Sales, Technology Speaker; Speaking Tips by Frank Furness: 2008

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Make money with YouTube

YouTube is now one of the most powerful means of getting your message accross on the internet. In the video below I will show you some of the hidden secrets to optimising your videos and amking money with www.youtube.com

Thursday, November 27, 2008

SEO | Search Engine Optimisation | Marketing Tips

Learn some great ways to optimise your website as well as see what is getting your competition to the top of the search engines. Also see the two great free pieces of software that will make this happen.
Watch the video below.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Product Review - Video Blogging for Profits by Frank Furness

The best part, you can download the EBook immediately for only $7 – that’s a price of a cup of coffee at a good hotel in London. Get it now!

He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Monday, November 10, 2008

Product Review - Video Blogging for Profits by Frank Furness

As you know, I love what is happening on the internet with blogs and video.

Imagine the combination of blogging together with videos. Well, there are some people that have become online celebrities with millions of fans and this EBook shares exactly how you can do the same.

A few well known personalities and musicians like Oprah Winfrey and even the Queen of England have started their own video blogs.

This eBook is designed to teach novice bloggers how to successfully start their own popular, extremely profitable, video blog.

The book will tell you how to set up your own video blog using popular blogging platforms. It will also tell you many ways to profit from your new video blog and how to effectively market it. This eBook provides you with detailed information and many resources that will save you a great deal of time and energy that would have been spent in research along with time and error.

The contents cover:
Chapter 1 – What is Video Blogging
Chapter 2 – Why You Should Start a Video Blog
Chapter 3 – How to Start a Video Blog
Chapter 4 – Profit from Your Vlog
Chapter 5 – Promoting Your Blog
Chapter 6 – Things to Remember

The best part, you can download the EBook immediately for only $7 – that’s a price of a cup of coffee at a good hotel in London. Get it now!

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com

Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/
Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Technology Tips – Great Website Links by Frank Furness

I am passionate about technology and keep discovering incredible sites. I have just registered www.greatwebsitelinks.com in by the beginning of next year the site will be launched with links to the best sites on the web.

Here are just a few that will be featured:

Video Sites

Revver – http://revver.com
Revver automatically adds adverts to any video post, netting you 50% of the commission

Blinkx – http://blinkx.com
This video search engine indexes more than 26 million hours of online viewing material

Howcast – www.howcast.com
Learn to do something new with a visit to this site. It has stacks of ‘how to’ guides

Also, remember to download the ‘Video Resources List’

Music

Shoutcast – www.shoutcast.com
A massive collection of streaming radio stations covering every genre of music. I love this site and use it all the time to listen to music while I work

SKY.FM – www.sky.fm
Home to 35 streaming radio channels including Smooth Jazz and the best of the 80s

Live 365 – www.live365.com
Lets you listen to thousands of radio stations from around the world

Photos

Flickr – www.flickr.com
The biggest and best photo sharing site on the net. Also offers great tools

Photosynth – http://photosynth.net
Turn your photos into 3D panoramas

Morguefile – www.morguefile.com
A huge collection of royalty free images that you can use for anything

As a bonus to the technology section this month my good friend Derek Gehl has decided to take a stand...
He's exposing the TRUTH behind search engine marketing.
Derek has created a free training video to show you his "Simple 3-Step Formula" that will help you attract FLOODS of eager buyers with a top search ranking.

Click here to watch the video.

More next issue of the newsletter...

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries.

His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com

Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Managing your business through challenging times by Frank Furness

Right now most businesses and individuals are faced with challenging times. Every Television station, radio station and newspaper is reporting on the doom and gloom (how is it that they rarely report good news) and the more people hear it, the more they believe it.

The good news is that everyone has a choice. Here are my strategies to manage your business through challenging times

Cutting or apportioning costs - is there anywhere where costs can be cut that will have little detrimental effect on the business. Now is the time to take a good look at the balance sheet and staff and see who and what is giving the company the best returns and who and what are not, and then making some difficult but effective decisions.

Culling time wasters – we all know the Pareto principle, that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients. Every organisation has those wonderful 20% of clients who are great to deal with, always pay on time and will stay loyal through challenging times. These clients are pure gold! How well do you look after them and how many referrals do you ask for from them?

Here is an effective exercise – write down the names of your top ten clients and then write down ten things you know about each of these clients. Get everyone at your company to do the same thing and you might be surprised at how little they know about your top clients. How do they like to be communicated with (email, phone or face to face), how often do they like to be contacted, what are their prime motivators in doing business with you, who are their top clients (and plenty more).

This is the time to really take care of these top clients, make them feel special and let them know that you appreciate their business.

Next you have your 60% of clients who will stay with you if you look after them, but could just as easily move somewhere else if they feel neglected. Right now is the time to keep in touch and ensure that all your staff really takes care of these ‘steady eddy’ clients.

Eight percent of your problems, headaches and unpaid accounts will come from your bottom 20% of your clients. They will give you eighty percent of your hassles.

Do you have a client that when you see a message from them or an email, you immediately tense up because you know it is going to be bad news. Now is the time to rid yourself of these clients and concentrate on your top twenty who will easily replace the business with no headaches and you will sleep easier.

The best decision I ever made was to stop working with two organisations that had given me a fair amount of work over the years, but more stress and hassles than you can imagine. Every time they booked me for a talk or training it would be a huge fee negotiation and then having to wait to get paid. I easily replaced them with clients that I enjoy working with.

Develop a 10 touch plan – how many times a year do you stay in contact with your clients, remember out of sight is out of mind. If you are not visible, your competition will be!
The easiest way is to have an effective newsletter or ezine. Take a look at Constant contact and read my blog article on how to develop an effective newsletter.

Sharpen your sales skills – right now is the time you should be sharpening the skills of all your sales people. This is not the time to cut costs on sales training, but rather the time to invest in your sales people and make sure that their skills are sharp and they will be bringing in the sales that will see you through the challenging times.

Sharpen their skills in every area: prospecting and finding new business, telesales, developing rapport, asking effective questions, finding and presenting creative and valuable solutions and closing and overcoming objections.

Now is the perfect time for a ‘back to basics’ course and of course this is where I can assist, so please give me a call on 44 (0) 1923 248200 for training, coaching, mentoring or to speak at your conference. Take a look at some of my latest testimonials.

Also, take a look at my 15 CD ‘Sales Strategies for Small Business and SME’s’ course.

Upsell and cross sell – McDonalds are masters of this. By asking one simple question – ‘do you want to go large’ they upsell most of their customers. Are you doing the same with your customers?

Do they know all the products or services you have to offer and are all your sales people up selling? In the next issue I will be writing an article on cross and up selling.

Increase your marketing efforts – this is the time you cannot sit back and wait for the clients to call. You need to up your marketing efforts dramatically. Here are some ideas you can use:
Create an awareness of your company:
• Sponsor a local sports team
• Sponsor local industry awards – donate a trophy for the best new business in your area with your local chamber of commerce. When the award is given, you will get great free publicity and be featured in your local newspapers
Let people know exactly what you do
• Create brochures or marketing materials that are client focused and not ‘you’ focused.
• See your website as a sales and marketing vehicle. Ensure you have the right sales copy, your website is search engine optimised and you know the exact statistics of your traffic. If you need assistance in this area, please contact me for consulting that will have your website driving traffic and sales.
• Newsletter – let your clients know exactly what you do in your newsletter
• Provide ‘subject matter’ expert articles in clients trade press.
Let your clients know that you can do it better than your competition
• Speaking as subject matter experts at industry conferences
• Speaking at individual client conferences and meetings

Taking action
More face to face meetings and pitches than ever before with well qualified prospects.

Set Goals and stay motivated – now is the time more than ever to set your goals and stay motivated. Avoid all the negative press and people and reward yourself for your achievements. Take a look at 'It's all About YOU'

Opt out of the recession – we all have a choice, mine is to opt out of the recession and concentrate on areas of my business that are profitable.

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries.

His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com/

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com

Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/
Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Public Speaking in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by Frank Furness

Scotland

Moving north, you will experience the warmth and friendliness of the Scots. When you think of Scotland you can picture a burly Scot in his kilt playing the bagpipes and I’m sure you must have tasted the world’s best single malt whisky, which is produced here. Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful and elegant cities in Europe. Visit Edinburgh Castle and once again tempt your palate at one of the many restaurants on the Royal Mile. Plan your visit to coincide with the Edinburgh Festival and enjoy endless entertainment and parties.

Glasgow is the home of the famous comedian, Billy Connolly and also has numerous conferences and speaking assignments.

On the west coast near Ben Nevis, which is one of the highest mountains in Britain, you will find the picturesque town of Fort William. Take the steam train ride to Mallaig and see some of the most beautiful and rugged countryside. Not far from there, stay over at Drumnadrochit and take a boat ride on the Loch Ness in search of Nessie, the famous Loch Ness Monster.

Aberdeen, the Granite City is on the east coast of Scotland with its oil companies and a base for North Sea exploration, also has many speaking opportunities. Remember to bring your raincoats and warm clothing, as it’s cold and wet.

Wales

If you have a speaking engagement in Wales, it will most probably be in Cardiff, the capital. Visit the wonderful little villages in Wales and experience the wonderful Welsh hospitality. It takes a while to become accustomed to their “singing” accent and it’s one of the most difficult languages I’ve come across, but don’t despair, all signs are in Welsh but in English too.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland your speaking assignment will most probably be in Belfast, which is a divided city. On one of my visits there, I asked the taxi driver to take me on a tour to the two infamous streets, Shankhill Road and Falls Road and when I wanted him to stop to enable me to take a photograph, he thought I was crazy. Stay in the most bombed hotel in the world and visit the docks where the Titanic was built but most of all enjoy the warmth and friendliness of the people.

Republic of Ireland

Southern Ireland has the biggest party town in Europe, which is of course Dublin. With very little unemployment in Dublin, speaking opportunities are in abundance. The audiences are wonderful and appreciative with a keen sense of humour.

They love stories and are some of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard. Enjoy the “craick” which is slang for partying and enjoying yourself. Travel south to Limerick and Cork for the beauty that Ireland is renowned for. One of my favourite experiences is travelling through the small villages and stopping off at the pubs.

You will soon forget the cold and wet outside as you enter the warmth of the pub, created by a large fire in the corner fireplace, and listen to a musician quietly playing Irish music while you sip at your whiskey, wonderful! Also ensure you visit the famous pub “Dirty Nellie’s”.

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.
He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Your Hidden Sales Force by Frank Furness

The economy is affecting so many businesses right now and this is the time to be pro-active and get back to basics.

This is also the time to focus on sales and finding new business and clients.

Having worked in 48 countries with numerous organisations and individuals I have discovered that just about every company has three sales forces:
The traditional sales force
The unrecognised sales force
The unseen sales force

The traditional sales force – this is what we all know, these are the people in our organisations out there prospecting for new business, conducting meetings with prospective and existing clients and bringing in the business. Now is the time to ensure that their sales skills are sharp and that they are focusing on results.

The unrecognised sales force – this is everyone that works for your company that is not involved in direct sales, but has contact with your clients and prospective clients. These are your account clerks, truck drivers, technicians, essentially everyone that works for you. It is traditionally known as customer services, but it is much more than that.

I worked with a company in Pennsylvania where I was booked to do a one day sales seminar. When I arrived, there was an audience of about 200 people and when I mentioned to the CEO that he had a huge sales force, he said this was not the case. Only 25% of the audience were sales people, the rest were chemists, truck drivers, clerks and maintenance workers. He said that he wanted everyone to know that they were relationship managers and sales people. If a truck driver was rude when making a delivery, he could lose his biggest client.

So with your organisation, is everyone sales focused, have you provided them with the right sales training as well as ongoing skills and customer service training? Without constant training and motivation, your company will soon be lagging behind the competition.

Remember, I can help with your organisations sales and technology training and consultancy.

The unseen sales force – These are the people looking for the products or services that you offer on the internet. If your website does not show up in the first page of a search or if your sales copy on your site is weak, you will be losing a ton of business to the competition.

Try this exercise: put yourself in the position of a prospective client and write down all the keywords or phrases you think they would type into a Google search if they were looking for your products or services. Now take these words and type them into Google and see who comes up on the first page. If you are not there, you will see your competitors who will be taking the business away from you.

If you are in a very competitive area, you can try paid advertising (pay per click) which will get you to the top of the searches, but this will cost you a fortune if you don’t know what you are doing. Once again, this is an area where I can help with training or consulting services.

My 60 websites are bringing in a steady income stream and I have found a ‘whiz’ who is a specialist in Google Adwords that almost guarantees me top placings for some of my sites. Drop me an email at frank@frankfurness.com and I’ll put you in touch with him if you are interested.
So, this is the time right now to evaluate your three sales forces and optimise them all for effectiveness.

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

November Ezine - Beautiful Boston

It’s time again for the quarterly newsletter. I have just returned from a three week speaking tour of the USA which I really enjoyed. It was my fourth trip there this year and this time everything there revolved around the elections.

I spoke in Rochester, New York, Albany, Boston, Washington, New Jersey, Hartford and Philadelphia.

One city I really looked forward to was Boston and found it to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever worked in. I had heard so much about New England in the fall, and it really is wonderful. If you are planning your next vacation, this is the place to visit.

Boston itself has so much history and sights, as well as some of the best shopping at the Faneuill hall area. The venue where I spoke was at the Bentley and Rolls Royce dealership and I was picked up at my hotel and driven to the venue in the top of the range Bentley. I was speaking for a CEO Organisation and after the talk members were invited to take the cars for test drives. I must admit that the Bentley convertible is the total dream car. Take a look at the video and the photos.

I also had the opportunity to spend four days at Provincetown which I had never heard of. It is right on the tip of Cape Cod and to me was a throwback to the hippie era. There are numerous art galleries and great restaurants (no fast food places like Starbucks and McDonalds).

I also took a trip from there to go whale watching and was fortunate enough to see plenty, one right next to the boat. Take a look at the photos.

Philadelphia was interesting. I spoke in Hartford in the evening and then had to rush off to travel to Philadelphia where I was speaking first thing the next morning. I arrived after midnight and had just fallen into a deep sleep when I was awoken with sirens and a speaker in the room telling me to evacuate as the hotel was on fire. I stumbled down the 10 flights of stairs (thankfully I was not on the 30th floor) with all the other guests and we stood around for an hour in the cold while the fire department did their thing. I finally got back to my room and had just fallen asleep when the same happened again, so with very little sleep I arrived at the venue the next morning.

Fortunately everything went well and straight after the talk I made my way back to New York for my flight back to London.
I love what I do; every day is a new challenge.

I have at last launched my huge Internet marketing package on the web. I have sold hundreds of this valuable software and EBook package at events where I have spoken and have now opened it to the general public. Take a look at http://www.internetsolutionspackage.com/ and if you are serious about making money while you sleep, this is a must!

Also remember to take a look at this month’s product review on Video Blogging as well as download your free gift at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/WebsiteTools.zip

Here is another great bonus for you; this is a truly incredible resource! You can now get access to 117 hours of downloadable audio interviews, marketing lessons and transcripts from some of the GREATEST marketing minds ever! Take a look at http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/audioclips.htm

As a bonus to the technology section this month my good friend Derek Gehl has decided to take a stand... He's exposing the TRUTH behind search engine marketing. Derek has created a free training video to show you his "Simple 3-Step Formula" that will help you attract FLOODS of eager buyers with a top search ranking.

Take a look at his free video.

This is also a great time to spoil yourself or your clients to a business card scanner for Christmas. Take a look at the special promotion.

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com/

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com

Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Use Elance for all your outsource requirements

Take a look at this video to see how Elance can help you.

Elance | Sales Tips | Frank Furness| business tips from Frank Furness on Vimeo.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Google Nemesis | Chris X | Amazing software

Google Nemesis
There are two young geniuses from Manchester called Chris X and Ken who are taking the web by storm. On their first 2 products they made $1 million and their latest product this week, Google Nemesis has broken all records.
It is an amazing piece of software that produces website templates and as you type over the lines, your ready made website contenet changes. It was made for anyone wanting to sell anything on the internet with no knowledge whatsoever of the technical side.
Take a look at this incredible software....and then take a look at the video which i made with Chris and Ken , the developers.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Vista Optimiser | Product review - Video Web Wizard

How to Find New Business and Clients - Take a look at my new book

Here it is this week's quick tips and reviews:

Optimise your computer with Vista
Take a look at what you need to optimise your computer. Whether it be a new video card or processor, Vusta can tell you. Go to the control panel and select system. In the system section is the computer's Window Experience Index.. Sometimes there is a number there. Click the link and you will see the ratings, but if not click 'rate my computer' button.
You should upgrade the component with the lowest score first.
Take a look at the video below:

Product Review - Video Web Wizard.
Have you wondered how to optimise your videos for the web. Discover how to optimise the size and quality - take a look at the video below.

Speakers Bootcamp
The next speakers bootcamp will be on the 26/27th July and there are a few places open. Download the Ebrochure at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/bootcamp08.pdf

Google Nemesis

There is a young genius from Manchester called Chris X who is taking the web by storm. On his first 2 products he made $1 million and his latest product this week, Google Nemesis has broken all records.

It is an amazing piece of software that produces website templates and as you type over the lines, your ready made website contenet changes. It was made for anyone wanting to sell anything on the internet with no knowledge whatsoever of the technical side.

Take a look at this incredible software....and then take a look at the video which i made with Chris and Ken , the developers.

And Finally.........

Last week I spoke at a convention in Macau and finally overcame my fear of heights. Take a look at the video, CRAZY........

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Speakers Bootcamp | Learn to Speak | Presentation Skills | Review

Learn how to speak all over the world and be paid high fees.
Frank Furness CSP has run the bootcamp on 5 continents and over 500 speakers have attended, some now amongst the best in the world.
The first day will teach you the speaking skills and the second day how to market yourself and get the high fees.
Take a look at http://speakersbootcamp.co.uk/ for the date and place closest to you.

Your Business Plan
If you want to work the International Circuit, you need to plan for it. Work out how many days each year you want to speak overseas, the market you want to work and develop an action plan.

Your Unique Market
Choose your unique and specialty market. Our market was initially the English speaking International Financial Services market. Over the years this has spread to include the IT and software market as well as any company in any country where people can understand English. Because of our delivery style, we have chosen not to work with translators.

Marketing yourself – the key to success
· Identify clients you have spoken for in the past that have international offices. Get a referral to the decision maker in the overseas office. Email or send a letter and follow up with a phone call.
· Dial and Smile – Pick up the phone and cold call. When Frank started out, he identified companies and banks that have international offices and phoned the President. One of those calls resulted in a business relationship with a company that spends between $50k - $100k each year sponsoring him to speak to their clients around the world.
· Find five clients that will provide you with 50% of your work each year. We have five large international companies that each book us for between six and thirty talks each year. We also have two or three Companies that we are developing should any of the ‘big five’ drop out.
· Actively prospect when speaking abroad. When speaking overseas, we will scan the local papers, magazines and yellow pages for potential clients. We’ll then phone and establish who the decision makers are and endeavor to set up a meeting and sell our services. A lot of these Companies are open and receptive to meeting with you.
· Referrals – always ask for referrals. Apart from existing clients who we do repeat business with each year, we have over 200 potential clients that have been given to us as referrals. If you leave the client satisfied, they will always give you referrals – IF YOU ASK!
· Add on an extra day to meet with potential clients – Wherever we speak in the world, we add on an extra day to see potential clients and bureaus. We can normally fit in 5 appointments for the day and this always results in at least one extra booking. On a recent trip to Singapore Frank managed to give a keynote speech to a large Insurance Company and in the same day have five meetings with potential clients. One of these meetings was a cocktail party where he met with twenty of the most influential business leaders in Singapore.
This was only achieved because Frank had developed a center of influence in Singapore who had arranged the talk and all of the meetings. He is rewarded with a percentage of the fee, which makes it a win-win situation for everyone.
· Find the other offices – When speaking internationally, find out where the International client for whom you are speaking has other branches around the world. Find out who you should contact at the other offices to do the same talk. In January we spoke at a large software company in Dubai. The CEO from London was in Dubai at the time and heard us speak. After the talk he asked us to contact him to replicate the talk to their other international offices. They have offices in 33 countries.
· Network and socialize – Before going on an international talk, surf the net to see what social events are happening while you’re there. Then arrange an invitation, as you’ll always meet potential clients at these events
· Have fun and take a tour – If we visit a country for the first time, we’ll always take an extra few days to see the place. This normally includes a half-day bus tour. It’s amazing whom you can meet on these tours. We’ve met and become friends with the Vice-President of one of the largest insurance companies in the USA and a grand old lady who turned out to be the wife of the owner of one of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains.
· Bureaus – find out who the bureaus are internationally and meet with them. When Frank spoke in South Africa last July, he met with the leading bureau. This resulted in bookings in November in Sun City and Mauritius for both Brendan and Frank.
· Web site – Pay a company to generate hits to your site. By doing this we have just secured a talk with a USA bank from the Internet. This has also generated three other enquiries, one with an International Company who needs someone to speak in five different Countries for them.
· Always meet with the decision maker at the event. We were recently booked to speak in Scotland to a company who had just merged with a German telecommunications Company. After the talk we spent some time with the German CEO and now following up to present the same talk to the German counterparts.

Here are the details of the bootcamp:

Day 1 agenda

Your speech structure
• Relaxation techniques
• The impact of a powerful opening
• The 7 Es of a successful talk
energy
excitement
entertainment
emotion
enthusiasm
education
endings
• Signatures
• The use and misuse of PowerPoint
• Multimedia
Music
Video
• The power of stories
• Creating impact
• Humour
• Discovering the magic of the moment
• The correct use of microphones
• Working with event teams

Day 2 Agenda

The business plan
Setting up and running an efficient office
Planning and tracking your business
Creating a niche market
Sponsorships
Publicity and promotion
Your unique press kit
Contracts
Building a profile
Essential equipment
Marketing with articles
Generating repeat and referral business
The importance of an excellent web site
Working with production houses
Developing and marketing products
Tips booklets
Publishing
Working with speaker bureaus
Breaking into the International market
Dealing with different cultures
Unforgettable titles (‘Walking with Tigers’ has secured
me more business than I thought possible)
Emarketing & affiliate selling
Creating and marketing with video and multimedia

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Exceptional Achievers’ which is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk
For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/
Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Business Card Scanner | Business Card Reader | Card Scanner | Review

Is the thought of transferring all the contact information by hand daunting, but you don't want to just leave a rubber-band stack of cards moldering in a desk drawer? When you try to find the one you need, it's never available? Well, PenPower WorldCard rescues you from the dilemma. WorldCard is a combination of a small business card scanner and a very clever software that can read the information from your business cards and place it in a contact manager or export it directly to your e-mail software. Take a look at how it works!

PenPower WorldCard Office is a business productivity software for business card scanning, recognition and management with a business card scanner. I have found the accuracy to be brilliant.
The scanner comes with it is the smallest in the market. The scanner's portable size makes it ideal for those who traveling on the road and its batch scanning (scan in first, edit later) function makes it a perfect product for busy business people on the go and for collecting contact information at trade shows and conferences.WorldCard Office supports various data extension.

Contact information can be directly scanned into PC, Palm, WinCE and mobile phone devices seamlessly. Its friendly user interface makes editing and data exporting an easy task.System Requirements: Pentium 166 PC or higher, Min. 64MB memory, 90 MB of available hard disk space, USB Port
Win 98 / Me / 2000 / XP Scanner Specification: Measures (4" x 2" x 1") Weighs 70g (2.5 oz) Max Scan Resolution 600x 600 dpi 256 Grayscale Connects through Universal Serial Bus (USB). No extra external power supply is needed

Package: A8 card reader (card scanner) USB cable Calibration card Carrying case User manual Software CD Registration card.

Features
Import and Export: You can import or export the contact database from or to different applications like Outlook, Outlook Express, Excel, ACT!, GoldMine, Lotus Organizer, and many more. This saves you a lot of time and no more repeated typing exists.

Infrared Transmission: You can transmit your electronic address book to your favorite Palm or mobile phone via infrared. Enjoy being a mobile knowledge worker! (you need to have an infrared port on your pc, and your palm and mobile phone also need to have infrared ports)

Photo Management: Attach a photo to your contact if you want. You can add a photo from the existing files or by scanning a photo with other flat bed scanners.

Double-Side Scanning: Two-sided business cards can be scanned with images in a single record. Continuous scanning makes the scanning more quickly.

Personal Calendar Integration: Can't remember which tasks with whom? Create task calendars and set the pop-up alarm to give you notice at the requested time. Drag and drop the contacts to each schedule for quicker and clearer follow-up. You can choose to view your calendars by daily, monthly and events.

User Defined Field: WorldCard allows you to self-define a new field that is not preset in the system, so as to expand the recognition capability. Add a new field and setup the recognition labels for this field, later when cards are scanned, information that match to the recognition labels will be extracted to the new self-defined filed.

Easy-to-Use: One Button Operation: It's as easy as pie to use WorldCard. All you have to do is to press the "Scan" button on the scanner, it will automatically perform the all process from scanning to recognizing the cards.

Highly Integrated: PenPower WorldCard is fully integrated with Outlook, Outlook Express, Access, Palm, ACT!, Organizer, CSV file format and many more.

Data-on-the-go: Data base and card images can be stored on a USB mini drive with one click and the content can be viewed on any computer without installing software

Multilingual Support: The default language is English. PenPower WorldCard supports French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Indonesian, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified Chinese) as well as English. Business cards with both Chinese and English can be read accurately.

Note and Categories: Add note to a single card and no more scribbling on the back of cards. Simply drag and drop the data to organize your contacts by the default categories or create your own.

Intelligent Card Search: Just type the keywords of anything about a contact like name, company, business cards that match the criteria will be found instantly. The right contact information can also easily found by categories.

Printing: PenPower WorldCard gives you lots of options to print your contact information to carry with you. The default label templates allow you to print labels in minutes, or you can create your own.

Multiple Viewing Modes: The multiple viewing modes allow you to choose your favorite mode to view your contact database.

Beam Your Addresses to Your Cell phone: Ericsson 320/380/T39/T68/T68i; Motorola 388/A6288/l2000/7389i/timeport; Nokia 5210/6210/6250/6500/6510/7110/7190/8210/8250/8290/8310/8390/8850/8855/8890/8910; Samsung A308/A408; Siemens
2588 S25/3568i S35/3618 ME45/6618 S45/6688 SL45

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 42 countries. His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. He is the author of ‘Walking with Tigers - Success Secrets of Exceptional Achievers’ which is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk and 'How to Find New Clients and Business'

For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

Thursday, June 26, 2008

How to Recruit Top Sales Talent

The challenges that so many businesses face are that they are purely results driven and many times ignore the importance of relationships and communication, which are ironically significant contributors to achieving results.

Having spent many years recruiting top sales people, I discovered long ago that in the recruiting interviews I had to find out a lot more about the person than what they and their resume were telling me.

I had to find out what their unique behaviours and attitudes were and whether they could fit comfortably into my sales team. I had to discover how good they were at developing relationships not only with clients, but with the rest of the team. I also needed to know whether they were hunters who were prepared to open doors anywhere and anytime or whether they were farmers who were great at developing existing relationships.

I learned early that good leaders are effective matchmakers – taking the right person with the right talents and matching that person with the right tasks and responsibilities. The perfect match builds a person’s self-confidence and makes him/her want to work harder. It is then not the leader who inspires. Rather it is the leader’s responsibility to help others inspire themselves.

Here are some points to ponder as you consider your team:

Have you reflected on why you are in your position?

Do you know what the unique behavioural talents of your colleagues are?

Do you know how to capitalize on the differences in your team?

Is everyone on your team committed to the business?

Do you know how to adapt your communication to address others on their terms?

Do your team members trust each other?

Do your team members work harmoniously, or is there a ‘them’ and ‘us’ attitude (I find this with so many of the teams that I train, sales and sales support or admin in conflict which hampers the results for everyone.)

Does your business (or the business you work in) have the right financial alignment to meet the needs of the team and its business goals

For many years I tried every tool on the market, but most were personality and not behaviourally based. When I visited Atlanta recently, I discovered that this tool had been developed and wanted to share this with all the CEOs and managers that I work with around the world. It will literally change the way that you look at recruiting sales people in the future.

Please take a look at http://www.salesrecruitmentdna.com/ as well as the recent webinar on how to recruit top sales talent.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in technology, sales and customer service. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. Frank is the author of bestselling books ‘Walking with Tigers – Success Secrets of the World’s Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary eBooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com

Travel and Speaking Tips - England

We moved from South Africa to England fifteen years ago and for four years I worked in the City of London. It is now one of my favourite cities in the world. Flattened and rebuilt several times in the course of its long life, London is a fascinating combination of the new mingled with the very old. It has been said that when you tire of London, you tire of life. There is plenty to see and do and it is heralded as the theatrical centre of the world. Some of the great attractions include, The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, The Eye of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey to name just a few.

Oxford Street is famous for its shopping and if your credit card stretches far enough, visit Harrods, one of the most exclusive department stores in the world.

The transport system is great to get around with when you don’t have a car with the ‘underground tube’ taking you wherever you want to go. A one-day travel card costs around £8 and gives you unlimited travel on the tube and London’s double decker buses. A cab drive with the London Black Taxis is a great experience and if your driver is a cockney, you’ll love the rhyming slang language and their sense of humour.

Dining out is a wonderful gastronomic experience with different ethnic foods to tempt your palate and there are many good and also many not so good hotels to stay in and the small size of some hotel rooms are a disappointment to many visitors. Don’t be surprised when you see the prices, as London is well renowned to be one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Moving out of London, a short drive or rail trip will take you to the beautiful town of Windsor renowned for Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s residences and Eton College where many of the Royals complete their education. The vast countryside in Britain is a wonderful sight to behold and the little villages along the way offer exquisite antique shops to visit, country tea houses serving fresh scones, jam and cream and interesting places to visit.

A day at Henley on Thames for the boat races is a must - see the photograph above.

British audiences are wonderful, but you need to do some research. They are very conservative and do not enjoy talks that encourage audience participation. Some time ago, an American speaker who was on the same programme as me started his talk by asking the audience to stand and repeat, “I feel good, I feel fine, I’m fantastic all the time”. The audience was very embarrassed and his talk went downhill from there. The English sense of humour is very different from that of the Americans as is their taste in sport. The British are passionate about “football”, rugby and cricket and have very little knowledge of American football, basketball, baseball or ice hockey.

Watch the television, travel in the city, read the newspapers and then adapt your talk accordingly. Many of my friends from the USA have adapted their talks and consequently have been invited back numerous times.

There are many excellent venues to speak at, my favourite being the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, which is two hours north of London. Manchester, the home of the football team Manchester United also offers many speaking opportunities and is the second largest city in England.

There are around 35 bureaus in the UK, but they are different to many other countries in that they are very much celebrity focused. The British love celebrities, sports stars and TV personalities, so it can take a while to establish yourself with them if you are a business speaker. I work with about four bureaus who I have established a good relationship with, and then concentrate on my own marketing efforts to keep the diary full.

There are many CEO groups where you will be in front of prospective clients as well as numerous networking organisations. Always contact the Professional Speakers Association to attend some of the meetings while you are here.

Next month, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in technology, sales and customer service. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. Frank is the author of bestselling books ‘Walking with Tigers – Success Secrets of the World’s Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary eBooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com

11 Tips to Develop and Promote Effective Newsletters and Ezines Online

Everyone should develop a 10 touch plan to stay in contact with their clients on a regular basis. The easiest way to do this is through an ezine or electronic newsletter.

This is a great way to share information, promote your products, and get feedback from your most important customers. Here are some pointers to creating a successful newsletter.

1. Have a Theme.
The largest pitfall to developing an effective newsletter is the lack of a theme. When creating newsletters on a regular basis, select a unique theme every month that appeals to your audience. Once you have identified a theme, be sure that your newsletter content focuses on that specific theme throughout its content. With my newsletter, I have a number of themes to suit my different audiences; sales, technology, speaking and motivation.

2. Allow for Easy Reading and Archiving
The first few seconds are your most important so make them count. Use big, bold headlines, and article descriptions, providing links to the full article or related content areas. Also, make it easy for subscribers to read back issues and put a link to the archive on your blogs and websites.

3. Use Graphics.
Producing a newsletter that's wall-to-wall text will not be able to keep the interest of even your most savvy reader. Include photographs and videos where possible. This will break up those large blocks of content and increase your newsletter's appeal. Make sure your graphics include links to the articles or products they reference as Internet browsers tend to click on pictures or graphics presented online.

4. Include Product or Service Information.
Internet users are very comfortable with product promotion especially when receiving free information or content. I always try to give a great deal of content as well as many free resources – take a look in the links section. Products or services that are closely aligned with the theme of your newsletter can be ideal. As a rule of thumb, keep the number of products you promote to three or less.

5. Be Viral.
Never assume that the person reading your newsletter signed up for it directly. In fact, you should encourage your readers to forward the newsletter to others who may be interested in the content you're providing. Make it easy for new users to sign up through a link in each edition of your newsletter. When users forward a copy to a friend, they can easily subscribe.

6. Place all your newsletter articles on your blog
This will attract a new audience who will pick up the articles from the internet, subscribe to your newsletter and eventually buy your products or services.

7. Ping your Blog
I use a website http://www.pingomatic.com to ping my blog, this is, in effect getting the message to most of the blog directories that I have new articles on my blog for viewing.

8. Submit your Newsletter to the top directories
This will find subscribers who are interested in your subject and encourage them to sign up. Here are some to consider:

EzineHub.com
http://www.ezinehub.com/

FreeTechMail.org IT Newsletters
http://www.freetechmail.org/

Jisc Mail
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

List Search, L - Soft
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/LIST_Q.html

ListCity
http://www.list-city.com/

ListTool.com
http://www.listtool.com/

New-List.com
http://new-list.com/

9. Have a second, short newsletter
I noticed that many of my CEO clients were too busy to read my normal long newsletter. I then produced a second newsletter with only five or six links to the newsletter articles now on my blog. This increased readership by 33%.

10. Promote your newsletter everywhere.
Promote your newsletter on your website, blogs, vlogs, articles and videos. I promote my newsletter on some of my YouTube videos and this has resulted in 10,000 new subscribers in the past year.

11. Find the right software for your newsletter.
I have two lists, my ‘A’ list which is people that I know or those who have seen me speak. For them I use Constant Contact and for my ‘B ‘ list which is subscribers from all over the world that I have never met, I use Infacta Groupmail.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in technology, sales and customer service. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. Frank is the author of bestselling books ‘Walking with Tigers – Success Secrets of the World’s Top Business Leaders’ and ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm

For more articles, please take a look at my website http://www.frankfurness.com and please download complimentary eBooks and software at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com

Frank Speaking Live

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Thursday, June 26, 2008

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