When the receptionist offers to send you into a person’s
voicemail, politely accept the offer–not with the
intention of leaving a message, mind you, but to learn
what you can. If this is a person you haven’t met, you
can find out how they pronounce their name. This is
gaining more importance as Asian, Eastern European
and Arabic immigrants move up the U.S. corporate
ladder to the role of decision-makers.

The message may tell you they are out of the office for a
while, so you’ll know when to call back. They may give a
cell phone number or refer you to another person in their
absence.

You’ll also learn whether they use their given name or a
nickname. (Your lead form may say Richard Conrad Reynolds
IV, but he may go by “Buddy” or “Junior” or Conrad.) When
you phone again, you’ll sound more professional when you use
his nickname.

~Lois

One of the specialties of the company that my husband and I own, Marketing Idea Shop, is helping women business owners and women sales reps learn techniques to help them close more sales and make more money.

We’re always looking for tips and ideas to share with our ezine subscribers and clients.

If you have an exceptional sales or marketing tip, or a good sales, marketing or publicity story, post it here or contact us at ideas@marketingideashop.com! If it’s a good tip, we’ll include it in our next book or our Brainy Tidbits ezine. It’s a great way to publicize your business and gain credibility.

Send us your stories and tips today.

~Lois

My online friend, Priya Shah, has a terrific blog (actually 2)! Why don’t you go visit? She posted this article today: Mind Your Blogging Manners

Read her posts on the Law Of Attraction, too.

~Lois

I just found a list of sites that take press releases online. I haven’t tried them. If you do, please let me know which ones you favor!

http://technoflak.blogspot.com/2005/08/press-release-websites.html

~Lois

Ruth Furman of ImageWords Publicity & Writing writes:

Hi Lois…

I’m curious if you or your readers have any favorite programs for eblasts. Results Mail seems to be the best I have researched so far.

My criteria:

1. User friendly and easy to use with limited design
skills/HTML skills

2. Capable of inserting downloadable images (photos, pdfs)

3. Option of visiting a website if recipient can’t see
the image

My clients want something easy so they can send out professional eblasts about their offerings complete with images.

I was going to have a graphic designer program a template for them, but some of these products on the market seem better than having them send out an image pasted in their Outlook. And Results Mail seems better to me than Constant Contact.

And Lois Says…
I have, of course, heard of both of these systems, but I haven’t used them. I save my money and use my shopping cart to send all of my newsletters, handle my products, and send out my autoresponder messages. It’s a great program with lots of bells and whistles. You can get a free trial of KickStartCart. Check it out. It’s a very robust program.

Another program that I’ve heard good things about is AWeber. It also allows a free test drive.

I’m sure my readers will have lots of ideas for you, too. How about it, readers? Post your comments here and I’ll include the best ones in next week’s Brainy Tidbits ezine.

~Lois

Here’s something that WorldWit sent me today. I signed up for two of the free seminars. You can, too.

Why do we pay so much attention to women in history? And why do we reserve one whole month out of a short 12-month year to honor them? Because ordinary women, like your mothers, sisters, and daughters, created the history we celebrate today. In fact, one day stands out above all others, and it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men.

WorldWIT(TM), the world’s largest online community for professional women, observes the nearly 100-year-old holiday of International Women’s Day (IWD) by partnering with ReadyTalk to host The Year of the Woman: Movers, Shakers and Policy Makers, a week-long, free web seminar series beginning March 6th.

The 50,000-women-strong WorldWIT organization and ReadyTalk, the premiere web conference service provider, have teamed up to recognize International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8th during Women’s History Month, as the perfect opportunity to gather ‘virtual-ly’ together and celebrate women’s strength and resilience and the desire to gain economic and political parity through a week-long series of Web-seminar events.

For more info on how you can recognize this holiday, attend the web seminar series events or speak with the founder of WorldWIT, click here to review the complete press release.

Have a great Women’s History Month!

~Lois

Michael Green, founder of the HowToCorp, has a terrific
video about writing better sales copy and you can watch it
for free.

He’s a master at writing good email copy, and with this short
video he talks about how you can do it too. He walks you right through the whole process.

Watch the video.

~Lois

Want to know what Google’s robots look for?

Better site ranking depends on learning how Google’s robots
crawl your website. Learn what’s important.

~Lois

Sales is a great way to make a living. If you’re good, you
can make a lot of money and enjoy plenty of free time. But
when you’re working, stay focused!

Remember:

• Idle conversation with coworkers doesn’t pay the bills.

• Casual Friday doesn’t mean “relax your sales
commitment.”

• The day before a holiday can be a great time to generate
leads and close business.

• Prospects are everywhere! Let people know what you do.

• Don’t spend too much time with nonqualified prospects.
Close the file and move on.

• Increase your activity level during focused selling
time.

• Do not hide behind “administrivia.”

Yes, that’s right…I said “administrivia.” Administrative
work can be a lot like the game of Trivia—a lot of useless
information. While you do have to do some administrative
work to do your job properly, make sure you don’t spend so
much time on this that you forget to SELL! Keep your
administrative work to a minimum and do it during your least
productive selling time.

This tip is from the ebook I cowrote with Jim Wilson,
Sales Success! Strategies for Women.

For more tips like this, subscribe to our free “3 Day Sales Course.” It will be delivered by autoresponder when you subscribe.

~Lois

Today’s Valentine’s Day, a time to remember your sweetie.
Have you blown it already? I hope not!

Did you know that marketing YOURSELF isn’t so different from
marketing YOUR COMPANY or PRODUCT? “Oh, come on,” you say.
“You’ve gone too far.”

Well, I don’t think so. If you don’t promote your product,
you won’t make any sales. If you forget to market your
company, you’ll soon be out of business. And if you forget
to admire your sweetie on Valentine’s Day (or any other day,
for that matter), you’ll soon be bankrupt in the love
department, too. Won’t you?

So, here are a few last-minute Valentine’s ideas for you:

• Write your sweetie a love letter and have it translated
into French. Use a pretty script font when you write it.

• If you’re not much of a writer, create your love letter
in AUDIO. Buy him or her a new MP3 player and record a
special message for your sweetie.

• Put a happy note in your sweetie’s lunchbox.

• Call your sweetie at work and in your sexiest voice,
say, “I can’t wait to see you!” Then hang up and see how
long it takes him or her to call you back.

• Pay attention to DETAILS. Don’t buy just any flowers.
Give her (or him) her FAVORITES (yellow roses).

• Rent a romantic movie and cuddle up together on the
couch.

Keep your love alive. Do something fun and unexpected.

Keep your business alive, too, by learning how to not only
keep in touch with your customers and prospects, but to get
them to WANT to hear from you. You can even get them to send
you referrals for more business. In a teleseminar we did
awhile back, Adam Urbanski explained how to do just that…
“Secrets of Successful Networking: Proven Methods to Meet
More Qualified Prospects, Generate Referrals and Get
Business from Every Meeting You Attend.”

~Lois