Have you wondered why you feel connected with some people when you meet them, and others that you feel disconnected the minute they say 'hi'?

It isn't a coincidence when this happens. The way you approach and speak with others sends a message, an energy that either makes them feel at ease and comfortable, or a message that you're being imposed upon. Would you like to learn how to attract others to you so they want to talk with you and learn about your service or product you offer?
People often ask me what is the most important in starting new relationships with others. The number one thing that is mandatory in meeting and talking with others is to 'be present' when you are with them.

What I mean about 'being present' is to set the intention to look the person in the eye and take the time to release what you were doing in the last hour and the last five minutes, and not think about it, or focus on what you will be doing later. To be totally present means that you are actively listening and living that moment right now. Watching the other person's body language, noting the words they use (Which speaking style do they use: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or a combination of the different styles?) and what they get energized about when they speak. Are they giving or seeking facts and information, or do they communicate from a 'people' or 'things' focus?

So you may ask: What is the most important relationship marketing skill to develop and maintain clients and customers?
You might be surprised at the answer.

It's not having a great marketing message, powerful marketing collateral materials or a 'bullet-proof' marketing plan. All of those are certainly important in a business. The answer to that question is building and maintaining those relationships. It's my favorite 'F' word: Follow-up!

In my teleclasses and during group coaching, I joke about how people spend lots of time and money on 'a dynamic marketing message' just to get the client's/customer's attention. However, those words aren't the whole package. You and your business aren't about the outward message only. How you act and behave around others speaks much louder about who you are and what you do than your marketing materials. It's the action and behavior you demonstrate to others that connects you with them. People want to be around those they trust, feel safe and comfortable.

We all want to believe that the marketing message and collateral we distribute encourages others to do business with us. As much as people want to believe that myth, and spend money forever trying to perfect their message, it doesn't necessarily attract others to do business with you.

When the client/customer thinks or feels that you are like them - - that you approach situations like they do, and you both have similar values and ethics, they choose you over the other business. We like to do business with people who are like us.

Your marketing message is a just one tool to deliver a message to get some initial attention. That's all.
And virtually every single marketing action after that is follow-up. Take responsibility to build a relationship with your client/customer. Find out everything you can about this person. What is important to them, what they value, what they want? What do they want in life? What organization to they volunteer? How do they spend their leisure time?

When the customer/client shows some interest in your product/service, it most likely occurs when they see that you have a genuine interest in helping them . It's when you try and help them solve a problem or achieve something they have stated they want to accomplish. Then they are ready to listen to you, because you have listened to them.
There are probably hundreds of people providing a similar product you provide or a service you perform.
So how do you distinguish your product or service from all the rest?

It's relationship marketing. It's not selling. It's about building relationships with others - - connecting with others and releasing all outcomes/ expectations of how it will evolve. When we 'come from the heart' instead of 'from the head', we attract others who have similar values as ours. It's about focusing on them and not speaking about what you have to offer. Let them do the talking. Givers gain.

I invite you to follow-up with those you meet and begin relationship marketing today!

About the Author: Lynne has a Masters in Education and A Masters in Spiritual Psychology. When providing group and individual coaching, LQM uses a 'whole person' approach and asks questions to help the client identify what aspect or issue needs to be addressed. We understand and recognize the value of work/life balance in our clients' lives. I coach individuals and small groups to achieve their personal and professional goals to bring more work/life balance in their lives.

If you know of someone who wants to move forward in their life, past overwhelm, exhaustion and stress, so they can experience joy, satisfaction, fun, prosperity, and healthy relationships, or if you know of a group of people who already are meeting and supporting one another, who want to take their lives to a higher level of achievement through group coaching, send an e-mail to lynne@lifequestmentoring.com

I offer a FREE 30-minute complimentary coaching session. If you'd like a complimentary coaching session, contact Lynne at (719) 433-2727.

http://www.lifequestmentoring.com

Do your customers spend too much time on hold? Are they waiting while your employees search for paper documents?
Most enterprises have online systems for customer relationship management, but even today, many of those systems don't include document management. This is particularly true of companies who have home-grown or customized software systems.

Is your enterprise suffering from the expense and errors caused by paper document handling? Misfiled documents, offsite storage, and just the sheer volume of paper can be a nightmare for both your employees, and your customers.
In the past, you may have looked at an online document management system with workflow, but decided it was too complicated and expensive for your needs. But now there is a new generation of software solutions available that are simpler, more affordable, and that integrate well with both packaged and custom software.

Everyone knows that paper documents are a constant headache. Paper documents are the sand in the gears of the successful enterprise. They have to be stored and retrieved by hand, they take up too much space, they get lost, misfiled, and anyone can have access to them creating massive security problems.

Document management systems let you store those paper documents in electronic form, usually as PDF. This gives you a searchable, sendable version of the document that can be stored in a secure database with the ability to automate the document processing cycle. This automation is called 'workflow'.

Workflow is a method for apply business procedures to electronic documents, to improve your service to your customers while increasing your own workforce productivity.

Typical targets for workflow automation are incoming documents and requests, such as purchase orders, accounts payable invoices, customer information requests, and collection efforts.  A document coming into a workflow system is typically assigned for initial processing based on a set of simple rules. For example, how much is the invoice for? What department is it for?

Some of the processing steps may be automated. Perhaps invoices under $1000 with a valid purchase order number are paid automatically. The document can be assigned to a person to evaluate, based on roles. The random assignment of documents can help prevent collusion or special dealing.

As each step or task in a workflow is performed, the document is routed to other person to process. If a document spends too long in a certain task status, it may be rerouted to a supervisor or special person for processing. This by itself can reduce a large source of customer complaints.

It becomes much harder for something to 'fall through the cracks' and as a result, your customers are happier.
A good workflow system can integrate with your other web, windows, or maniframe software. It may check values against your customer database, or 'screen scrape' values from your online applications.

Since documents are routed from person to person over the web, the people processing the documents have fewer delays and distractions, helping them stay on task and improving their productivity. More and more incoming documents are coming as emails and PDFs, and a workflow system can help you process these also.

While workflow used to be extremely expensive, the market has matured and software vendors are targeting the small to medium business in a way they have never done before. Web-enabled workflow systems integrate with your existing applications and are far more affordable than in the past.

You may consider either an in-house document management and workflow system, or the new Software As A Service model, where the workflow software vendor hosts your documents and you access them securely over the web, paying a set fee per month and per document page. A modern workflow system not only speeds up document processing, but it improves service to your customers and lowers your costs of servicing the customer.

There is no reason for your customers to be sitting on hold, when you can instantly retrieve and process the documents that will answer their questions.

Brad Jensen is the President of Electronic Storage Corporation, a software company in Tulsa Oklahoma that has provided packaged and custom document management and workflow systems for businesses all over the world. For more information about workflow software, or software as a service, visit http://www.laservault.com

It is common knowledge that the best place to sell your products or services is to a crowd of people that already want them. Once you have created a client that is buying from you, the next easiest place to make a sale is to that same person. And why wait for another time, why not make another sale while their wallet (or purse) is out.

This is referred to as a 'bump.' All you are doing is bumping up the size of the transaction while it is taking place. Without trying this you are leaving a substantial amount of money on the table, or in this case in the wallet.

Now I'm sure you are already aware of this technique but just haven't really thought about it much. Do you remember when you used to go to your favorite fast-food restaurant and they would always ask 'Do you want fries with that?' That was the bump at time of purchase and it worked extremely well for them.

Well now that has changed. These restaurants got wise and decided to change the menu to combos. The burger or 'sandwich' now comes with fries and a soft-drink. How convenient, you can just ask for your favorite combo and the price already reflects the whole meal. Now instead of that smiling young face on the other side of that laminated counter having to ask 'Do you want fries with that?' they are taught a new kind of bump.

If you were to simply ask for burger, oops…sandwich, they will ask you a carefully rehearsed 'Did you want that as a combo or just the sandwich?' Human nature and behavioral psychology tells us that it is much easier to just say 'yes' than it is to say 'Just the sandwich please.' This simple question results in a significant number of people bumping their order up to the combo.

O.k., so now you're wondering what this lesson in fast-food has to do with your business. Well just think of the next time you are closing the sale with one of your customers. Wouldn't it be easy to tell them about an 'in-store special' or 'unannounced promotion' that you are offering right now? And then you tell them about the combo or bundle you have put together that they can get right now, at the time of purchase for the low, low price of only $xx.

Here are a couple of examples in order to make this word picture a little clearer. Let's say you run a hair salon and after a cut your pleased and newly quaffed client is standing at the cash register ready to pay for their fresh new cut and style. Instead of just ringing in the price of the treatment you look at them with a smile and ask them if they would be interested in today's 'in-salon special' and explain to them the bundle of hair care products that separately would cost $xxx but today as a specially offered bundle they are only $xx.

Not everyone will take you up on the offer but a significant number will and this when averaged out over the number of clients per day, number of days per week, multiplied by 4.3 weeks per month and 12 months of the year will be a substantial increase in profits for the salon.

Starting to make sense?

This works in any type of business, whether it is products or services, wholesale or retail, it doesn't matter. And it is limited only to your imagination.

So the next time you are worried about the size of your bottom line… do the BUMP!!

David Mason is president of Mason Performance Development Inc., a Speaker, Trainer, Performance Development Coach and internationally best-selling author. Find out more about David and how he can improve your results at Dave's Squidoo Lens.

Want FREE marketing tips? Sign-up at Dave's lens for The Performance Development News - it's a weekly ezine for small business owners who want simple to use tips and hints to create Big Profits, guaranteed.

You can't always define right and wrong when it comes to management styles. You have to find your own style that's right for business. Sometimes this means trial and error - and heresy. There are times when heresy and an unorthodox management style can pay off - as shown by a Brazilian engineering company called Semco.

If you have your own business then it is your prerogative to run it any way you see fit. Your management style might be considered eccentric but no one can prevent you putting it into practice.

 The unorthodox management of Ricardo Semler of Semco certainly paid off. As he reveals in his book Maverick! his off-the-wall management ideas have worked for Semco, with unusual business practices such as subordinates giving their managers twice-yearly appraisals. If a boss scores low, he can even lose his job!

The manager is referred to as 'the subject' in a multiple choice questionnaire. The first among the 36 questions is: 'If an employee makes a small mistake, the subject:

1) Is irritated and unwilling to talk about the error
2) Is irritated but willing to discuss the error
3) Identifies the mistake and discusses it in a constructive manner
4) Ignores the error and pays attention only to more important matters.

It's not rocket science to spot the correct answer and you can tell Semler has a good understanding of management behavior. He expects his managers to be fair and relaxed, secure and friendly, innovative and competent, trustworthy and participant.

So do unorthodox management styles help with the above?

In all businesses and all processes, there is room for improvement and you have to listen when someone comes up with an idea that has the potential to realise that improvement. You have to look at the benefits before dismissing the idea. You should be prepared to embark on challenges and change in order to create an organisation where people are happy with the management style - and that goes for the people managing and those being managed.

Semler has found success with an unorthodox management style and built a company that has the power to create effective new ideas, and continues to do so.

The article on management styles was written by Robert Heller, management expert and co-author of business management website Thinking Managers along with world renowned thinker and creativity expert Edward de Bono.

The secret to a successful sale is so simple that children use it on their parents to get them to buy them the latest and coolest toy. Ask any parent and they will tell you that it works.

Many toy companies know this fact and tend to use it to their advantage. Build a need in the child and send them running to their parents. Children are relentless and fearless. 'No' is only a distraction to them and they find ways to get around to receiving a 'Yes'. The ease of penetrating a young mind without the pessimism gained while growing up to adulthood makes children a very vulnerable consumer group to marketing suggestions with incredibly deep pockets. What decent parent can resist those puppy dog eyes and the persistent whining and creative requests?

If you doubt this ask yourself what happened when the Ninja Turtles(tm) brought out pizza loving to our food culture and Pokemon(tm). There are numerous examples out there that show that children run the markets. Teenagers are also very powerful. The best thing is that any age group grows to become income receiving adults who still retain trust in the brands they grew up with. This shows the immense power of persistence and buying power that can make or brake a start-up business.

Returning to the topic above, Have you ever wanted something badly enough to brave rejection to get it? It's never pleasant but the pay off is big. This is how your customer must feel. The pay off must be greater than the pain of spending money, otherwise they will not buy. Simple and effective.

I find that listing bonuses with my offer I pass a threshold and the customer is more willing to sacrifice their money and time to enjoy a new purchase. This threshold is narrow or broad depending on many variables. I have listed the three top variables as availability of time, money and trust.

If anything within the product affects either of the three above variables then the call to action will not be effective. People will never buy anything they feel will complicate their life and take more time from their already hectic schedules. Even asking for a refund is labour intensive too and nobody will buy if they remotely believe that refunds take weeks to months and piles of paperwork.

This demonstrates the strength of trust as a motivator to buy. No trust, no purchase and no listening. And the last variable is easy but sometimes even I underestimate its effect on the purchasing decision. Everyone can sing praises about your product until they are blue in their faces but a broke customer may not be able to afford your product at that specific time. How do you get the sale? You persist.

Marketers agree that you have to Penetrate the psyche of the customer 7 to 9 times before they purchase. That is great if you have affiliates singing about your product, terrible for the poor affiliate who looses the commission to another affiliate who built trust and was there at the right time.

Copywrite of Thoriso Mashego. You can learn more about 'How to truly make a living online' or read more about making that sale at my blog.

Why take the time and make the effort to set goals for yourself? Wouldn't it be easier and more productive to just get going? That's sort of like deciding you want to go on vacation and then getting in your car and driving. The odds are when you stop driving you won't have a clue where you are. You also won't know what to pack to enjoy the vacation. Creating goals and objectives sets you on the road to a winning business plan.

Goals are a method of deciding where you want to put your energies and resources. Setting goals focuses yourself. Think of a goal as a destination. Once you've determined the destination you'll need a road map and directions. Objectives are the road map. When you've achieved an objective you've reached a milestone on the way to your destination. And those directions? Those are the strategies you'll need to achieve the objectives. Strategies are the actions and resources are how you get to each objective.

An easy way to set goals is to think about where you want to be, or where you want your company to be in one year. Write a paragraph of that description. If you prefer you can also use bullet points.

Here's an example that's not business related. At the end of 2008 you want to be thinner and healthier. The objectives then would be to lower your cholesterol by 10 points, stop smoking, and lose 25 pounds. The strategies to achieve the objective of losing 25 pounds might be to lose 5 pounds per month by cutting out all sweets from your diet and implementing a plan of walking for 30 minutes each day.

And here's another example that is business related. The goal: At the end of 2008 your company will have doubled its revenue. The objectives could be to introduce 2 new products. The strategies would be to research the market place, decide on the products, have the products developed and so forth. Each strategy is assigned a target and if necessary broken into smaller tasks.

Goals can help you get where you want to be in your life and in your business.

What to know what should be in your business plan? Download a free business plan format.

About The Author
Dee Power has co-authored several nonfiction books including Business Plan Basics, ' Inside Secrets to Venture Capital' and 'Attracting Capital From Angels,' reach her through http://www.brianhillanddeepower.com

Training a sales staff usually involves more than one day - or one week of intensive training and role playing. After the initial training, reviews and monitoring are often involved which strengthen the salesperson's skills and helps troubleshoot problem behaviors.

In many sales organizations, these processes can take up to several weeks to fully implement. However, there is another way. Total immersion in the sales experience is the key to rapid success. Just as children learn languages quickly in immersion schools and soldiers become proficient in military practices, so also do salespeople adapt quickly to the sales environment.

To illustrate how an entire sales staff can be trained and motivated in about two hours, we can look at the example of an inside sales office. If I am responsible for training a new crew of 12 people to work the phones, I want them productive and professional in about two hours. I'm not looking for perfection, just a willingness to make money and represent the company as professionally as possible. To begin, I'm going to jump right into the sales pitch. I'm going to grab their attention and give them the most basic overview of what we do. As an example of a basic overview, this is what I told my inside sales staff when marketing industrial products: 'We are going to call our customer base and new businesses. We are going to establish that they use the products that we have in stock. When we have established that, we are going to establish that they have an ongoing need for these products. When we know they need these products on an ongoing basis, we are going to explain what we have and why we can offer a better alternative at a better price. This is what we do on the phone. Get on the phone and start attempting to do this. If you get in trouble, I will jump in and help with the transaction. If you get an irate customer, give him to me. Jumping in immediately and working through the obstacles as you learn is the only way to become skilled very quickly.

After your group has the fundamentals either written down or memorized, they are ready to begin contacting customers. Be there for each rep you have. Be ready to help them or offer directions immediately for two solid hours. By they time two hours of calls and contacts have passed, your new sales reps are going to have the fundamentals down solidly. There will be follow up and adjustments to either the sales pitch or approach later on, but a highly intensive and complete immersion program will bring your sales force up to speed faster than you could ever imagine.

If you follow this intensive plan, you will spend far less time on training and far more time on generating revenue for your company. This is the goal. You will achieve it if you are willing to drop all the latest trends in sales training and simply immerse your sales force in the best sales and sales closing techniques immediately.

Daniel Walch publishes articles on business and psychology. See his blog at http://themensview.blogspot.com/

I have noticed that my children were more creative in their teens than they are now. The same is true for me. I am not as creative now, but I am much more effective. How did this happen?

I think it's related to what psychologists call the four stages of competence in any skill. Take walking, for example. Newborns just lie there, beginning to figure out who protects them and how they get fed. They can't yet walk, they are incompetent, and they are unconscious of that fact. As they begin to understand what is happening around them, they begin to understand that they can control their movements and move objects. They become conscious of the fact that others can move. Though as walkers they are still incompetent, they are now conscious of that fact. They are motivated to walk, to become competent. But it requires focus and attention to keep their balance, to avoid obstacles. They are conscious of every movement. Very quickly, though, they learn to walk, even run, without thinking. They are now unconscious of the various movements required. The progression is expressed simply as:

• Unconscious Incompetent to
• Conscious Incompetent to
• Conscious Competent to
• Unconscious Competent.

With practice we can learn to do any task without being conscious of it. What I have found interesting is that people who have reached that unconscious competent stage very often have difficulty teaching someone else the skill. Think of parent and child (or employer and employee). I also think this begins to explain that loss of creativity.
Creativity involves combining things in unexpected ways. But, the better our skills get the more unlikely it is that there will be opportunity for the unexpected. Over the years we all develop or adopt solutions to problems and we continually fall back on those solutions. We become less creative as we become more effective so it takes much more focus to be truly creative. It is only the true artists that have maintained their ability to capture those creative moments and that seems to be because they no longer have to think about the technical part - how to create tones and textures. They can do that unconsciously and that allows them to focus on the infinite possibilities, the combinations of notes, or colors, or movements.

My clients often need my help to 'think outside the box' with their marketing and business processes. What I actually do as a coach is to help them to regress to the conscious competent stage and examine the way they are doing things, to look for those possibilities. That's a skill you can develop to improve your results. And, since few of us can recapture that teenage creativity, you can also tap into the innate creativity of the young - they have not yet learned the 'right' way to do it and being open to their insights might provide you with some very creative solutions. You could become even more effective!

Dave Ferguson is a coach and the owner of Lake County Business Coaching, Inc., a coaching firm dedicated to helping people in business become extraordinary, to realize their dreams by achieving their goals. More information is available at http://www.LakeCountyBusinessCoaching.com

Any kind of business strategy is flawed in that you cannot be completely sure of what the future holds. But crystal balls aren't needed to make accurate predictions - what's more useful is an understanding of present trends.

Some of the biggest mistakes in business strategy arise when the manager is unable to see past his own nose - for instance, when Detroit's car giants didn't spot the trend of smaller cars, unlike the Japanese companies; or when IBM similarly overlooked smaller computers.

Business strategy experts like Faith Popcorn of BrainReserve reached conclusions by careful observation of the present rather than looking at the past. But no wild estimates are made about the future, in which absolutely anything can happen.

The Popcorn Report, Faith's book, contains predicted big trends that are difficult to argue with because they are already happening. For instance:

'Cocooning' - people using their homes for activities more commonly done away from the home in the past, an example being internet shopping.

'Ergonomics' - designing a product according to the needs and desires of the customer, whether through high or low tech means.

'Down-aging' - a refusal of people to grow old, for example with anti-aging products.

'Staying alive' - the trend towards health and fitness, witnessed by the explosion of popularity of alternative medicine.

'Save our society' - the green revolution and growth in popularity of environmentally friendly products and recycling.

'99 lives' - the growing trend for 'fast' everything, not just food, as people live 99 lives a day.

A great many entrepreneurs have already built their business strategy around these ever growing trends and are reaping the benefits. To join their ranks, you have to emulate Popcorn and keep your eyes and ears peeled to spot the present trends and gain a full understanding of them. Observe the business strategies used by the big companies - they don't get it wrong very often.

But rather than jump on any bandwagon, you have to create your very own business strategy from the current trends.

The above article was written by Robert Heller, renowned management expert and co-author of management and business strategy website Thinking Managers along with world renowned thinker and creativity expert Edward de Bono.

If you're not using testimonials, in your sales and marketing efforts, you're neglecting one of the most powerful tools at your disposal.

I like what Dan Kennedy says in his NO BS Sales Success book: 'What others say about you and your product, service or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent.'

Most of us would agree with this. The problem lies where the rubber meets the road- getting them. There's a right way and a wrong way. I'll share briefly my personal experience in getting good ones.

First, never expect your client to take the time out to think one up on his own if you ask him. Even he loves your product or service, he won't do it. People are generally only concerned with there needs, not yours. They're not interested in taking their time out for you. Remember, I said generally. There are some gems out there that are more than happy to do so, but theses individuals are always the exception to the rule.

What I learned early on is that people are more willing to do things for you if they are easy. If you take away most of the guess work, they'll usually accommodate you. So here's one strategy I implemented- create a questionnaire form that produces answers you can use to make your testimonial.

Here's an example of a testimonial questionnaire I have used. It contains only 4 questions:

1. What is your overall feeling about our company?
2. Describe in detail a specific experience with us that you were happy with:
3. Describe the one or two benefits you have gotten from our product or service that you value most.
4. Explain specifically how these benefits have helped you in production.

In using this format, I take away lot of the thinking for them. Sure they have to think of the answers, but that makes it a lot easier for them than having to come up with something on their own. The way I worded the questions also assures me that no answers will be completely the same.

The best way to get these testimonials answers back is to give them an incentive and make it time sensitive. Let them know if they are able to have this questionnaire back you by tomorrow they'll get something in return. I've used gift cards to restaurants and they seem to work well.

Lastly, at the end of the questionnaire, make sure you have the following statement for them to approve:

_____ I do NOT mind if you use my name in any of your promotional material(s). It's important to always have permission when using their statements in your marketing.

Jonathan Taylor is president of Surefire Sales & Marketing in Knoxville, TN. You can read his daily sales strategies at http://www.JonathanTaylor.wordpress.com