Do You Have to Be an Expert to Teach Someone in Yo

Do You Have to Be an Expert to Teach Someone in Your MLM?

by: Gobala Krishnan

กHow can I teach others when I am not successful myself? Thatกs ethically wrong…ก

If you’re in an MLM program, you might have heard that question from one of your affiliates. You may even have asked the same question before. I know I have, and I get it all the time too from people in my group.

Many people say this when I mention to them that a big part of being in an MLM program is to help others กduplicateก your efforts. Teach them to fish, instead of giving them the fish. If your affiliates are not able to duplicate your efforts, at least to a certain degree, it will be very hard to see real exponential growth in your organization. So is it wrong to teach someone when you’re not กup thereก yourself?

Well, it really depends on WHAT you’re teaching them.

My father thought me to ride the bicycle, and I have thought others to ride the bicycle. My father was not an Olympic cyclist; he was simply teaching me what he knew. Nothing more, nothing less. And to this very day, I appreciate him for it, for otherwise I would never learn something as easy and as fun as that.

So teaching others what you know is perfectly OK! Itกs human nature to teach. Whether you realize it or not, you do it all the time, with family members, friends and spouses.

Hereกs what I consider ethically wrong…

Itกs wrong to teach people how to be an Olympic cyclist, when you’re not an Olympic champion yourself. Itกs common sense, right? You cannot teach someone to reach the top of the mountain if you have not shed tears and blood to get up there yourself. Doing otherwise IS unethical, for you’re only leading someone down the wrong road.

So even if you have been in MLM for only one day, always remember that you DO have something to teach your downline affiliates. Simply sharing your experience, in most cases, is more than enough. Tell them what you like about the company, the products, the opportunity, etc. Tell them the truth about what you feel.

If the question is technical in nature or beyond your expertise, please say so to your affiliates, and refer the affiliate to your upline leaders, corporate support, websites, or online forums for more information. There is nothing wrong in showing them where they can get more info if you can’t provide that info yourself.

This is ok… after all, network marketing is supposed to be all about teamwork, right?

Don’t recommend anything youกve not personally tried yourself. Don’t teach anything you’re not sure about. Don’t make up stories. Don’t fake the figures. Don’t fake your emotions. Don’t give false hope.

Most importantly, don’t doubt the relevance and significance of your own knowledge. Confucius said that กIf three men walk with me, one can be my teacherก. We can all learn from each other, and thinking otherwise is a mistake. It’s only your way of thinking that stops you from sharing and touching another human being in a sincere way. And you’ll need to change that in order to be successful in MLM.

You cannot, and probably should not, teach someone about the road ahead of you, no matter how many books you’ve read, and how many seminars you’ve attended. However, you can always look back at the road behind you and teach them how to get to where you are.

So share your knowledge with everyone if your team. There is always something that they can learn from you, and there is always a way you can help them to duplicate your efforts.

How many have you helped this week…?

Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan

About The Author

Gobala Krishnan is a member and a writer for the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs, the perfect knowledge tool for network marketers to train and grow their organization. Visit his site at http://www.homebusinessassociation.com/IAHBE to get more info.

This article was posted on February 20

by Gobala Krishnan

3 Reasons Your Website Might Fail To Attract Enoug

3 Reasons Your Website Might Fail To Attract Enough Customers

by: Michael Cheney

Virtually all website owners concentrate their efforts and energy into getting more visitors. With business owners this effort is spent on getting more and more new customers. What many people forget with both their website and their business is that getting new customers (or visitors) is only a small part of the equation for success…

Reason For Failure No. 1 The กI am GodกSyndrome

God got his name from being able to do anything and everything and be everywhere at once. Despite what we are taught from an early age many people still insist on believing they themselves are God. Ever found yourself answering the phone, making a sale, running a sales meeting, welcoming customers and doing your companyกs accounts all in one day? Sure you have. You’re trying to be God and do everything and be in more than one place at one time. You will fail. People do this with their website too.

Rather than just stopping at providing content (which is where you should stop and hand everything else over to the professionals) some people think that despite no professional training or education in the subject they are experts in web design, website marketing, graphic design and business consultancy. Remember stick to what you know, leave everything else to the experts. Your job is to run your business not to run around like a headless chicken trying to create a website, market a website, do the books, answer the phones and make the tea.

Reason For Failure No. 2 กBuild It And They Will Comeก

Ah yes. The halcyon days of the early 1990s when anything seemed possible and merely owning a domain name or funky web address meant certain success and riches beyond your wildest dreams. กBuild it and they will comeก is what they said. They were wrong.

Disaster after high profile disaster came crashing down into a pile of dotcom carnage as the millions poured into the idea pit were consumed by fastspending entrepreneurs who possessed more pairs of trainers than they did explanations for where the profit was going to come from. Just remember there are more web pages in the world than there are people so if you really think that just building a website is enough itกs time for a serious rethink. Youกve spent the money on graphic design, content, domain names, hosting, web design and testing and your site has just gone live. Congratulations you have just completed step 1 of 1000,001 in having a site that generates business for you.

You now need to market the site just as you need to market your business when it first starts advertising, fliers, yellow pages, referrals, networking, cold calls, direct marketing, mail shots, radio slots, events, conventions, product launches, press coverage etc. A website is exactly the same. Don’t forget the new statement for the new age of new technology:

Build it and they will say กI can’t find it!ก

Reason For Failure No. 3 You Choose The Wrong Website Marketing Company

Itกs difficult isn’t it? There are so many to choose from how do you know where to start? Well word of mouth recommendation is always a good indication. Failing that you can look at the key areas that are likely to indicate the quality of their service. For example, ask these questions;

Do they offer guarantees of any kind on their results?

Do they proudly display testimonials from satisfied customers on their website?

What is their profile on the web like, can you find them easily?

Do they have detailed case studies explaining how they have helped other businesses?

Do they have a longstanding track record in the industry and wide clientbase?

There is no real way to avoid making the wrong decision but if you keep learning more and more about website marketing you will be arming yourself with enough information to at least reduce the risk of choosing the wrong company.

About The Author

Mike Cheney, www.magnet4web.com ©

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a FREE Special Report กHow To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnetก worth a value of £47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

This article was posted on April 24, 2004

by Michael Cheney

When a Customer Has Done Everything to Get Your Go

When a Customer Has Done Everything to Get Your Goat

by: Ron Hutton

You try to make your customers happy. You sincerely WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. You go out of your way to provide quality and integrity in everything you do.

So, why is it that every once in a while thereกs a customer who insists on totally, absolutely and completely pissing you off?

How long is a string?

There are some questions, the answers to which, will always elude me. Are you with me on this?

I received an email message from a customer who must have not only have awoke on the wrong side of the bed, but must have also found himself in the wrong bed, in the wrong bedroom, in the wrong house, on the wrong block, in the wrong city, and in the wrong life. As I read this message, I was seething with anger my hands literally shaking.

Wanting to somehow reach through my ethernet connection to find the neck attached to the head of the person who could be so rude was my first priority.

What do you do at this point? How do you satisfy the irrational?

ANSWER: You don’t.

Romans 12:20 says, กIf your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.ก

This is what I attempted to do in my reply to Mr. Disgruntled. Hereกs a formula that you can use; and if you do this, the satisfaction will outweigh many times over the anger you initially felt.

Step 1: Stop. Close the email. Put down the poison mouse and walk away.

Step 2: Consider the situation carefully. Can you imagine a time and place where you might have blasted someone in the same way? Is there even the tiniest hint of legitimacy to the claim of this angry customer? Things aren’t always as you might perceive them. There are always multiple sides to every story. Does this condone abusive behavior? Of course not.

Now, if the answers are กno, No, and NO, this is unjustifiedก, stick with this formula anyway. When youกve done whatกs right, youกll be the bigger person and your self image will be elevated.

Step 3: Now that youกve cooled off, draft your reply. Answer question, comments and complaints with cool and exacting detail. If the complaint is a product problem, test it. Also understand that with the proliferation of different computer operating systems, your test results may not match the results of others. Explain only what you know for certain (this version of this software on this operating system with this service package, etc.) Keep an open mind that your experiences are not always shared by others.

Step 4: Spell and grammar check your message. This might seem like a funny thing to include here, but haste leads to errors and errors can erode the potency of your reply.

Step 5: Print your message and read it out loud to yourself. Is it coherent? Have you addressed everything? Is your reply laden with sarcasm, anger or spite? If yes, Start Over.

Remember, you provide awesome customer service and will not be shaken by small minds or ill tempered customers.

Step 6: Sign your message. This is the last thing that the customer reads and if you blow this, everything said prior will have little or no meaning. Leave them no doubt that you are, above all else, a professional.

Step 7: Click send.

Yow! That feels good.

Two additional options that you may consider are…

Option 1: Call the customer if you can find their phone number. Youกll be blown away at how attitudes change instantly when your customer hears your voice live at the other end of a phone connection. Itกs miraculous.

Option 2: Refund their money instantly. Cancel their membership. Remove every trace of their contact information from your mailing lists. AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE. In some cases this is the prudent thing to do. You won’t please everyone, and 14 different email messages over the course of 8 days isn’t worth the $19.95 sale. Cut bait and run.

You try to make your customers happy. You sincerly WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. You go out of your way to provide quality and integrity in everything you do.

Outstanding! Keep up the good work.

Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton

About The Author

Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to กGoThrive Onlineก, for big juicy marketing tips in small, easytochew, bite size servings. 17 Free Cool Tools… http://www.gothrive.com.

This article was posted on April 06

by Ron Hutton

An Ethical Dilemma? Selling Something That You Ca

An Ethical Dilemma? Selling Something That You Can Get For Free

by: Willie Crawford

At least once a week, I have someone point out to me that a bigname information marketer, software กdeveloper,ก or company, is selling something that is very similar to a product that you can get for free. They see something fundamentally กwrongก with SELLING a product or information that can be obtained for nothing… if you search in the right place. Often, they point this out to me because they just feel the need to protest something they view as somehow กwrong.ก

First of all, if you search long enough and hard enough, you CAN find free software that will do just about anything. Some very intelligent programmers create lots of software, which they happily make opensource, shareware, or freeware. These programmers do this for various reasons that we won’t get into. These programmers will also give or sell you permission to modify their software slightly and put your own label on it. Is that กwrong?ก

There are thousands of documents explaining practically any topic imaginable. The Internet makes it easier to tap into databases and find this information. Some people compile this free information that they find into reports or ebooks and sell it. Is that กwrong?ก

After certain intellectual property has been around long enough, if the copyrights aren’t renewed through various means, it may become กpublic domain.ก That means anyone may then have the right to publish or distribute this material without violating copyrights or intellectual property rights. Is taking an old book that belongs to the public and selling it as your own กwrong?ก

Having been trained as an economist, I try to see things as they are rather than as they should be. In economic terms this is looking at things in a กpositiveก rather than a กnormativeก fashion. It just means looking at things with a scientific rather than a moral or ethical eye. I don’t avoid the moral or ethical issues, but try not to judge others based upon my opinion.

So back to the question… is selling something that you can get for free กwrong?ก Since weกve already said that you can find practically any software or information for free if you search long enough and hard enough, the answer actually lies in why people will pay for the same กstuffก anyway.

Free does NOT mean without cost. When you buy branded software or repackaged information, the marketer is theoretically reducing your risk. The marketer conducted the research, and located a product that met a specific need, and then made the public aware of it. The marketer investigated dozens of pieces of readilyavailable software, perhaps modified it, and then กcertifiedก it as capable of meeting your needs.

Another very big reason that the market is willing to pay for something that can conceivable be obtained for free, is because of the search cost. There is a cost of time, energy, and other resources, in investigating options. The marketer has invested that search cost and charges you for that service. Depending upon how you value your time, you may gladly be willing to pay for something that you could have eventually located for free… and then tested to verify that it was exactly what you needed.

Very often, a creator of intellectual property is not a marketer… and doesn’t understand the finer points of marketing. So a terrific piece of software, a book, or an idea, just…. sits. A marketer with an aboveaverage grasp of human behavior and psychology can step in, ‘repackageก that product, and the market will devour it. Should that product have been allowed to languish rather than some marketer stepping in, fixing the bad marketing, and profiting from it. If the product improved the lives of end users, who would have otherwise never noticed the product, then clearly the marketer is providing real value.

So, where is the dilemma? The dilemma is in the perception that the marketer selling a product that didn’t cost him anything… or very little, is doing something wrong. It is purely a perception. However, whether online or offline, people who locate กstuffก that the market wants, and charge for that กserviceก are clearly serving a need. If they weren’t serving a need, then the market wouldn’t pay for it.

The reality is that people have marketed information since the beginning of commerce. Both online and offline, there are fortunes being made ferreting out information that the market wants, and then providing it. Itกs the PERFECT way to make your online fortune. Provided that the product is of the right quality, it should certainly not be considered a question of ethics. Doctors, lawyers, realtors, teachers, religious leaders… they all charge you for readily available information that they have ‘repackagedก and put their brand, or sealofapproval, on.

When you’re doing research, and you discover a product very similar to one being marketed under a different label, it IS very eye opening. However, it is not generally a matter of ethics (in my opinion). Itกs no different than an offline supermarket selling the identical product sidebyside for two different prices. Often the store brand is made at the same factory, with the same formula, as the name brand product. They are sold sidebyside for different prices. The higher price is justified by the brand identity and กcertificationก that goes along with that.

As an Internet marketer it is important that issues such as this be studied. Many people who start businesses on the Internet have never run or studied how brick and mortar businesses operate. This article is an attempt to fill in a bit of that missing training… or at a minimum create discussion 🙂

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

About The Author

Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, teleseminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income online using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at: http://ProfitMagician.com.

This article was posted on December 23, 2004

by Willie Crawford

Are You In It For The Long Haul?

Are You In It For The Long Haul?

by: Craig Binkley

Do you own a home business? Now Iกm not talking about the twice yearly yard sale. I am talking about a legitimate home based business. It doesn’t matter what type of business you are running affiliate marketing, ecommerce website, ebay auctions, etc.). The question remains the same: Are you in it for the long haul?

What exactly is the กlong haulก you may ask? I consider the long haul sticking with something long enough to truly determine if it is something that is going to work for you.

Iกve got you thinking now, huh?

Well if you are like me, you know some one that has tried their hand at everything. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with checking out different ways to have a home based business. Owning your own business is a GREAT thing.

What I am talking about here is that person that gets into something for a few weeks or months, quits or drops out, then starts something new just to find that this new thing is not what they are looking for either. On top of this, a lot of times this person will tell everyone they know that none of these programs or businesses are any good.

Now as I said, there is nothing wrong with กkicking the tiresก to see what is out there. The big thing is when you find something, give it an HONEST effort.

How long this honest effort may take can only be determined by you and the program you are promoting or the business you are starting. Go into it with an open mind. (TIP: There are NO กSit back and do nothing and get rich overnightก opportunities).

Understand what you are getting involved with and determine your goals. Once you have these goals in place, HONESTLY work your business. If you fail to reach your set goals, step back and look at where you are. This will give you a good idea if this business is going to get you where you want to be.

Don’t get me wrong. I am by no means telling you to stick with something that is OBVIOUSLY not working. None of us are in business to lose money. Just remember that building a STRONG home business can take a lot of work and a lot of time. It is not something to be taken lightly.

In closing let me say that if you are a ‘tire kickerก and jump from one กsure thingก to the next, do us all a favor. If you don’t give the program or business an HONEST effort and enough time to truly determine what you have, don’t go around spreading กhow bad this or that programก is. Let others make up their own minds. What may not have worked for you, may be that กsure thingก for some one else.

About The Author

Craig Binkley – husband, father and home business owner assisting in the restoration of the ขtraditionalข family through home business ownership.

http://www.bornagainbargains.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 20, 2004

by Craig Binkley

What is a Guru?

What is a Guru?

by: Robert J Farey

A guru is a teacher.
On the internet a guru is someone who has a lot of experience and has made the grade, ie. He/She has set up a business that is financially successful and is willing to share the experience with anyone who is interested.
Are you a guru?
If not please read on.
The majority of internet gurus are only too happy to teach. Becoming a guru in the true sense of the word.
Pick a guru.
There are at least a dozen who not only publish a newsletter with articles showing some of the tricksofthetrade but have also published ebooks showing in detail the best way to start and run a business.
Learn from the experts. There are hundreds of people out there who purport to be experts in ecommerse. Most of them have just read a few books and composed their own book comprised of second hand information.
You may ask ขWhat’s wrong with that?’ it’s the same information written in a different style.ข
There is just one problem. Each of the real gurus has made a success of his/her online business in his/her own way. If you follow the instructions of one particular guru, there is a good reason to believe that you will become successful as well.
On the other hand, an instruction book comprised of a mixture of different techniques can cause confusion and fail completely in its purpose.
I am not a guru.
You may well ask ขIn that case, why are you writing this article?ข
A good question. I have been on the internet for a little over five years. Three years ago I decided to start my own business selling information products online.
I read a lot of books on the subject. I tried this way and that. Every author seemed to have his/her own method of doing things. Each one believed that their way was the best way to attain success. The point was that each method worked for that individual.
I became confused. I spent a lot of time and money going one way, only to be sidetracked into a different direction by another wellmeaning expert using an entirely different method.
I was about to give up the whole idea and save what money that I had left when a phrase in one book caught my attention. It went like this: ‘There are as many right ways of setting up a business online as there are wrong ways.
You can mix up lots of different wrong ways and still get it wrong.
On the other hand, if you mix up a number of different right ways of doing it, you are liable to have discovered yet another way of getting it wrong.
I am sure you can see the point that I am trying to make. There are a number of right ways. Make your choice. Each guru has a way of starting and running a business. Pick just one guru and study his/her system. Don’t be sidetracked. Study your chosen system Your guru made it work. You can make it work for you.
Who are these gurus? I could give you a list. It would be subjective in as much that they may not be the ones that another person would choose. The one that I chose may not suit your temperament. It is up to you to make your own choice. There are at least a dozen who are making a six or even a seven figure income who started from scratch with little money but a lot of determination. They made it, so can you.
Don’t ever give up. You can do whatever you believe you can do. Until you try, you have no idea of your potential. Go on. Give it a go.
Bob………….

About The Author

Robert earns his crust by targeting the thousands of newcomers to internet trading. He aims to cut their learning curve to enable them to start earning money from the word go.
He learned the hard way. You can learn the easy way.
Checkout his website. Itกs not posh. Itกs not perfect, but it is effective. http://www.learnandearnnow.co.uk/
[email protected]

This article was posted on October 30, 2004

by Robert J Farey

3 Reasons Your Website Might Fail To Attract Enoug

3 Reasons Your Website Might Fail To Attract Enough Customers

by: Mike Cheney

Virtually all website owners concentrate their efforts and energy into getting more visitors. With business owners this effort is spent on getting more and more new customers. What many people forget with both their website and their business is that getting new customers (or visitors) is only a small part of the equation for success.
Reason For Failure No. 1 The กI am GodกSyndrome
God got his name from being able to do anything and everything and be everywhere at once. Despite what we are taught from an early age many people still insist on believing they themselves are God. Ever found yourself answering the phone, making a sale, running a sales meeting, welcoming customers and doing your companyกs accounts all in one day? Sure you have. You’re trying to be God and do everything and be in more than one place at one time. You will fail. People do this with their website too.
Rather than just stopping at providing content (which is where you should stop and hand everything else over to the professionals) some people think that despite no professional training or education in the subject they are experts in web design, website marketing, graphic design and business consultancy. Remember stick to what you know, leave everything else to the experts. Your job is to run your business not to run around like a headless chicken trying to create a website, market a website, do the books, answer the phones and make the tea.
Reason For Failure No. 2 กBuild It And They Will Comeก
Ah yes. The halcyon days of the early 1990s when anything seemed possible and merely owning a domain name or funky web address meant certain success and riches beyond your wildest dreams. กBuild it and they will comeก is what they said. They were wrong.
Disaster after high profile disaster came crashing down into a pile of dotcom carnage as the millions poured into the idea pit were consumed by fastspending entrepreneurs who possessed more pairs of trainers than they did explanations for where the profit was going to come from. Just remember there are more web pages in the world than there are people so if you really think that just building a website is enough itกs time for a serious rethink. Youกve spent the money on graphic design, content, domain names, hosting, web design and testing and your site has just gone live. Congratulations you have just completed step 1 of 1000,001 in having a site that generates business for you.
You now need to market the site just as you need to market your business when it first starts advertising, fliers, yellow pages, referrals, networking, cold calls, direct marketing, mail shots, radio slots, events, conventions, product launches, press coverage etc. A website is exactly the same. Don’t forget the new statement for the new age of new technology:
Build it and they will say กI can’t find it!ก
Reason For Failure No. 3 You Choose The Wrong Website Marketing Company
Itกs difficult isn’t it? There are so many to choose from how do you know where to start? Well word of mouth recommendation is always a good indication. Failing that you can look at the key areas that are likely to indicate the quality of their service. For example, ask these questions;

Do they offer guarantees of any kind on their results?
Do they proudly display testimonials from satisfied customers on their website?
What is their profile on the web like, can you find them easily?
Do they have detailed case studies explaining how they have helped other businesses?
Do they have a longstanding track record in the industry and wide clientbase?
There is no real way to avoid making the wrong decision but if you keep learning more and more about website marketing you will be arming yourself with enough information to at least reduce the risk of choosing the wrong company.

Mike Cheney

www.magnet4web.com

About The Author

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a FREE Special Report กHow To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnetก worth a value of £47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

This article was posted on July 31, 2004

by Mike Cheney

Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of Busine

Marketing Strategies to Put Yourself Out of Business

by: Charlie Cook

Want to learn how to lose a billion dollars?

Just follow the marketing strategies used by GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. Yes, some of the largest corporations in the world are missing some basic tenants of marketing and itกs worth taking a look at what they’re doing wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes. You don’t want the following headline written about your company.

กGM Hits Billion Dollar pot holeก Miami Herald กGM shares fell to a 12 year low.ก New York Times

What are some of the most glaring mistakes a handful of car companies are making?

1. Discount Pricing

GM and Ford offer free loans and rebates worth thousands of dollars to prompt people to buy their vehicles. Good idea?

When you need to resort to bribing people to buy your products or services, itกs a sign that something is terribly wrong. The idea is to provide value, help your prospects understand the perceived value and charge enough to make a reasonable profit. When you start discounting your product as a means to get people to buy it youกve entered an endless downward cycle.

The next time a prospect buys, theyกll want an even larger discount and there will always be somebody who will undercut you on price. Eventually youกll end up like GM, losing lots, maybe not billions, but enough to threaten the life of your business.

2. Making Products People Don’t Want

According to the New York Times, กGeneral Motors and Ford have swerved off course for a far more basic reason: not enough people like their cars.ก Whoops!

The objective is to market a product or service people want.

3. Not Paying Attention to What People Want

If you want to make money youกd pay attention to what your prospects want? Right?

In the case of Daimler Chrysler youกd be wrong. At the Detroit Auto Show crowds loved the twoseat 8 foot long กSmart Carก. So logically Daimler Chrysler decided not to sell it in the United States despite booming sales in Europe for years. Zap, a Santa Rosa CA firm, saw an opportunity especially with rising gas prices and went direct to the European Daimler dealers to buy the cars. Surprise! Ten thousand U.S. buyers put themselves on a list to order over $55 million worth of cars in just a few months.

Avoid discount pricing, provide products and services your prospects want and you can avoid losing a billion or instead make 55 million. I don’t know about you but if I lose ten thousand dollars I get upset and when I make a million in a year Iกm pretty happy.

2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Plan eBook, ก7 Steps to get more clients and grow your businessก at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 20

by Charlie Cook

Win Your Customer Over with Simple Courtesies

Win Your Customer Over with Simple Courtesies

by: Kit Lum

Walk into any store any day and there’s probably a lesson in customer service waiting for you. You could learn a great deal about how to treat your customer just by observing how you are treated as the customer!

Just the other day, I went to a food court at a shopping mall for lunch. Food courts are a popular selfservice concept in Asia of food cubicles arranged usually in circular fashion with tables in the middle where you can sit and eat your choice selection.

As I was checking out the vast selection of lunchtime fare, I noticed the servers behind the counters were all stonefaced. Maybe it’s been a long day. Maybe Asians take their business seriously and seldom volunteer idle chitchat with their customers.

But as I was walking past the Chicken Rice counter, the kindly smile of a middleaged man lit up the stone wall. Chicken rice, a delicious onedish Asian meal of fragrant rice served with roast or steamed chicken, is my favorite but I think it was that friendly smile that did the trick this time.

Lesson #1: A simple fiveletter word that should really be at the top of your business todo list. Smile. Not a likely business lesson that you’ll come across very often. But it’s one I trust will take you far.

Smile in person. Smile on the phone. Smile in your emails. It doesn’t hurt, I promise, I do it all the time when I ‘talk’ to my customers. It’s pretty amazing really. When you smile, people lighten up and warm up to you. You instantly connect. It builds a bridge to a business relationship.

On another afternoon, I went there again for lunch. Got my tray and walked away without noticing that one of Mr Kindly’s assistants had given me the wrong order. She’d given me the barbecued pork instead of roast chicken.

Until a few years ago, many businesses in Asia practised the noexchange noreturn policy, and many still do. This means when the transaction is completed, you’re stuck with your purchase, no matter what. If it was the the wrong order, the wrong size or defective, you couldn’t return or exchange it.

These days, businesses are gradually becoming more customerfriendly. So I decided to try my luck with Mr Kindly. Well, guess what? He apologized profusely, took my plate and heaped the roast chicken on top of the barbecued pork, and charged me not one cent more. I was bowled over by his exceptional customer service.

Lesson #2: Surely the lesson to be learnt here is to acknowledge when a mistake has been made. We’re all human. It’s okay to make mistakes. What’s important is that you accept responsibility for it and try not to let it happen again.

Acknowledge the mistake, fix it and go the extra mile to make up for it. Give them a discount for their next purchase. Or offer them something on the house. In other words, leave your customer with a sweet aftertaste in spite of the little messup and they will be back!

I thanked Mr Kindly. I was impressed at how he’d chosen to handle the situation. Just before I was jostled out of the way by a long line of impatient customers who’d formed behind me, he smilingly told me he appreciates my business and hopes to see me again soon.

Lesson #3: Find the time to thank your customer and tell them how much you appreciate them, no matter how busy you are. Make each one feel like they are the most important person in the world. People like to know they’re appreciated. It makes them feel especially good to know they’ve made the right decision to do business with you.

The Chicken Rice Man sets himself apart from the competition by using some good oldfashioned honesttogoodness business tactics. You come across other entrepreneurs and you can’t help but wish they were all like him. Indeed, we can all be like him. These simple courtesies are not that hard to do. They just take a bit of practice. Go get started now.

Copyright 2005 Kit Lum. All rights in all media reserved.

About The Author

Kit Lum brings five years of online business experience into Go Get Global and its two ezines helping small/home businesses profit from growing globally with quality advertising and business services, and business and cultural resources. Get more FREE tips like these at http://www.GoGetGlobal.com.

This article was posted on February 16

by Kit Lum