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I was talking with a nice young lady who was trying to sell me a little advertising so I could tap into my local market. In the course of the discussion I told her that almost 100% of my clients were from out of state or out of the area.

She plowed on.

Then I asked if she could tell me how many clients she had who could state that they got X amount of customers from a listing, banner ad, or radio promotions.

She couldn’t tell me.

She plowed on.

Then I mentioned that I have a systematic referral program that brings clients to me, so I didn’t need her services AND BTW, almost everyone I talk to is out of town…

She plowed on.

It was if I was speaking another language or just plain gibberish.

She didn’t understand.

Finally, after my publishing a new book came up, she said she wanted one. I told I would personally bring it by.

That seemed to break her pattern of plowing through whatever a prospect says to get to the sale.

After I hung up, I remembered the times when in the beginning of my career where I wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept plowing ahead.

Anything other than a “yes” was gibberish to me.

Since then, I’ve had to learn to slow down and really listen to what someone is saying without loading my guns behind my back, ready to fire.

A lot more gets done that way and i have a lot less egg on my face.

Whew…

I’m tired of leading blind men.

A few days ago, I was talking with a potential client about how I could help bring in more restaurant customers. Of course, we need to find out how many customers, where they are coming from, the competition, prices, what has worked, what hasn’t worked, etc.

As we began to discuss their situation, I saw a pattern. I mentioned it. I spoke about alternatives. I mentioned techniques that had worked EVERY time we used them.

YAWN. So what?

I got my answer to working with that potential client, then and there.

I dropped them. Yep, like a scratching cat.

Why?

It’s like fishing. When you have some really good bait and the fish don’t bite, they aren’t hungry.

If you give some of your BEST stuff away and someone DOESN’T get excited, you need to move on.

If a client or potential client doesn’t get excited with your BEST stuff, then when you are working with that client trying to help them do something simple or mundane, you are going to be in trouble.

When I look for a client, I check to see if they are hungry… They want to change their situation… They want to do what it takes to move ahead.

If they don’t, I back away.

My clients should not have to fight me every step of the way. I make sure they want to work with me, not against me. That is why it is so important to have clients CHASE you.

More on this later.

I’ve been talking to a few friends in the offline marketing world. There are a lot of internet marketers who’ve jumped on the fast train to success selling to brick-and-mortar business the idea of internet success.

Let’s face it. You’ve got to be on the web to market now-a-days. But, a lot of these guru marketers miss out on a boatload of cash that is laying on the table when marketing to these offline businesses.

Helping a business is not just about getting sales and new customers… it’s about making profits.

If you get 1000 new customers and it costs you 10 dollars a customer, and you make only 7 dollars on the front end… with you hoping to make sales on the back-end… BUT YOU LOSE HALF THE CUSTOMERS before they buy again… then you are going down. This example of NOT CLOSING TRHE BACK DOOR is just one case of focusing on marketing and not the big picture.

At the cost of shamelessly promoting what I do… Very shortly I am releasing a few copies of my system of using online marketing with the offline world as it REALLY is… My videos will be up for FREE in just a short time… Keep watching!

You’d think everyone on the planet was joining Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites.

I admit it, I joined too.

However, the vast majority of business owners know nothing of these special sites. Those that take the time to learn how to use these media sites for business will win in a big way. On the other hand, those business owners who continue to do things the way they have always done them will have as much a struggle as a salmon fighting to go upstream to spawn.

It’s tough to change habits… To try something foreign to most people. But sometimes change is good.

The change in the business community with the launch of the world wide web was massive.

Can the change in using social media be just as great? Who knows?

But if the numbers are any indication (Facebook 250 million), social media MUST be looked at.

Feel free to let me know how Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube, and other sites have changed the way you do things.

I’ll keep you posted on my end.

My wife and I made a quality choice to lose weight. And as we started to lose the unwanted pounds we noticed some things.

We had more energy. We felt better. Our clothes hung on us like sacks.

But we noticed something even more interesting than these things.

People started to treat us differently.

I hate to say it but, it’s true.

There seems to be an unspoken, but very real sense that people just TREAT you DIFFERENT when you have extra weight.

I am NOT talking about getting an extra big chair or people giving you extra food because they KNOW you like to eat, etc. I am talking about people looking DOWN on you because you have some how missed the boat and because you are BIG, you don’t belong.

SIDEBAR: I’ve got to admit that for years I did not really care about what I ate because for years I was THIN… too thin… 6′ 3″ 160 pounds thin. But after a while I just started packing the food and the weight on. It was creeping poundage. I didn’t like it.

My wife and I finally got tired of it and asked Almighty God for help.

We got it.

My wife has gone down several dress sizes and I have lost eight inches around my waist.

Let’s get back to what my wife and I discovered. As we lost weight we started to get invited more places. We started to be accepted.

This is something we both experienced.

Is it real? Or has our perception changed? Who knows?

What I do know is that overweight people actually can be shunned by others, just because they are different.

This is not the way it is supposed to be.
However, this is the REALITY right now.

What can we do? Look at people for who they are. Accept them, encourage them.

If there are physical issues that are causing health problems, then help those folks overcome those problems.

I’ll talk more at a later time as to how my wife and I were helped with our food cravings.