…and shape up for 2012

So… that’s Christmas over for another year. Most of us have had time to gather with friends and family, consume vast quantities of food and drink – and gawk at television. Now what? Back to reality… back on the “hamster wheel”?

Did you make the usual list of new years resolutions? Lose weight, get fit, spend more time with the ones you love etc., etc., etc.

All well meaning intentions I’ve no doubt – but how many of you will stick to your plan. Do you even have a plan? Do you know why it’s really important to achieve your goals? If not, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but reality check… they’re not going to happen!

In order for things to change you need to facilitate the change. Get them written down clearly and concisely and have someone that truly understands the power of goal setting help you set your plans into action.

What about your business. What resolutions have you made for your business? How will you be sure to stick to them?

I find the beginning of the year is a refreshing time in business. I always feel very optimistic about what the future holds and have all kinds of different ideas for my business and my clients too.

So – let me help your business get 2012 off to a flying start  – and let’s do it for a great cause. Come and join me for a one off special, sales and marketing “BUSINESS BOOT CAMP” with all profits going to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

No press ups or assault courses, (providing you behave…) but in a single, full-on fast-paced day I’m going to explain;

• How to achieve even more profits from existing clients
• How to dramatically increase your new enquiries
• How to create a constant stream of leads
• How to put your business networking on legal steroids and reap the rewards
• How to find and turn the sales lead tap on in your business
• The fundamental key to creating profitable business relationships
• How to easily get 26 hours out of your day – yep it’s possible
• How to drive the right traffic to your website – whenever you want to and much, much more…

This is all happening on January 17th 9.00am – 5.30 pm at a great location near Stansted Airport. Normally my Master Classes sell for at least £198 – you can grab a place on this on-off “BUSINESS BOOT CAMP” for just £49 plus vat.

visit www.eurekasales.co.uk/gosh/ for details and to book you place today!

Here’s what a few people had to say after the last master class… what will you have to say?

“Two small changes to my website last week have increased my sales by 40% thanks to Steve Clarke and Eureka Sales” Phil Cleary, Citadel Ltd.

“Business still on the up 15-25% month on month…all thanks to your brilliant mentoring of course!” Ben – NetGeek.

“November 2011 we invoiced 44% more than we invoiced in November 2010. We have never been so excited about what we are doing now and the prospects for the future thanks to Steve”. Alfred Van Pelt – Something Different Ltd.

You can’t just keep doing the same old thing and expecting different results – that’s the definition of insanity. Come and learn what works in business today, come and discover how to make 2012 the best year you’ve ever had in business. See you on the 17th!

Questions – call 0845 053 4937 or visit www.eurekasales.co.uk/gosh/

I have to admit my guilty pleasure… I enjoy watching the X factor. Well… the last series anyway – not the current one. I’m way too much of a man to say I miss Cheryl and Simon.

During the last series I sat glued to the box along with millions of others. To make the experience a little more interactive I settled down with a glass of wine in one hand and my iPad in the other. With Twitter running on screen I was able to follow peoples comments and join in a massive conversation. I know it all sounds a little sad for a grown man – I did say it was my guilty pleasure and I guess it could be a lot worse.

I’d let my following of the show be known to just a few people. On Saturday evening, just as things were about to kick off I got a Tweet from my friend @PennyPower, (many people will know Penny as the Co-founder of Ecademy and a leading authority in the world of social media).

“I can imagine you now @uksalesmentor snuggled up on your sofa ready for the start of #xfactor… enjoy.”

With my marketing head on I wondered… who else is listening in on our conversation? People following Penny will see us chatting, people following me can see – and all those tuning in using the Hashtag #xfactor.

Have you seen and wondered about Hashtags?

People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets so they show more easily in Twitter Search. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category. It’s kind of like tuning in to a TV or radio station…

I thought… let’s see if I can have some fun with this. I pinged back my response;

“You’re right, all set for a great evening of #xfactor @PennyPower. Hey – did you read my last blog – you’re in it”…  (and I included a link to my blog post).

I wondered what the effect would be of not only Pennys followers and my followers seeing this conversation, but all those seeing our banter who were joining in the hash tag #xfactor too.

I watched the analytics (all automatically produced for me) as Penny and 189 other people went straight to my website and read my blog post. Within a few minutes Penny replied.

“Just read your blog you amazing man – an awesome “know me, Like me, Follow me story. Brilliant blog, enjoy #xfactor” (she included a link to my blog again).

Pennys book happens to be called “Know me, like me, follow me.” So she was having a little plug too!

So… I thought OK, this is fun, there’s just time before the show starts, one more push.

I re-tweeted back to Penny again thanking her for her comments and including the blog link again using the hash tag #xfactor the result this time was quite staggering.

Just a few tweets during Xfactor and no selling whatsoever – resulted in 609 more curious visitors to my site, 48 people signed up to receive my free Marketing tips, (now that they elected to “opt in” to my database many will convert to future sales as I provide them with useful information for free and build a relationship on auto pilot)

But get this… having read my blog and explored my site – two people on the spot actually booked and paid to attend one of my events at £149 plus vat each. Crazy! All as I sat with a glass of wine chatting with my friends watching TV on a Saturday evening.

Hash tags and fun conversations form a really important part of my social media and overall marketing strategy now. It all about know me, like me, follow me as Penny says.

My view has shifted dramatically from old school Return On Investment (ROI) associated with traditional marketing to Return On Engagement (ROE). It’s all about being visible and engaging – let people come to you and buy whatever you have on offer… when they’re ready to buy, not just when you’re ready to sell.

The world has changed, have you? Engage.

Steve Clarke – Eureka Sales
Sales and marketing support. Mentoring for entrepreneurial business owners, coaches and consultants. www.eurekasales.co.uk
Follow on twitter @uksalesmentor. Phone 0845 053 4937

“I have to admit that I wrote this after being inspired by Steve Clarke’s talk on attitude, aeroplanes and 3 kinds of people. I’ve never looked back since I learnt this from the UK’s No 1 sales mentor – and boy has it done wonders for my charity.“

Seema Sharma

Attitude Determines Altitude!

The key to breaking the cycle of poverty is education and empowerment, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. For that, we need charities such as Apnalaya who bridge the gap while we wait for the economy to grow to a point where it can look after its whole population. How is it possible to go to Primark and buy a shirt for £3? The answer is through women’s empowerment. Apnalaya educates and empowers women in the community to teach within the slum crèches and to take turns to care for the children left on the dump while their mums go to work. It also gives women skills so they can earn a living and shows them how to save and help each other through advice and shared knowledge.

In fact a key finding of international development is that women are the greatest agents of social change. They share experiences, they learn from each other and they teach their children to stand on their own two feet. These are the women who work in sweatshops and many a time we recoil when we hear about their conditions, yet I found myself recoiling even more when I saw the alternatives to having no work at all. In fact did you know that women invest 90% of what they earn back into their households and communities. We save the other 10% for shoes of course!

So why are some people more successful than others? I’ve discovered that the defining characteristic of every successful person is their ‘can do’ attitude, because their attitude determines their altitude.

So based upon my experiences, I would like to invite you onto my bus as it goes past. The bus rides can feel like aeroplane rides sometimes but for as long as you are on it, we will make sure you’re having fun. When the fun stops, be prepared to disembark and wait for the next one, or to at least park for a while whilst you plan the rest of your journey. As a Londoner, I can honestly tell you that there is always another one around the corner, in fact 3 often arrive at the same time.

Remember, there are 3 kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened!

Seema Sharma

***Putting Poverty in Museums***

Are you standing out from the crowd for the right reasons? Are you visible and attractive? Admittedly it’s easier for some of you than others!

Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken at various business events all over the East of England, Earls Court in London and even in sunny Spain… Some people that I encountered certainly stood out from the crowd more than others.

The challenge is the same for practically every entrepreneur and business owner I meet right now… What can you do to find more clients, make more sales and more profit? Right?

Yet I’m blown away buy the number of people that still insist on doing things the same old way they’ve always done things and just hope for better results. And others that feel driven to just follow the herd and hope for sales to roll in.

Wake up folks – that’s never going to happen. Not in this economy.

Would you watch a sad movie over and over again, hoping that this time it’ll be a happy ending? I doubt it very much, at least I hope not, it’s never going to happen.

So why keep repeating a pattern in business that’s not working for you. For things to change perhaps you need to change. In case you haven’t noticed the world has changed, and we’re not going back.

How many companies do you know that are “up-sizing”? Or like me, do you see more “down-sizing” going on? I like to call it “right-sizing”. There’s been too much fat in too many businesses for too long. Now thanks to technology it’s possible to become more efficient and automate many elements of your business – reduce costs, improve efficiencies… if you move with the times.

How about banks… are they lending more money or less money to the entrepreneur and small business owner today? …(Yes I know of a few enterprise schemes, but please, no hate mail from bankers, you’re doing the best with what you’ve got I’m sure, but times have changed).

The old world business model is flawed. In order to succeed in business today you need to consider a new world business model and for those that are willing to learn and adapt… times are good.

Here’s one universal truth I’ve always tried to apply when looking for ways to succeed in business and in sales. “Follow the leaders, don’t follow the followers”.

Find who’s getting the results you want and latch on to them. Don’t just follow the herd.

I had to laugh out loud each time I went to the mens toilets at the Business Startup show in Earls Court… no, stop it, I’m serious!

First visit of the day and the facilities were nice and clean and tidy.

Mid morning and someone had decided that this was a great place to advertise their web design services. They’d spread their cards around the sinks and on shelves above the urinals.

Within no time at all – the desperate herd mentality kicked in. Everyone else who was struggling for leads saw this as a free opportunity to “advertise”… really? In the mens toilets… do me a favor.

What does this say about your products and services – think about it? OK if you’re selling cleaning products or sanitary wear… maybe. But legal services, book keeping, web design and printers – all scattering their cards and flyers (which they paid good money for) around the mens room almost begging for business. It would have been even funnier if it wasn’t sad.

To rise above the crowd and win more business you need to become “visible and attractive”. There are so many ways to do this… but for most of us – littering the public toilets just isn’t it.

To find out how to boost your sales in any economy… and to avoid flushing your hard earned cash down the toilet – visit… www.eurekasales.co.uk/mentoring.

Which would grab your attention and which would you rather engage with?

In the world of social networking, marketing yourself has become every bit as important as marketing your product… for most of us. You wouldn’t dream of producing flyers or brochures of your products without an image of what it is and what it does… would you?

Yet so many people in business are starting to push themselves out into the social media jungle looking like a hard boiled egg. (admittedly, a guy on one of my courses recently – did actually look just like the Twitter egg, but that’s not the norm).

You need to understand that nowadays more than ever before, people want to get to know you, like you, trust you and then consider buying from you. Now when someone checks for example your Twitter profile and sees the Twitter egg. What does that tell them?

• You want to remain anonymous?
• You’re too shy to be photographed?
• Or maybe, that you can’t be bothered.

The image that you use must engage with your target audience It must let them see who you are and show you to be personable and trustworthy. Letting them look you in the eye can go a long way to helping this. The key today is engagement.

• It shouldn’t be an image of you had laying around the beach from your holidays 10 years ago.
• It shouldn’t be a quick snap shot of yourself taken in a mirror with your mobile phone.
• It shouldn’t be a cropped image from a group shot.

If you are going to have a go at taking your own corporate “head-shot” then here are a few simple tips for you;

• Make sure you have a nice plain uncluttered background.
• If you do want to show your business in the background, make sure that
  the area is clean and tidy.
• DON’T use the inbuilt flash on your camera. It will often give you the ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look.
• Make sure you look presentable and that you are smiling.
• Go for head and shoulders only.

Think about it. When you meet someone for the first time where do you look? Men… you should answer – “you look at the eyes”! Make sure your photo let’s people look you in the eye.

Of course the best way to get a good head-shot that really works is to hire the services of a professional photographer.

When I wanted some fresh image shots I called on Paul Simister, here’s a link to his site (http://www.paulsimister-photography.co.uk/) I’m too busy to get time in a studio. Maybe you are too. Brilliant – he came to me and did a great job… (at least my wife thinks he did… still, he’s a photographer not a magician, that said with a little help from Photoshop – he can work wonders).

These images were taken on location after one of my sales mentoring sessions. He used simple equipment and lighting to turn a plain meeting room into a photography studio. By changing the direction of the light (this is done by having a separate flash gun and soft-box to soften the light apparently), he was able to produce nice shadow and contrast across the images.

I’ve no axe to grind here – but if you don’t have time to get to a studio – let the studio come to you, give Paul a buzz on 07970 978345

So – social media…

Tip number one - use an engaging image on all your profiles.

Tip number two - complete the Bio in your profile using keywords for what you’d like to be found for, i.e. “Sales & marketing” for me… If you’re a hairdresser include what you do in your Bio. Don’t make it a sales pitch.

Tip number three - Find relevant people to follow. One place you can start is to look who is following your competitors… and follow them. Sound sneaky? Not at all. Use the various search tools and get following people.

Tip number four - Engage. Join in conversations, get to know a few people. Re-tweet interesting tweets. You’ll soon get the hang of it.

Tip number five - be consistent, keep at it. Be interesting, relevant, knowledgeable, controversial, amusing… or a mix of all of these.

If you’d like some help in how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy – just let me know.

Email me at steve@eurekasales.co.uk or visit my website for all sorts of free resources at www.eurekasales.co.uk.

Feeling like you want to be old school? That’s OK to. Call me on 0845 053 4937.

Do you want more clients, more sales and more profits? Yes! Then claim your FREE ebook today…

“Steve has encapsulated the secrets for business success in his book… Don’t just read it, devour it – and most importantly, take action!”

Bev James M.D. The Entrepreneurs Business Academy

I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of hearing people moan and groan about the state of the economy, the price wars they find themselves in and how people just aren’t buying any more – what utter rubbish!

Let me add a caveat…  You must have a product or service people actual want and maybe even need. I do wonder sometimes what people are thinking when they set up in business.

If you’ve ever watched Dragons Den on TV you’ll know what I mean. Don’t you wonder… what on earth are some of those people pitching the dragons for investment thinking of… who on earth would buy what they have on offer!

However – assuming you have something that eases someones pain, solves a problem or delivers pleasure – you potentially have something to sell.

There are still plenty of people buying – the question is; do you know how to attract the right kind of clients? Do you know where the “lead tap” is in your business and how to turn it on at will to create a flood of paying clients to your door?

I know how to increase sales – maybe, just maybe I can help you.

My book, “How to Thrive Not Just Survive” contains my proven formula for business success (and yes, even if some clients are spending less these days).

I’ve decided to make it available in downloadable e-book format this week to readers of this blog – absolutely FREE!

So let me ask you – and be honest… are you getting the volume of enquiries you want… maybe you are just getting what you deserve… that’s the cold harsh truth.

But it’s not your fault and you’re not alone. Not too many people go into business because they want to be spending their time in sales and marketing – It’s just not your area of expertise – right? It’s not what you’re good at… Well that can all change and very easily, and it must…

It doesn’t matter how good your products or services are – you will always be beaten by any competitor that knows more about the key elements of effective sales and marketing, particularly in these challenging times.

Let’s keep this very straight forward – good marketing is what you do to get the phone to ring, sales are what you make once the phone rings… simple!

Your FREE e-book will clearly explain…

• How to relight the fire if you’re feeling battle weary
• Why you must sell the sizzle not the sausage
• How vital it is that you stop wee-ing everywhere
• Why your clients are tuned into Radio WII-FM
• Where your best clients are and exactly what they want!
• How to get your phone ringing off the hook
• What sexy underwear and a good headline have in common… and why that matters in everything you do…

To claim your FREE ebook today, just follow this link!

Do you find yourself all too often spending time with time wasters and tire kickers rather than with prospects that want to buy your products or services at the right price?

Well – it’s probably your own fault! Sorry.

Good marketing is like a magnet. Magnets attract and repel. Your marketing messages should effectively attract the right people for all the right reasons and you can afford to repel the time wasters that are really not in your target market. Stop trying to drag every living, breathing person into your lair in the hope of a sale!

I’ll be honest… as someone with a lifelong background in direct sales, “marketing” for me used to represent all the fluffy nonsense, all the feel good stuff, the intangible brand awareness that large agencies would charge large companies for, but they’d never want to be held to account for any specific results.

Yet in the main, I’ve changed my view. Maybe this comes from a better understanding of just how essential and effective good marketing is and can be… when you know what you’re looking to achieve.

Let’s just quickly clear things up for you with my simple definition;

Marketing is what you do to get the phone to ring.

A sale is what you do when the phone rings.

Guess what? If the phone isn’t ringing – no sales! OK, so a lot of you may conduct business online and don’t necessarily want the phone to ring, but don’t be pedantic, I think you get my point.

Marketing for me, is all about reaching the right potential customers and through your message and various methods then converting them to eager prospects. Sales then deliver paying customers and work diligently to keep them as lifetime clients.

Unfortunately, many business owners see marketing as a necessary evil, an unpleasant task they have to carry out at some point or another.

I hope that you’ll see that this is so totally wrong – and very dangerous too. To a great extent, regardless of what you are selling, marketing is your business.

Effective marketing is a whole lot easier than you might think. If you don’t know anything about it yet, don’t panic because you’re not alone. Very few business owners really do, even many of those who’ve been in business a very long time.

Generally speaking people get into business because they have a passion for their products or services. The hairdresser didn’t start the business because they were passionate about sales and marketing – their passion is hair and beauty. But without effective marketing how will they drive business through their doors. The same is true for a solicitor, and accountant or any other business.

If you don’t get your head around marketing, you’ll always be beaten by your competitor that does, no matter how good your offering is.

Here’s the first question I’d ask you;

Do people actually “want” your product or service?

I remember always being told in my early days in sales:

Find the customers “need” and fill it. Have you heard that too?

I’d challenge that now. I’d argue you’ll have far greater success if you:

Find the customers “want” and fill that.

Think about it for a moment. Who gets pleasure from buying what you need, and who’d rather buy something they really want?

Have you got a product that people want or really need? All too often, people will start up in business to sell the services or a product that really only they would want themselves.

The business graveyard is full of people who had “great ideas” that no one else bought into. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever watched Dragons Den… what are some of those people thinking?

Research your product and marketplace!

If money is tight, you don’t need to spend a fortune on research, doing a little yourself is better than not doing any at all. Identify the sorts of people likely to want to buy your product or service and ask them what they think of your idea.

What problem do you solve? What pain can you remove? What pleasure will someone derive from doing business with you? Find an emotional tie to what’s on offer. People buy based on emotions.

Here’s a biggie – stop feature bashing and focus on benefits!

People purchase based on the benefits to them. What will they get from your product or service? How will they feel, what will they save and so on?

You have probably heard this before, but people don’t by features, they buy benefits. Sell the sizzle not the sausage.

All too often business owners waste time, effort, and money pushing feature after feature of their product or service and…you guessed it, the potential customers don’t care.

Take a look at your collateral materials and your website. If you’re a “feature basher”, your work consists of flyers, letterhead, ads, and a website, all of which have your logo and company name, a list of things you do or the “features” of your products and your phone number. Are you surprised that no one cares enough to respond?

They don’t want you or your products; they want to know what you and your products or service can do for them!

This is often very difficult for many people to get to grips with. Here’s a very simple method of uncovering the benefit over the feature of your product or service. Try using; “which means that…”

So you list a feature and then ask… which means that – the next thing out of your mouth will be a benefit statement and that’s what you want to weave into your marketing messages – not feature after feature. Enquiries will flow and sales will result. There’s far more explanation on this subject in my book.

To receive my top 10 marketing strategies you can implement immediately absolutely free, that will help you generate enquires and boost your sales just visit my website where you’ll see the sign up box www.eurekasales.co.uk.

“Just one of your free tips increased my enquiries by over 20%”

Dan Thompson – 5 Star Boot Camps

In the last few years blogging has taken the web by storm. But what is a blog…? What’s it really for?

Blog is an abbreviation of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe part of a website that maintains an ongoing chronicle of information and a way of sharing your knowledge, information, hints and tips. It’s a fabulous way for you to build a following of people you want to forge a relationship with.

It’s generally written content, but could even be a video or audio blog.

A blog is a great forum for you to share your knowledge, expertise and to rise above the crowd. My blog for example is all geared to helping people boost their sales through effective marketing – what would yours be about?

I consider blogging as an essential ingredient to any social media and general sales and marketing strategy nowadays. Are you unsure about what to write, when to post, how to grow your subscribers and how to keep them coming back for more? Don’t worry, you’re not alone!

The first step in that process of course is to know why you’re blogging. This sounds simple, but it’s amazing how many bloggers aren’t clear on the core rationale behind their blog initiative. There are too many people just writing for the sake of it.

As I see it, you have 3 principle reasons to blog

1. Blogging for Content

This is where you are writing a blog with the emphasis on search engine optimization, (being found by search engines), attempting to drive traffic to the blog and website via the inclusion of “keywords” for your business, products or services.

2. Blogging for Sales Leads

Still related to the first, but lead-oriented blogs are more interested in capturing visitors details for marketing purposes rather than in traffic generation. You send traffic from the blog to another web landing page, and an auto responder to collect data.

3. Blogging for Community Engagement

These blogs seek to build a consistent readership that interacts with the blogger and people who will eagerly share the blog posts with others helping you build your community of followers and prospects, maybe on social media sites like Facebook too.

Ideally and in all the businesses I help with their sales and marketing – I’d encourage all three ingredients to be worked into every blog post – without any oversell.

Google loves fresh content – so get into the habit of blogging regularly which in turn produces fresh and relevant content for your site.

Gather your top 20 keywords or phrases and write blog posts specific to each one. Keywords are in essence the main words people use then they type in on Google to look for what you offer. You can outsource all of this if you don’t have the time or skill set – ask me for recommendations.

Keep the content compelling, but be sure to sprinkle the selected keywords throughout the post. The important thing to keep in mind is that these posts are human readable, but keyword rich. To learn more email steve@eurekasales.co.uk

Here’s your 7 day challenge…

Why do some people succeed where others fail? Its a big question, but I firmly believe there aren’t in fact too many answers.

All the successful people I know have made a decision to create the life and the business they want. The rest, many of them great people, so don’t get me wrong… take what comes their way, they go with the flow, they accept that things just happen to them.

But here’s what I see. The doers, the achievers, the people I see having extraordinary success in their lives and their businesses – take control. They’re in the driver’s seat, they have the steering wheel firmly in hand, they take control, responsibility and they take action!

What of the others? They take the role of the “victim”. There are always reasons why things don’t come their way, why they don’t get the orders, why the cash flows… (but always the wrong way).

Here are three things I’ve observed from people that say they want to succeed in business and in life, but often… why they fail to meet their goals.

1. Blame. They will always find someone or something to blame on the lack of sales, lack of profits or lack of success. They’ll blame the government, the economy, their competitors, anyone but themselves.
2. Justify. They will usually attempt to justify that things are ok. They’ll say things like… “well, it’s not all about the money, it’s not that important”. Take that attitude and it wont be with you for long if ever at all. Imagine saying the same about your husband or wife, they’ll not be around for long either!
3. Complain. Complainers attract crap like a magnet! Sorry, but it’s true. It’s proven time and time again that you attract what you focus on. Complain and moan about everything and things will only get worse.

I was at a conference recently where a fascinating speaker, T Harv Eker, issued the audience a challenge. It’s a challenge I decided to put to the test. I’d like to offer you the same challenge right here, right now.

For the next seven days – no complaining. Will you take the challenge? I think you’ll be blown away with the changes it can deliver. Go on – I dare you…

Let’s face it were creatures of habit, right? Yet we’re not born with the habits, we learn them. Monkey see, monkey… do. We’ve all heard that too, well we’re not so far removed from the monkey are we? We learn our responses to circumstances and situations, so it figures we can learn different patterns too and not just take what comes out way.

Just like robots, we get programmed a particular way, with certain patterns and behaviours. You can paint the robot so it looks great, looks new, but the programming is just the same and so the results will be too.

What stops people from achieving the level of success of others and changing their programming, their believes and behaviours to reach new heights? Fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of uncertainty.

So are successful people fearless? No, not at all. But they take action in spite of fear!

Nike took three words to get their message across, I will say it in just two – DO IT.

We are controlled by our thoughts which produce feelings, our feelings translate into action and the action we take delivers results. Simple.

If your thoughts of business growth or success fill you with fear and dread, feelings of potential failure or uncertainty and doubt, how powerful do you suppose the actions you take will be? Feel the fear and do it anyway, (the title of a great book by Susan Jeffers).

You don’t need to look at the results you’re getting now as the best results you can achieve. Instead, consider your results as the fruit on a tree. You can’t change the fruit once it’s there, that’s too late.

If you want to see change, if you want different results look to the roots, that’s where you need to make changes. That’s why we call it the root cause. Cause and… effect. Change the roots you can change the effect, the fruits and the results.

What are you going to focus on and think about? Good stuff or bad, problems or solutions?  What you focus on is what you’ll feel. How you feel will determine the action you’ll take and the results you’ll get -  the fruit on your tree.

Once you take decisive action in pursuit of your goals, the fear melts away and confidence grows.

Now stop complaining… let’s see the results you want and deserve.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE WHO USES FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS OR PERSONAL REASONS AND WISHES TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH THEIR CONTACTS!!

Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates in your newsfeed from the same people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and you are not hearing from anyone else?

The problem is that a large chunk of your contact list can’t see anything you post and here’s why:

The “New Facebook” has a newsfeed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people you’ve recently interacted with or have interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the “new profile”). So, in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless you or your friends/fans commented on each others posts within those couple of weeks – you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!!

HERE’S THE FIX:

On your homepage click the “Most Recent” title on the right of the Newsfeed, then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select “Edit Options”. Click on “Show Posts From” and change the setting to “All Of Your Friends and Pages”. (You can also access the “Edit Options” link at the very bottom of the Facebook homepage on the right).

The bad news is:

YOU ARE STILL INVISIBLE to a large portion of your contacts. If you want to re-establish contact, you will need to get the word out to ALL of your contacts by SHARING THIS BLOG POST

Do come and join me on www.facebook.com/salesmentor