TV Commercials – What You (And Only You) Can Do
”Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless.” – Adolph S. Ochs One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to TV or video advertising is to rely on the experts to figure out how to market your product.…
How To Pull Ahead Of Your Competitors Through Cooperation
“Competition is the offspring of fear; cooperation, the child of confidence.” – Mark Morgan Ford If you remember the movie Wall Street, you may recollect the character Gordon Gecko (played by Michael Douglas) a viciously ambitious stockbroker who broke every ethical rule and took advantage of every relationship to…
Getting Started On Your Catalog
“Either dance well or quit the ballroom.” – Greek proverb Yesterday, I introduced you to the lucrative world of catalog marketing. And I gave you some information to help you decide if and when the time has come for you to do your catalog. Ready? Lets look at what it…
Eventually Every Good Businessperson Does A Catalog
“A ship in port is safe, but thats not what ships are for.” – Admiral Grace Hopper (1906-1992) Sooner or later if you are successful in business you will consider mailing a catalog. Catalogs are alluring sales vehicles, because they are relatively inexpensive (on a per-item basis), are…
How To Make Friends In High Places
“Shallow men believe in luck . . . . Strong men believe in cause and effect.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life Today, I am going to open a little door into your future. First, answer this question: Who in your industry would you like to know? Whose…
How To Build A Lasting Business By Loving Your Clients
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful.” – Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Rich Boy Several years ago, I…
Free Sampling – When It Pays, When It Doesn’t
“The truth shall make you free.” – American proverb The Post-it note which today comes in more than 50 colors, shapes, and sizes began as a failed idea at 3M 20 years ago. It is surprising to think of it now, but when the little (at that time)…
Delivering Bad News: When To Write, Phone, Have Lunch
“Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.” – Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) Someone once told me that you should always deliver bad news in person. I didnt think much of it at the time, but over…
How To Double Your Profits By Giving Customers What They Want
“The difference between selling and service is inversely proportional to the quality of the product.” – MMF Last week I met with a travel agency that has been struggling to bring its fledgling business into profitability. In the period of time Ive worked with this agency, it has made a…
How To Make Your Business Immeasurably Better
“Small leaks sink the big ships.” – American proverb One of the ideas Im going to come back to over and over again is what I call the theory of incremental degradation that you can eventually ruin your business by making many very small downgrades in the quality of…
Introduction To Writing Space Ads That Boost Your Business
“We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.” – La Rouchefoucault, MaximsSpace ads are the advertisements you see in newspapers and magazines. For professional copywriters, space ads are great because they are limited in scope and still demand high fees (and sometimes royalties). For the entrepreneur…
Getting Yourself Addicted To Success, Step 1
“Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life A few weeks ago, I talked about what I call the junkies secret power. I said Ive always marveled at the ingenuity and assertiveness of the…