>Why You Should Be A Conservative Politically

>I’ve sold things on the Floor of Haverty’s Furniture on strictly commissions. I know that’s where performance counts. That’s where people are rewarded according to what they produce – no slackers there. If you outperform someone else, you are rewarded with more income.

I played baseball and know the Ty Cobbs, Babe Ruths, Mickey Mantles, Barry Bonds, Hank Arrons, and the Derek Jeeters of the baseball world deserved more pay than the Swishers who have only a .250 batting average. (Though, with Jeeter on the waning years of a tremendous career, he can’t expect to make fifteen million a year too much longer, can he?)

When you read this marketing article below, I know you will have to agree with me. That is if you believe in fairness. But if you are a progressive, you will argue that you are compassionate and want to use tax revenues to help the poor and the indigent. Well, that’s not fair and that’s not the American way. It’s certainly not what made America great. Americans who make a lot of money give their money away. They set up big foundations for the poor. People in my church pay fast offerings and tithing – and then many give more than that for special projects and the poor in the church. That is how true charity works. Governments can NOT be charitable, they’re using someone else’s money.

Read the article. I believe in helping the poor and those who can’t help themselves. But I also believe in Christ’s example of helping people help themselves. Teach a man to fish rather than giving him a fish. Each of us – and I hope not – may have times in our lives when we need help from someone. When we do there will be people standing forth to help. Please, let’s not have government take from the private sector our ability and desire to help others when we have more than they and when they really need it for a short period of time.

Yet, I’ve known people who take church money taxpayer unemployment money and turn down jobs – how does that work? Totally unfair. But since I lack all the information and nuances of their lives, I will not name names or be unfairly critical. These people could have legitimate reasons for what they do.
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Answers to Questions from GKIC Members  by Bill Glazer I always get some great questions from GKIC Members (along with some not so great ones) and I often think that it would be fantastic for all of our members to hear them along with my response. SO, today I thought I’d share some of the best ones with you. During a recent Glazer-Kennedy Member ‘Call-In’ Day, one of our members asked me about developing a compensation plan for her business. Currently she does not pay her sales associates any commission. I am a HUGE believer in a commission based compensation plan for a retail environment. I heard all of the B.S. from retailers for years that a commission structure causes problems on the selling floor and associates will often sell merchandise to a client that is inappropriate for them. Once again, I say this thinking is total B.S. Here’s why: A professional sales associate who works on commission will quickly understand that their future is based on ‘repeat business’ and if they don’t look out for their client, they will not return and ask for them. Clients will actually receive more attention and ‘customer service’ if the associate knows that they are receiving compensation for what they sell them. I’ve seen many a scenario through the years where a sales associate will stop eating lunch in order to take care of a client who just arrived in one of my stores. They’d make sure that when the client returns to pick up their altered merchandise that they inspect the fit of the garment before it is taken home. Even deliver their merchandise personally to someone’s home if necessary. It is rare that a non-commission sales associate will give this level of attention. It’s not fair that people are paid the same with different levels of performance. You won’t see the professional baseball player who has a lifetime .225 batting average receive the same salary as a .33 hitter. Why should you expect your top performers to be satisfied with being paid the same as the lazy associate of the selling floor? If YOU can’t control the behavior of your employees on a commission based incentive plan, what makes you think you can control them if they are not on commission? Either way you have to manage them!! While I don’t have the time or space to teach all of the details of a well thought out compensation plan in a paragraph in this newsletter, let me point out a few of the elements of a smart compensation plan: All sales associates are on the same plan Compensation is based on the performance of several measured elements, not just sales The percentage increases as key performance numbers are met The business ‘nets’ more profits with over performing sales associates. Another question during the ‘Call-In’ Day came from a furniture retailer who was struggling with low pricecompetition and wanted to know how to deal with it. I get this question a lot and really the answer is quite simple. You should never put yourself in a position where your clients can do an “apples to apples” comparison of what you sell. For example, during our discussion this retailer mentioned that they have a large flooring business. I suggested they do a couple of things: GUARANTEE materials and installation. During our conversation it was revealed that their competition won’t do this since the installation is being farmed out to an outside vendor. Even though this Member also farms out the installation, I suggested that they guarantee their work. Frankly, if I owned the company, I’d only deal with installers who were willing to guarantee what they did. Even if they had to make good on a job or two every year, look at the strategic advantage this gives them. FOLLOW-UP INSPECTION: I suggested that after 1-year of doing the job, they include a FREE follow-up inspection of the work to make sure the flooring is performing as stated. Once again this gets them out of the price comparison game and also does something else really, really, really important for the retailers. It gets them in front of the client again inside their home, so they can ask if there are any other products or services that they can help them with. My next question during the GKIC Member ‘Call-In’ Day came from an accountant who owns a business that prepares tax returns for their clients. He wanted to know how I get all of the Outrageous Marketing pieces mailed and printed. I reminded him that we provide this information in my BestSelling book, “OUTRAGEOUS Advertising That’s OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful”. (If you have not done so already, you can get a FREE COPY OF MY BOOK here). By the way, I also gave him an idea during the call that I hope he follows up with. I suggested that he sells next year’s tax return this year when he has the client in front of him. Here’s how it would work. Let’s say he charges $150.00 to prepare their taxes. Once he completes the work, he can tell them that they can prepay for next year’s return now and only pay $75.00. This does a couple of really great things for him: He has access to the $75.00 immediately and can put that money to work for him He has NO marketing costs next year to get these clients to return He keeps the fees of those clients who do not return. In marketing, this is what Dan Kennedy calls ‘putting an iron cage’ around your clients so they are predisposed to do business with you and ONLY business with you. I also received a question about conducting e-commerce. This member wanted to know about the opportunities to do business online. Here was my response: When thinking about e-commerce there are two key things to consider. First of all, you need to have a deliberate strategy about how you are going to get traffic to come to your site. You can have the best site in the world, but if you have few visitors, it doesn’t matter. For example, you need to think in terms of search engine optimization, pay-per-click traffic, social media, driving traffic to your site from offline sources etc. The other key component is how you capitalize on the traffic once they visit your site. Very few people buy the first time they visit. Therefore, a very smart strategy is to force them to leave their name and email address so you can conduct continual follow-up through periodic solo emails or auto-responders. The final question was faxed into me from Sam Georgio, owner of Professional Arts Pharmacy in my hometown of Baltimore, MD. Here’s what Sam wrote: “I own a pharmacy that custom makes prescriptions for niche markets. When I started in business we had no competition – now we have a lot. What can I do to get doctors to refer patients to me instead of elsewhere?” What a great question! As all members know, I love referrals as they are the second easiest customer to sell, only second to the existing customer. In order to encourage referrals, here are a couple of things to think about: In order to get people to refer more often there typically needs to be something in it for them. Of course some industries have regulatory issues that they have to deal with which makes it impossible to give the person doing the referring a reward and if so that needs to be addressed. But typically, if you can’t give them a gift or some form of compensation, you can reward them in other ways such as hosting, in Sam’s case a “Doctor Appreciation Dinner” at a local great restaurant where all the doctors get to meet and network with each other (they’ll like that). Then the law of reciprocity will kick in where they feel almostobligated to refer to you. People really like referring to people they like. Another way to increase referrals is to simply ask people what you can do in order to gain their referrals. For example, the doctor might want to have a special hotline that is set up just for his patients that they can call and get someone on the phone instantaneously to take their prescription instead of being placed on-hold for what seems like an eternity before someone picks up the phone. Or, they could arrange for FREE delivery of their prescriptions. If this is positioned as a benefit of being a patient of a particular doctor or medical practice, this makes the Docs look good withOUT any cost to them. Dan Kennedy always says that the only difference between ‘salad’ and ‘garbage’ is timing. The lesson here is that WHEN you ask for referrals is very important. For example, in my retail business we have learned that the time to ask for referrals is after the sale has been completed and the client is feeling best about his purchase decision. There’s always this ‘sweet spot’ in every business and you need to figure out when it is. Acknowledging referrals will always increase more referrals. The best way to encourage people to refer more often is to thank them for a referral, reward then, then ask them to refer again. This works like a charm.

Bill Glazer, one of the most celebrated Marketing Gurus in the world, who along with the legendary Dan Kennedy have teamed up to provide advice to over 130,000 entrepreneurs worldwide in every possible industry and profession. Bill is a professional speaker, marketing consultant and coach, and a much sought-after copywriter. His book, “OUTRAGEOUS Advertising That’s OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful,” made four Best Seller’s lists shortly after it’s release in 2009.

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Just about anybody can figure out how to sell things. But there’s genuis in creating customers for life. And, while there’s terrific income to be had from making sales, wealth is most certain by developing CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE. Click here for details…

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In the next issue, Mike Capuzzi talks about the power of personalized thank you notes and how you can personalize these cards to use them as an even more effective biz building strategy. He even includes picture examples. Check your e-mail inbox on Wednesday to read Mike’s article.

The “Facebook Twins,” Jamie and Joey Bridges, respond to one of our members requests for information regarding how to use Facebook Deals to generate more revenue. For the complete 411 on Facebook Deals straight from our go-to-guys at GKIC for everything Facebook, click here.

Super Affiliate Secrets with Bill Glazer and Matt Bacak – January 21-23, 2011Click here to watch a free webinar to find out more information about this event Dan Kennedy’s Opportunity Concepts Marketing event – March 3-6, 2011Click here to download more information 2011 Marketing and Money Making Superconference – April 28-May 1, 2011 Featuring Super Model and Super Mogul, Kathy Ireland, Agora Publishing’s very own Michael Masterson, Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, and many more. Click here for details.

DANKENNEDY.COM – The online hub for everything Glazer-Kennedy GLAZER-KENNEDY RESOURCE CENTER – The place to find all of your favorite Glazer-Kennedy resources. NO B.S. LIVE TV – Bill Glazer’s weekly Small Business Marketing Web TV show CONTACT US – e-mail maraglazer@dankennedy.com with any questions, inquiries, or comments.