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By Knight Kiplinger

The Kiplinger Washington Editors

July 2, 2009

 

Overhauling
Financial Regs

By year-end or so, Congress will give the nod to a major rewriting of the nation's financial regulatory system. This week’s Kiplinger Letter explores whether the package will do more harm than good and what lawmakers are likely to include.

 

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Economy, Business Costs, Taxes, Supreme Court, Energy, Workplace Regulations, Climate Change, Health Care Legislation and Foreign Policy

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I just attended a franchise seminar. The speaker represents a few hundred franchises that (he says) are hand picked. He has the prospect (aka victim?) answer some questions about themselves then he makes recomendations - based on your personality, capital situation, etc.. If you pick a franchise, then he does some due dilligence for you. If you both decide it's a good idea, he helps you get started. He says he offers this service free of charge, which means he gets a commission if he's able to sell you a franchise. Has anyone done this? Successfully? Unsuccessfully?

-- fender

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David Ward

Fuel

"9 1/2 Ways" is a column on how to reach, sell to and keep customers that appears bimonthly in the marketing newsletter Fuel, published by The Pohly Co. consulting firm. This month's author is California-based David Ward, who writes frequently about marketing, technology and the media for such publications as PR Week and Popular Science. He is a former correspondent for the London Daily Mail.

Gathering, pursuing and winning over new leads is the lifeblood of any business. And in an age when your potential customers are as frantically busy as you are and are fending off sales pitches from every angle, making a connection is harder than ever.

Worse, while technology has created multiple ways of gathering and reaching potential leads, it has also made life for your sales staff much tougher. Customers are far more jaded and skeptical. But July's "9 1/2 Ways" column from Fuel has tips for finding those most likely to need what you have to offer and for penetrating the 24/7 sales chatter.

It's particularly crucial, Fuel suggests, to make the generation of leads an enterprise-wide priority -- and to make it clear what exactly constitutes a good solid lead. Then make clear to whom those leads should go. Other suggestions include acting quickly and using multiple approaches to gathering and contacting potential leads. But our favorite is No. 3: Talk to existing clients to find out what attracted them to you and what your strong points are. Such an approach "not only can help you learn what you're doing right, it can also help you develop an ideal customer profile for generating new leads."

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POSTED BY: Ocha (July 15, 2007 11:28 PM)
I agree with #7, give to get. This is basic stuff. People like information so give them something they can use today. This will build credibility and soon you will have a new customer.

POSTED BY: Lori Feldman (September 03, 2007 04:44 PM)
Per #2: And only give one call to action per campaign. Too many choices confuse people. Confusion equals no action - The DatabaseDiva

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