Real Estate Foreclosures - A Real Estate Agent's Guide (Part 3)

"The 20/50/30 Rule & the Anatomy of the Perfect Lead"

You've heard of the Pareto Principle right? If not, it's the 80/20 rule that economist Vilfredo Pareto developed through his research.

I bet you haven't heard of the 20/50/30 Rule, though... right? It works hand-in-hand with the 80/20 rule for leads and is more centered on lead qualification.

The basic premise is this:

20% of the prospects that you contact will do business with you easily. There are several reasons why, but the rules on handling them are the same regardless.

Get out of their way, and make it as easy as possible for them to do business with you. They believe what you say is true and have an overall good feeling about you. They believe you are skilled at what you do and trust that you can deliver what they need. These types of leads are like Gold - get out of your own way and get to the point. What should you do? Close the deal!!! The next 50% of prospects are on the fence. They could go either way, and you have to work with them to make sure they fall on your side of the fence. Here are some ways to help your cause:

Make a compelling presentation with confidence. Make sure you tailor your presentation to fit their individual behavioral style. Help break the ice with them, so they actually begin to like you. Make sure that you communicate effectively the benefits that you bring to them. What should you do? Close the deal so that you can then move them to the 20% that will do business with you easily. The last 30% of prospects are problems waiting to happen. Their characteristics are:

They are highly demanding. Usually have limited respect for you. You will expend tremendous energy with them. You will expend huge quantities of time with them. What should you do? Throw these leads away - the conversion rate is too low, and the energy wasted is very high. So, what does this have to do with Foreclosures and the anatomy of the perfect lead?

Well, folks who are in Foreclosure (or some state of it) are very motivated. Most of them are in the 20% group, and the ones that are in the 50% group are often won over very easily with proper positioning of yourself. In other words, if you can establish yourself as the Foreclosure expert in your area, you will get their business.

How do you become an expert? Find out below...

6 Keys to Sales Success and Your Prosperity

Sales Prosperity - Success Tips

Including Tips for Sales Managers

Know Your Strengths and Challenges If you want to more productive and prosperous in your sales activities, you must begin by knowing where you are strong and where you have challenges. You will not benefit from "sticking your head in the sand." By knowing and understanding what you do well and what requires more attention, you can improve your productivity. There are several ways to gather this information.

Assessments which are specific for determining skill levels in the sales process can be very helpful. This works especially well when we can "benchmark" the top performers in your organization, so you can compare your skills with the most effective sales personnel. Assessments which measure your behaviors and motivations can also be powerful tools to better understand your unique skills and motivators. These behavioral assessments will also tell you about your style of communication and can assist you in learning how to be more effective in communications with your clients. Interviews with clients and people who know you and your work can also be useful for this assessment process.

Know Your Product Any good sales people know that product knowledge and understanding your "USP" (unique selling proposition) is essential for setting you and your product in the best possible light thus enhancing the sales process. New sales personnel do not always have to be "experts" but they do need to know the strengths of their product and how it might compare with major competition. Developing relationships and getting the information you may not be able to answer to your clients questions becomes essential when you are new or are developing new relationships.

Know Your Customer Understanding your customer, in general, is important. Understanding your customer, in specifics, can be the difference in the sales process. You can not be lazy or make assumptions to have long term success. A tailored proposal based on your client's specific requirements is necessary to close the deal, so do your homework.

Knowing the attitude and style of specific customers will be very useful when you put your presentation together. For example, your client may be a "detail" person, or perhaps a "cutting edge" person. Your sales pitch will vary to best connect with the unique character of your client. You can be coached in how to be the most effective in building your targeted presentations.

Know How to Communicate Benefits to Your Customer, Effectively! Understanding your client is essential. Knowing how to best communicate your "USP" in ways that solve your clients' challenges will help you to most successful. So, knowing your product's benefits, and your clients requirements, packaged for the unique communication style of your client will lead to sales. This is easier said than done, but can be learned and then practiced for the greatest levels of success.

Know How to Focus and How to Follow-up Understanding the sales process and setting goals is important. Perhaps even more important to sales success is knowing how to stay focused and releasing the distractions which can get in the way of your positive efforts and waste your precious time. Focus is a skill that can be coached and developed. If you have time to waste then this skill is not as important, but most successful people are very busy and need to be able to keep themselves clear and focused on their goals.

Appropriate follow up with clients provides the experience of professionalism, respect, and customer service that helps to build long term successful relationships. Great follow up will also lead to referrals and testimonials that will generate future business. Over performing in your follow up activities will be seen as exceptional service and this leads to greater productivity and prosperity.

Know How to Prepare Yourself for Prosperity and Success Wanting to be rich and successful is not enough to create this higher level of success. Preparing yourself for achieving your goals requires time, effort, and often feedback. Attracting success and prosperity has become a recognized part of the sales process for the most successful sales performers. You can read books on this topic or go to trainings. If you wish to take the quickest path to prosperity and to overcoming any personal blocks to success, you may want to consider getting coaching that is designed for your specific requirements. Everyone wants to be successful. Not everyone knows how to get there with some extra support from an accountability partner. (It can cost you some money to be successfully coached, but it can also pay major dividends to have this additional support.)

Sales Success Tips for Sales Executives-Managers-Owners

Do you want to get the most out of your sales force? Would increased productivity help your organization's bottom-line?

Benchmarking your best producers is very useful. Knowing their skills, their motivations, and their behaviors will help you to avoid wasting time and money when filling your critical sales positions. Understanding your weakest performers can offer you the information you need to develop these low performers or to avoid hiring them for your unique sales situation. With your best sales performers benchmarked, you will be able to develop the most effective training programs to increase productivity in all your sales team. Each organization is unique so do not get outside consulting or training that does not fit for the specific requirements that you have.

Would you like to pay coaches or trainers based on your teams success and not on a flat fee basis? If a trainer or coach could help you or your sales team increase sales by 20% would you be willing to pay a 2% of this increase or 10% of your increased profit for this service? This is similar to a 10% "finders fee" for a productive referral. Besides benchmarking, your success may require coaching and training for your sales team. Consider a lower cost coaching/training model with an incentive driven compensation system. In some situations, I will coach sales teams and get paid a percentage of the increased sales business. For this to work, we need to do an assessment of your sales staff, research the market, and better understand the unique selling features of your product or service. If we can both profit from this sales development program, then we can discuss the percentage of compensation and the time lines for compensation. There are some fees for the assessment process which cover the costs of research and for program development.

So You Want To Own Your Own Business and Be Your Own Boss? Part 2

Self-discipline. This is the single most important factor when you want to run your own business. If you have spent years in the work force, with someone else telling you when to go to work, what to do when you get there, when to take a break, then when to go home, you will have to re-learn how to behave. And Self-Discipline is the only way to do that. Another way to say it is Self-Control, Willpower, or Drive. If you can not find the drive to change your thought patterns about the way you work, you will not make it as a self-employed person.

That may not sound kind, but guess what? It's not meant to! If you think owning your own business is a bed of roses, think again. When you are your own boss, you need to have the guts to make hard decisions, disappoint your friend when they want to go somewhere and you need to be working. You need to be willing to let your family eat a few meals without you, or even miss a reunion. You need to be willing to roll up your sleeves and do the grunt work needed to become successful.

Will every business with a dedicated owner become super profitable? No. Certainly not. But you have a 99% better chance at being super profitable if you know going in that you must be a hard task master on yourself. It is not the others involved in your business that must learn this, it is you, the owner. I have often thought I would never work for someone who demanded the same work from me that I do from myself. I don't think there is enough money for someone else to pay me for working as hard as I do. I do it strictly for myself and my family. Am I super profitable all the time? No, but at times I am, and every 12-16 hour day I had to put in to get that profit was worth it. Every family event I had to miss was worth it. Because, afterward I was able to say I did it myself! I learned to put in the hours, days, weeks in order to have 6 months a year to do what I wanted to! Go where I wanted, and take with me anyone I wanted! How many years did I have to work for that terrible slave driver (myself) to get that much time off? Lots and lots!

Every eleven seconds someone starts a home business. That is a staggering statistic. So many people want to get in on the money to be made, be it online, offline, at home, in a service field or a franchise. It is great that the American dream can still come true. The bad thing about that dream is it will only be a dream to the many thousands and thousands of people who lack the self-discipline to be successful. There are more people with the same mentality as the family member I mentioned in Part 1, liking the idea of being a business owner, without the knowledge or discipline to be one.

If you learn self-discipline you will have the time for self-indulgence later. Can I put a time frame on this statement? No, I can't, because people and circumstances are different. What is super profit for me may not be for you. But, without the self-discipline to be willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, the training, studying, hands-on experience, you will just be wasting your time and money trying to get started. If you want a business so you can sit in the office and tell others what to do, you probably need to work your way up the corporate ladder. If you want to be able to say you did it, with your own resources, strength, time, brains, then you have the best chance of being a good business owner!

Front Page Web Hosting - 10 Questions to Ask

In your quest for choosing a front page web hosting company, you want to ensure that the company has the basics, such as reliability. You also need to consider the technical aspects of front page web hosting and the obligations of your web host; both are essential if you want to avoid future problems. Technical trouble is the last thing you need, especially when your company is a startup. You should ask questions freely to gain confidence in any front page web hosting company that you are considering.

Top 10 Questions To Ask Your Front Page Web Hosting Company

1. How good and reliable is the customer support? 24/7 support is a must. Also, if the front page web hosting company has a large knowledgebase, do you know how to use it? Is the support staff responsive? Are they trained or do they pass the buck to someone else? Does the front page web hosting company provide live chat support (practically a necessity these days)?

2. How will you justify the price? Loads of features in a front page web hosting company may not be useful to you until you use them. How will you factor in bandwidth cost? Is the ratio of price to features, disc space and bandwidth the reasonable?

3. How will you ensure accuracy of automatic billing? Some front page web hosting companies have servers that trigger automatic billing even after you cancel your account with them. Do they confirm the stoppage of automatic billing when you cancel your account?

4. How long has the front page web hosting company been in business? This reveals many things. Trustworthiness, sustainability, technical know-how, strong marketing and business acumen. Ask for a list of long standing customers.

5. Do you have a sufficient back-up system? It is difficult to manage 99.9% uptime without sufficient backup system for servers and connections. A standby power supply is another important feature of a reliable front page web hosting company.

6. How good are the features? Ask for a feature-by-feature comparison with another front page web hosting company. Compare control panel to control panel, disc space to disc space etc, not just a list of features.

7. How good is the technical staff? It is not enough to have numbers; what counts is the hands-on experience of the front page web hosting staff. An experienced technician gets things done instead of wandering around in the dark.

8. Is the package flexible? The package you choose may need expansion as you grow. Will the host be able to provide additional features when you need them? Shifting your website to another host when business is hot is crazy. You don't want to be forced into doing this!

9. Why is there so much fine print? Too much fine print should raise red flags as to services provided and promises made. Clarify them upfront and let them know that you have other front page web hosting companies to choose from.

10. Does the web host run their own servers, or does a third party run them? If it is the latter, you have lost ground even before the battle has started. Many things won't be under your host's control if it is a reseller.

There is more to choosing a front page web hosting company than just asking 10 questions. However, these should serve as a base for beginning your evaluation of a front page web hosting company. You can and should send a pre-sales questionnaire to your web host asking about billing issues, technical issues etc. Keep the responses so that you have a written record of what they promise you. If there is no reply, you need to move on!

Microsoft Has A Plan For The Xbox 360

In an interesting article from Fool.Com entitled “Why the Xbox 360 Is a Loser,” author Seth Jayson points out that the Xbox 360 is costing Microsoft big money. The article discusses how the Xbox 360 is part of a much larger plan that, if successful, will eventually lead to profits.

It is no secret; Microsoft is losing money and lots of it on the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s home-and-entertainment division has already lost $293 million on $1.57 billion in sales. And as Jayson points out, the more popular the console becomes, the greater the loss.

“Make no mistake: For now, and for the foreseeable future, the Xbox 360 is going to cost Microsoft money. The consoles are sold at a loss, and the costs of launching the new system will continue to grow. The more popular the Xbox 360 becomes, the bigger the losses will be.” commented Seth Jayson in his article.

The reason being is two fold. Microsoft is in a “marathon, not a sprint” to beat Sony (PS3) and more importantly, to be #1 in the yet undefined home media PC market.

Down the road Microsoft will be able to build revenue from video game sales, entertainment purchases, license fees, Internet advertising, and revenue from developing products for your living room

But for the time being, the loss has investors wondering if the media giant is moving in the right direction.

Only time will tell whether-or-not the long term plan will pay off. To be successful, Microsoft will have to depend on many factors, with one of the most important being, plenty of 3rd party support.

3 Facts Everyone Should Know About Stem Cells

Cord Blood

Cord Blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta following birth. Cord Blood is routinely discarded with the placenta and umbilical cord. The blood in the cord is a rich source of stem cells. Stem cells are the building blocks of your blood and immune system. Stem cells have the ability to differentiate into other types of cells in the body, and thus give rise to all the tissues, organs and systems in the body. The stems cells in a child's cord blood are genetically unique to the baby and its biological family.

Due to stem cells ability to differentiate into other types of cell tissue in the body, treatments can be developed for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Diabetes to name a few. Stem cells found in the cord blood are a valuable biological resource that researchers can use to investigate the potential of future applications for cord blood stem cells.

Cord Blood Banking

Cord Blood Banking is the process whereby umbilical cord blood stem cells are saved for potential medical uses. Cord blood banking includes the processes of collection, processing and storing of the umbilical cord blood. Collection involves drawing the cord blood from the umbilical cord, using either the syringe or bag collection method, after the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut. Processing involves the testing of the cord blood to determine whether it meets eligibility standards and removing and red blood cells or plasma that will not be needed in transplantation. Storage involves storing the cord blood unit in a vinyl or plastic bag in which it is frozen in liquid nitrogen.

There are two types of cord blood banks. Firstly there are the family banks, which store the umbilical cord for one's own family use. Secondly, there are the public donor banks, which store the umbilical cord blood for unrelated or non-family use - which is public use. Every parent has the option of saving their baby's cord blood for their family use, while only a small number of people may be able to donate their baby's cord blood stem cells.

Cord Blood Stem Cells

There are three sources of stem cells: bone marrow, peripheral blood (that is the blood that circulates through the body) and umbilical cord blood. Cord blood stem cells, however, are different from other types of stem cells. By freezing these cells, any aging or damage to these cells is prevented, that usually occurs later in life. Umbilical cord blood stem cells are also more proliferate than adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow.

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.