Dodo Loves Marketing

Most people cringe at the thought of giving a speech or chairing a meeting. The limelight is on you and everyone is watching and listening. Who wouldn’t feel at least a bit on edge under these circumstances? While many can muster their courage to get through these events, there are some who find their limbs shaking and their foreheads perspiring at the very thought of the next public speaking occasion. ..more

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Employ more than one travel agent

Some firms get locked in to one travel agent, but by giving them a monopoly you could be the loser. Go to several travel agents to get comparative quotes for the same journey. Then you will see just how complex air fare structures can be and how a travel agent with a competitive spirit can save you a small fortune. In-house travel offices give good service but are they working as competitively as they can in a non-competitive environment?

Plan overseas trips

Overseas travel is so expensive that the maximum amount of planning should go into each trip. How often have you seen export sales executives sitting around waiting in the hotel foyer for their contact to arrive? Perhaps the reason for his delay is that your agent is out making last-minute appointments around town — a job which should have been done weeks ahead. ..more

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We must seek to cultivate infinite patience through being certain about our outcomes, while simultaneously being unconcerned as to when and how. This involves understanding our relationships with everything around us. In the same way that a drop of water taken from the ocean has the characteristics of its source, so each of us are actually part of an Infinite Universal Spirit.

Throughout the ages numerous cultures have referred to the Spiritual Force that dwells in everything. ..more

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Now that we have examined some of the negatives of expansion from a very small business to a medium-sized small business, let’s give equal time to the potential benefits.

One of the most important components of gross profit is the degree to which you’re able to set your selling price. Your ability to set that price is largely a function of your control of the marketplace. At one extreme, you may have a patented product for which there is no substitute, and for which there is totally elastic demand (people will buy it at any cost). If that item costs you a dollar, you may be able to sell it for ten dollars, one hundred dollars, even one thousand dollars. At the other end of the spectrum, you may be selling wheat in Nebraska. In that case, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to command one-tenth of one cent over the market price on the day you sell. ..more

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3. Be Real

There are two voices in your brain. The first says, “If I admit my mistakes, I’ll look weak and lose people’s respect.” The second says, “When a person I respect admits her mistakes, I end up respecting her more.” Isn’t it amazing how you can know a fact but think you’re the only one on the planet that it doesn’t apply to?

When you’re wrong, say it. It may temporarily streak your self-image, but it polishes the image others see.

Let’s say you lose your cool and ridicule a worker in front of everyone. A moment later you regret your action and decide to admit you were wrong. You can say you’re sorry in two ways. No matter what words you use, the first kind of sorry means, “I’m sorry because what I did made me look foolish.” The only thing you regret is the damage you did to yourself. Let’s call that a selfish sorry. ..more

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As you head into the third and final section of this book, you may still be wondering about what kind of business you actually want to launch. You may have the fire in your belly. You may be in The High- Performance Zone. You may have spent hours thinking about a business plan. But you may still be uncertain about where to go from here. Well, this session on franchising may be just what you’re looking for.

Globally, franchising growth has been explosive.

America has really fueled the explosive growth in franchising. In fact, in America, franchising accounts for ± 42% of all retail business and ± 10% of the gross national product. In America, six million people are involved in half a million franchise outlets. In Australia, on the other hand, franchising accounts for 25% of all retail business. ..more

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‘Come quickly, I’m tasting stars.’

In neuro-linguistics, persuasive writing is yours for the doing. By incorporating visual, auditory, feeling and some gustatory words into your copy, you can involve all your readers, just as easily as you can when speaking — more easily, perhaps, because you are able to rewrite words for a printed page, whereas it is difficult to take back the spoken word.

‘Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.’

As a useful beginning to using these three or four languages, go to your files and pull out letters, reports, brochures, flyers and even invitations that have been sent out in the past few months. Rewrite them, slipping in the three or four languages that you have learned from the past few pages. See if the copy now leaps off the page. ..more

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The left-hand side of the brain is the analytical side of the brain that deals with detail, facts and figures. The right-hand side is the creative, sensitive, feeling side of the brain. It follows that where you place an item is important so that the viewers will react in the way you want them to. For instance, a contract should be placed on the right-hand side in order to transfer the logic, facts and detail to the left-hand side of the brain, thereby preparing the person to read and understand.

Creative work, such as a new advertising campaign or colour schemes for decorating an office or home should be placed to the left-hand side, so that the information goes through to the right- hand side of the brain, thus getting the viewer in a state of readiness for the creative decisions to be made. ..more

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How do you keep track of who is in your downline? All networkers, when they join a network, are given a personalised number. This number identifies them as belonging to a particular network. You may ask: ‘But how can I keep track of all the people in my downline?’ The answer is that you don’t need to. In network marketing each individual works three levels deep. You are directly responsible for the distributors you recruit (level one), the people they recruit (level two) and the people they, in turn, recruit (level three). That’s not too much to manage. ..more

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In an age in which customers are scarce, any company’s best practices seldom remain proprietary. Business models are shamelessly imitated with inner corporate workings becoming public knowledge. Best practices travel at Internet speed.

People are becoming masters at imitation. If you don’t have a good idea yourself, you can always knock off someone else’s product. An imitation is not necessarily an exact copy. You use details to create a difference: the look, the product extension, the packaging—anything that can make the other company’s idea look less new And this is easier than it used to be. If once you could hold on to a secret formula for years or even decades, now it’s a matter of months or days before your competitors catch up and replicate it. ..more

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Home Depot’s vast assortment of building supplies shows that it, too, knows that customers savor choice. But an even more important reason for its lasting success is that it knows how to capitalize on a customer’s wish to perform a task him- or herself. Home Depot employs our second strategy to attract the searchers, showering them with advice and insight.

This paradise for those who subscribe to do-it-yourself turns modestly competent amateurs into confident renovators and barely competent fumblers into people capable of remodeling their kitchens. Home Depot’s employees don’t do the job for you. Instead, they make accessible the information, products, and people you need to complete it for yourself. You feel capable of improving your own skills, which is exactly the feeling that searchers are seeking. ..more

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