Thala Beach Resort - Great Barrier Reef

Sydney Buskers

Steve Gurney - Adventurer

Great Barrier Reef - Australia

John Shack on Frank Furness - Technology Sales Speaker

Social Media Masterclass

Just to let you know that we still heve a few places left on our Social Media Masterclass on Monday 24th October in Manchester and Tuesday 25th October in Leeds. If you are not using Social Media effectively to grow your business, then now is a good time to start.
During the Masterclass we will cover:
• Using LinkedIn to grow your ness
• How to intigrate your Social Media Marketing
• How to use YouTube and video marketing
• Facebook for business
• How businesses can systemise Twitter
• How to use Social Media to drive people to your website
• And much more.
For further information click this link.
Kind regards,

Frank

Gary Player Country Club - Your decision....

As you know I travel constantly around the world and experience great customer service almost everywhere I go, especially in Asia.

I have returned to my home country South Africa for a vacation and booked into Sun City for the week.

Unfortunately my experience of customer service here leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, this will not be on my list of places to visit in the future.

Today I decided to treat the two ladies in my life to manicure, pedicures and hair treatments (at London prices) at the Gary Player Country Club.

My mom is in a wheelchair and as there is a massive staircase, I decided to take her in the elevator. Imagine my surprise when I found the elevator full of furniture which I had to unload myself.

The elevator was in such a bad state of repair that my mom was a nervous wreck when we reached the top. It stopped and started, jolted and at one stage I thought we were going to drop to the ground.

My mom said that she would rather slide down the staircase than get into the elevator again.

I asked for the manageress, Ms Vermaak, who was no help at all. She just pushed the blame onto maintainance and said that is it was ok with them, there was nothing she could do about it.

As I had to sit around waiting for two and a half hours, I asked if Marie and I could use the jacuzzi as I was going to spend a substantial amount on the treatments.

I was told that as they were going to have the treatments, they could use it, but not me.

I said that my mom would not be using it, so could I use it in her place.

I was told that the rules stated that under no circumstances could that happen.

Don't you hate it when bad customer service always hides under the 'rules'.

How easy would it have been for her as a manager to allow me to use it while waiting, but unfortunately her service experience did not allow her to even think of that.

How sad, a wonderful country club and resort is so badly let down by lack of service.

Fortunately for me, I am an international speaker, so will be sharing this story with thousands of people in my talks and books around the world.

My only advice to the Gary Player Country Club would be to buy a copy of my book 'Walking with Tigers - success secrets of the world's top business leaders' and read the section on Pam Wilby who manages the Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai.

They could learn a lot......well maybe not

garybailey

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Has Virgin Atlantic lost the plot by Frank Furness

As a professional speaker, I make around 40 international flights each year. Unfortunately they can’t all be with the same airline as I am at the whim of my clients. I have tried to stick to Virgin, Singapore, BA and Emirates if possible to maximise my mileage points.
I have been very loyal to Virgin over the years and even have a Virgin Amex card that I use for all my business expenses (about £30,000 a year).
I am currently on a flight with Virgin to Shanghai (this is my fourth international flight with Virgin this year) and experienced the worst customer service ever with any airline. With this flight, my client gave me the choice of a higher fee and economy class or a lower fee and business class, so I thought I would go for economy as the flying time was not that long and I could watch a couple of movies and do some work.
When checking in, I told them that I was 6ft 2in and asked if the aircraft was very full and if at all possible I could get a seat with an empty seat next to me. He told me that the flight was full and that every seat was taken. When I entered the aircraft, I noticed that there were a number of rows of empty seats in economy and asked if I could move to one of them. I was told that I could if I paid an extra £30 which I duly did thinking ‘what a con.....’
A number of other passengers also opted to pay the £30 for the flight which was collected in cash (I saw no receipts being given), so I insisted on paying for mine with my card and getting a receipt. Is this a new tactic to collect money stealthily by Virgin, I have never seen it before.
Three hours into the flight the entertainment system was still not working, but I expected that as it has happened to me on my last three flights with Virgin (do they ever get serviced)
The service was below par and twice when I went to the toilets they were in a filthy state with no toilet paper or tissues.
I am used to having a choice of snacks when flying, but was told that there are no snacks on Virgin.
When it came to breakfast time, I was told that I could only have one choice as they had run out of the others. I asked for a second cup of coffee and was told that I could go to the back of the plane and get myself a cup if there was any left.
By this time I felt like I was on a ‘Faulty Towers’ aircraft and asked to see the chief purser. This request was ignored twice and when I eventually got to see her I was told that a lot of crew were sick and instead of a full crew of 30, this aircraft only had 10 crew and it was not her fault that the service was bad because they were understaffed. I asked that if I was only getting 30% of the service, could I opt to only pay 30% of my ticket, you can guess the answer.
This has really soured my view of Virgin who I had a lot of respect for in the early days when Richard Branson still was actively involved.
The bad news is that I have another flight booked with Virgin in 2 months....the first thing I do when I arrive is to phone my agent and ask him to change it to another airline.
I have also decided to move my Virgin Amex card to British Airways Amex after discovering that BA gives a free partner ticket for every £10,000 spent. I have just lost out on 3 tickets with Virgin as they don’t do this.
I speak and present on sales and customer service and feel that virgin have really lost the plot. From my experiences this year, their service sucks (they have even outsourced their check in, how can you control customer service this way).
I personally feel that Virgin should go back to basics and take some lessons from Singapore airlines or even Air Asia.
Air Asia is a company that specialises in low cost flights around Asia, but combine that with great customer service. I always use them if I am flying short hops in Asia.
They are a company that I speak about in my presentations as an example of great value combined with great service. I was fortunate enough to meet their CEO, Tony Fernandez, at one of my talks in Malaysia recently and he is a super person with great stories about the company.
He decided to build his own airport a few miles from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and now has more than double the number of people going through his airport than KLIA.
How is it that some companies get it right when it comes to value and service and other lose the plot?
Virgin used to be a great airline and I was a loyal client.
From now on, not only am I going to avoid using Virgin Atlantic whenever I can, I will also be telling the story of my experiences to thousands of people around the world.
Please comment on your experience with Virgin Atlantic or any other good or bad experience you have had with an airline.

Social Media Tips and Strategies for Business

Bikers Week in Daytona Beach

Professional Speaking Bloopers by Frank Furness

I was booked to speak in South Africa and Mauritius and was asked to recommend two other speakers. I have great arrangements with many speakers where we refer each other and I organised the top speaker fromNew Zealand and a friend of mine from England.

It was his first time in South Africa and he decided to take his wife with and turn it into a vacation. He also wanted to see a gold mine, so another speaker friend in South Africa arranged for him to do a talk to a group of gold mine managers followed by the tour.

The gold mine managers are hard men working underground every day in difficult conditions. I wasn’t there for the talk, but he told me that things seemed to be going really well.

Some way into the talk the miners held their lit lighters in the air. At the big pop concerts when things are going well the crowd hold up torches and lighters, so my friend thought that this was great. The more enthusiastic he became the more lighters would light up until every man in the room was holding up his lighter.

This seemed to be the highpoint of his career until someone quietly walked to him and handed him I note. It said ‘the boys want a smoke break’

Red faced, he quickly finished his talk. His big lesson here was to do more homework on the local habits and customs of the people of any new country he was speaking in.

For more information on Professional Speaking, take a look at Coaching for Speakers or contact Frank Furness at frank@frankfurness.com for dates of the next Speakers Bootcamp

Success Techniques for Financial Advisors by Frank Furness

I enjoyed 23 years in the greatest business in the world, a financial advisor. I managed to qualify many times at Million Dollar Round Table ‘Top of the Table’ level and right now is a full time motivational speaker sharing ideas and strategies in 48 countries. In this article are some of the basic strategies I used over the many years to achieve the highest levels in financial services.

One of the most important things that I learned early on was to remember people’s names. This was brought home to me in a disastrous interview early in my career. I was going to see a top executive at IBM and he’s name was Eustace Harris. Well I remember sitting in the waiting room saying to myself, ‘don’t call him Useless’ (instead of Eustace). As you can imagine, I had just conditioned myself to do just that. What happened? I walked straight in and said, “Hi Useless, my name is Frank Furness, how’re you doing?” and throughout the rest of the interview I kept calling him Useless. Fortunately he had a sense of humour and became a client and up until today he still reminds me about that first interview.

Keep alert and pleasant, I mean it doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, you’ve got to be alert, you’ve got to be pleasant and let the clients talk about themselves. Put yourself into the position of the client and think about what may be some of the things on their mind just before seeing you.

They’re probably thinking, who are you, how credible are you, and how long have you been in the business, how qualified are you? Who is the company that you work for and how long have they been around, how credible are they, whose products do you sell? Are you there just to line your pocket or to actually look after the client? Are they going to see you again?

These are some of the questions that are on the client’s mind and you’ve got to clear these questions before you go any further. Now the way you do that is using a method called the ‘Ben Duffy’.

Many years ago a large tobacco account was up for grabs and every big advertising company was after this account. There was a fellow called Ben Duffy and he was also after this account. He had a tiny firm and he thought to him, how am I going to get this account, I’m just a small guy with a small company, there’s no chance.

Then he thought about it and said to himself, ‘let me put myself in the position of the buyer that I going to see. Let me think about some of the questions, some of the things that might be on the client’s mind’ and he wrote out a list of fifty questions, then narrowed those down to about ten questions and answers.
He went in to see the client and said, ‘in preparing for today’s meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there might be some things you’d want to know about me, my company, what’s in it for you, what’s in it for me and as such I’ve prepared a list of ten questions.’ Well the chap from the tobacco said, ‘well I’ve got ten questions as well’. They swapped lists, six were the same and he won the account.

For many years now I have used exactly the same strategy. When I met a potential client at the first meeting, I would reduce tension levels by getting the client to talk about themselves and then I’d say to the client, ‘you know Joe, in preparing for today’s meeting, I put myself in your position and thought there might be some questions on your mind. Who is Frank Furness, who is XYZ Financial Services, how long have they been around, what’s in it for me, what’s in it for you? Are these some of the questions on your mind?’

They would normally nod in agreement and this is the only time you will speak about yourself. This is the opportunity to sell yourself and establish your credibility. So if you’ve got a degree, if you’ve been in the business for ten years, whatever you have done well, this is where you sell yourself.

Next you would speak about your company, how well established they are and what sets them apart from everyone else.

Next I would say ‘ you’re probably also wondering what’s in it for you and what’s in it for me; well what’s in it for you, all I want to do is take a snapshot of where you are now, and where you want to be in the future and really just help you develop the strategy to get there. What’s in it for me; if you like what I’m doing and feel that I can do a credible planning strategy for you, all that I would ask of you is, should you be satisfied with our recommendations, that you place the business with us. Secondly, whether or not we do business together, should you find us to be professional and ethical, we would like you to refer us to other professionals such as yourself. (get commitment)

Right now I am an International motivational speaker specialising in sales and technology, but where I learned my selling skills was in financial services where I qualified amongst the top half percent of salespeople in the world at the Million Dollar Round Table ‘Top of the Table’ level.

I used all of the methods explained above and these are also detailed in my comprehensive 15 CD/DVD resource Sales Strategies for Financial Advisors

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 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’ and 'How to Find New Business & Clients.'
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

How to make money with Ezines and Online Newsletters by Frank Furness

Ezines – Develop a 10 touch plan for all your existing clients (making contact at least 10 times a year). You can email, phone them, meet face to face or the easiest way is to have a newsletter. Whether it is a hard copy or online newsletter, this is a great way to keep in touch.
With so many newsletters circulating, content is king and is going to be the one differentiator between getting your newsletter read or deleted.
• Always ensure that you have a main article that provides information that your readers will find valuable.
• Within your Ezine, throw in links to related articles that you have written or been featured in when appropriate.
• Offer testimonials from satisfied clients
• Give real life examples and show how you’ve helped clients
• Case studies always position you as the expert in your readers’ minds more than you coming out and saying so.
• Jot down eight questions your clients have asked you in the past
• Answer each one in a short article, as there may be many other clients who have the same questions in mind.
• If you have been to any industry conference workshops or seminars where you’ve picked up some helpful hints, share these with your readers
• Offer a list of your top five to ten tips on a certain subject
• Recommend books or resources and offer reviews on some of these books.

Headlines
Today, money is "created" by the words you say, how effectively you say them and how quickly you get them in front of your readers. Your Headlines MUST stop your readers dead in their tracks and get them to read further into your ad, article or sales page.

If your headline doesn't grab your reader's attention, then all the rest of the time and effort you have spent writing your ad, article or sales page have gone to waste! They have NO value if your headline hasn't done its' job.

Every one of your marketing tools needs a headline. Headlines get attention, make your message easy to read, get your main selling points across, and lead your customer to a sale. Use a short three word headline for classified ads. Use headlines frequently in your web site copy to help people get your main message without having to spend a lot of time online.

Seven Proven HeadlineTechniques
1. Ask a Question. "Are you worried about filing your tax return this year?" A question headline gets the reader to answer in their mind. You automatically get the prospect involved in your message. Many people will read further into your letter, ad, or web site copy just to find out what answer or solution you provide.
2. Start your headline with "How to." "How to buy a second home with no deposit." People love information that shows them how to do something valuable.
3. Provide testimonials. The recommendation of a satisfied customer can go a long way in convincing others to buy from you. "This product really works! I'm happier and less stressed. Joe Kelly, ABC Widgets." Always include the customer's full name and the city they live in.
4. Issue a command. "Aim High" and "Lose 15 pounds now." Turn your most important benefit into a commanding headline.
5. Important news makes a good headline. This particularly works well for big changes in your company or the introduction of hot new products.
6. Use deadlines and special offers. Most of us are busy and tend to put off taking action. If you don't get the prospect to act now, you may never get the sale. Deadlines encourage people to respond when their interest is highest. "Save Money Now" and "Get More If You Buy Now" offers increase response.
7. FREE offers often pull the best response. "FREE report on Search Engine Optimisation" is a powerful way to get lots of interested prospects.

Tip
Useful Tip for Headline Creation
How do you convert casual readers of your marketing brochures and websites without pulling your hair out with the time-sucking chore of producing a winning headline? I now have a great piece of software that automates the process for you, take a look at http://www.headlinecreator.co.uk/

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 Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in financial services sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 52countries.
His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com and http://www.frankfurnessresources.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

Sell More and Earn More - It's Back to basics by Frank Furness

After 20 years in sales and management, I have found that the most successful people stick to the basics. They have an abundance of knowledge of their product, a positive and winning attitude, excellent selling skills and the habits that ensure a full diary with qualified prospects.

Some time ago, I attended a Tom Hopkins ‘Boot Camp’ in the USA. This is one of the world’s greatest sales courses and runs for 3 days. There were 800 people attending (I was the only South African/Brit) and the amazing thing was that these were not beginners attending, but some of the world’s top sales people from every walk of life. Some had returned for the 13th time and the sole purpose was to get back to basics.

Working with top sales people in 48 countries, these are some of the basic skills that I have discovered helps them to be top in their fields.

Prospecting
Top sales people are master prospectors. They are not afraid of cold calling and are socially mobile. They belong to sports clubs, social clubs (Round Table, etc) and have an inbuilt antenna in locating new prospects. They can differentiate very quickly between prospects and suspects and will spend their time with the best-qualified prospects.

I work with a great salesman in Hong Kong who earns over a million dollars a year selling financial services. He only mixes with millionaires and his aim is to find the wealthiest person to sell to. He has the belief that everyone will buy from him (and most do). Another client has his own polo team and spends £500,000 every August arranging a worldwide polo tournament. Most polo players are extremely wealthy and as his company sponsors the tournament, he has a high profile. Sales that follow the tournament each year amount to £2 - £3 million.

Phoning
I have very rarely met someone who loves making appointments on the phone. Top salespeople have developed the habit of phoning regularly.

They work on ratios and follow a simple script (though it never sounds as if they use a script). They also prepare well for phoning, having only a diary, prospect names and their script in front of them.

Any distractions such as papers are taken off the desk while they phone. They also set themselves a definite target of prospects that will say ‘yes’ in each phoning session. They don’t allow any distractions and psyche themselves positively for every call and don’t take rejection personally. For more scripts take a look at my audio series on telephoning and setting up appointments calls ‘Telephone Sales Skills for Winners’

Dress for Success
It doesn’t matter what you sell, you need to dress appropriately. I work with many professionals and the standard dress code is that of the City of London. Dark suits, white shirt, conservative tie and clean, black lace up shoes.

Green and grey suits are a no-no. Different occupations allow for short sleeve shirts and more casual dress, but remember, it’s the small things that count. Neatly ironed shirt and trousers, good grooming, gold pen (or gold plated if you’re new to sales - fake it till you make it) and decent looking briefcase.

Be very aware of body odour and halitosis (bad breath). It is very inexpensive to buy ‘Gold Spot’ and spray your mouth before each call. I recently went to a well know high street electrical store to purchase and expensive piece of hi-fi equipment. I was knocked out (and nearly sick) by the salesman’s bad breath and quickly left the store and purchased the equipment elsewhere. Here was someone with no idea on the basics, losing his company a lot of money. Remember, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Developing Rapport
People love to talk about themselves and whenever I meet someone for the first time, I firstly ask them how they got started. I then ask about their present situation and where they see themselves in the future. At this stage, I can learn more about them than at any other time. The important thing is to keep quiet and listen. I also realise that there are a number of things on the prospect’s mind when I first meet such as, who am I, how credible I am, the background of my company and what’s in it for him and me. My introduction is as follows (after past, present and future).

“In preparing for today’s meeting, I thought there may be some questions on your mind such as ‘who am I, who is my company and what’s in it for you and me,” at which stage they always nod in agreement. I tell him about myself and my qualifications (this is the only time I talk about myself and most professionals like to deal with other professionals). I then go on to tell the prospect about my company. Following that comes ‘what’s in it for you’ when I say quite simply that I would like to take a look of where they or their company are right now and where they would like to be in the future and to help them achieve these goals. ‘What’s in it for me?’ “I get paid in two ways, firstly if you think my proposals are feasible, I would like you to place the business with me and secondly, whether we do business or not, I would like you to refer me to 2 or 3 other people/companies similar to you.”

Questioning and Listening
Most top salespeople are master questioners and excellent listeners. These are the tools of their trade and enable them to find out what is really important to their client.

Lighting the fire
All successful salespeople know how to ‘light the fire and ignite the passion’ that will enable the prospect to buy. They realise how important emotions are in the sales process and sell the benefits of their product or service.

Closing skills
Statistics show that most top salespeople close on their fifth attempt. Mediocre salespeople don’t even know 5 closes.

On the Tom Hopkins sales course, we were all expected to learn 27 closes verbatim as well as the importance of overcoming objections and uncovering the real and underlying objection to proceeding with the sale immediately. If every step of the sales process is followed correctly, the close is the natural progression. Please go to www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm to download 39 sales closing scripts.

The power of words
Most people have been conditioned to react either positively or negatively by the use of certain words. An example is ‘I would like to make an appointment’. Who do you make an appointment with: doctors, dentists and other people out to hurt you? Rather use, ‘I’d be happy to drop by/pop in (as friends do). ‘Sign the contract’ is something we’ve all been warned about. Rather use ‘Please authorise the paperwork’. Always be aware of your ‘sales language’.

Pride
All successful people are proud of their professions and love selling. This becomes very evident to the prospects.

Enthusiasm
Selling skills and enthusiasm count for 85% of the sale. If you are boring, tired or not in the mood to sell, you will never be amongst the elite of salespeople.

Superb service
Top professionals deliver what they promise. Their levels of excellent service ensure that their client will never ‘shop’ elsewhere and they will in turn provide a constant source of referrals.

Fun
Top salespeople have fun and look forward to each day. They have great senses of humour. When I first started selling 20 years ago, I had an appointment with a schoolteacher. On arriving at her house, her little sister told me to sit and wait in the lounge as her sister was taking a shower. Five minutes later, she came walking through the lounge drying her hair, stark naked! She looked up and saw me, ran out and locked herself in a bedroom and shouted ‘go away, I don’t want to see you’. Well I left without a sale, but that’s when I realised ‘money isn’t everything!’

Have Fun!

Frank Furness CSP CFP is a professional speaker and trainer specialising in sales and sales management. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 52 countries.

His publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. 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

Create websites and salesletters easily

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Discover how to create free online invoices - http://bit.ly/5EH9Bc

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Latest social networking tips at www.socialnetworking4business.co.uk

Great technology info at www.thetechnologyguru.com

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Productivity Centre - Updates

This month's updates for Productivity Centre subscribers include:

Video - how to download videos from YouTube and insert them into your PowerPoint presentations.

Audio - Secret strategies for finding niche markets and products that you can sell to with no experience and make money while you sleep

EBook - Health & Wealth Magnetism

More next month.....

Check this video out -- Article Marketing Secrets http://ping.fm/J5nEn

Twelve quick marketing tips to get more bookings

Everywhere I travel in the world, businesses and individuals have felt the pinch with the downturn in the economy.

Many professional speakers have also seen a downturn in bookings with organisations cancelling and postponing their conferences.

Candice and I have just analysed our year and although our income over the past year has increased, our marketing efforts this year have doubled. Here are some of the strategies we have used, try them, they work.

Contact all your clients you have worked with over the past 5 years and send them your updated details and talks. This has resulted in bookings from clients that I had forgotten about, but not Candice (thank goodness I have someone that is great at detail and record keeping)

Produce a hard copy newsletter for bureaus you are listed with, just make sure they don’t forget you.

Buy an ‘opt in’ list of event planners and send them details of how you can enhance their events.

Have a Google alert for ‘call for speakers’ to see what may be suitable for you.

Update all your photos and marketing materials and send them to clients, potential clients and bureaus.

Have a page where potential bookers can find all your details quickly. I have been amazed at how many bookings have happened after someone has found my website and taken a good look through everything. Take a look at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/bureaus/

Start your own video channel and upload videos of you speaking at conferences. Take a look at www.youtube.com/salestips

Establish yourself as an expert by submitting articles and contributing to social networking sites like linked-in.

Search the internet for conferences and if they suit your talk, contact the organisers.

If all else fails, pick up the phone and cold call.

Use www.elance.com to build your international databases. I did this earlier this year and followed up with a short email which resulted in me being featured on Dubai FM and working with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

Take your camera with you to every talk and get video testimonials, they are very powerful.

Take a look at http://www.frankfurnessresources.com/testimonialvideos/

On the other hand, if it didn’t go so well, keep the camera well hidden.

More tips in the next newsletter and my new book on ‘Marketing Strategies for Speakers and Trainers’ will be published next year.

Drop me an email if you want to be one of the first to know when it is released.

Also, you might want to take a look at my CD series or if you are a subscriber of the http://www.productivitycentre.com
or resources take a look at
http://www.frankfurness.com
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
http://www.productivitycentre.com

Productivity Centre Updates

This month’s updates for Productivity Centre subscribers include:

Video – how to download videos from YouTube and insert them into your PowerPoint presentations.

Audio – Secret strategies for finding niche markets and products that you can sell to with no experience and make money while you sleep

EBooks – Health & Wealth Magnetism

More next month.....

How to Drive Traffic & Sales with Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of my favourite ways of establishing my brand, building my subscriber list and driving sales. It is the most efficient low cost, no cost way to promote yourself or your business.

It is the quickest and most cost effective way to drive traffic to your website and blog. More than that, it allows you to have permanent links spread across the internet pointing back to your site.

Here are some of the rules to get the best from your articles:

Keywords – before you write, do some keyword research to optimise your article. There are some great free tools like https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Use your keyword in your headline, first and last paragraphs. The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site.

Headlines – use a compelling headline or title that will encourage your readers to take the time to read the article. I use a great tool http://www.headlinecreator.co.uk

Content - Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic as more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

Promotional Opportunities – maximise on the promotional opportunities. Part of the benefits of article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work.

I see articles as the perfect sales and promotional tool. By educating your readers, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and the business will follow.

Make it interesting - Use short paragraphs and make use of numbers or bullets as well as stories. The article must be client focussed and they must see value in reading it.

Conclusion – end with a conclusion summarising the article and remember to proofread and correct any mistakes.

Resource box – have a great resource box which includes your contact details and your website link. Take a look at my resource box at the end of this article.

Article life cycle – I follow a system with every article I write:

1 – The first place my article goes onto is my website. I want Google to find my article on my website before anywhere else on the internet

2 – Blog – the second place I put my article is on my blog. I normally make a quick video relating to the article, submit it to YouTube and insert the video in the middle of the blog. I then use http://pingomatic.com to share my blog with all the blog directories (free...)

3 – The third thing I do is to submit my articles to over 100 article directories using a piece of software http://www.articlesubmittingsoftware.com/ which makes the process of submitting quick and easy. I immediately have 100 links back to my website.

Alternatively you can manually submit your article to the directories. The top five are:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.articlebase.com
www.buzzle.com
www.goarticles.com
www.helium.com

4 – The fourth thing I do is submit my articles to the local press. In the past this has resulted in me having my own column in an international publication which was part of the Financial Times and distributed to 40 countries.

5 – The fifth thing I do is to find magazines where my article could be a good fit and submit them to the editor. This has resulted in my articles being published in numerous magazines all over the world. As I have said, the best form of low cost, no cost marketing.

6 – Promotion – my last step is to publicise the article to my subscriber list and through my various social media accounts. One easy website to do all of this quickly is www.ping.fm

Now it’s up to you, start spreading the message and watch the traffic and sales follow.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and author specialising in sales and technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com For resources take a look at
http://www.frankfurness.com
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
http://www.productivitycentre.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

Newsletter Update

Welcome to the latest newsletter and apologies it has taken so long since the last one. I have been travelling all over and at last had a chance to sit down and share some information.

It has been an interesting year and fascinating to see how different countries and cultures have adapted to the downturn in the economy.

After months of development work, the Productivity Centre www.productivitycenter.com is up and running and great value with over a thousand resources for growing your business and increasing your productivity. Please take a look at the website and download the flyer

Anyone signing up in the next 2 weeks will also get a copy of my Ebook ‘How to Find New Clients and Business’.

I am currently finishing another EBook ‘Internet Marketing for Newbie’s’ with great information and links to some of the best sites and free resources on the net. As soon as it is ready, it will be available for you for free.

I am also intending to do a shorter and more regular newsletter with marketing tips and videos in the New Year, so spending some time this month producing the videos.
Why not spoil yourself or your clients this festive season and buy a business card scanner.

All those cards that have been piling up for months could be potential business.

From now until Christmas there will be additional bonus software worth £80 for anyone investing in their card scanner on http://www.businesscardscanner.co.uk/

January is a good time for a sales 'kick-off', so please give me a call to come in and work with your team.

I will also be doing some international work, so if you see that I will be in your area, please contact me to arrange a presentation:

Singapore & Malaysia - Jan 24-30

Hong Kong - Feb 2-5

Iran - Feb 16-26

Dubai & Abu Dhabi - Feb 27-March 5

South Africa - March 10-16

Download all my presentations and take a look here for more details.

Have a wonderful festive season and may next year be a great one for you.

A little known website strategy to get more traffic

Many people I speak to tell me they have a great website, but very little traffic. When I ask if they have done the most basic thing and submitted their website to the various search engines, most answer that they have not.

Here is a great strategy that very few people know about. DMOZ (also known as the Open Directory Project) is the grandfather of search engines and most search engines index use it for indexing websites.

So it is essential for you or your website administrator to submit your website to be indexed into DMOZ so that search engines can find additional information about the website.

This is how you do it:

1. Visit the DMOZ directory website.

2. Review the top-level categories and click on the most appropriate category to fit the website that you will be submitting.

3. Choose a subcategory which suits your website. These are located below the alphabet links in the top centre of the page. Since so many categories are extensive in size, there may be many subcategories from to choose from.

4. Continue to choose subcategories until you are at the lowest possible category. Although not always, it will generally be a small category with no more subcategory links at the top.

5. Click suggest URL which is the third link from the left in the gray bar of links at the top of the webpage.

6. Read the guidelines and rules thoroughly that are on the website submission page and ensure that the submission form is correctly completed.

7. Complete the submission information so that it is complete while following all of the submission guidelines. The category should already be filled in with the category that was chosen. Also, make sure to include your user verification and email address.

8. Read the Submission Agreement and once complete and you agree with it, press submit.

9. Wait for the website to be indexed. All of the website submissions for each category are reviewed by volunteers who spend their time to review the website submissions, so this can take up to 6 months.

Remember that all category editors (who are the users who review website submissions) are entirely volunteers. Some categories may be more thoroughly watched and reviewed than others.

Not all website submissions are accepted, regardless of how well the submission form is filled out. There are various reasons; the site may be illegal, pornographic or simply a one page sales pitch with no information. Remember, the internet was created to share information.

DMOZ has a website index for over seventy languages and is always adding new languages. If you own a website in another language, submit that as well.

There are millions of unreviewed website submissions presently - only submit your website once to avoid being penalised!

So don’t wait, get your site indexed straight away.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and author specialising in sales and technology.

He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences in 48 countries. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at
http://www.frankfurness.com
http://www.frankfurnessresources.com
http://www.productivitycentre.com

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

Product review of making money while you sleep - http://tinyurl.com/income4you

How to create Income on the internet

Let's take a look at a product I have discovered that I am very exited about. As you know, I love creating income while I sleep and this product does just that for me.

The review is on a productcalled Multi Profit Websites, this is a combination product dreamed up by John Thornhill and Dave Nicholson and their development team. I must say from the off, this site was one of the most impressive sites I have ever come across in a long time. The shear usability sold it for me right away. Now how much do you think it would cost to get your own website built and maintained by a website support company? Not for what this site costs I can tell you! The price tag is very very small to what you would pay in comparison.

Anyway enough about the pricing of the site, lets get down to the business end of this site and what you can actually achieve with it. Now when you first upload the website to your webspace (with the help of the in-depth online videos I might add) you can immediately see in the personal website control panel that your options are extensive to say the least. The amount of customisable options is virtually limitless. You have the ability to add your own SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), choose your own passwords to login to the site, setup your eBay shop (if you have one) if not simply remove the option, you can affiliate any eBay product you wish from any eBay in the world, use Amazon, Clickbank, Pay Dot Com, or simply use your own content by using the easy edit HTML builder which is so simple to use.

There are a host of affiliate sites you can use if you want to too, these includes Amazon, Google, Clickbank, Pay Dot Com and eBay, so if you want to simply use your site to promote products you can. With MPW (Multi Profit Websites) versatility is key as there is very little you can’t do. For example, if your business is flowers you can use a custom banner and footer, add your payment buttons and you’re ready to go.

There are sections all over the site which you can edit as your own, add your own links and pages as you see fit. Like I said it so versatile you can do almost anything you like with the site. You could actually build as new site everyday with a different niche and have hundreds of sites online earning you an affiliate income of you don’t have an exact business, the guys provide you with a ton of fresh content articles to use as your own. They even have RSS feed to create content on your site so you don’t even have to write anything if you don’t want to.

This really is turn key at it’s best if you want it that way.

John and Dave have thought of everything for this site from the business user to the affiliate marketer, it can be used in any business environment from building a kitchen to building a subscriber base it’s that versatile.

This is hands down one of the greatest products I have in my collection and I know I will use it as a template from now and for a long time to come. If I ever need a website quick then I have it on tap and ready to go in 20 minutes.

Take a look at it now and let it start creating income while you sleep

How to download YouTube videos and insert them into PowerPoint presentations http://ping.fm/DwbK2

Check this video out -- How to get sales on the internet http://ping.fm/6tqux

Check this video out -- How to get great customer service http://ping.fm/tWinE

Check this video out -- The Sales Cycle http://ping.fm/ecWHC

How to recruit top sales people: http://ping.fm/V2Emh

Discover the different methods of sales prospecting. Check this video ohttp://ping.fm/A8TXD

Check this video out -- Business Card Scanner - print & scan options http://ping.fm/B7llB

Check this video out -- Business Card Scanner - how the scanner works http://ping.fm/0nxnQ

Increase productivity with a Business Card Scanner : http://ping.fm/ptbzA

Improve your selling skills | Sales Success Profile: http://ping.fm/i8OSc

ukspeakerTake a liik at Frank speaking live - http://tinyurl.com/frankspeaks

Doing Business in a Global Economy by Frank Furness

Having spoken in numerous countries within the past 12 years, I have seen some massive changes. The global economic crisis driven by the greed of banks has bankrupted so many companies and many others are just fighting for survival.

Interestingly, countries like Australia, that are more conservative have not been hit as hard. Dubai, the showpiece of the world has come tumbling down in its quest to be bigger and better on borrowed money. Just an hour away, the small and conservative emirate of Abu Dhabi is enjoying growth as it has not relied on other people’s money.

In my travels I see huge growth in countries like China and India. On a recent tour of Iran and Saudi Arabia, I also noticed massive growth, but the biggest noticeable factor was the number of young entrepreneurs that are now running successful businesses.

The other noticeable change is that the successful companies have been totally customer focussed. They are solution based organisations and sell value instead of products or services.

Many ‘order takers’ have been exposed and those individuals and companies that are actively providing great customer care as well as constantly looking for new business are the survivors.

The most successful sales people are those who have made the change to think and act like business people and have learned to communicate at all levels.

There are a number of other factors affecting the global economy:

Social – behaviours, tastes and lifestyles of the countries as well as their cultures. Buying patterns are influenced by changes in structure of population and consumer changes.
• Age
• Religion
• Culture
• Language
• Lifestyle patterns
• Body language


Legal - Awareness of consumer protection legislation, environmental legislation, health and safety and employment law.

Economic - This is a huge factor presently.
• State of economy will determine business factors
• Trends in business
• Demand of products or services
• Interest rates
• Wages
• Inflation
• Ability to pay
• Financial stability

Political - Again a big driver. When I spoke in Iran, there is a massive drive from the young entrepreneurs to expand their businesses globally, but this is marred by the political situation and regulations. Interestingly, a South African phone provider recognised an opportunity and is now the second biggest phone company in Iran. Other factors include:
• EU derivatives and regulations
• Spending power
• Government Policies
• Stability

Technology – My other business is an internet marketing company with 60 websites and in the past 10 years I have seen massive changes. The emergence of Social Networking is having a huge impact on business and providing global opportunities. Other advantages include:
• Huge volumes of information can be shared
• Cost reductions and improvements in service i.e. 24 hour call centres worldwide
• Competitive advantage – information is freely available
• Easier communication with customers anywhere in the world
• Buyer profiles changing – much younger and internet savvy
• Communication in different ways – audio, video, forums

What does this mean?

The global market has become more competitive. Similar products and pricing will result in organisations having to:
• Differentiate
• Sell value
• Create the ultimate customer experience
• Sell to customers the way they buy
• Move from sales to business people
• Teamwork at all levels - knowing everyone on the team and the competition
• Global teamwork and communication at all levels.
• Share ideas, best practice, resource and network
• Develop creative leadership
• Pro-actively seize opportunities
• Set goals and achieve success

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and consultant specialising in sales & technology. He has educated, entertained and inspired audiences globally.
For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com and for resources take a look at http://www.frankfurness.com/ and http://www.frankfurnessresources.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

Check this video out -- Doing Business in a Global Economy http://tinyurl.com/krvnf7

How to Find New Clients and Business - cold calling: http://ping.fm/XSG6O

Getting Referrals: http://ping.fm/rjdGY

Sales networking tips - How to Find New Clients and Business -: http://ping.fm/sEhNy

Elevator Pitch - How to Find New Clients and Business: http://ping.fm/LD2f9

Newsletters and Ezines- How to Find New Clients: http://ping.fm/h0bQw

Make money with affiliate marketing: http://ping.fm/VE7jL

Take a look at this great sales book http://short.to/o7o3

How to Find New Clients and Business

With the economy slowing, it is now time to start a marketing campaign to find new clients and generate new leads. Here is a plan of action that I would suggest:

1. Who is your target audience or ideal client? Really spend some time on this and analyse your client base. Find out who the clients are that are giving you the lowest profits and the biggest headaches....we all have them.

Now either get rid of them or assign them to a call centre team or someone else in the office, so you can spend more time on the profitable clients. Now take a look at your most profitable clients, the ones you really enjoy working with and profile them. How did they come to be clients, were they part of a marketing campaign, a referral, generated from the internet or other means?

2. Develop five marketing tools or strategies to get more ‘ideal clients’. What were the strategies that worked best in the past is everyone in the team still applying those strategies.

There are many methods to find new clients or leads, but you should spend your time on the strategies that work best and give you the most profitable results and ‘ideal clients’. Marketing or prospecting strategies include:
• Referrals
• Associations and Trade Bodies
• Exhibitions
• Speaking at targeted conferences
• Centres of Influence
• Networking
• Websites and the Internet
• White papers
• Newsletters Article marketing
• Advertising
• Sponsorships
• Corporate entertainment
• Mailshots
• Expert articles in the trade press
• Hospitality
• Workshops and free surgeries

3. Your Competitive Advantage. Brainstorm with the sales and marketing team and discover your competitive advantage. Why should someone change from their existing supplier to you? How are you different, what better results can you offer?

If you are not 100% clear on this, you will speak to a lot of potential clients and be met with that wonderful phrase ‘I want to think about it’, which really means NO – You haven’t convinced me why I should change and buy your goods or services.


4. When will the campaign start, what are the responsibilities of everyone on the team and how often

Take a look at the resource ‘How to Find New Business & Clients’ at http://www.prospectingforsales.com/

Frank Furness CSP is a specialist speaker and author in marketing, sales and technology. Frank can be contacted at mailto:frank@frankfurness.com or telephone+ 44 (0) 1923 248200. http://www.frankfurness.com/

Download 39 Power Sales Closing Scripts at http://www.frankfurness.com/closingscripts.cfm
Download free EBooks and software and get all the latest tips at http://www.frankfurnessresources.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/

Frank Furness speaking on sales in China: http://ping.fm/PO5St

How to turn your articles into videos

This is a great new tool I have found and using to turn articles into videos and I thought I would share it with you.

It's called The Article Video Robot and it will convert your articles to LIVE and TALKING videos in minutes.

Imagine if you could hire a full time a video and audio producer at your disposal who would turn every article you have written into a Web Video - bringing to life your article's messages.

Go check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/videoarticles

All you have to do is Copy & Paste Your Article Into This Software And it just Converts

Your Article Into A Hot Marketable Video Instantly! You don't even have to leave your desk or touch a camera!

It's push button easy and only costs you 0.97 cents per article.What I also like is the voice-over, animation, all the graphics and submission to 17+ video sharing sites like youtube, veoh, metacafe.
Let me know what you think of it.

I'm on my video 185 on my YouTube channel at the moment and hope to break the 200 barrier in a few weeks. I'm also getting a nice cheque each month as a YouTube partner.

Best regards,
Frank

Just found a great tool that turns articles into videos - http://ping.fm/sLoz7

Productivity Skills and Training: http://ping.fm/92uKD

How to Find New Clients and Business: http://ping.fm/rwfR4

Learn how to create 100 headlines in minutes - http://ping.fm/ftGT6

Video on free media convertor | Convert video and audio: http://ping.fm/av2ll

Learn from Google Tools and Tipson this video: http://ping.fm/1uLYL

Frank's technology on how to load to many video sites at the same time: http://ping.fm/undbN

Learn to Cut and trim videos: http://ping.fm/XipyX

Speakers Bootcamp - book now to avoid disappointment - pdf - http://ping.fm/2D2tN

Secrets to Get to the top of the search engines: http://ping.fm/WtJAJ

How to promote your next event: http://ping.fm/iRQov

Presentation tips for international speaking: http://ping.fm/mpNWZ

Watch my video on The Customer Experience: http://ping.fm/h1Fze

Watch my funny video live in Iran: http://ping.fm/ZDCnz

Take a look at my latest video testimonials at http://ping.fm/buf3C

Frank Furness enjoys the good food and hospitality speakin in Saudi Arabia http://ping.fm/M2eti

Frank enjoys the hospitality and food when speaking in Saudi Arabia - http://ping.fm/BphJi

Frank Furness launches http://ping.fm/wlzyz with sales, marketing and technology strategies

Sales Tips Video - I want to think about it close: http://ping.fm/RnLHT more at www.productivitycentre.com

Frank Furness on Skype - free phone calls anywhere: http://ping.fm/HXFhx

Watch my video on Closing the sale | Sales Closing Tips: http://ping.fm/9ygzX by Frank Furness

Have some fun with the video on NLP - Conditioning with words: http://ping.fm/VaovP

Watch my video on How to add audio to PowerPoint: http://ping.fm/qVd8I

Watch my video on Sales Closing Tips - Overcoming Objections: http://ping.fm/1gwAV

Effective questioning techniques for sales by Frank Furness at http://digg.com/d3ydV2 also http://ping.fm/X0WZt

Take a look at my new Financial Advisor Training programme http://ping.fm/tpEwA

Frank Furness - China - 7

Frank Furness - China - 7, originally uploaded by frankfurness.

Frank speaking in China

For your next conference book Frank Furness - Sales and Technology Speaker and Author: http://ping.fm/TfsY7

Watch my video on Time Management Tips: http://ping.fm/Dh6LY