5 Business Lessons I learned from Hanging out in Hip-Hop Class
I’ve been a dancer my entire life. I started out at the tender age of 4 with my first pair of shinny black tap shoes with little pink bows. I later graduated to jazz, swing, ballroom, a little country line dancing and in my mid 20s returned to my love of tap where I studied with a professional dancer who taught the likes of Paula Abdul and other celebrities how to shake a leg.So when I decided I wanted to drop a couple of pounds before the holidays hit I went back to my roots and signed up for a series of dance classes.Going in I knew that dance requires creativity, focus, control and power. But driving home one day I thought about how much learning to dance is like running a business. Here are 5 business lessons I've learned from hanging out in a hip-hop class.I can do a whole lot more than I thought.Each lesson is broken down in

Offline Marketing For Online List Building
One of the biggest challenges in building your online business is to build a large e-mail list.A list of prospects and buyers that you can use as a foundation for your online business.It's harder than ever to build e-mail lists online, as customers are more reluctant to opt in for free e-zines (or other mailing lists) than ever before.What's the best way to build an e-mail list? Rest assured, e-mail marketing is just as important now as it ever has been, and perhaps even moreso. So what do you do? My advice is to use offline marketing to build your online e-mail list. This is a tactic that is seldom employed by online marketers, and yet it is the most powerful way to build an e-mail list I know of. Why is this? Because people who move from an offline promotion to an online mailing list make up the most responsive e-mail list you wi

Referral Basics
My parents just had their 50th wedding anniversary last weekend. It was a treat to see fraternal cousins that I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. We all had children and so we ask the usual questions. It turned out that my cousin had a daughter who had graduated medical school“What field of medicine will she be practicing?”, I inquired.“Well, she has her doctorate.” “She’s a doctor.” My cousin replied.“I understand she is a medical doctor, but what will be her specialty?” “What is her area of expertise?” I asked.After a pretty extensive conversation, I discovered that my cousin was not really sure. He was sure of the thousands of dollars he had invested in his daughter’s education, but had no idea what his daughter was really going to be doing for a living nor did he have his daughter’s business card or clinic information available., even athletes like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, would never rise to their true potential without one integral ingredient - Coaching.

Although I’ve written many articles on Coaching, this isn’t one of them. I mention it only to point out that the aspect of coaching, is Mental. That is to say, gifted athletes already possess the physical skills necessary to excel. Nevertheless, it is only one aspect of their sporting expertise.

Who among us hasn’t heard a professional coach say things like: “I only want players with a good head on their shoulders” or, “I only want players with Heart!”

What are they saying? They [Coaches] are saying there is more than one key discipline for success in sports and that what’s in the heart and head is more important than most all other attributes. The right knowledge and the right attitude, compensates for, often usurps, things like natural talent.

Can the same thing be said for Natural Born Sales People and the Discipline of Selling? Bet on it!

The Rule:

Renowned sales guru, Dale Carnegie, is known to be the architect of the ‘Five Steps to a Sale’ selling process. Over the years, his successful program has stood the test of time and spawned many other successful interpretations upon his theme. “Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability” by Paul Shearstone [available at all fine book stores and on the Net], is just one of them. :-)

The reason for the success of Carnegie’s strategy is largely due to its simplicity. In short, five clearly defined, easy to understand Laws or Rules that apply to almost all products or services. For example:

Step #1: “Talk to your customer Briefly regarding something that interests Them”.

Easy to say but what does it mean? Simply put, when salespeople meet customers for the first time, they must say or do things to help with the initial Get-Ta-Know-Ya bonding process. Dale said, in your opening meeting with customers, the best way to get them to like you is to engage them in brief conversations about things they find most interesting. I could go on to elaborate further but the fact is, it works.

The real lesson here is, now knowing this Rule, those without natural born sales abilities can integrate it into their selling approach and be guaranteed better results in the introduction st

players with Heart!”

What are they saying? They [Coaches] are saying there is more than one key discipline for success in sports and that what’s in the heart and head is more important than most all other attributes. The right knowledge and the right attitude, compensates for, often usurps, things like natural talent.

Can the same thing be said for Natural Born Sales People and the Discipline of Selling? Bet on it!

The Rule:

Renowned sales guru, Dale Carnegie, is known to be the architect of the ‘Five Steps to a Sale’ selling process. Over the years, his successful program has stood the test of time and spawned many other successful interpretations upon his theme. “Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability” by Paul Shearstone [available at all fine book stores and on the Net], is just one of them. :-)

The reason for the success of Carnegie’s strategy is largely due to its simplicity. In short, five clearly defined, easy to understand Laws or Rules that apply to almost all products or services. For example:

Step #1: “Talk to your customer Briefly regarding something that interests Them”.

Easy to say but what does it mean? Simply put, when salespeople meet customers for the first time, they must say or do things to help with the initial Get-Ta-Know-Ya bonding process. Dale said, in your opening meeting with customers, the best way to get them to like you is to engage them in brief conversations about things they find most interesting. I could go on to elaborate further but the fact is, it works.

The real lesson here is, now knowing this Rule, those without natural born sales abilities can integrate it into their selling approach and be guaranteed better results in the introduction st

essful program has stood the test of time and spawned many other successful interpretations upon his theme. “Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability” by Paul Shearstone [available at all fine book stores and on the Net], is just one of them. :-)

The reason for the success of Carnegie’s strategy is largely due to its simplicity. In short, five clearly defined, easy to understand Laws or Rules that apply to almost all products or services. For example:

Step #1: “Talk to your customer Briefly regarding something that interests Them”.

Easy to say but what does it mean? Simply put, when salespeople meet customers for the first time, they must say or do things to help with the initial Get-Ta-Know-Ya bonding process. Dale said, in your opening meeting with customers, the best way to get them to like you is to engage them in brief conversations about things they find most interesting. I could go on to elaborate further but the fact is, it works.

The real lesson here is, now knowing this Rule, those without natural born sales abilities can integrate it into their selling approach and be guaranteed better results in the introduction st

s it mean? Simply put, when salespeople meet customers for the first time, they must say or do things to help with the initial Get-Ta-Know-Ya bonding process. Dale said, in your opening meeting with customers, the best way to get them to like you is to engage them in brief conversations about things they find most interesting. I could go on to elaborate further but the fact is, it works.

The real lesson here is, now knowing this Rule, those without natural born sales abilities can integrate it into their selling approach and be guaranteed better results in the introduction stage of the sale. Incorporating the four remaining steps can unquestionably level the playing field with other competitive seasoned selling professionals – but only if the steps are applied Correctly!

The Application:

Home Depot may have every tool we could imagine but if you don’t know how to use them, what good are they? In professional selling, RULES are TOOLS. Use them right and they work.

One need only look at the home libraries of most mediocre salespeople to find plenty of books and tapes filled with time-tested and proven rules designed to garner more sales, profit and success. The courses have been taken and the rules have been learned but sadly, NEVER PRACTICED!

Tiger Woods / Michael Jordan / Wayne Gretzky – pick any one you like. At the top of their game, they still practice/d the basics [the Rules]. Name any professional discipline; would a surgeon be allowed operate on someone without first having benefit of exhaustive practice? I sure hope not!

The irony is, selling is the only professional discipline that allows someone to start with no experience and learn on the job. Even a professional laborer has to apprentice first.

The point? Knowing what to say is only part of the success-formula in selling. Much like any Academy Award-Winning actor, his or her part is honed and made convincing [award-winning] only through rehearsal and practice.

In Sales: To the degree a sales-pitch appears natural and spontaneous, is in direct proportion to the practice put in it! …Paul Shearstone 2000 [from the book Up Your Income!]

The Psychological Import:

Independent, confident personalities may make great leaders – not always great believers. My policy in life has always been to be guarded in what information I’ll take in or believe. I am not a skeptic but since: [According to Albert Einstein] “We become what we believe”, and, [According to Abraham Mazlow] “Most people live lives of quiet desperation”, my reluctance to accept the reality-interpretations of others has served me well. It hasn’t, however, stopped me from asking the question, “Why?”

Anyone looking for the one defining ingredient that separates top sellers from the rest can find it here. Much like the runner who wins gold by 1/100th of a second, the difference is subtle – but dramatic.

In selli