Do You Want a Great Business is Customer Service the key

Most companies spend a lot of time attracting clients to a product or service, trying to win their confidence and then finishing the whole process with a sale. That technique seems apparent to most people. What frequently is overlooked is the post-sale follow up with clients, particularly when it comes to online businesses. We should look at the time after a purchase as an chance not only to enhance our products but also to build long-lasting relationships with our clients.

It takes much more work to win a new client than to keep a relationship with an existing client. But maintaining existing client relationships is just as important and I’d even dare to say, more important than gaining new clients. What can we do to keep our established clients feel appreciated? You need to follow up with your clients.

Following up may be as simple as writing an email or giving a phone call to a client a few days after a sale.  I make it a personal goal to contact every client that buys our product, , within 1-3 days after a sale.

Does this take time? It does. Is it worth it? Definitely! Not only does this allow us to get good feedback from clients in order to improve our products, but also it establishes a more sound, long-lasting relationship that goes over and above the point-of-sale. 

Most people were pleasantly surprised that I would be inclined spend the time to talk with them and were moved by the personal attention they received. And I was also amazed at how unusual it was for online businesses to follow up on their clients.  Some of the standard comments that I have received as the result of my campaigns include:

I really appreciate the personal touch, vs. the standard automated we have received your email, rubbish, followed by well, nothing usually.

 Never had customer support quite like this I appreciate it.

People don’t like being brushed aside and certainly like being heard. There are many companies that are ignoring their clients and, as a final result, losing them.

Your current customers are the heart and soul of your business. These customers provide return business and also provide the vital word of mouth advertising that no ingenious advertisement or marketing program will ever out perform. Treat your clients like your own family. Go out of your way to communicate with them. If you neglect them, they will go somewhere else.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

How to Have A Successful Home Business

Generally, people who make it big have one thing in common, they are dissatisfied with the status quo. They will not take what is “common” or “expected” and let that define their lives, they move past it and excel. You must work hard and hustle.

 Character

Someone coined the phrase, “character is what you do in the dark.” In other words, when no one is looking, will you behave differently than if someone was looking? If not, then you have character. If you are attacked, be tough not hard. Don’t be a pushover, but be compassionate, gentle, and flexible—especially on procedure (not principle).

 Risk Taking

This isn’t gambling, it’s a willingness to be bold, hearty, and to push forward. People who refuse to take risks are definitely going to lose. If you refuse a new promotion because you’re not confident of your skills, you will likely be passed over when a different chance arrives.

Don’t be afraid of rejection, just take it as part of life and you’ll find there’s nothing to be afraid of, especially in the word “no.” “No” is just another opportunity to find a way around an obstacle and to use creative problem-solving skills.

 Time Management

We all know that one minute has 60 seconds and that one hour has 60 minutes. One day has 24 hours, and one year has 365 days. But one year also has 525,600 minutes. We don’t think about a year in such small increments, but maybe we should.

We waste minutes as if they’ll always be around, and the fact is that time wasted is time we can never get back. We might miss a deal or promotion of a lifetime by wasting just a few minutes.

Proper time management is essential as you climb to success. Continue to break goals down in to manageable chunks, do that with relation to your day and the time you’ve been given. You’ll accomplish far more this way and you won’t regret using your time wisely.

 Master Non-Verbal Communication

It is said that our body language and facial expressions do much more communicating than our words will ever do. When the words that you speak don’t match the expressions on your face or the stance of your body, you confuse the listener and muddle your message.

Be aware that when you try to “multi-task,” you often end up short-changing something, and the last thing you want is to short-change people. Don’t try to do too much at once,your willingness to do this tells people they aren’t important, even if you’re expressing your appreciation of their work and effort.

Be aware of what message your body is sending off!

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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How to Use Articles for Advertising and Promoting

A very efficient method to advertise your professional services, the products you are selling or simply to show how educated you are in a particular niche is by using the highly beneficial method of article marketing.

These articles that enclose at the end a short presentation of you or your business can be about various solution to actual problems, about everyday life or any other topic that will interest and inform a reader about the subject. There are many sites to which you can submit these articles to, or if you have a database of your customers’ emails, just drop them an email containing the article and a link to your personal site or professional site. Over time, it is hoped that your article will be syndicated on websites throughout the internet.

The articles can generally be copied from one article submission site to the other as long as the content belongs to you and you are not stealing someone else’s work. There is a huge demand for content on the internet, it's what keeps the search engines hungry, and with so many website owners and ezine publishers regularly looking for fresh content, chances are that your article will not only be used on article directories but also on several other sites.

The more interesting and informative an article is, the more people will read and remember it. Even if you don’t have experience with writing, there are some benefits that may persuade you to give it a try:

1.    If it’s written well it will may help someone.

 2.    It may improve the way you convey your thoughts on a subject.

3.    It will bring your website visibility.

 4.    You can prove your knowledge in your professional areas.

Publishing articles means they have to contain mostly useful information and just a little bit of advertising. If they don’t follow this rule, you might end up with an un-publishable article. The promotion area of the article is usually meant for the end of that article, known as the "resource box". As an article directory owner myself, I know that there are many authors who insist on placing links to their website throughout the article, but I would suggest that having an informative article with the links to "futher information" in the resource box is a much clearer and better structured approach.

Articles are meant to inform the reader of a particular subject, and not merely persuade the reader to visit your site with every paragraph written. In fact, should you have a good enough article, the reader will more than likely choose to visit the site in your resource box in any case. I recently received an article that contained 11 links in a 200-word article! This DID NOT include the resource box where a further 4 links were provided. Needless to say the article was rejected, so make sure your articles are interesting and informative with promotion left to the appropriate section.

There are other things you could do with articles if you are willing to spend some money. There are different publicity sites, ranked high in search engines that for a fee will publish your article on their site for a limited period of time. The fee is not high usually, but can provide publicity should you choose this route. But if this choice is the one that appeals to you the most, you must make sure the article is really good, so good that it can compete with all the other articles on that site. The user can see them all at the same time and you must think of ways to make him choose to read yours. If you have tried and you are not confident you can do it on your own, you can always hire a professional.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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How To Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions

Having a New Year's resolution is a great way to kick off the year but too many people jump off the boat quick.

Sometimes they will last a month, some will even make it to April or May but a majority of people will certainly quit before they see any results.

The problem is that the drive to succeed simply disappears after they start to feel like there are no results.

You will need to be patient but if you take the steps needed before actually making the resolutions, you will have a better chance at succeeding.

Be Realistic

This is something that people have trouble with as they tend to dream too big and make it nearly impossible to be able to achieve it.

Sometimes it is better to dream smaller and then to surprise yourself because you will feel like it is "too easy." It is tough to dream too big when you are not sure if it is realistic to make that goal.

Be realistic with your resolution and you will have a better chance at being able to achieve your resolutions.

Tell A Friend

A good way to feel the drive to succeed is to tell a friend about your resolution. You will need to make yourself accountable for your actions and so it is crucial that you focus on finding a friend that you can trust.

This friend can also help challenge and motivate you through the process and so you will need to find a friend that you can be open to.

These are two simple things that you can do so that you will have a better chance at finally going through with your New Year's resolutions.

As long as you stay realistic and you tell a friend, you will surely see more success this coming year.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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Branding what is it and how can I use it to my advantage

Branding your corporate identity in your products and services is actually a promise made to the customer, a promise that is based on your company’s reputation, the quality of your product, product experiences and so on. This article explores the vital factors one must keep in mind while developing the right media mix for promoting your products/services, particularly in the context of the exploding web world and the significant role played by interactive advertising agencies in this regard.


However, there is much more to branding than just looking good. Particularly in this web 2.0 eras, where a powerful web presence has become a vital ingredient of your branding strategy, developing the right media mix holds the key to building powerful brand equity. In other words, a right media mix would mean.

1.   Creative design solutions: The design, color, and content of your ads, marketing collateral and website enhance your brand equity, attract customers, and generate sales.

 2.    Web development: Every product/service worth its name has a web presence these days, some have truly interactive, animated sites encouraging customer involvement.

3.    Viral marketing: vitally important in today’s age of social networking, tagging, podcasting, blogs, forums, wikis and what have you.

 4.    Television commercial production: Print media advertising: traditional media cannot be overlooked.

5.    Corporate video production: a very important tool for branding your corporate identity.

6.    Direct marketing: Firms need to be just as effective and resonant with the overall branding scheme as the communicate directly with the customer.

7.    Outdoor advertising: hoardings, roadshows, participations in business fairs, exhibitions, etc.

There are some interactive advertising agencies that have recognized the need of the hour - developing creative design solutions that employ user-centric investigation and involve critical and systematic thinking. User-centric means understanding of needs and priorities of end user; the clients' customers, their channel partners, users, and brand communities.

So if you want to register your brand as one that is synonymous with customer loyalty, you must develop a complete package, keeping the customer as the prime objective and organizing product stories around the way they prefer to learn about, compare, select and confirm purchases, connecting brands and their experiences.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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Add Value to All You Do

As a person becomes more and more recognized for doing more than he/she is compensated to do, he/she will begin receiving more and more compensation for their services

While reading some very informative material recently, I found myself inspired by a concept that enables a person to soar to higher heights.  The concept of adding value to everything you do, when applied to specific areas of a person's life, can bring that person to be highly sought after by those receiving the added value.

  The material I was reading focused on business and what this concept will do for the success of a business.  Another way of looking at this concept is in the idea of doing more than is expected, or doing more than that which you are compensated to do.  When doing this a person will be "weighed" against others who do not.  In comparison, the person who adds value to all he/she does will be sought after to the degree that there will be keen competition for his/her service.  As a person becomes more and more recognized for doing more than he/she is compensated to do, he/she will begin receiving more and more compensation for their services. 

There is an additional benefit that comes to the person who exercises this concept in his/her business; the development of that person's strength.  In nature, do you suppose the strongest trees are those that are protected from the storms and hidden from the sun?  This isn't the case.  The one that stands out in the open and bears all of the winds and rain and is shone upon by the blistering sun is the tree that develops the strength to withstand  the most violent weather.  This also is the case for the person who goes beyond expectation to deliver added value in everything he/she does.

  This is the person that becomes strong enough to succeed despite the adversities that one is sure to come up against in his/her business.  The fact that most people are delivering as little as they can get by with, serves as a great advantage to you when you deliver added value.  One who delivers as little as he/she can, may rest assured he/she will receive the same. 

I hope this information will add value to all of your experiences

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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Tips To Make Money on Craigslist

Making money on Craigslist is one of the most over-looked things, but also one of the easiest things, if done correctly.


Craigslist is one of the most visited sites on the internet today, with millions upon, millions of visitors a day. With this many visitors daily, it is very easy to get a nice chunk of traffic with your postings. I have put some tips together for you guys, apply these, and you WILL make money!

                                                  DON'T POST DUPLICATE POSTS! Posting duplicate posts will do nothing for you but get your ads taken down. Yes, it is easy to just copy and paste, and make over 100 ads within minutes, but it won't do you any good

. Tip 2: USE DIFFERENT IPS! Using different IPs is another way to avoid getting your ad flagged. One way Craigslist will know to flag your posts is by looking at the IP you are using. If they see multiple ads from the same IP, they will most likely flag your ad, thus your profits will suffer. (Wait, you won't have any.) One way you can change your IP is by using a proxy. If you want a list of them, check out proxy.org. They have thousands of them.

 Tip 3: DONT  SPAM! Spaming is the easiest way to not make money on Craigslist. Do not post something, blatantly spamming your URL.
This is an example of what NOT to do: "HEY GUYS CHECK OUT MY SITE ITS THE BEST!!!! LOL11!!! http://myaffiliatelink.com LOL OK GO THER PLX" Doing this is also a good way to get banned from your CPA network as well, which also is not a good thing.

 Tip 4: CATCH THE CURIOSITY OF THE READER! This is one of the most important tips of all. By catching the curiosity of the reader you have a much higher chance of getting an email from them, or getting a click on your link. Also, make sure to keep your ad short - this will help catch their curiosity.

 Tip 5: DON'T GIVE UP, EVER! That's it, DON'T GIVE UP. Giving up is the easiest way to not make money online. To make money you must stick with it. I know it will be hard, but when you finally do get that first sale, or that first lead, it's the greatest feeling ever. If you can do it once, you can do it a million times.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

The Success Mindset

In order to succeed in life, whether it be in business, relationships or sports, you will need to have the right mindset.



Most people simply do not know how powerful their minds are and how it can be the determining factor behind their success.

A lot of people have failed simply because their minds were never in the right place.

Here are 5 success traits you should have to be able to really succeed.



Determination



Successful people are simply more determined than those that are not. This is a trait that is seen in every person that is successful in their given field.



Relaxed Despite Adversity



If you are a business owner, you have most likely dealt with a lot of problems. The way that you deal with this adversity will shape who you are as a person and as a businessman.

If you are able to stay relaxed despite adversity, you will be able to become more successful.



Knowledge



Smart people are simply smarter but this is not talking about grades in college. Knowledge with everyday things and common sense is very important and you will need to understand just how important it is to have a lot of knowledge.



Invest



Successful people will not be afraid to invest in themselves. Whether it is for training, practicing or something that will help with their success, successful people will simply invest in their success.



No fear of failure



If you have no fear of failure, then you will be able to see success clearer. Once you are able to rid your mind from the fear of failure, you will be able to be more successful.



These are just some of the traits that successful people have but you can certainly have them as well. Just as long as you are patient and you try to incorporate these traits, you will be able to succeed in any aspect of life.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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How to Make Sure Your Customer is Not a Statistic

When a customer walks into your office, you want to make sure they feel welcome, you want to treat your customer as though they are a piece of gold, and not as a statistic.

Have you ever been standing in a line, and when it comes to your turn to be waited on, the sales associate yells out “next?”

Just thinking about that scenario makes me cringe. It is hardly a way to build a relationship with your customer.

I have been working in sales for years, and I have literally had customers tell me that the most important thing to them is to be appreciated and not treated as a statistic.

Keep this in mind the next time you wait on a customer, instead of yelling “next,” you can politely say, “may I help you Ms. Jones.”

We all have our daily, weekly, and monthly goals that we must meet. And with this pressure applied to our daily work day, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that it is the customer who is the most important thing when it comes to our company’s existence. They are the backbone. Without customers, we cease to exist.

Here are a few tips to ensure that your customer is appreciated by you and your company, and not viewed as just another number in line.

1. Address Your Customer by Name

When addressing your customer, make sure you call them by name. This will put your relationship with your customer on a personal level, and customers like to know that they are remembered. It gives them a felling of importance with you, and your company.

2. Don’t Hurry Them Out the Door

The last thing the customer wants is to be hurried out the door. Remember.  You are running a business, where people are your greatest asset. You are not on an assembly line manufacturing cars, so don’t treat your customer as though you are.

When you are finished with your customer’s transaction, ask if there is anything else you can do for them, or if they have any questions for you. You could even use this opportunity to ask if you could go over some of your companies products with them, which you feel could benefit them.

The last thing you want to do is get them in and get them out.

3. Discuss Non-Business Topics

There is more beneath the surface of your customers than just the business that they do with you. People love to talk about themselves, such as their family, their job’s, their pets, their hobbies, etc.
So ask your customer about one of the topics mentioned above, I guarantee they will be delighted to tell you all about it.

This is also a great way to get to know your customer, and build a strong relationship with them.

A strong business relationship is a great opportunity to obtain all of your customer’s business as well as the business of all of their friends and relatives through referrals.

So remember, don’t treat your customer like a statistic, treat them as you would treat one of your friends.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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How To Overcome Fear Of Failure

In almost every aspect of life, there will be a fear of failure.

Even the greatest of all time in different walks of life have had the fear of failure but the trick is to learn how to use that energy and to turn it into something positive.



If you do not have some sort of fear, then you most likely are not human. This is because humans are wired to have fear but once you are able to turn this fear into energy towards succeeding, you will then start to see the amazing changes in your life.



Depending on what the situation is, when you have a fear of failure, it most likely comes from the fact that you are lacking confidence.



If you are confident in your craft, then you will have less fear of failure. The goal is to have very little fear and to basically try to get as close to "fearless" as possible.

The closer you get to that euphoric state, then you will start to see that life was never too difficult.

Once you get into the habit of always fearing failure, you will never open yourself up to ever feeling what success feels like.

You need to realize that every problem has a solution and only time will reveal the answer.

If for some reason you do "fail," remember that this is only to test your patience because as cliche as it may sound, things will happen for a reason, no matter how bad things seem.

So you need to be thankful for every moment of your life and to remember that success and failure should be greeted with open arms.

When you have this in mind, you will inevitably lose the fear of failure because you know that everything will happen for a reason.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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How To Write Dynamic Sales Letters

You, like all marketers have a million and one things to do today!  At the top of your priorities is marketing... finding more customers and raking in greater profits.  If you’re looking for a simple, proven model to create sales content without spending hours hunched over the computer, try the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model.  You’ll be amazed at how fast you can create an effective salesletter.

1.  Attention
What captures a reader’s attention more than an exciting list of things that will benefit THEM?  Think about the affects of starting right off with 6 of the most appealing benefits of your product or service. 

A Multi Level Marketer might start a sales letter like this:

* Experience the freedom of ...
* Being your own boss
* Financial independence
* Benefit 3 and so on .....

That gets their attention, and compels them to read on.

2.  Interest
Here’s where we sneak in the basic facts that might otherwise be uninteresting.  The nitty gritty details of the product features won’t hold the customer’s attention for long, so keep it short and sweet.  Hey, it’s great that your swimming pools have filters, etc., but let’s face it... there’s not a lot of excitement going on here!

3.  Desire
Whet their appetite, but give them some cold, hard logic to back up their purchase.  Most consumers buy on impulse, then ask themselve whether it was the right choice.  Don’t make them second guess!  Preparing them to face the doubts with a solid logical reason they got the best deal for their buck might include:

* The advantages of purchasing from YOU.

* Testimonials from other satisfied customers.

* An unconditional money-back guarantee.

* A good deal!

4.  Action
Order now!  Hey it says move it, but it doesn’t pack the wallop of a stronger action statement like this one:

Hurry!  Don’t miss out on this LIMITED TIME special offer.  Call now to place an order, or visit us at www.....

Be sure to give details of how to order.  Make it a part of the command... make it easy to do... provide several options.

To your Success

Tim McTaggart

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