The Refresh Orlando Heirs

How much more could you earn if your prospects didn’t object
to your prices? You’d close more sales and be more
successful.

Like most service professionals and small business owners
chances are you struggle with objections to pricing on a
daily basis. You lose business because prospects get stuck
on price. Your pricing will never satisfy everyone but the
following ideas will help you eliminate pricing objections
from the majority of your buyers.

MARKET TO PROSPECTS EMOTIONS
One of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make is to
start by marketing to a prospect’s head instead of their
heart. If your marketing materials and presentations lead
with a presentation of the product or service features
and/or your own credentials, this is the wrong information
to present up front to prospects and can hinder the sale of
your products and services.

The majority of purchases are ultimately based on emotion.
Vehicle purchases are a great example. Sales of 4 wheel
drive SUV’s has soared despite the fact 90% of the buyers
never go off road or need the 4 wheel drive functionality.
Porsche sales have grown steadily, despite the fact that
most often their owners use them around town and in traffic,
rarely if ever driving at the over a hundred miles an hour
they are easily capable of going.

Your prospects buy your products and services for their own
reasons, not yours. Get their attention by focusing your
marketing on their concerns. Use questions to bring their
emotional reasons for making a purchase into the
conversation. When you present the benefits of your products
or services, do so in the context of your prospects’
emotional interests.

- Are you marketing to your prospects hearts or their minds?

UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL REASONS PEOPLE BUY
Some people buy cars based on their perception of safety,
others based on the potential for speed and others make
their selection based on how little gas the vehicle
consumes. If you want to be more successful in marketing you
need to know the emotional reasons people buy your products
and services.

Reasons prospects buy include fear, gain, comfort, security,
pride and personal satisfaction. When it comes to making a
decision these are the motivators that determine whether
your prospects buy your products and services.

If you sell investment advice, fear of loss, desire for gain
and security may all be motivators. If you sell wide screen
TVs or audiophile stereo equipment, personal satisfaction
and pride may be the motivators. If you sell graphic design,
your client’s desired image is a motivator.

Marketing is about helping prospects make decisions. If you
understand the emotional reasons your prospects use to
justify a purchase than you can pitch to their emotions in
your advertisements, on your web site, in your brochure and
in your presentations and conversations.

- What are the emotional reasons your prospects buy?

HELP PROSPECTS DEFINE VALUE
To help prospects understand the value of your services,
don’t tell them; ask them. Most people learn by putting new
ideas into their own words. Use questions to get prospects
to identify the ways they’ll benefit from your products. Ask
them what they want, what they are looking for, and how they
expect to benefit. Get your prospects to define their
aspirations and objectives for their purchase.

These questions actively engage your prospects. By
describing the benefits they are looking for they begin to
imagine how much better off they’d be with your products and
services.

- What questions can you ask to get prospects to describe
the value of your products and services?

PUT PRICE INTO CONTEXT
There is a reason a car salesman has you look at a car in
detail and take if for a test ride so you can experience all
the features before they’ll discuss price.

Hedge funds are investment vehicles that can provide unique
benefits such as being able to achieve steady growth in both
up and down markets or unusually high returns. Some
investors believe these benefits are worth paying hedge fund
managers ten times the normal management fees.

A price of ten dollars or ten thousand can scare your prospects
away if you give it to them too soon. After prospects’ have
defined the value of the service or product they’re interested in
and can see themselves usingit, then and you present your pricing,
they are much more likely to buy.

- Are you presenting your pricing information too soon?

Increase your sales by pitching to your prospects’ reasons
for buying. Use your questions to help prospects define the
benefits of your products and services in their own words.
They will have far fewer objections to price and you’ll make
more money.

-
2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals
and small business owners attract more clients and be
more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing
Guide, ‘7 Steps to Grow Your Business’ and the
‘More Business’ newsletter, full of practical tips you can
use at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

People have more flexible time due to wireless network. Thanks
to the invention of wireless. People can now work from home
while taking care of their kids or doing house works. No more
stress from traffic jam anymore. Is this great?

Well, there is something you should realize. Working from home
while using a wireless local area network (WLAN) may lead to
theft of sensitive information and hacker or virus infiltration
unless proper measures are taken. As WLANs send information over
radio waves, someone with a receiver in your area could be
picking up the transmission, thus gaining access to your
computer. They could load viruses on to your laptop which could
be transferred to the company’s network when you go back to
work.

Believe it or not! Up to 75 per cent of WLAN users do not have
standard security features installed, while 20 per cent are left
completely open as default configurations are not secured, but
made for the users to have their network up and running ASAP. It
is recommended that wireless router/access point setup be always
done though a wired client.

You can setup your security by follow these steps:

1. Change default administrative password on wireless
router/access point to a secured password.

2. Enable at least 128-bit WEP encryption on both card and
access point. Change your WEP keys periodically. If equipment
does not support at least 128-bit WEP encryption, consider
replacing it. Although there are security issues with WEP, it
represents minimum level of security, and it should be enabled.

3. Change the default SSID on your router/access point to a hard
to guess name. Setup your computer device to connect to this
SSID by default.

4. Setup router/access point not to broadcast the SSID. The same
SSID needs to be setup on the client side manually. This feature
may not be available on all equipment.

5. Block anonymous Internet requests or pings. On each computer
having wireless network card, network connection properties
should be configured to allow connection to Access Point
Networks Only. Computer to Computer (peer to peer) Connection
should not be allowed.

Enable MAC filtering. Deny association to wireless network for
unspecified MAC addresses. Mac or Physical addresses are
available through your computer device network connection setup
and they are physically written on network cards. When adding
new wireless cards / computer to the network, their MAC
addresses should be registered with the router /access point.
Network router should have firewall features enabled and
demilitarized zone (DMZ) feature disabled.

All computers should have a properly configured personal
firewall in addition to a hardware firewall. You should also
update router/access point firmware when new versions become
available. Locating router/access point away from strangers is
also helpful so they cannot reset the router/access point to
default settings. You can even try to locate router/access point
in the middle of the building rather than near windows to limit
signal coverage outside the building.

There is no guarantee of a full protection of your wireless
network, but following these suggested tips can definitely
lessen your risk of exposing to attackers aiming at insecure
networks.

People give gifts to strengthen bonds, to remind friends, family, and colleagues that they are an important part of their lives. Fine chocolates are just about everyone’s favorite.

And as the food industry has evolved in the last few decades, gourmet chocolate seems to be a real niche item available anywhere you shop. Gourmet chocolates can be gifted on Mother’s day, Birthdays, Wedding gifts, Valentine’s day or for any other special occasion.

If you are looking for a gift that is guaranteed to make anyone’s day, you should definitely consider Harmony Sweets, an online gourmet chocolate shop.

Harmony Sweets is a online chocolate shop importing gourmet chocolates from around the world for any special occasions.

Harmony Sweets has over ninety world-class confections available including edible gold chocolate pralines from Switzerland, strawberry cream seashells from Belgium, unique Dragon Beard Candy from China, chocolate truffles from France, and spiced cookies from Scandinavia. Perfect as Business appreciation gifts, Anniversary gifts, Mother’s day gifts, Birthday gifts, Valentine’s gifts, Wedding favors, Father’s day gifts or Graduation gifts.

For further details please visit http://www.harmonysweets.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Roseen is the Webmaster of Online Gourmet Chocolate Gifts shop. Based in Covington, WA, USA.

So you fancy starting a collection but you’re not sure what to collect? How About . . . ?

Every home will contain at least one example or more - in the kitchen, the bathroom, the fire surround. How long have they been in existence and what should we look out for when buying an Old Tile.

When trying to identify an old tile, the most difficult aspect is where was it made and when.

The most famous tiles are referred to as delft. But why?

The term delft is derived from the dutch town of Delft. The Netherlands began to produce tin-glazed earthenware in the late 15 century. Potteries were established in many parts of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, Haarlem and Rotterdam, but by the late 17 century Delft had become the most important centre of production and nearly 30 companies were working in the area.

The original delft tile designs came about when Chinese porcelain stopped being imported in the mid 17 century and the popular Chinese wares were reproduced in blue and white. Initially made in blue and white, later in the century the Delft potters introduced a wider variety of colours, yellow, purple, blue, red, green and black.

Flemish and Dutch potters arrived and settled in London in 1570, but it wasn’t until the 18 century that the delftware tile industry became established in Britian. The main centres were London, Bristol and Liverpool. The tiles usually depicted flowers, ships, landscapes and many scenes of biblical subjects.

So now we know that we’re looking for either Duitch delft or English delft, but it’s quite dificult with these early examples to determine the place of origin.

A few tips:

Dutch delft often has a gritty texture, thick glaze and ‘peppering’ on the surface caused by air bubbles exploding during firing.

Dutch tiles are painted in a very assured manner with great skill and expertise.

The tin glaze of Dutch tiles is usually whiter because it contains more tin oxides making it liable to craze.

British delftware is typically less finely potted and the glaze is often tinged with blue or pink. Colours tend to be more muted due to the absorbency of the tin glaze used. The glaze is much glossier and smoother than Dutch glaze and it does not craze easily.

So to sum up:

Gritty, thich white glaze, very well painted, crazed ……. Dutch.

Smooth, glazed tinged blue or pink, muted colours, little crazing …. English.

Now all you have to do is get out there and start looking, but beware - lots of reproductions so take time to do a bit more studying by way of delftware tiles.

Also remember, plates, flower bricks, jugs, posset pots, handwarmers, puzzle jugs, char dishes, vases, bowls and beautifully glazed drug jars for use by apothocaries were produced in delftware, but that’s another story.

We run a small but beautifully formed General Antiques Shop which is situated in Kirkby Lonsdale In the Yorkshire Dales/Cumbria Border. http://www.architus.com