If you want to become a business partner who matters, you need to get to know your customers. Go deep. Study their companies every way and every where you can. Start on your computer. Google the companies. Read articles about them. Set up Google Alerts to get trending articles about them. Study their industries. Read…
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Most of us will never win the big lottery, so we have to go out and earn our successes. And earning success equals selling. In Key No. 8, I talked about the four pillars of success, the only four things a business owner can do to create wealth: Earn new customers. Sell more to your…
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Unbelievably, we have entered a new year. 2015 went by so fast that I am still in awe that it is already over. It was such a busy year for the Promo Marketing Media Group. We were not only busy producing our award-winning publications, events, newsletters, online solutions and all the unique custom services we…
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People are much smarter than puppies, but raising a puppy can teach you a lot about how to manage people. I know this because with Tiffany, my family’s first puppy 25-plus years ago, I did everything wrong. Tiffany was never potty trained, constantly barked at nothing and, essentially,…
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Question: I have been using the order numbers that QuickBooks auto-assigns for sales orders (SO), purchase orders (PO) and invoices numbers. Is there a better way? Answer: Yes. When I was a distributor, I quickly learned how often I had to access different orders during the course of a day. And thus, being able to…
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My mother sang in a Philadelphia glam/punk band called Separate Checks in the late ’70s and early ’80s. At night, she would go on stage dressed as Ziggy Stardust and belt out covers of “Lady Stardust” and “Suffragette City” in bars across the city. I was too young to attend, but on weekends I listened to…
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January is the embodiment of the new. People celebrate the new year, discuss their New Year’s resolutions, outline their plans and, in general, treat the month like it’s a fresh start on life. January is treated as a new beginning every year because it’s the beginning of our calendar year and … that’s it. There…
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Answer this. Believe your answer. You’ll be well on your way to defining your competitive advantage, your value proposition, and will become more successful at differentiating yourself and your company. You’ll be well on your way to moving away from the commodity business and being an innovative value creator. Describe your client’s life before they…
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Question: How can I set up QuickBooks to control what information users have access to? Answer: QuickBooks allows you to set up users and passwords under the “company” tab. When setting up a user, you can specify which information you want that particular user to see or not see, and edit or not edit. You…
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Let me apologize to you right up front—this article isn’t the typical “dream big” stuff I enjoy writing about. But the truth is, if you don’t understand these concepts, your big dreams could turn into big nightmares. Many sales-minded people are not interested in accounting and finance. My guess is that it’s a right brain/left…
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