Confessions of an Amateur Communist
“This is the real bottom line. A person, with a paycheck, in his pocket, every other week, forever and ever, Amen.” – Jodi Rell A little secret I learned two years ago has allowed me to more than double my income. You can use this same secret yourself. Perhaps it’ll…
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself” – Peter F. Drucker In my last ETR article, I told about the two worst mistakes you can make as a marketer when offering “bait pieces” as a…
Getting to the Bottom of Japanese Selling Strategies
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is.” – C. Wright Mills America is usually given credit for being the ultimate consumer society, but compared to the Japanese we are miserable plodders. If you don’t believe me, ride the escalator into the basement of…
More on Recasting
“The only place opportunity cannot be found is in a closed-minded person.” – Bo Bennett I rarely write about the same subject twice in a row. Today, however, I’m going to make an exception. I just read an article in Time that was too good to pass up, because it…
The 7 Secret Qualities of Successful Information Products
“The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.” – Dwight David Eisenhower Expenditures on information and information products account for over half of this country’s economy. That’s roughly $5 trillion! Why so much? Americans have an unquenchable thirst for information. We crave information to make…
A Vinter’s Secret Weapon
“Bring me a beaker of wine, so I may wet my mind and say something clever” – Aristophanes I’ve got wine on my mind. Not literally, mind you. As I write this, it’s not even 10:00 a.m., for God’s sake. No. I’m thinking about wine thanks to two articles I’ve…
Grow Your Business Like China, Part 3
“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.” – Julia Cameron Last week – on Tuesday and Friday – I talked about how a Confucian saying got me to look at business-building in a new way. On Friday,…
Grow Your Business Like China, Part 2
“Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.” – Alexis Carrel Since our job at ETR is to find little secrets in our quotidian world that illuminate wealth and power and personal success, I’ve been dutifully mulling over that saying by Confucius since I…
Are You the World’s Worst Salesman?
“The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman.” – James Cash Penney Many years ago, Steve Martin made a short little film – a film clip, really – called “The World’s Worst Waiter.” One sight gag I remember was Martin as…
Grow Your Business Like China, Part 1
“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” – Calvin Coolidge On the flight to Beijing, I read a book K had bought for me, Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman. It is an account of the author’s time as…
Keeping the U in USP
In marketing, we call the unique aspect of a product’s (or service’s) personality its Unique Selling Proposition or USP. It’s what makes it stand out from the competition and give consumers a reason to buy it. And the more unique (better differentiated) it is, the more others may want to emulate it.
How Small Issues Can Turn Into Huge Losses
“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.”. – Dale Carnegie Have you ever let a small remark really get to you? Don T. learned how big a mistake that can be … the hard way. A successful sales manager, Don was proud of…