when you’re reading, that color just reinforces the comforting experience of reading.

Yet, I feel a slight shift in my defiant denial of even entertaining the thought of procuring a Kindle. Now I find myself saying, “No way, but I’d like to see one in person before making a final judgment…” - that first crack in the armor.

That’s what buzz does for a product.

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