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The gurus vary a bit on the exact statistic, but all will tell you: Top salespeople in virtually every industry become that way because they have developed the habit of sending personal, heart-felt “Thank You” cards to their customers. As a result — they get more referrals (a lot more referrals) — and consistently out perform their competitors by as much as 10 to 1.

Most Realtors (and Lenders, Insurance Agents, & Financial Advisors for that matter) know this — but fewer than 5% do it consistently. Fewer still, actually use this simple strategy to ask for referrals.

For these categories particularly, REFERRALS are the lifeblood of their business. In my town (Atlanta), the President of any given networking organization (BNI, Le’ Tip, Power Core, Freedom Builders . . . you name it), is almost always from one of these fields. It’s a good strategy. It works. But that’s just it — It’s one good strategy.

One good strategy — that can easily be 10X more effective by putting a new twist on the proven discipline of sending “Thank You” cards.

STEP ONE: Re-dedicate yourself to consistently sending “Thank You” cards to your customers. Even if you do it the old fashioned way (There’s a better way — a completely automated, yet incredibly personalized way — and it costs a great deal less) . . . but even if you do this the old fashioned way of going to the local card store, sitting at your desk to write each note, stuff and stamp the envelope . . . the ROI is phenomenal.

STEP TWO: Send “Thank You” Cards to the people you buy from.

ALMOST NO ONE DOES THIS (maybe 5% of the 5% who do anything with “Thank You” cards at all) — and it’s Pure Gold !!!

STEP THREE: Send “Thank You” cards to people from your networking groups when they give you referrals. (I sometimes include a Starbucks gift card.)

STEP FOUR: Use personalized greeting cards for “cross promotion” with your networking group members — to their expanded network.

Buy cards that are blank on the inside (or use the “better way” Referral System my clients & I do). On one side: a note from you, briefly explaining that (Jerry) suggested (Don) might be interested in knowing about you and your product / service. On the other side: a brief note from (Jerry) endorsing you. The card is addressed from (Jerry) and sent to people he knows and likes . . . people who know & trust him.

This costs you next to nothing, and will generate referrals for you and Jerry both. Include Jerry’s picture above his note, and this card will live on his friend’s desk or refrigerator indefinitely. People don’t throw away cards with their friends’ pictures in them.

STEP FIVE: Send just 2 unexpected cards a year (Thank You, Congratulations, Happy New Year **, whatever) to each customer, vendor, and networking contact in your database.

** I sent Happy New Year’s cards this year — with Stone’s 2007 Resolutions . . . Huge Hit !!! Several in-bound phone calls, often starting with “Thanks for the card, I’ve been meaning to call you . . .”

FINAL TIP: If you periodically attend those more general networking events (like Chamber and Association meetings) — you can (and should) let the other person do all the talking. All you need is their business card after the conversation. (Sometimes I’ll write a little note on the back — one specific thing from the conversation.) Send them a “Nice Meeting” you card. Again, precious few in your field or any other do this. Include your picture, and you’ll be amazed at the response.

Yeah — Great Ideas, but now the cat’s out of the bag. Everyone will start doing this.

Think again . . .

No, what “everyone” will be doing (if anything) is the same old tired company sponsored newsletter / postcard program (I get ‘em every week).

Bob squinted at the email and began to read:

“Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification…”

Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent “fraudulent activity”. The email went on to say that there were “procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us.”

Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn’t know.

He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been “set up” by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to glance at the URL.

There was something very, very wrong with it.

“PHARMING” TO FLEECE SHEEP

The art of “pharming” involves setting up an illegitimate website that is identical with its legitimate prototype, for example the ebay page Bob was almost suckered into using, and redirecting traffic to it.

“Pharmers” can do it in two ways:

1.By altering the “Hosts” file on your computer. The Hosts file stores the IP address of websites you have been accessing. By inserting a new IP address into the database field corresponding to a website, your own computer can be redirected to the pharmer’s website. Any information you give the bogus site is immediately hijacked by the pharmer.

2.Hijacking the DNS (Dynamic Name Server) itself. A DNS matches the names of address with their IP addresses. If this server can be coerced into assigning new IP addresses to traditional names, all computers using the name resolution provided by the DNS server will be redirected to the hijacker’s web site.

Once that happens, it’s time to be fleeced.

DOWN ON THE PHARM

What is “Pay-Per Click”?  “Pay-Per Click”, is an easy to understand advertising strategy. There are around 300 million searches at major search engines everyday. This causes 80% of internet traffic. Placing your websites on these search engines is very important in reaching as many potential customers as possible. But in order to be seen and clicked most frequently, your website should be viewed at the top most of the search

We all have a few of those childhood dreams that fell to the wayside as we grew up. We were either too busy or too involved in something else or were too poor or just kept forgetting about it. It doesn’t matter why we never learned to play the instruments that we wanted to, what matters is that now that we’re adults, are we going to learn to play the musical instruments we dreamed of?

While shopping for the musical instruments of our dreams, we keep running across the “learn to play” instruments and book sets. They look like they were probably designed for kids, but the instruments look like they are almost high quality enough to get away with playing. So can anyone really learn to play a musical instrument from the “learn to play” series?

To be honest, those who learned to play at least one musical instrument as a child most likely can learn to play another musical instrument form the “learn to play” series provided we at least learned the basics of reading music. Being able to at least read the basic scale from sheet music will help tremendously when trying to learn to plat a musical instrument from a book.

Some people do very well learning to play musical instruments from a book, but the people who do very well all have one thing in common, they are self learners. Those of us who were born in the mid to late seventies and beyond grew up in a system of education that everything was handfed to us, thus the majority of us do not learn very well on our own. We need someone to hold our hands and teach us note by note to play a musical instrument, not to mention trying to learn other things. Learning to play a musical instrument from a book requires a certain amount of self teaching ability.

Without the ability to “figure things out along the way,” learning to play a musical instrument from a book will prove to be quite frustrating, although it can most certainly be done. If our desire is strong enough and our patience can run fairly deep, then yes, we can learn to play a musical instrument from a book.

There are few things quite as satisfying as accomplishing something like the challenge of learning to play a musical instrument from a book. As we learn to play any musical instrument without the guidance of someone else, just like kids, our confidence grows. For adults, learning to play a musical instrument from a book may very well be the realization of a childhood dream, and there’s nothing but pure magic in that.

Tim Berners-Lee, while working as an independent consultant at a nuclear research laboratory in 1980, developed an innovative way of storing information in a program named Enquire.

That work was later used as the foundation for the development of a global hypertext system – popularly known as the Internet or the World Wide Web.

The WWW was developed to increase the ease with which people could exchange information. This became a reality with the introduction of the first WYSWIG (What You See Is What You Get) hypertext web browser which was written by Tim Berners-Lee.

The advantage of the WWW over previous systems was the lack of a need for a centralized server. In short, this meant that it was just as easy to retrieve, as well as link to, a document that was down the hall as across the world.

This was a huge breakthrough in computing science.

The Web and the first web server were released to the hypertext communities in mid 1991, after being released within CERN in late 1990. In order to achieve a coherent standard for the WWW, specifications for URLs, HTML and HTTP were published.

The universality forced by these specifications, the non-dependence on a central server and decision by Berners-Lee not to profit from the WWW led to a high level of adoption of the technology between 1991-94. A ten fold increase in annual traffic was recorded on the first Web server during this period.

With the advent of the Web, a number of spin-off technologies have emerged. A vast array of server side, client side and database languages have been created to fulfill needs of businesses and individuals.

There are two types of programming languages used on the WWW: client-side and server-side.

A client-side language is executed in the users’ browser and is not dependent upon the Web server. Client-side programming is done almost exclusively with JavaScript.

Sales people are frequently confronted by this question on sales calls, along with some others like “why should I buy from you/your company?” or “what makes you different?”. In fact, as identified in my last post, they have probably spent a lot of time at “Product Knowledge U” learning exactly how to answer these questions. In reality, answering questions like these usually end up putting you on the defensive and will not give you the advantage you are hoping for.

Think about it for a minute… if you answer that question you immediately sound like all of the sales people that have come before you, as well as those who will follow you. By answering the question you create “sameness” and a belief in the mind of the prospect that you are just like everyone else. You must also consider that everything you say will be considered as “sales fodder” and is often listened to with skepticism and from an “oh sure” perspective.

Obviously, there are many different situations in which this questions can be asked. Are they currently buying this product from someone else. Is this a product they have bought in the past, or is it a product they have never bought? Knowing which situation you are in will help you determine how best to proceed. Rather than answer the question, you might want to say “I’d be happy to tell you but I’m curious, is this a product that you have used in the past or are currently buying?”. Their answer will be a valuable piece of information from which we can plan our next question.

If they are currently using or have had past experience, it would make a lot more sense to find out what they have used in the past. If they are looking to make a change “what would they like to see different?” This is a questions that would get us information that would begin to form our offer, or identify that we don’t have what they want. Remember too, if they are not buying or have not used before, giving away your information can now become a shopping list that will allow them to compare you to the competition and “commoditize” your offer.

Not always, but often times the best answer to a question is another question. By not answering the question but rather asking:

“Was there something that you were hoping would be better?”, or

“if we could offer something different or better what were you hoping for?”

With these questions you end up with the chance of finding out exactly what they are looking for and can craft your response based on the feedback you get.

It takes some courage and emotional control to respond this way but you’ll find it will put you in an entirely different light with your prospect. Stop answering “what makes you better” and you’ll get better information that will help you make more sales!

I wanted to cover some common questions about a new online business opportunity called Passport to Wealth and how you can use it to generate a serious passive income for yourself.

What is Passport to Wealth?

Passport to Wealth is an online marketing system that is designed to find people for you that are currently interested in joining an online business opportunity. The key to the Passport to Wealth Marketing System is that you can join it, set it and let it do the work for you.

How much can I make with Passport to Wealth?

You receive 100% commissions of $997 for each Passport to Wealth sale that is made for you. I’ve been making 2-5 sales a day and the money is paid directly into my account. We made over $27,000 in 3 weeks and while we were away on a vacation, another $9,000 came in.

What is the product being sold with Passport to Wealth?

You get Instant access to over $75,000 worth of amazing software, wealth-creation resources and an e-Learning library. All accessible directly from your own computer. It’s the most comprehensive package ever offered in one place. Just download, use and benefit.

There is never any obligation to join Passport to Wealth. From my discussion with PTW, 47% of site visitors that have taken the tour will sign-up as a Passport to Wealth member. That’s a very impressive conversion ratio.

The comprehensive marketing information in Passport to Wealth is what attracted me to join. This automated system is very unique in this impersonal internet age.

“”The system sorts, sells and closes your prospects for you.” – Tim, Colorado

What is the best strategy to use with Passport to Wealth?

When I was first looking into Passport to Wealth I interviewed 9 different sponsors. I was looking for someone that was highly successful and would share exactly what they were doing with me. I chose an internet marketing expert from Texas and he showed me how to make sales right away.

To speed-up my results I use a system where all I do is copy and paste ads to proven online advertising companies that are all laid out for me. This is a fully automated system that involves no contact from yourself.

For every 100 visits to my site I make a least one or two sales. So for a low $190 investment I earn between
$3000 and $8000.

I’m finding that people want to join Passport to Wealth with me because I am offering something different. Most PTW members are promoting their standard web page and getting 1 or 2 sales a month. I try to add something extra, like this highly lucrative marketing system.

The first thing I would like to do is share with you an email that I recently received that provided the inspiration for this article.

Mr. Calvert,

Hello, my name is Tanya Jameson. I met you a few months ago at the Bunny Slipper Boot Camp you spoke at in Las Vegas. I am the one that spoke to you after the Boot Camp and told you I was going to invest in your “How to Create a $5,000 Monthly Income with Ebay and Online Auctions Course” after I had a couple of yard sales.

I knew at the time, you probably didn’t believe me, but I did go to www.OnlineAuctionU.com and purchase your course. Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I have followed your course step-by-step and last month I have my first month of over $5,000.00 in profits, $5,233.70 to be exact and I am having a blast.  My 5 year old daughter helps me in my business and because of your course; I never have to worry about taking a job outside the home again.

Now for my question, at the seminar you said that you personally spend over $15,000 a year on books, tapes, seminars, and other personal development courses.

My question is why?

You have a net worth of millions of dollars, you speak all over the world at seminars, and have dozens of training programs, why do you still invest so much money? I am just curious; please respond when you have an opportunity.

Thank you for helping me change my life!

Tanya Jameson

Here is my response:

Tanya,

Congratulations on your first $5,000 month! You now have developed the skills and knowledge to be able to write your own pay check every month with Ebay and online auctions. I am proud of you and I appreciate you taking the time to send me an email.

Now regarding your question and why I spend so much money on personal education.

My definition of success is not how much cash, or how many toys you have. To me “Success is living your life working towards worthy Goals”  When I was broke, living in a small 600 foot square home and driving a beat up Chevette, I was as successful then as I am now, because I had worthy goals that I was working towards daily.

Now here is the “brain tweak” once I reached those goals, I was no longer a success.  Think about that one for a minute. The only way I could maintain my success is to set new goals!

When I was financially broke, I developed the habit of spending 10% of my income on my own personal education. Jim Rohn says “Formal education will make you a living; if you become self-educated you can create a fortune”

That is one of the things I absolutely enjoy about the Internet, it is a constantly evolving marketing medium.  There are always new ideas to learn and concepts and methods to test and put into practice.

Thankfully, my income got to a point, where I could no longer spend 10% on courses, books and tapes. So I was able to buy books and training programs for other people, and at one point provide the book “Think and Grow Rich” to the entire graduating class at our local high school.

However today, I am constantly learning and working towards worthy goals, and I hope you will continue to do the same.

I wish you much success, and as always let me know what I can do to support and help you. I appreciate your support, and again thanks for taking the time to send the email.

Dale Calvert
www.DaleCalvert.com

I sincerely hope that my response to Tanya has resonated in your mind. If you are broke, but working towards worthy goals, YOU ARE A SUCCESS. Today’s world is full of self educated marketing masters that offer an endless supply of books, tapes, and training programs to help us all become better at what we do.

Oh yeah, before I forget, why is the title of this article  $1,167.00? That is what I spent last month for personal educational and training programs. Become “self educated” and I will see you on the never ending road to success!

This is a question that comes up a lot on sales calls and one that you want to handle with care. As I’ve stated in other posts, questions are always driven by thoughts and never happen by accident. There is always a “context” from which the questions come and your ability to understand the context will improve your odds in developing the right answer. When I suggest that we work to create the “right” answer I don’t mean that we are trying to fool anyone. Frequently, when we are addressing questions there are multiple answers and we just want to make sure that we have a higher likely hood of picking the right one.

In relation to price questions, it is always important to answer the question “in context”. So usually, in order to understand the “context” in which the question was asked you’ll need to ask more questions. Also, you’ll often find that the question “how much do you charge” is really not the real question. Starting a dialog with the prospect about what they want will move them away form price and get you better information. Using a “reflector” or reverse will help you understand the real question.

Of all of the “reflectors” or reverses that we teach in relation to price one of the simplest has turned out to be one of the best. When asked about price try “…it depends”. This simple phrase has an uncanny way of handling an awful lot of the price questions you’ll get. Price often depends on a lot of things like:

When do you need it?

How many do you need?

What kind do you need? (good, better, best?)

Another great reflector, particularly effective on the telephone for inside sales people is “while I’m looking it up did you select that item for a reason?”. Often times prospects calling in for a price on an item, hear it… and hang up. Engaging the prospect and getting better information will not only help you build rapport but eliminate a lot of those “get a price and hang up calls”.

Talking about price before understanding what your prospect is trying to accomplish is sales suicide. Use some of these simple reflectors and you’ll get better results!