June 2009 Edition


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Customized Life Settlement Marketing Materials

As with any business endeavor, clear and compelling communication is essential to success. The following Customized Life Settlement Marketing Materials can help you generate excitement and energy around life settlements. These simple one page ads explain life settlements as an opportunity that is worth analyzing. Signing our Advertisement Agreement form is required before distribution.

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MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS FEEL IMPORTANT

Listening is the Key
Listening builds self-esteem. It has been said that, "Rapt attention is the highest form of flattery." When you listen intently to another person and it is clear that you genuinely care about what that other person is saying, his or her self-esteem goes up. His or her feeling of personal value increases. He or she feels more worthwhile and important as a human being. You can actually make another person feel terrific about himself or herself by listening in a warm, genuine, caring way to everything he or she has to say.

Pay Close Attention
When a man and a woman go out for the first time, they spend an inordinate amount of time talking and listening to each other. They look into each other's eyes and hang on every word. They are each fascinated by the personality of the other. The more each listens to the other, the more positive and happy each of them feel and the stronger becomes the bonds of affection between them.

Focus 100% On the Other Person
The opposite of listening is ignoring. You always listen to that which you most value. You always ignore that which you devalue. The fastest way to turn a person off, to hurt their feelings and make them feel slighted and angry is to simply ignore what they are saying or interrupt them in the middle of a thought. Ignoring or interrupting is the equivalent of an emotional slap in the face. Men especially have to be careful about their natural desire to make a remark or an observation in the middle of a conversation. This can often cause the sales conversation to come to a grinding halt.

Action Exercises
First, take every opportunity to make the other person feel important by listening attentively to what he or she says.

Second, avoid interrupting the other person by slowing down and pausing for a few moments after he or she has stopped speaking.

Brian Tracy
briantracy.com/

PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT
TO MAKE SALES

Everyone talks about the importance of product knowledge. No one tells you how to use it to make a sale.

REALITY: Most companies train 90% product knowledge, 10% sales knowledge. Big mistake. The percentage should be: 20% product or service, 80% sales, personal development, attitude, and presentation skills.

REALITY: Salespeople spend 80% of their time OR MORE trying to explain their product. Why their button is different than the competition's button. Why their product is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even doing a product “demo.’

Salespeople and their bosses refer to this process as “educating the customer,’ and stress it as an important part of the selling process. What a joke.

CLUE ONE: Customers don't want an education – especially yours.

Come on, Sparky. Can you picture some top brass over at your prospective customer's place of business saying, “Boy I sure hope those people over at Acme come over here and educate us. We're pretty stupid.’

I have posed a series of questions and statements so that you can get the idea about the reality of your product (or service). The key is, and always has been, ask questions about it BEFORE you start talking about it.

1. What it is. A description. Totally boring because the prospect ALREADY KNOWS WHAT IT IS.

2. What it does. Another monolog. Totally boring because the prospect ALREADY KNOWS WHAT IT DOES.

3. How it's used. Getting warmer, but still boring.

4. What's the value of it? AHA! Now you're getting the attention of the prospective buyer. Does it increase productivity? Is morale boosted as a result of it?

5. How do I profit from use? This is one of the most important nuances in the selling/buying process. The customer (unless they're in purchasing) does NOT want to “save money.’ The customer wants to make a PROFIT. And wants to profit from whatever it is you're selling.

6. What's the expected outcome? BIG. Get them to visualize what the product will do for them after they have purchased it.

7. What's the prospective customer's opinion of it? I want to know and understand the customer's point of view as much as I want him to understand mine.

8. How has the customer successfully used it? If you know the history, you can more readily predict the future.

9. What's the customer's perceived value of it? This takes dialog. Create it, and you will have a huge competitive advantage. Value creates a buying atmosphere. Their perception of value is your reality of sale.

10. How have others used it? If you must talk about your product, talk about how others have used it, produced more from it, or made a profit as a result of it.

10.5 What do other's think of it? The best way to sell your product is to let others sell it for you. In VIDEO format, customer testimonials are the single most powerful sales tool on the planet. Your customers can validate every claim you make, they can corroborate productivity, and they can tell actual stories of use and benefit. They provide the proof that you can only brag about.

I rarely recap, but this is an imperative for all salespeople to understand and execute as you seek to differentiate yourself from those who sell the same thing you do, and claim to be better.

  • Engagement. The first element of the selling/buying process. If you can't engage, they will disengage.

  • Differentiation. They must know how you differ from all the others.

  • Profit. Everyone wants more profit.

  • Perceived Value. The customer wants real value for their money.

  • Service offering both reactive and proactive. Everyone needs service, the question is: How do you respond?

  • Ease of doing business. I want it NOW. “Now’ is the new prerequisite for doing business.

  • The customers true desire and need of your product today. The more they need it the better your chances for engagement are.

  • Likeability of salesperson. The first sale that's made is you.

  • Believability of salesperson. Your compelling presentation will create believability.

  • Proof of product, process, productivity, and profitability. Without video testimonials you are alone in the selling process. With them, you will have one thing the competition won't have – the order.

It's not just product knowledge; it's your insight and understanding of how the customer benefits and wins from it.

Jeffrey Gitomer
www.gitomer.com

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THEY WANT

In whatever position you find yourself determine your objective first.

Until your thoughts are linked to a purpose there can be no accomplishment.

There is no achievement without goals.

If you don't know where you are going, how can you expect to get there.

The world has the habit of making room for the person whose words and actions show that they know where they are going.

Goals give you a starting place and a destination. With them, you will be able to determine what it will cost you to get there. In your pursuit of them, you will be going someplace.

Only you can determine what you want. You can decide on your major objectives, targets, and aims. Knowing where you are going is all you need to get there.

- Unknown

QUOTES

"The greatest danger for us all is not that our goals are too high and we miss them, but that they are too low and we reach them." (Michelangelo)

"One loss is good for the soul. Too many losses are not good for the coach." (Knute Rockne)

"Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done, and done right." (Walt Disney)

TRUST IN THIS ECONOMIC CLIMATE

Trust grows from authentic interest and attention to the clients’ needs, perspectives and values. Since the down turn, many clients, and certainly prospects, are guarded and cautious with advisors. Advisors who develop the skill of empathy will reach clients in new and deeper ways, reconciling caution. Sympathy is feeling “for” the client, empathy is feeling “with” the client. Entering their world in a genuine and authentic way builds trust. The more you know about your clients’ and prospects’:

· interests

· passions

· values

· expectations

the more you are able to enter into their world as a trustworthy resource.

Richard Weylman
www.RichardWeylman.com

BECOME THE PERSON WHO WOULD ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

As you develop the skills, knowledge, relationships and demeanor of the "future you", your goals will be the natural by-product of your growth. So set out a daily plan for the acquisition of each skill or trait you desire.

Start with little steps, just get the ball rolling, momentum will follow. Take each aspect of your life into account. Think of the development of your mind, body, spirit, emotions, friendships, family, career and finances. What is one thing you could do each day in each area in order to grow?

When you become the person who fits your goals, the goals are the automatic outcome of being such a person.

Jim Cathcart
 www.cathcart.com/

5 REASONS WHY DREAMS DON'T TAKE FLIGHT

Most of us never see our dreams come true. Instead of soaring through the clouds, our dreams languish like a broken-down airplane confined to its hangar. Through life, I have come to identify five common reasons why dreams don't take flight.

1. We Have Been Discouraged from Dreaming by Others
We have to pilot our own dreams; we cannot entrust them to anyone else. People who aren't following their own dreams resent us pursuing ours. Such people feel inadequate when we succeed, so they try to drag us down.

If we listen to external voices, then we allow our dreams to be hijacked. At some point, other people will place limitations on us by doubting our abilities. When surrounded by the turbulence of criticism, we have to grasp the controls tightly to keep from being knocked off course.

2. We Are Hindered by Past Disappointments and Hurts
In the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise plays Maverick, a young, talented, and cocky aviator who dreams of being the premier pilot in the U.S. Navy. In the film's opening scenes, Maverick showcases his flying ability but also displays a knack for pushing the envelope with regards to safety. Midway through the movie, Maverick's characteristic aggression spells disaster. His plane crashes, killing his best friend and co-pilot.

Although cleared of wrongdoing, the painful memory of the accident haunts Maverick. He quits taking risks and loses his edge. Struggling to regain his poise, he considers giving up on his dream. Although the incident nearly wrecks Maverick's career, he eventually reaches within to find the strength to return to the sky.

Like Maverick, many of us live with the memory of failure embedded in our psyche. Perhaps a business we started went broke, or we were fired from a position of leadership. Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality, and all of us have encountered that gap. Failure is a necessary and natural part of life, but if we're going to attain our dreams, then, like Maverick, we have to summon the courage to deal with past hurts.

3. We Fall into the Habit of Settling for Average
Average is the norm for a reason. Being exceptional demands extra effort, sustained inspiration, and uncommon discipline. When we attempt to give flight to our dreams, we have to overcome the weight of opposition. Like gravity, life's circumstances constantly pull on our dreams, tugging us down to mediocrity.

Most of us don't pay the price to overcome the opposition to our dreams. We may start out inspired, but through time we fatigue. Although never intending to abandon our dreams, we begin to make concessions here and there. Through time, our lives become mundane, and our dreams slip away.

4. We Lack the Confidence Needed to Pursue Our Dreams
Dreams are fragile. They will be buffeted by assaults from all sides. As such, they must be supplied with the extra strength of self-confidence.

In Amelia Earhart's day, women were not supposed to fly airplanes. If she had lacked self-assurance, she never would have even attempted to be a pilot. Instead, Earhart confidently chased after her dream, and she was rewarded with both fulfillment and fame.

5. We Lack the Imagination to Dream
For thousands of years, mankind traveled along the ground: by foot, by horse-and-buggy, by locomotive, and eventually by automobile. Thanks to the dreams of Orville and Wilbur Wright, we now hop across oceans in a matter of hours. The imaginative brothers overcame ridicule and doubt to pioneer human flight, and the world has never been the same.

Many of us play small because we do not allow ourselves to dream. We trap ourselves in reality and never dare to go beyond what we can see with our eyes. Imagination lifts us beyond average by giving us a vision of life that surpasses what we are experiencing currently. Dreams infuse our spirit with energy and spur us on to greatness.

John C. Maxwell
johnmaxwell.com

ARE YOU GUILTY?
THE UNCONSCIOUS GOOF THAT CAN HURT YOUR CEDIBILITY

Fifteen times in a thirteen-minute period. That's how often Steve Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine, did it during an otherwise brilliant presentation at the National Speakers Association convention in New York, August 2008.

President Obama did it twice while he was on The Tonight Show talking to Jay Leno.

My high-level corporate clients do it including Presidents, Chief Financial Officers, and Sales Vice Presidents of America's greatest companies.

Celebrity speakers, best-selling authors, and top consultants do it before I work with them.

Each time they do, I reach over and give their hands a quick slap. When they ask, "How can I kick the habit? Nobody ever told me I did it so much." I tell them, "You must give your spouse and subordinates permission to tell you when it happens. First, notice when you do it. Second, recognize the negative impact. Third, replace this blunder with something more appropriate."

You may not have noticed this verbal affliction yet, but once you do, you'll have fun spotting examples everywhere. Some of your friends and associates are guilty. The blight has invaded television in the news and commercials, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. It crosses all professions and levels of education. Recently, I counted dozens of examples at a four-day meeting with some of the most brilliant and successful professional speakers and consultants in the U.S. Even you may be doing it!

What is this Crime against Credibility?

It's a single, suddenly-popular buzzword that makes me feel like fingernails screeching on a blackboard every time I hear it. It's "stuff."

Even communication experts are guilty. I maintain that professional speakers, coaches, and consultants are paid for their lifetime knowledge, innovative ideas, leading-edge strategies, and, most important of all, their eloquence in putting their ideas across to their audiences. Yet, I overhear these communicators saying to each other, "The group loved my stuff" or "I gave them my best stuff."

At a dramatic time in our nation's history when precise and powerful communication is most needed, employees and sales teams, many who have English as a second or third language, are hearing this vague, imprecise language from their corporate leaders. Sales professionals in my sales presentation skills training are talking about their products and high-ticket technology in the same non-specific, low-value way.

Even worse than "stuff" is "and stuff." Some individuals don't seem to know that a period at the end of a sentence is a great way to stop. I've heard:

"This will decrease absenteeism and stuff" and "We had a great conversation and stuff."

In Shakespeare's time, "stuff" meant woven cloth, "such stuff as dreams are made on." It has come to mean "miscellaneous" and even acquired the negative connotation of junk, debris, or rubbish. Surely you don't want to clutter your speaking, leadership messages, and sales presentations with rubbish?

The worst thing about "stuff" is that it is not specific! As my associate David Palmer, PhD has programmed me to think, "Specificity builds credibility."

Each time one of my speaking clients says "stuff," I ask what exactly they mean to say. Some are amazed at how often they use the word, even people with graduate degrees. Yet, their education isn't obvious in their language because of that one useless and irritating word.

If you're asking yourself what difference it could make, I'll tell you. A huge one! You are hired because what you say sounds like it is worth paying for. Language that is fuzzy, clumsy, and unclear destroys your credibility and your claim to professionalism. You might as well be delivering your message in Valley-Girl speak, grinding your toe in the rug and murmuring, "Whatever."

Your audience of one or a thousand deserves clear, forceful, and specific language. Toss out all that meaningless "stuff" and show them what a leader you are.

Patricia Fripp
http://fripp.com