{"id":19863,"date":"2013-04-29T13:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=19863"},"modified":"2013-04-29T13:00:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T13:00:26","slug":"petes-weekly-ideas-for-you-in-free-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/29\/petes-weekly-ideas-for-you-in-free-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Petes Weekly: Ideas For You In Free Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ideas in this free series<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1. Compile a List of Competitors<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Today your job is simple:\u00a0Compile a list of up to 10 of your competitors.<\/b>\u00a0(More is better, but only if you have time.) Keep that list safe. We will be using it later.<\/p>\n

Use\u00a0Google Search<\/a>\u00a0to find them, if you have to. Search for the stuff you sell, and see who else sells it.<\/p>\n

Then look at their websites. Look at what they are doing differently than you are. Look at their approach to the same folk you are trying to sell to. Look at the features they are selling, and the benefits they offer. It\u2019s the cheapest marketing course you can possibly find, and it is directly relevant to what you sell. (Resist the temptation to compare your website to theirs!)<\/p>\n

Put all of this on a piece of paper, and put it somewhere safe.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Staying Focused : A Simple Sales Dashboard<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Long before the Internet, the daily work was piled on our desks in heaps of paper. And as we finished each task, we moved that piece of paper (or that file) into the OUTBOX.<\/p>\n

It was simple, and if you were a lowly clerk as I was for the first eight years of my career, it was easy to pace yourself. The tasks arrived in your INBOX each morning. You plodded through each task as slowly as you get away with. A good day ended just as your INBOX reached empty.<\/p>\n

Today e-mail spews out of your screen thick and fast like a fire hydrant. In a survey at a\u00a0BW<\/a>\u00a0seminar a while ago we found that the average person is dealing with about 50 e-mails each day. Less than one these is a request from somebody to \u201cSell me something now please.\u201d This is the main problem with email: It distracts you from your core role.<\/p>\n

The next problem with e-mail is that there is no sense of progress. It\u2019s like Hercules cleaning up the\u00a0Augean stables<\/a>. Within a few minutes your empty INBOX is filling up again. And as long as it\u2019s filling up, you are not focusing on selling. There is nothing to prompt you to do the only work you will be paid for: Selling.<\/p>\n

I have a simple but effective solution.<\/p>\n

Choose how many sales you want to make each day. (If the number is less than one per day, then choose a number for the week.)<\/p>\n

Gather the same number of Post-It Notes together. On each write JUST ONE MORE SALE. (Make sure that the sticky side is on the left hand side of the back.)\u00a0\u00a0 And then, number your post-it notes from one up to your daily target number.<\/p>\n

Neatly stack them with the biggest number on top.\u00a0 Stick the pile to the top right hand side of your computer screen. You\u2019re not going to miss seeing that, are you? Now you know how many sales you\u00a0still<\/i>\u00a0have to do today.<\/p>\n

By lunchtime, after swimming through turds like a Norwegian salmon swimming up river, you won\u2019t have noticed any change in that rather big number facing you. It\u2019s at this point that you will realise that it doesn\u2019t matter what you do today, unless that number starts going down as you make sales, you are not making any money for all of this swimming that you are doing.<\/p>\n

And so, you will pick up the phone, or e-mail somebody, or write a marketing e-mail, or write a letter, or anything else that you can think of, to make just one more sale. And the moment you make just one more sale, Peel the top Note off and put it on the left-hand side of your screen upside down.<\/p>\n

On the right-hand side of your screen will still be a reminder of the sales you must still make today.\u00a0So make just one more sale.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep making just one more sale until all your Post-It Notes have moved across to the left. You are now my hero!<\/p>\n

Tonight, just before you leave your desk,\u00a0 transfer the pile of Post-It Notes back to the right. And, tomorrow, if you can, start selling a little earlier.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Do not open your email until your marketing is done.<\/h3>\n

Almost all email is a distraction.<\/strong><\/p>\n