Selling Strategies: Strategies for Success Newsletter January 2008 No. 25
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Published by Emily Huling Selling Strategies
Copyright 2008 Emily Huling. All rights reserved.
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In this January 2008 issue:
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1.
Thoughts from home
Jump for joy every day
Resolutions are personal. Some
people keep mum on the topic to avoid embarrassment in case they fall back to
old habits. Others proclaim their resolve to rally support for their change.
Rarely is someone so bold to suggest a resolution for others. Permit me to be so
bold. Here is my 2008 New Year’s resolution wish for you – and for me.
Find 15 minutes of pure joy in your life every day. Joy is doing something that
lightens your spirit, makes you smile, brings satisfaction, or rejuvenates your
mind.
--Connect live (no-e-mail) with a special someone. Find a neighbor you don’t
know well, a friend you’ve lost touch with, or a person going through a tough
time.
--Initiate a random act of kindness.
--Make time for your hobby – photography, knitting, woodworking, gardening,
cooking, reading, practicing a sport.
--Play a game with a child.
--Walk your neighborhood and admire how others show pride in their surroundings.
--Write personal reflections in a journal.
Even joy takes discipline to see it through.
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New offering in 2008 – Sales Coaching and Mentoring Program for New Producers
This coaching program provides four months unlimited access to me. Contacts
include scheduled phone calls, course assignments using my dozen books and
audios, weekly activity and results reviews, and a dozen other topics to
increase business. Our goal is to shorten the learning curve and create a sales
process for long-term success. Full details on acceptance, topics, and cost are
on the website.
www.sellingstrategies.com
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2.
Thoughts from the road
When customers aren’t right
My standard travel practice is to reconfirm all my reservations prior to hitting
the road. I started doing this about ten years ago when a client changed the
venue at the last minute and forgot to tell me. The good news was that a few
calls and an extra cab fare got me where I needed to be. That was a good
learning experience that has served me well – until I got lazy and didn’t check
one last month.
John and I were combining a business and pleasure trip. I just needed a car for
twenty-four hours, so we arranged for the car in the city where we were staying.
John and I arrived at the rental car agency at noon on the appointed day. We
were welcomed warmly by a young professional who cheerfully greeted us. After
checking the computer, the man said he didn’t have a car for me. He said that
another customer came in earlier and they gave my car to him. John and I looked
at each other as if we were caught in the infamous 1991 Seinfeld episode called
The Alternate Side about how rental car reservations are meaningless. The agent
was extremely apologetic and pleasant. They did have a car at another location
just “down the road.” To make a long story short, I was driven by an employee
about twenty miles out of my way to pick up this car. On my ride to the other
location, my anger was escalating, but I knew my driver was not the correct
person to confront.
After checking in at the hotel, I called the manager of the rental car agency to
formally complain. Like his employee, he was apologetic and pleasant. Then he
said, “We didn’t want to tell you, but your reservation was for 9:00 AM. After
two hours, we give the car to someone else.”
I replied, “You may have told me that when I made the reservation and I
forgot, but why didn’t you give me more of an explanation at your counter? By
simply “giving my car to someone else” without giving me a reason why doesn’t
reflect well on your business.” His
reply was surprising. He said if they can make it right, they don’t tell the
customers they were wrong. I don’t know if my driving 20 miles out of my way and
adding 40 minutes to my pick up time constitutes making it right, but they did
find me a car.
I think customers should be told the truth. I would have preferred the agent to
say, “I’m sorry. We hold cars for two hours. We had your reservation for 9:00
AM.” If customers aren’t told the truth, mistakes will be repeated and that
serves no one well.
What do you think about this rental car agency’s customer service practice – and
why?
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Start Your Business Year on the Write Note!
New Audio Seminar with a Special Coupon Offer for Newsletter Readers – Use
Coupon Code news11 to save $20
Write On! Business Writing for Insurance Professionals. This four-CD
program offers tactics, tips, and
techniques to write concise correspondence, create proposals that close sales,
write articles that get published, and diminish e-mail overload. The program
includes audio, slide presentation, handout, and quiz. Listen on the go or
conduct your own in-house workshop. For detailed program information and to
order, go to
www.sellingstrategies.com. Newsletter readers save $20 off the $119 program
cost. Use coupon code news11 at checkout.
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Overtreated Why Too Much
Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer
by Shannon Brownlee
I first heard Shannon Brownlee on the public radio show The People’s Pharmacy.
She was interviewed by hosts Joe and Terry Graedon. The author is an
award-winning journalist whose articles and essays about medicine, health care,
and biotechnology appear in the New York Times Magazine, Time, and The New
Republic. Her book is filled with
well-researched facts that we don’t want to believe about hospitals, physicians,
medical errors, pharmaceutical companies, and the insurance system.
She brings forth new ideas to stay healthy, control costs and cover the
uninsured. Overtreated is thought
provoking. It’s an important book to read.
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Life is happier when you want what you’ve got. EH
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On the road in 2008
Here are my currently scheduled public speaking engagements and conferences I’ll
be attending.
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Selling Strategies: Strategies for Success Newsletter is published by Emily
Huling Selling Strategies. For further information contact
emily@sellingstrategies.com.
© 2008 Emily Huling. All rights reserved. Feel free to share our newsletter if
copyright and credit are always included.