Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Verticals

Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Verticals Wholesale Order Entry center – overview for consultant

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has substantial market share and strong support by Microsoft on the US market. Currently we see the trend in the vertical markets when companies with custombuilt accounting application, usually written on legacy platform are switching to standard and proven ERP solution and customize or tailor it to fit their vertical market requirements. We’ll be publishing series of vertical articles: Logistics, Distribution Centers, Warehouse Management, Barcoding, Shipping/Receiving, eCommerce, EDI, Wholesale. Today we’ll give you Wholesale tailoring scenario

Sales Order Processing improvements to work with large number of wholesale order takers:

Sales Order Processing stand alone Great Plains Dexterity application, which works with Microsoft Great Plains SQL databases to feed in orders. This application, written as from scratch Dexterity application doesn’t requires hundreds of Great Plains user licenses and will work with SOP tables with improved functionality

Online Sales History by Customer. If you are order taker and this is wholesale business – each customer has certain level of negotiated price, which it is comfortable to pay. Also this customer is ordering known set of products from you. It is nice to have list of historical items he ordered in the past several months and their negotiated prices

Recommend Items to your customer. You can easily design items to recommend logic, when you link your new items or related items with the items your customer is usually ordered. This is how Amazon book sale works!

Sales People Competition. In addition to the above online sales tools you can have average profitability of the item per period and by sales person (assuming negotiation scenarios). Here you can have logic implemented allowing certain level of negotiation room and variable commission, related to strong negotiation and sales skills

Considering Microsoft Great Plains – majority of the logic above is implemented and could be implemented in Great Plains Dexterity. Alternative platform would be Microsoft C# or VB.Net ASPX web programming with Microsoft Great Plains at the back end. You can use such tools as eConnect to work with Great Plains object creation and retrieving or go ahead with direct SQL Stored Procedure. To certain level you could use legacy technologies, such as Great Plains Modifier with Continuum for VB, VBA scripting, etc.

Good luck and you can always seek our help in customization, implementation, integration and support. Call us: 18665280577 or 16309615918, [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 25

by Andrew Karasev

Website Globalization

Website Globalization

by: Sharon Housley

Globalize Your Website
The Internet has unlocked a wide array of markets and knocked down barriers that previously prevented merchants from marketing their products on a global scale. There are a number of ways to กglobalizeก a website and broaden a businesses general appeal to an international audience.
1.) Payment Options vary from country to country, therefore offering flexible payment options are important. While PayPal might be a good option for consumeroriented products, this service is not widely used by businesses and is only available to customers in specific countries. In order to attract global customers, businesses must provide a variety of payment options that customers, in different countries, are familiar and comfortable with.
2.) Currency Distinction provides added convenience to a potential customer, and shows an understanding and respect for global audiences. A currency converter is a good option, especially for large companies who may be dealing with many countries. When listing prices clearly indicate the country currency, such as between US dollars and Canadian dollars. This distinction will prevent misconceptions and prevent customer dissatisfaction.
3.) Contact Information should be given for a country code, along with the area code, when listing phone numbers. It should not be assumed that customers know the numbers to dial foreign calls. Since the standards of address formats can differ from country to country, ensure that the mailing address listed on the website is properly formatted. In this time of rapidly expanding use of numbers, if your area code changes, don’t forget to change the information on your website.
4.) Delivery Options should make sense for all customers. Ensure that they have full knowledge of shipping information to avoid delay and error. If a shipping option is not available for a specific region be sure that is clearly stated on the website. Provide estimates as to when the product will arrive to various regions, so that customers have appropriate expectations about delivery time frames.
5.) Order Forms when creating order forms use terminology that is universal; if possible, where relevant, refer to postal codes rather than zip codes. The terminology on the order form should support the fact that the company sells to an international audience.
6.) Payment Policy clearly state payment policies on any order pages, if purchase orders or wire transfers are not accepted from specific countries be sure that the policy is clearly stated. Prepare an explanation as to why the policies are in place. Customers understand that foreign purchase orders are not legally binding and will not feel alienated if an explanation is offered and clearly stated.
7.) Spelling can vary, so avoid using terminology on the website that would cause confusion or look like careless spelling mistakes. Be clear and concise as many customers may be viewing your website in their second language. A website that can be viewed in different languages is all the better for communicating with foreign customers.
Ultimately the goal is to make purchasing the product or service easy for a customer. A website that respects cultural differences, as well as the nuances of language and terminology, will go a long way in attracting an international audience.

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.smallbusinesssoftware.net

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by Sharon Housley

Snowflakes Improve Holiday Sales

Snowflakes Improve Holiday Sales

by: Marilyn Pokorney

Snowflakes are beautiful!

For the Winter Holiday sales season handcrafted snowflakes are the perfect touch. They lend an aura of a mystical winter wonderland to any room, house or office decor.

You may ask กWhat has snowflakes got to do with internet marketing?ก

A free gift with every order gives you the competitive edge over your competitors.

Everyone likes getting something for free. And what better time for gifts than Christmas time!

Reward your customers with the enjoyment of a unique free gift not available in stores. Youกll make your customers feel special! And that means more sales! Your customers will know that you have a real interest in them as people, not as mere sales prospects.

Include a beautiful snowflake free in your orders and youกll improve your Christmas sales 100 percent!

There are two ways you can do this:

You can tell your customers that they will receive a free gift with every order. The suspense of not knowing what the free gift is makes it even more exciting and fun! Some people will order just for the fun and expectation of getting a free gift! They wonder what could it possibly be?

Or simply send it along with the order. Finding an unexpected gift will greatly enhance your customers appreciation for your first rate service.

You don’t need to go to any great expense for your free gifts. Itกs the ‘thought that counts.ก

Unlike pens, pencils, calendars and other items that have a temporary lifetime give something that will last forever. It will always remind them of you and the excellent service they received by ordering from you.

It will make a huge difference in your sales for the upcoming year. Customers who receive exceptional service will order again and again. That means repeat sales and more money for you.

Snowflakes are available at my website listed in the box below.

About The Author

Author: Marilyn Pokorney

Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment.

Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.

Website: http://www.apluswriting.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 28, 2003

by Marilyn Pokorney

How To Create Urgency So People Buy Now

How To Create Urgency So People Buy Now

by: Steve Li

You must create urgency so people will buy your products or services now. They may not revisit your web site or see your ad again.

How do you do this? You must use a limited time offer. Limited time offers stop people from putting off buying your products or services. It stops them from procrastinating.

There are many different types of limited time offers. Here are a few.

Limited Time Price Offers For example, Order Now! While the price is still low. After Dec 23,1999 this price will go up to…

Limited Time Discount Offers For example, Order before Midnight, Nov. 5,1999 and you will get 25% discount!

Limited Time Free Bonus Offers For example, Order before April 2, 2000 and youกll get a free bonus!

Limited Time In Stock Offers For example, Order Now! While supplies last! After Oct. 31,1999 we can’t guarantee we will have any left in stock.

Iกm not saying everyone will order the first time they see your ad. They may not be interested in your products or services. It depends on your ad and the person reading the ad. If they are interested, usually, limited time offers will make them buy now.

About The Author

Steve Li is the webmaster of http://pushbuttonincomes.com. You can read more articles like this by subscribing to his twiceweekly Newsletter. Send a blank email to: mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe get a free course กOnline Advertising for the Completely Clueless!ก

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 18

by Steve Li

Ten Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

Ten Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

by: Michael Southon

(1) Create a Direct Response Website, with the minimum number of pages possible (e.g. an Index Page, a Contact Page, and an Order Page).

(2) Make sure your sales copy is positive and inspiring people buy things because they want to improve their lives.

(3) Identify a problem and show people how and why your product or service solves the problem.

(4) Keep your paragraphs short no more than 2 sentences per paragraph.

(5) Use bold headings to break up your sales copy into short chunks of text.

(6) Use a bulleted list to itemize the benefits of your product or service. Start each benefit with an action word: ‘turnก, กmakeก, ‘tripleก, กgrabก, กcreateก, กbuildก, กconvertก, กstartก, กchangeก, กdriveก, กorganizeก, กpromoteก, กdevelopก, กlearnก, กcompelก, กfillก, กattractก, กgetก, กearnก, ‘takeก, กdiscoverก, กproduceก, กfindก, กgenerateก, กacquireก. กinspireก, กsendก, กblastก.

(7) Give your visitors at least 3 order links (e.g. 1/3rd of the way down your page, 2/3rds the way down, and at the bottom). But don’t stop there turn some of your key phrases into hyperlinks that go to your order page. Here are some examples of phrases that you could link to your order page: กincrease your salesก, ‘take advantage of this offerก, ‘try it riskfree for 30 daysก, กget the following 5 bonusesก, ‘the competitive edge you needก, ‘this riskfree offerก.

(8) Use purple (#990099, R=153 G=0 B=153) text the color purple (used sparingly) has been shown to increase sales.

(9) Give a time limit most people are procrastinators.

(10) At the end of your sales copy make a call to action: กAct now don’t let this opportunity pass byก

(c) 2002 by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on July 31, 2002

by Michael Southon

Are You Irresistibly Attractive?

Are You Irresistibly Attractive?

by: Kimberly Stevens

If you’ve done any reading on the subject of marketing, you’ve certainly heard the term ขUnique Selling Propositionข or ขUSP.ข

As a reminder, your USP is what positions you in the marketplace are you, or what you sell, the best, the cheapest, the fastest, the easiest, the longest lasting, the most reliable, the most prestigious? Your USP is what makes you distinct from your competitors, but it’s often the thing firsttime business owners don’t fully understand.

Lara and I just started working together last month, and one of the first things we had to tackle was her USP. As a web site designer, she is part of a welldeveloped marketplace often competing with several other companies for every job.

ขI really don’t know why they keep picking the other guy. It’s so frustrating after I’ve worked so hard to get in the door in the first place. The only way I feel like I can get the job is if I underbid it, but I’ll never be able to keep my business running that way.ข

ขWell, you’re right,ข I replied. ขYou shouldn’t have to lower your prices just to get every job. There are certainly web designers out there who are charging less than you, but there are probably an equal number of them that are charging more. So, if we assume that there are companies hiring your higher priced competitors, then maybe price isn’t what every prospect bases their decision on.ข

ขIt sure has been for me. That’s always the reason they say they didn’t choose me. It makes me think that I’m going to have to lower my prices in order to get any work, but like I said, I’m not charging anything out of the ordinary. My hourly rate is at the market average as far as I can tell.ข

There were a couple of issues that we explored during the rest of the conversation, including her pricing, her competitors, her target market, her mission, etc. But the one that really hit home was her USP.

Up until this point, Lara didn’t realize that she was the one forcing her prospects to make their decisions based on price. She was marketing using the Competition Model instead of the Distinction Model.

In the Competition Model, your prospects see you as offering the same service as your competitors. In their mind, there is no delineation between what you and your competitors offer and how you offer it. So the only decisionmaking factor they are left with is price.

If they think all web designers offer the same level of web site design, can complete it in the same time frame and will be equally professional, what’s left? That’s right … price.

Think about how you make buying decisions. If you are getting your clothes drycleaned every week and you think that the three local dry cleaners all do a decent job, will have your suits ready in two days, and are equally friendly or disagreeable, aren’t you going to go with the cheapest one?

But some dry cleaners pick up and deliver don’t they? Some offer tailoring and mending services in addition to dry cleaning. Others set up shop inside large grocery stores, so you can knock out two errands in one stop.

These things make them distinct from their competitors. There are people who will pay a little more in order to have their dry cleaning picked up. There are others that will pay a little more to be able to drop it off and pick it up at the same time they are buying their week’s groceries.

If you don’t want to compete strictly on price, you’ve got to be DISTINCT from your competitors. That way, your prospects have something, besides price, to base their decision on. By emphasizing that distinction in your marketing efforts, you will naturally attract those prospects who value your distinction.

And when you are Irresistibly Attractive, the sales pressure is off. You just go out there, show them who you are and what you can do, and they come to you!

So how do you make you and your business DISTINCT and, therefore, Irresistibly Attractive? By creating your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

What makes you different than your competitors? Are you faster? Do you deliver better quality? Are you more responsive to their needs? Are you closer in proximity? Do you specialize in a particular industry?

Take a moment to put yourself in the mind of your prospects. If you were hiring someone to perform your kind of service, what would you want?

You can practice by thinking about your own buying decisions. If I was hiring someone to clean my house, I would want them to:

do an impeccable cleaning job

show up on the scheduled day/time

avoid breaking/taking things

smoke outside of my house, if they smoke

charge $100 or less

If I could find someone to do these things for $65, I would hire them. But, if I would have to sacrifice the quality of their work or their reliability in order to pay the lower price, I would go with someone else. It’s important to me to have a clean house and to know that I can count on that person to show up on Thursdays before I have guests arrive on Friday.

So, here’s the process:

make a list of the things you would look for if you were a prospect hiring someone to do your service

put that list in priority order

gather all of your sales materials together (e.g. printout of web site, business cards, letterhead, brochures, email signature lines, proposal, trade show displays, newsletter, sales letter, direct mailers, cold calling script, elevator speech, etc.)

set aside 12 hours to review all of your materials to see what message you are sending to your prospects

revise your materials as needed

When you review your materials, try to look at them with fresh eyes as a prospect would. After going through them once and making notes about the impression they set, go through them again specifically looking for the top two distinctions from your list.

Do your sales materials/tools really bring your message home? Are your top 2 distinctions clearly emphasized in your materials? Are there things you need to add, omit, or revise in order to create your distinct impression on your prospects?

Once you are communicating a very specific and consistent message about yourself and your business, you will find that you no longer have to sell. Business comes to you – and it’s the kind of work you like that pays you what you deserve.

About The Author

Kimberly Stevens is the author of the ebook series, *The Profitable Business Owner: A StepbyStep System for Starting & Running a Successful Service Business*. Download Sample Chapters & get her free MiniCourse, *The 10 Most Common Mistakes Business Owners Make & How To Avoid Them* at: http://www.askthebizcoach.com/ebooks.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 07, 2003

by Kimberly Stevens

Online Pests: Free Sample Trolls

Online Pests: Free Sample Trolls

by: Lisa Maliga

Bobbi of Montreal, Canada was known in certain online crafting forums as the ultimate free sample troll. You were a crafting nonentity if you hadn’t received a sample request from Bobbi. In March 2004, I became an honorary member as the notorious Canadian finally paid me a visit. It was a simple missive with a subject heading that read: ขsamples.ข Uh oh, that free sample troll, I thought. Yup, the brief text read: ขplease send samples and catalogue to: [address].ข

As the owner of a handcrafted [meaning I make everything myself!] bath & body products site, I don’t send out free samples. Nor do I have a print catalogue. Obviously Bobbi hadn’t read my site’s policies section on my ขAboutข page as it clearly stated that a free sample accompanied a paid order.

Last year on one of my soapmaking groups I went through the archives and learned that Bobbi of Canada was a legendary free sample troll. She prowled the ‘net in search of free soap, bath & body products, gourmet cookies, and small handmade gift items. Obviously Bobbi searched far and wide for freebies as one soapmaker posted this: ขWe got the same email…all the way over in Australia! I sent an email back letting Bobbi know that we were willing to provide samples as long as they covered the postage and handling and paid a $20.00 samples fee. No reply!ข

However, while Bobbi was the first free sample troll to contact me, I soon became aware of others. I learned that free sample trolls were often proficient in doling out flattery. Here’s an excerpt from a Mavis of Florida: ขYour products sound wonderful – would it be possible to request a catalog or brochure? Also, your coconut soap sounds absolutely enticing! May I request a small sample of this soap?ข Wonder why ol’ Mavis was writing to me? That last sentence was the clincher – she wanted to ingratiate herself and by doing so get the ol’ something for nothing. It didn’t work though because my policy was a very firm – no free samples. As a soapmaker, I ran a small business not a large charity.

She wrote back requesting a special order product and when I gave her the quote there was no reply. Until a few months later. By now I had a fully working web site with a PayPal shopping cart. She didn’t use the shopping cart, instead sending me a request for some soaps, offering to pay for it via check [uh oh!] and wanting it sent regular mail in order to save $1.92. Naturally she expressed a wish for a free sample, even specifying which soap was to be the freebie. She ended her mock order with: ขP.S. I wish I could buy more but at this time, itกs so hard. I just had a wedding for my daughter and the bills are piling up. So you know how that is.ข

Actually, I don’t have any children, so no. But if the Floridian had just paid for a wedding, what the heck was an additional TEN DOLLARS including her discounted shipping?

Almost two weeks passed before she wrote back, using an excuse about her server going down. She revised her email order [again, bypassing the shopping cart], lowering the amount to $7. A check was promised. It never came.

Free sample trolls devalue a product that often takes hours to craft, not to mention the amount of research and development that goes into creating that product. Time spent answering fantasy requests detracts from an online shop owner’s business earnings. Freebie hunters probably don’t bother to think about such incidental details. All they want is the gratification of knowing that someone gave them a product that they never intended to purchase. While some people genuinely are interested in buying a product and do need to try it firsthand, most of the serial free sample trolls only want something that requires no money or effort from them.

Last August Jennifer from Kansas contacted me: ขI am a person with extremely sensitive skin that is in search of products that do not cause my skin to burn and itch. If possible could you please send me a catalog of your products as well as a few small samples for me to try. Any help that you can give me will be greatly appreciated. My address is:ข

Upon receiving a pleasant email about my no free sample policy and the fact that for a few dollars she could receive a product, there was no more correspondence from Jennifer!

The best example of a genuine free sample troll hailed from New York. Rather unusual was the fact that this troll was a man. ขHello, my wife is throwing a shower for about 100 people and would like to order a huge assortment of soaps, but since she has never tried yours before she asked me to ask for a few samples to try, so if you could send me a few samples, I would appreciate it. The shower is in 3 weeks so if you could get them to me as soon as possible, I would appreciate it. Joe S.ข

The man wanted the soap favors supplied by various soapmakers from around the world for free! He contacted handcrafted soapmakers from Canada, Minnesota, Georgia, Oregon and even Australia! Mr. S. tried to cater to the greed factor by using the term ขa huge assortmentข and he also wanted not just a sample, but also ขa few samples.ข

As Mr. S. used his work email address I was able to contact his employers who promptly took action and an apology was sent.

Meanwhile, Bobbi from Canada still trolls the internet in search of free samples as evidenced by this soapmaker back in June 2004: ขI have gotten one from her. Wanting free samples and free brochures… Ummm one would think the site she just landed on and went straight to the contact page would have worked as a brochure…guess she was too busy to read…ข

And here, by another crafter: ขThis gal was pretty obvious in trolling for freebies. This one basically just said give me, hereกs my mailing address.ข

The anonymity of the internet allows a ripe field of products to effortlessly harvest for those free sample trolls. But it also can enter the level of conning as evidenced here: ขI am an associate editor for [name], a national magazine. I am interested in featuring your soaps in our holiday issue. I am especially interested in the wine soaps. Please let me know if you can send some samples.ข Wanting to make certain this was legitimate; I called the magazine’s office to confirm the editor’s address and discovered that she no longer worked there!

One of the most thoughtful free sample requests occurred last autumn with this pleasant missive: ขThe products on your site look fabulous, we would love to see some samples for editorial consideration. My address is enclosed below. In the meantime, please let me know if you are interested in learning about the various promotional opportunities available on our site including our upcoming holiday gifts section.ข

The free sample troll had now escalated into someone not only wanting gratis products, but also wanting money from me in order to further promote them on her site.

Last month I heard from Denise, another free sample troll who was apparently unable to click on links to products that were clearly listed. ขI wanted to know if you have [name of product] as I have very dry skin and looking for a good product for this. If you do please let me know the prices for that.ข I wrote back and gave her the links. She immediately wrote back: ขLet me send in my orders then for the [name of product] and see how it works.ข

Obviously that order never went through, as I didn’t get another email from her. Just another free sample troll trolling for a freebie…

By Lisa Maliga

© 2005

About The Author

Lisa Maliga

Read and learn at http://www.lisamaliga.com. Discover the diverse writings ranging from free soap and bath & body recipes to fiction, figure skating, aromatherapy, herbal hints, and helpful publishing advice. Learn more about web design and promotion. This is the literary home of Lisa Maliga, owner of http://www.EverythingShea.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 19, 2005

by Lisa Maliga

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

by: Neil Moran

A StepByStep Guide for creating imaginative order pulling adverts for both on and offline marketing

OK, let’s get started!

Rule One The Headline

The headline is without doubt the most important part of your advert, that big chunky text at the top of your ad, if this doesn’t grab their attention then you’ve lost a potential customer/sale.

The sole function of your headline is to get the readers attention so that they will read the rest offer your offer, right? That’s obvious, but pick up any newspaper and take a look at the classified section and look at all those lousy headlines :

Increase Your Sales Today

Beat Inflation

The above headlines hardly make you want to read on, do they? In fact they’d be lucky to get a second glance.

Let’s say, for example, you was trying to promote a book about working from home on the Internet, what would be a good imaginative headline?

Learn How To Work From Home On The Internet

Yawn!…Boring! Not exactly imaginative is it?

Or

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

Hhmm….No prizes for guessing which headline would get their attention!

Rule Two The Subheading

With the subheading you should just give the reader a couple of lines of text to draw them into the main body of your advert, such as:

Millions of people all over the world are making a fortune working in their underpants! Discover how YOU can do it too.

Now they’ve just got to read on, I haven’t even mentioned the Internet yet, I’m pretty sure they’ll want to know what I’m talking about.

Rule Three The Body Text

The body text of your advert is where you have the chance to ‘sell’ the reader your product, it’s time to make that sale!

This is where a lot of people blow it, instead of concentrating on what benefits the customer can gain from their product or service they just ramble on how good their company or product is.

For example, for the Internet book I could write:

กI’ve been marketing on the Internet for over 20 years, last year alone I made over £250,000 from selling just one product…ก

So what? Big deal! I’m not interested in how good you are, what can you do for ME, the customer?

Make a list of all the benefits people will get by buying your product and work them into your body text keeping the focus on your reader.

So, for the Internet book we could have:

Discover the free way to get thousands of people advertising your product and YOU keep all the profit!

Learn how to start your own Internet business for less than the price of a pizza.

How to get your hands on top selling Internet products free.

Get a systematic marketing system that works while you sleep.

Insider secrets to email marketing revealed.

How to TRIPLE your sales using one simple technique that doesn’t cost a dime!

How to advertise your product just once and keep on selling it for years to come automatically.

How to build websites which really pull in the money and that take less than an hour to build.

etc. etc.

That’s better, now we’ve got their interest peaked, they are surely intrigued by now, we still need some more body copy to go along with these bullet points, such as:

Discover how you can earn what you want, when you want without leaving home!

For the first time ever a top Internet marketer teaches you how to stake your claim on the Internet spending little to no money. You don’t need any Internet knowledge, business premises or employees, just a home computer and this powerful book. This stepbystep book will teach you how to….

Rule Four The Coupon / Order Form

The coupon or order form should ALWAYS restate the price and briefly describe what you are selling.

If the price is right for them, they will then read your entire advert before making a buying decision.

Keeping this in mind, it would be WRONG to have the coupon or order form say:

กPlease send me a copy of How To Work In Your Underpants, I enclose a cheque for £14.99 made payable to Joe Bloggs….ก

This is wrong because you haven’t resold the product, it should look something like this:

กYes, I would like the secret inside information on how to make money on the Internet, please send me a copy of the book How To Work In Your Underpants. I enclose a cheque/P.O. (Includes postage and packing) for £14.99 made payable to Joe Bloggs…..etcก

Now anyone who has just scanned your ad and gone straight to the order form will be intrigued enough to read the whole advert!

Don’t confuse your customers

You must be very clear as to how much your customer is going to pay, don’t confuse them, a confused customer won’t buy!

If your product costs £20 plus £5 postage and packing then your order form should say:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. for £25 (£20 plus £5 p&p) made payable to Joe Bloggsก

If you do not P&P then you should state this in on your order form:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. for £25 (price includes p&p) made payable to Joe Bloggsก

It is common practise to inflate the p&p price in order to deflate the product price, don’t go over the top though.

Whenever you see the word ‘handling’, as in ‘post, packing and handling’, you know that you are seeing an inflated p&p figure. The word ‘handling’ can be used to justify any amount of expense if someone queries the fact they have been charged £8 p&p and when they get the product it’s got a 50 pence stamp on it.

Rule Five The Guarantee

You’re selling a quality product, right? There shouldn’t be any reason why the customer will be unhappy with your product, is there? So you should be able to offer customers a full, no questions asked, money back guarantee.

Don’t put any conditions on your guarantee, i.e., ขif you’re not 100% happy with your product, just return it with it’s original packaging for a full refundข, with a guarantee like that the customer will think, ขOh, I see, if I actually take it out of the wrapping they won’t refund my money! sneaky !#@&*!ข. Keep it simple and put a time limit on your guarantee:

ขIf you’re not totally satisfied with the book Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS! simply return it within 30 days of receipt for a full refund.ข

Rule Six Typefaces & Graphics

The purpose of your ad is to get the readers attention, there’s no need for fancy typefaces, colours or images (unless it’s a picture of your product).

Make it easy for the customer to read, there’s no need to give them a headache or eye strain when they read your advert.

Rule Seven Always ‘Close’ The Sale

Anyone who’s had any kind of training in sales will be able to tell you the importance of closing a sale which is basically a quick run down of the benefits of your product and then asking for the order.

No matter how good your advert is, if you don’t close the sale at the end of your advert, that’s another potential customer lost! You must evoke some kind of buying action, make them see that they’ve got nothing to lose by just trying your fantastic product, get that order! i.e.:

กOrder your copy of Go To Work In Your Underpants TODAY and try it out for 3 whole months, if the secrets of Internet success outlined in this incredible book don’t work for you just simply return it for a FULL, no questions asked, refund.ก

Rule Eight Make It Easy To Order

Offer as many different ways for them to pay as you can, cheque, postal order, credit card, egold, or paypal etc.

Try and offer a FREEPOST address for them to send the money, it’s bad enough trying to find an envelope in most households, never mind a stamp.

Make sure it’s clear EXACTLY how much they have to pay for your product, including postage and packing, i.e.:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. (Includes postage and packing) for £14.99 made payable to…ก

Don’t expect people to calculate it for themselves.

If you don’t have a coupon or order form on your advert, let them know they don’t have to write you a letter explaining why they’ve sent you a cheque in the first place. For a no coupon advert you would write something like:

‘to order your book, write your NAME and ADDRESS on a piece of paper, enclose a cheque/P.O. for £14.99 (includes postage and packing) and send it to Joe Bloggs FREEPOST, 14 Anystreet, Sometown, England.ก

Rule Nine Know Your Target Audience & Market

It’s very important that you know who your target audience is and that you craft your adverts accordingly.

Don’t use long words that most people wouldn’t know the meaning of, keep your sentences short, simple, and to the point.

How would your product benefit your target audience? Why should they buy your product? What are it’s key features?

Never talk about ‘you’ in your adverts, the customer only cares about ‘themselves’ and how your product will enhance THEIR lives.

OK that concludes the rules for crafting order pulling adverts, you may not be able to sell ice to the Eskimos, but you’ll at least have a better chance than most!

About The Author

For the FULL version of this article and an example of how the finished advert will look, visit: http://www.forfreedom.ws/order_pulling_advert.htm

This article was posted on February 09, 2004

by Neil Moran

Does Your Shopping Cart Have a Squeaky Wheel?

Does Your Shopping Cart Have a Squeaky Wheel?

by: Megan Corwin

Have you ever gone grocery shopping just before a holiday? The aisles are packed with people pushing carts, shelves need restocked, all the checkout lanes have long lines…not a fun experience.

Just like inperson shopping, making online shopping easy and painless is key to getting customers to purchase from your store.

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Letกs examine the internet shopping process from start to finish exposing some places in the process that your store may have a squeaky cart.

Make the Product Easy to Find

Offer a search capability if your store has a large number of products. Most buyers don’t have the patience to wade through 20 pages of products to find what they want.

Share Availability Early On

Now that the customer has found the product, let them know that it is in stock and ready to ship. Right on the product page or when they place it in their shopping cart let the customer know their purchase can be on its way soon. Don’t wait until after theyกve placed the order to tell them it will be another 68 weeks.

Streamline the Order Form

Limit your order form to the basics. Shipping information, credit card or payment information, and the quantity and order number are all it takes. This isn’t the place to conduct market research or ask for loads of information. Keep the order form short and simple. For future purchases, keep the customerกs data on file so they can fly through the ordering even faster next time.

Handling Your Shipping (and Handling)

One big reason many people don’t shop on the internet is that they have to pay for shipping. Offer a variety of shipping options to the customer so that she can decide how quickly she needs the item and what she is willing to pay to have the product delivered. Resist the temptation to add large handling fees to the shipping costs. What looked like a great online deal at $19.95 isn’t nearly as attractive when shipping + handling brings the total cost to $29.95.

Keeping your online order process simple and straightforward will enhance your customerกs satisfaction and the likelihood that they will visit your store again.

About The Author

Megan Corwin is an internet marketing coach who helps work at home professionals grow their businesses. Send an email to [email protected] to schedule a complimentary 30 minute coaching session. For more articles and advice about online marketing strategy and solutions, become a member of Megan’s online community for work at home women: http://www.wahwoman.com/membership.html

This article was posted on February 23, 2004

by Megan Corwin

5 Things Every Internet Marketer Must Learn From M

5 Things Every Internet Marketer Must Learn From Mail Order To Increase Their Profits Now!

by: Jo Han Mok

Understanding that the Internet is another vehicle for direct response marketing can potentially make you rich!

Itกs true. Not many people actually กget itก.

Information marketing has much in common with the กold schoolก mail order business. In fact, many of the practices you see online today such as two page direct sales minisites, mailing lists and unique products, come directly from the mail order model.

Every Internet Marketer would benefit from studying the mail order industry. The basic marketing principles and practices employed by the industry translate naturally to the online environment.

The five core priorities of successful mail order companies parallel those of the online marketer. They are: demographics, targeting, testing and tracking, upselling and customer follow up. If you aren’t focused on these key areas yet, read on to discover why should be, and what it will mean for your bottom line.

Direct Response Lesson #1: Demographics

Demographic information provides an in depth profile of your potential customer. There are two ways to acquire demographic information, and two separate motives for each method.

You can:

• Acquire data from consumer data mining companies such as MarketShare Online • Acquire data from your existing customer base

The preferred source depends on your product development process and your current resources. Professionally gathered data allows you to survey the market and create highly targeted products. Rather than searching through keyword lists for potential niches, you can use demographic data to target specific classes of consumers based on their spending habits and disposable income. Your marketing strategy becomes much clearer with this data in hand. It allows you advance insight into your customer’s interests, pricing points and mindset. Now, you have a baseline against which to test the effectiveness of your sales message.

You should also acquire as much demographic data as possible from your existing customer base and mailing list. Even when you possess the resources to pay for this information you should still query your own customers.

Why?

Quite simply, you need to compare the profile of your existing customer base against your expected customer base. For example, if you sell a highpriced information product targeted towards small business owners, yet find that 50% of your list is composed of nonqualified tirekickers, something is off with either your sales copy, your targeting or both.

Direct Response Lesson #2: Targeting

Here is a rule of thumb for you to memorize: interest and need alone are not enough to generate a sale. This is a controversial statement, I know. Ask yourself the following question, though: how often have you found yourself interested in a product yet not purchased it? How often have you needed a product, yet not been able to afford it?

The truth is that, in either case, despite your interest and your need, you were only marginally targeted when the offer was presented to you.

This subtle case points to the synergy between demographics and targeting. This is why mail order companies go to such great effort to acquire detailed information on the marketplace. Whether you send 100, 000 pieces of mail or pay for 100,000 visitors to your web site, the goal is the same: put the offer in front of the right people, at the right time. If you put the right offer in front of the right person at the wrong time, it’s the same as no offer at all. It is untargeted.

Direct Response Lesson #3: Testing and Tracking

You absolutely must test and track everything you do. You must track your payperclick campaigns, your newsletter mailings and the paths taken by visitors to your web site. You must test your ad copy and your product pricing.

The testing and tracking phase of a marketing campaign marks the proving ground between demographics and targeting. Once you’ve acquired the data on your potential customer’s behavior, you must track their actual behavior to find out if it matches the expected results.

Until you do this, you are really only guessing at what works. Every mail order company places a tracking code on their post cards. This allows them to zero in on the exact location, age, income, race and marital status of responsive customers. When you first launch a product online, however, you are essentially blind to this information until you start tracking. As you gather your data, however, you will discover which search engines and which newsletters pull the best. Over time, you will be able to match this up with deeper demographic data collected from your list and discover, at the very least, the age and income of your customers and which search engines they prefer.

Can you imagine knowing that men between the ages of 2434, for example, prefer Google, or that stay at home mothers prefer Yahoo? This type of data is priceless because it directs your targeting up front. This is the exact goldmine which awaits you when you devote careful attention to testing and tracking your campaigns.

Direct Response Lesson #4: Create Robust Order Forms for the UpSell

Your order form can pull more profit through impulse purchases than you realize. Many internet marketers seem to believe that one product should lead to one simple order form. This is probably due to so many of us being selftaught. We copy what we’ve seen.

Have you ever stopped to examine a mailin coupon or catalog form? Even when the offer ultimately focuses on one major product, the form still includes an upsell and sometimes even a counteroffer.

For example:

ขYes! I’d like to order the Incredible Bikini Wax System for $49.95 today! Also, please include my 14 ounce bottle of Instant Soothing Moisturizer, a perfect complement to the Incredible Bikini Wax System and a steal at only $9.99ข (UpSell)

ขYes, I’d like to subscribe to Golfing Today! Instead of the incredible offer of 12 issues for $14.99, I’d like to receive a full 52 issues a year for $29.95ข ( counteroffer)

The reason for doing this, of course, is that the customer is already interested and already in a buying mindset. You’ve done all the hard work to lead him to your site and you’ve enticed him with your sales letter. He’s on the order form with credit card in hand. Why not use this moment to make a complementary offer? You can upsell a related product of your own or that of one of your joint venture partners for a profit split.

There’s really no harm in making the offer. The customer will either take you up on it or he won’t. The important point here is that a robust order form, with additional offers, helps you squeeze out extra profit and cuts down the work of luring that customer back in the future to make additional purchases.

Direct Response Lesson #5: Post Sale Follow Up

What happens to your customer after the sale? Take a page from the book of mail order secrets and follow up with that customer! If you’ve ever purchased anything through a catalog, you know what happens. You end up on their mailing list and continue to receive catalogs and other offers in the mail.

In fact, you may receive so much mail from that one company that you become irritated! While I don’t recommend going overboard with your mailings, I do recommend moving your customers to an announcement list or newsletter.

You don’t want a one time shot with that individual. Rather, you want to build a lasting relationship. Your follow up process should be designed with several goals in mind:

• Keeping your name and brand in front of the customer • To build trust and credibility by sharing supporting material that adds value to the product • To maintain contact so that you can make additional offers in the future

Customer follow up is so important it can’t be stressed enough. There is a rule which states that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers. In other words, if someone purchases from you once, they are likely to purchase from you again provided you take appropriate action and keep them connected to you. Remember that your customers are human and may go through a variety of emotions after making a purchase.

They may experience buyer’s remorse. They may feel nervous about sharing their credit card information with you and then never hearing from you again. They may absolutely love you and your product and want to reach out for more information. You must tend to each of these variables in order to gain the customer’s trust and appreciation, so follow up!

What will you do with the five lessons presented to you in this article? You have before you a nearly complete outline of a profitable business system for online marketing. Take these principles to hear and put them into practice. Know your market. Speak to your market. Connect to your market. I guarantee your profits will soar.

Copyright 2004 Jo Han Mok

About The Author

Jo Han Mok is a frequent guest and featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences on subjects such as copywriting and Joint Venture Marketing. Visit his website to get a simple stepbystep plan that can take you from ground zero to having money deposited in your bank account from an online business every single day for the rest of your life!

==> http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

This article was posted on August 25, 2004

by Jo Han Mok

Microsoft Great Plains eCommerce – additional con

Microsoft Great Plains eCommerce – additional considerations for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Great Plains, designed back in 1990th as database transferable and graphical platform independent ERP application – Great Plains Dynamics/Dynamics C/S+/eEnterprise. For eCommerce developer the most important is to understand Great Plains tables structure and business processes in Sales Order Processing, Accounts Receivables, Inventory Control (inventory items allocation, backordering, etc), posting to Bank Reconciliation and General Ledger. And this is where Great Plains structure seems to be not transparent. Let’s give you highlights:

1. Great Plains Tables Structure. Open Great Plains, if on version 7.5 or prior, Tools>Resource Description>Tables, then you should select Sales series, explore these tables:

2. Sales Order Processing module (SOP)

SOP10100 – Sales Order Processing header

SOP10200 – Sales Order Processing lines

SOP10102 – Sales Distribution Work and History – it is how Invoices will be distributed in GL – in case if you are creating quote or sales order with the following processing in GP backend – you do not need distribution

3. Accounts Receivable module:

RM00101 – Customer Master

RM00102 – Customer Address Master – each customer can have multiple addresses for delivering, billing, statement mailing, etc.

4. Possible issues and recommendations:

If using eConnect – you may decide to transfer Sales Orders to Invoices automatically with eConnect – this might be tricky and additional scripting might be needed, especially if you are doing automatic order allocation by line item. If you are trying to relay on eConnect exclusively and not researching Great Plains Architecture – you will need additions to eConnect from third party vendor, such as Alba Spectrum Technologies, which has the whole set of SOP populating stored procedures

If you are not using eConnect and creating your own custom stored procedures – you should probably create orders or other objects in Great Plains and then look at the way how they were recorded in SOP tables

If you feel that you need to relay on Great Plains engine behind the scenes (because you feel that imitation will require you to rewrite substantial portion of Great Plains logic) – you could deploy Dexterity triggers from Great Plains side – this solution requires professional Dexterity programmer and is more reliable and upgrade – proof

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job give us a call 8665280577 or 6309615918! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 19

by Andrew Karasev

Web Front for Microsoft Great Plains – overview fo

Web Front for Microsoft Great Plains – overview for programmer

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Great Plains is very popular ERP solution from Microsoft and it is natural desire to enable data entry or querying for the Web users. In this short article we’ll try to give you the most typical cases, when our customers request webdesign for Microsoft Great Plains. We are also trying to be technical and give you some valuable information on Great Plains back end tables structure and data feeding. Beginning with Microsoft Great Plains version 8.0 the only database platform available is Microsoft SQL Server – this makes webenabling even easier and you, developer can use .Net technologies, such as ADO.Net (C# or VB.Net) to publish MS SQL Server data on the web.

Sales Order Processing – this is the most typical case – when client wants to enable order or invoice entry plus have order status querying mechanism. Well, depending on the complexity of the project you as programmer can deploy such SDK tool as eConnect, but in most cases you probably better off with direct transact SQL programming – stored procedures or queries. The tables you need to take care off are: SOP10100 (SOP work header), SOP10200 (SOP work lines), SOP30200 (SOP history header), SOP30300 (SOP history lines), RM00101 (customer master). Our recommendation – do not try to implement immediate allocation for your orders/invoices – this will make your SQL programming very complicated. You should probably have your Great Plains order takers to do allocation by orders batch. The really simple solution would be also using Great Plains eOrder – however this web publishing module has poor customization options and uses legacy ASP technology

Purchase Order Processing – this is not that popular, but we see the cases when customer wants its purchasing agents use web front to make requisitions. You have to deal with Great Plains Purchase Order Processing tables. The other option to use eConnect.

Payroll stubs – this is on very high demand – if you have several hundred employees – you are required by law to enable webpaystubs or have them mailed in paper to your employees

Good luck with customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: [email protected].

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 02

by Andrew Karasev