| Welcome
Thank you for taking a minute to be inspired, informed, motivated and entertained.
Feel free to share this month's newsletter with your many, many friends and associates.
Do you have a favorite topic that you would like to share with others? Please let me hear from you for a future month's newsletter opportunity. |
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Phi Kappa Phi Alumni Meeting |
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An organizational dinner meeting of the Phi Kappa Phi Alumni (PKP) Honor Society is scheduled for Thursday, October 11th at the University of Houston/Downtown.
If you are currently a PKP member or want to become a member, RSVP direct at uhdpkpalum@gmail.com. Evening dinner cost is $25 and paypal is readily accepted. This is a great opportunity to be a part of a growing organization and network with new business associates.
This October 11th kick-off dinner meeting is from 6:30PM to 8:30PM and the guest speaker is Texas Senator Dan Patrick discussing the most recent legislative session.
RSVP today to insure your place at this great kick-off event. |
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How to Excel in Sales - Guaranteed |
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Guest Columinist - Sylvia Harris
If you want to excel in the sales game, you only have to follow three simple rules. If you're already at the top of your game, following the rules will take you higher. If you're in a rut, ready to throw in the towel, following these rules will get you out of the rut and on your way to success - guaranteed!
So, what are these phenomenal rules?
Are you ready?
Rule 1:
Learn something from every selling experience.
Rule 2:
Apply what you learn.
Rule 3:
Repeat the process.
Every sales call, regardless of the outcome, has the potential to make you better. If the call was successful, i.e. you closed the sale, examine the process from start to finish and look for things you could have done more effectively and/or more efficiently. Were there any wasted actions? Were there any opportunities you missed? No one is perfect. If you had to find one and only one element in the entire selling process to improve what would it be? Chances are, if you look closely, you'll find more than one.
If the outcome of the call was less than successful - you didn't close the sale or it took much longer than it should have taken - where did it go off track? Was it off track from the beginning? Did it bet bogged down in the middle of the process? Was it something that happened late in the cycle? Identify exactly what, where, and when things started heading south. Was there more than one thing? Choose the first and ask yourself, "What could/should I have done to prevent that from happening?"
You can learn a lesson from every sales call - something you can do more effectively or something you should stop doing. Once you've identified that "something," apply it to your very next selling situation. Then, repeat the process. Even small improvements pay compound interest over time.
Happy selling!
Sylvia Harris
VP of Business Development
Sandler Sales Institute
www.efconsulting.sandler.com |
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Fortune Follows the Brave |
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Guest Columnist - Ruben Gonzalez
Your fears are a smokescreen. They are like ghosts that keep you from being your best. It's OK to be afraid. Everyone is afraid! What's not OK is to let your fear get the best of you. Successful people have learned to act in spite of their fear. And, that's what courage is - acting in spite of your fear.
Courage can be developed. Aristotle said, "You become what you repeatedly do." The way to develop courage is by practicing courage in every situation where courage is required. How do you do that? Through a quality decision. You come to the realization that whenever you are afraid to do something, you are simply being tested. You make a decision that from now on you will win over your fear. Remember; if you do what you fear, the fear will disappear. If you don't do what you fear, the fear will control your life.
You need to win many personal victories before you will experience a public victory. By becoming conscious of your fears and making a game out of conquering them, before long you will begin to understand in your heart that fears are just smokescreens. And by playing that game all the time, you are becoming more courageous every day.
Ruben Gonzalez competed in three Olympics in three different decades. Ruben is an award-winning keynote speaker, the author of "The Courage to Succeed," and the co-star of "Pass It On." Ruben makes over 90 presentations a year on making bold decisions and taking action to create long-lasting success. For his free 10-Part Success eCourse, visit www.OlympicMotivation.com or contact him at 832-689-8282. |
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A.M. Networking Opportunity at HWCOC |
IF...you are an early riser (or would be once a month), I would like to invite you to join me as my personal guest to the HWCOC's early morning Business Over Breakfast meeting on the THIRD WEDNESDAY of each month.
Our breakfast meeting is held at the Memorial Hermann-Memorial City Hospital. (Be sure to enter from the Frostwood Street side). The meeting is in the hospital's community room on the first floor.
We begin our meeting at 07:15AM and we are out the door at 08:30AM. The hospital is gracious to provide a FULL breakfast plus plenty of coffee and juice.
Our meeting is focused how we can serve each other through our networking and the building of new relationships. (see 1 Peter 4:10 or Proverbs 11:25)
As you personal host, I invite your calls if you have more questions or need directions to our meeting room.
And, NO...you do not have to be a HWCOC member to attend. However, we will enjoy your future membership if you like what you see.
The next meeting is October 17th. Come and join us.
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Stand Up to Stand Out |
The following is a list of community-interest programs that I use to serve the local business community (e.g. companies and civic organizations) with humor, information and motivation.
- A Woman's Place is in the Home
- A program that profiles the fastest growing demographic group of home buyers - the single female.
- Referring a Referral - where to find the "best" referrals
- An interactive program designed to help us rethink about the "best" source of referrals.
- Your 30 Seconds of Fame - Mastering Your Elevator Speech
- A valuable practice tool to help our networking efforts.
- Credit Score University
- A valuable program to help educate us of the impact of our credit scores on our daily lives.
- Stolen IDs - Prevention & Cure...a personal story
- An informative program to help each of us prevent and cure our IDs from being stolen and how to correct our credit history if our ID has been stolen.
- Have A Nice Day
- Learn how our corporate image and our staff can enhance our sales opportunities and creates repeat customers.
- Build the Buzz
- A very informative program on how loyal customers become a volunteer sales force on our behalf.
- Soaring with the Eagles vs. Pecking with the Chickens
- A motivational program designed to help us achieve more.
If you would like more information on any of these programs for your company and/or organization, let me hear from you.
JOE STILES
281/381-1414
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Your TOP TEN list of really great marketing ideas |
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Have you ever had a REALLY successful marketing effort? I am talking about the type of success that surprised you. Granted, we all want success for our sales and marketing efforts.
If you have had such a result, whether one big success or a lot of little successes, let me hear from you and, with your permission, I will post a collection of the TOP TEN results.
The following are some of my marketing ideas - feel free to use them to fit your business:
- Offer to speak publically to help others via your personal talents and/or professional expertise.
- Write about your industry in trade association periodicals, local newspapers, magazines, business journals, etc.
- Ask for client testimonials and then post them to your website. If you do not have a website, I have a recommendation - just call - I have a referral for you.
- Make sure your email address is your website address and not "yahoo" or "gmail" or "hotmail" all of which have a not-so-professional image.
- When meeting others for the first time, spend twice as much time learning about others than you spend on telling them about you. Be sure to ask open-ended questions and THEN, follow up with a hand-written note thanking them for the meeting and ask for a second meeting to better understand their business.
Let me hear about your great marketing ideas! |
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Preserving Family History |
Do you have old family photographs or a 19th century marriage license or a letter your Great Grandfather wrote home during the Civil War? How to protect, preserve, and still enjoy viewing these items is critical to these cherished memories.
The Houston elements that cause damage, especially to paper, are light, heat, acid and moisture. Sunlight and fluorescent lighting contain high levels of ultraviolet rays. Glass that filters 97% of the UV rays is now available and highly recommended. This particular glass, however, does not prevent damage if an item is subjected to direct sunlight. Combine the light with heat, say, close to a window during the summer, and there will be fading.
Moisture can be equally as severe as the teh UB rays. The tremendous damage we saw after Hurricane Katrina or simple condensation on the inside of the glass of a frame when the A/C went off in July will also damage our family treasures.
Tree products, like cardboard, pulp mount boards and wood, will actually "burn" paper causing discoloration, spotting (foxing) and brittleness.
Documents and photographs should be preserved in a custom frame with acid-free mat board, UV filtering glass separated from the art, and spacing to prevent any contact with the wood frame. If a document is particularly brittle, we suggest considering a mylar encapsulation. This treatment is the same used at the Library of Congress and the U.S. Archives. Items may also be protected in an archival album using mylar sleeves.
In preserving your family treasures, consider the above steps to future generations may enjoy our family treasures as much as we have.
At Bradley's Art & Frame, we are here to help and serve as your framing resource. Please come our shop to view the examples of our services. If you prefer, please give us on us with your questions and family preservation issues. We want to save your precious possessions as much as you do.
Pat Bradley
Bradley's Art & Frame
1306 Blalock Rd.
Houston, TX 77055
713.461.5695
pat@bradleysartandframe.com
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MY CLOSING THOUGHTS:
"When we make incremental change, we are on our way to monumental change."
Lance Armstrong
Thank you for being a part of our monthly newsletter. It is my intent to inspire, entertain and inform everyone. I value your feedback and suggestions on future topics you would like to see.
JOE STILES
281/381-1414
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| October 2007 |
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I invite you to take a moment to be inspired, motivated, informed and entertained by this month's newsletter. I welcome your comments and suggestions for furture articles and/or topics you are interested in.
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