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WEALTH
The
Connection Between Stock Prices and the Dollar
It's
not hard to figure out what turns Wall Street on: earnings.
They love to see a company's earnings grow. And if they are
not too spooked by the economic news du jour (see "Word
to the Wise," below), they often reward the company that
announces earnings growth by buying its stock or issuing a recommendation
to buy ... which results in the same thing: The company's stock
price goes up.
The
flip side is that Wall Street also punishes companies whose
earnings falter.
What
you need to know about earnings is very simple: A rising dollar
usually hurts earnings and a falling dollar boosts them.
Last
year, the fall in the dollar added 14.5 percentage points to
the earnings of companies in the S&P 500. This year, the
dollar has rebounded. (Bad news for earnings and for the stock
market.) At the dollar's current level, 2.4 percentage points
would be shaved off a company's earnings. What this means to
you and me is that there are going to be some bargains out there.
Many companies will not meet their earnings expectations this
year - and Wall Street will be knocking down the price of some
perfectly healthy stocks.
-
Andrew Gordon
HEALTH
UK Food Standards Agency Accused of "Stalinist" Practices
You
might recall Message
#1348, where I suggested that the UK's Food
Standards Agency is operating under the influence of food lobbies.
Now it seems I am not the only one who calls into question the
agency's ties to industry.
For
several years, U.S. companies were illegally exporting a particular
strain of genetically modified (GM) corn into Europe. When the
banned corn was discovered by the scientific magazine Nature,
the Food Standards Agency first denied the crop's presence,
then refused to track it down.
After
much stalling on the part of the agency, an environmental group
finally received documents related to this situation through
a Freedom of Information Act request. However, according to
the environmental group, relevant portions of the documents
were blanked out and "heavily censored in a manner that
would have done credit to Stalinist Russia."
(Reference:
Geoffrey
Lean, writing in The Independent)
-
Jon Herring
WISDOM
To
Encourage Learning, Reward Both Success and Failure
Praise
your employees for good work and goals met. But also praise
mistakes that were "smart" tries.
Not always easy to do.
The
trick is to define the limits beforehand. That way, you are
much less likely to face a disappointment you cannot tolerate.
And if and when you do, you will feel as if it's your responsibility
as much as anyone else's. If you feel that way, it will be easy
to say, "Nice try."
So don't give someone more freedom than he can responsibly handle.
If you do and he screws up, whose fault is it? And don't give
unlimited freedom to a beginner. It may seem like a good way
to boost his self-esteem, but you are setting a trap for him
that you will both one day regret.
- Michael Masterson
TODAY'S
ACTION PLAN
Promise
yourself that, starting today, you will praise good outcomes
and good efforts. And that you will criticize only four things:
1. a failure to risk making mistakes
2. a failure to report mistakes
3. a failure to accept responsibility for
mistakes
4. a failure to capitalize on mistakes
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TODAY'S
MESSAGE
The
Untapped Goldmine of Repeat Business
by
Jay Abraham
Most
businesspeople don't work their past customers at all. And those
who do work their past customers produce only a fraction of
the potential they're capable of.
Satisfied
customers like to be, want to be, and are already favorably
predisposed toward working with you or doing business with you.
They are silently begging to be led. By that, I mean they want
to repurchase - they honestly do. But it's up to you to expend
the effort and make the necessary overture to lead the customer
back.
There
are an infinite number of ways this can be accomplished. Just
one example: Offer your customers one-time, preferential pricing
to induce them to do business with you again.
Affinity
is the goal. Look at every customer, including prospects, as
if it is only a matter of time before you have a relationship
in which your focus is to serve, benefit, enhance, and create
value for that person for life.
The
more communication you have with your customers, the more trust
is established. They will consider you to be a friend who cares.
If you analyze the readers of weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly,
semiannual, and annual newsletters, you'll find that the subscribers
to the weeklies read their newsletters much more thoroughly
and are much more closely bonded to them than the subscribers
to the less-frequent publications.
Do you
think you don't have anything to say to your customers? Remember
that you're dealing with people. They are human beings with
hopes, fears, problems, and stress. Can you care about them?
Share ideas?
You
can talk about their families. Let them know about what is new
in the marketplace. Give them a chance to try things on a trial
or modified test basis. Alert them to what is coming from the
new markets and give them a chance to pre-order.
Doing
things like this produces a lot more sales.
I had
one client who was fascinatingly opinionated. He had views -
great views - on topics from politics to farms to morality.
He was so fascinating that I called him every month, talked
to him about anything, recorded what he said, and had it transcribed
and turned into a letter to my customers - which was PS'ed with
an offer.
People
loved him. And this turned into a profit center.
When
was the last time you communicated personally with your customers
- made them feel that you care more about them than their checkbooks?
If you don't have time to do it yourself, you can have an articulate,
highly professional assistant contact them on your behalf ...
just to say how much you appreciate them, and to share an idea
you thought they might find valuable.
The
more frequently you communicate from the heart about your customers'
interests - not yours - the greater the connection.
Here
are a dozen techniques for following up with customers that
will make them feel that you're a trusted friend. These techniques
quickly build customer loyalty and keep them coming back, year
after year.
1.
Remember that most sales are made after several calls
rather than on the first one. So follow up on inquiries and
leads numerous times before abandoning them.
2.
Use a simulated "carbon copy" of your original sales
letter for a follow-up mailing.
3.
Use telephone follow-ups to supplement your direct-mail
campaign.
4.
Send a special "thank you" letter to new
customers as soon as you receive their first order. Thank
your customers for every additional order.
5.
Send a letter every now and then - when no immediate
purchase is involved - to thank customers for previous purchases.
Invite them to order again soon and enclose some promotional
material to supplement the invitation.
6.
Cultivate customers with regular mailings saying ''thanks''
for their previous business and containing special offers
"for customers only."
7.
To offset possible ''buyer's remorse," send
purchasers of big-ticket items a follow-up letter reassuring
them that they made a good buy.
8.
Keep your customer sold on your product after he buys. Send
him follow-up mailings to ask how he likes the product ...
if he would like any further information about it ... and
(if appropriate) to suggest ways to use it that he may not
have thought about or may have forgotten.
9.
Increase your customers' goodwill and purchases by sending
them advance notices of sales or other special events.
10.
The New Year's season - or any major holiday - is
an especially good time to invite former customers to become
active again.
11.
If you make a mistake in your written material, follow up
promptly with a letter of correction that also does some additional
selling.
12.
If special circumstances delay or threaten to delay
mail delivery, use an insert postscript, simulated rubber
stamp imprint, or follow-up mailing to notify the recipient
that the cutoff date specified in the original mailing has
been extended to a specific date or for a specified number
of days.
Bottom
line; Communicate frequently with your customers by calling,
writing, e-mailing, sending gifts such as booklets, reports,
tapes - ¬even little notes and newspaper articles about
all kinds of issues you know to be important for both their
business and human sides.
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WORD
TO THE WISE
"Du
jour" (duh-ZHOOR) is French for "of the day."
We use
this phrase in two ways. (1) When we're talking about something
that is prepared for a given day, as in "The vegetable
du jour is creamed spinach," and (2) when we're talking
about something that is current, as used by Andrew Gordon in
today's Wealth article:
"If
[Wall Street is] not too spooked by the economic news du jour,
they often reward the company that announces earnings growth
by buying its stock or issuing a recommendation to buy."
