Much of what I know and apply has come from business books and in my younger years there was usually one in progress by the bed. I tend to read for relaxation now but a client recommended a cracker the other day. It is the ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes to be found on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Sales-Machine-Turbocharge-Relentless/dp/1591841607

Chet really focuses on the key issues any business has to address and I particularly like his two word phrase for effective business building ‘dogged determination’. I can certainly resonate with that.
Feeling in a generous mood I sent one to all my clients and they are absolutely hooked. They are applying the wisdom in their businesses and using the ideas to train their staff too. If you do buy the book let me know how you get on.

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This month I have been looking for a telephone marketing company to run an ongoing campaign for one of my business mentoring clients. As telephone marketing was how I made a lot of my cash I was on home territory. I had written a very clear brief which the client had agreed and all we needed to do was find someone to deliver on it.
There were a few companies the client had met through networking and some we picked off the web which seemed to be about the right size and with the type of capabilities we required – so far so good.
OK I could have rung them up but I chose to respond to their web contact page either through their message pad or by an email to their info or enquiries address. Now here comes the dramatic bit. One company responded within the hour and a few within a day but more that 50% did not respond at all. So undeterred I waited a few days and then sent a second email chasing my first. This elicited one more reply with the rest remaining silent.
How could I consider a company to represent my client and get them leads if their own responsiveness and commercial nouse was so poor? Well as it happens I did subsequently phone them as the ones we were engaged with produced such wayward responses to the brief, but that is another story.
How can anyone spend so much time and money building a web site presumably to get enquiries just to ignore them? Well it is easy to see how this can happen. The chosen recipient is on holiday or might even have left. The enquiry address is not filtered so they get lost in the spam. Maybe they just don’t care although those I subsequently rang were horrified they had missed my email although I am not sure if this as feigned or real.
Why not check now where your site enquiries go and how long you take to reply to them?
So the winner was? Actually the company which replied in minutes and maintained that interest, attention and understanding throughout our engagement with them – what a surprise?

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