Posts from — February 2005

A Home Based Business Modeled After Google
Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan

Probably the most exciting company to not only survive, but
come out strong out of the dot-com crash of the late 90′s
is Google Inc (http://www.google.com). Having started out
small as a company operated in the garage of a friend and
employing a staff of three, Google’s meteoric rise to a top
name on the Internet is not really that perplexing when we
analyze the core strengths and policies of this company.

I am a super-fan of Google. I am also a fan of studying
success so that I can learn from it. Here are a few key
points that you, as a home based business entrepreneur, can
learn from Google:

1) Capital Isn’t Everything

It may be hard for the newcomer to the home based business
scene to swallow this fact. After all, more capital
investment would mean more money to spend on advertising
and building a home business. It’s tempting to think how
your business would be right now if you had, say $100,000
to start with, instead of the meager $1000 you scrambled to
get from selling things around your home.

But here’s one thing more important than capital -
ingenuity. Ingenuity involves making the best of the
resources available to you, making every advertising dollar
count, and treating every customer or prospect invaluable
to your business.

Capital in the wrong hands, in the hands of an
inexperienced entrepreneur or marketer, is just a waste of
money. Ingenuity, on the other hand, can turn a $1000
capital into a thriving business. And yes, when you get the
ingenuity part right, then whatever extra capital you get
would be worth so much more.

2) Differentiate and Win – Think Outside the Box

Innovation, ability to think outside the box and a
willingness to test ideas and make mistakes is the
trademark of any truly successful company, especially in
Google’s case. Recently when Google’s Gmail
(http://www.gmail.com) was launched, many ISPs and email
providers were scrambling to offer more space to their free
email accounts, simply because Google offered 1G of space.
What they didn’t get, however, was that Gmail was more that
just about space.

So how did Google differentiate? They turned what would
otherwise been just another email service into something
much more. It is, as any user would be able to testify, the
best way to store, organize and find information contained
in emails. Keeping track of business responses and
follow-ups is a breeze with Gmail. Try it yourself if you
cannot believe that statement.

Many home based business entrepreneurs, especially the ones
involved in network marketing, shiver at the word
“saturated”. In a network marketing environment it may dawn
upon every person, at one point or another, that there are
many others with products and opportunities that are
similar to theirs, and the products that they are expected
to sell may be in the highly competitive industries. I felt
that way once too, but here’s the real question – what can
you offer?

Not too long ago a friend of mine, after completing her
course on cosmetics, offered free facials and beauty
consulting to promote cosmetic products sold by her network
marketing company. By doing things most people were not
doing at that time, she simple blew the competition away.

So what can you contribute to your home based business to
make it different, to make it stand out from the crowd?

3) Give Your Customers Exactly What They Want

The success of Google’s AdWords (http://adwords.google.com)
and AdSense (http://adsense.google.com) is due to this
simple fact – they gave advertisers exactly what they
wanted. Marketers wanted a quick, results based, and
dynamic advertising tool, and they got Adwords. Website
owners wanted more advertising revenue, but did not want
the hassle of maintaining it over the hundreds of pages
that they have, and they got Adsense.

Its a pretty simple strategy – understand what your
customers want and give it to them!

My ex-sponsor in my old network marketing company used to
say that in order for me to move their nutritional
supplements, I had to teach people that supplements can
prevent many hazardous illnesses. Prevention is better than
cure. But here’s what I learned in a few years – the
majority of people are looking for cures, not prevention.
Most of the people I met in Malaysia are looking for a cure
to sleeping disorders, a cure for fatigue, a cure for
arthritis, and so on.

Sure, it may be a noble deed to educate people about
prevention, but the world does not always work that way.
The majority of people look for a home based business only
when they get retrenched, when they run out of savings, or
when they retire. So why not make your recruitment efforts
match this need? Why not develop your niche market based on
this category of people?

Instead of teaching them about residual income and the
power of duplication which they are not interested in,
wouldn’t your message be more effective if you taught them
how to earn a comfortable retirement income, or how to
replace their current income instead?

The point is this – as a home based entrepreneur you must
understand your target market’s need, and serve them well.
You should focus on being the best in providing the cure,
not the best in preaching about the prevention. Focus on
customer needs, and they will flock to you.

4) Are You Having Fun?

Everything about Google spells fun. But don’t get me wrong.
They are probably the most innovative company at the
moment.

The fact that they can present their complicated technology
in such a simple way to end-users is an act that every
company can envy. Have you ever heard anyone complain about
Google search being too complicated to use? Yet as an
Internet marketer I can go crazy trying to understand the
complexity behind the simple white page and squiggly logo.

Leave the complexity of a home based or network marketing
business behind the scenes. Teach people how to have fun,
while achieving goals and building their business. Show
them that you are having fun yourself, and they will buy,
they will join, or at least tell someone else about you,
and your exciting business.

When you’re having fun, it will not seem like work at all.
Everyone could use a little fun in their lives, don’t you
think?

5) Focus on Your Core Competency

Yes, this is another phrase that is thrown around in the
business world, but how many entrepreneurs actually
practice it? As a home based entrepreneur, you may find the
need to explore other sources of income. There’s nothing
wrong in that, but here’s the catch – don’t go where the
money is, especially if it’s not related to what you’re
doing.

Many people tend to find other sources of income that is
totally unrelated to their main home business. As a result
of that, they become an expert in nothing, and they become
the best in nothing. If you make custom furniture at home,
why take a job at a fast food chain to make ends meet, when
you can explore other ways to make money out of your core
competency? Having woodworking workshops, writing a ‘how
to’ book on woodworking, or even a sales job at a furniture
outlet can make good sources of additional revenue, while
building your name and expertise on your core competency
itself.

Starting out as a search engine, Google pretty much
maintained their core competency until today. When they
explore other sources of revenue or develop new products,
you can be pretty sure it’s related to search technology.
And the undisputed result of that is that there is simply
no other better alternative when it comes to search and
information retrieval.

Therefore, we have much to learn from the success story of
Google. Just as much as the age old story of entrepreneurs
who drop out of school, and go on to develop multi-million
dollar businesses armed with nothing more than guts and
ingenuity, Google’s success story is inspirational to say
the least.

A tale of humble beginnings with extraordinary endings.
Maybe that will someday be the story of your life, and your
home based business…

About the Author:

Gobala Krishnan is an internet marketer and home business
owner. Visit his site at http://www.sfidreamteam.com to
start your own Internet based home business today, and get
a free kickstart package, one-on-one coaching and a clear,
proven system to earn a six figure income

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7 Ways to Get to the Truth: When the Sale “Disappears”
by: Ari Galper

You’re close, really close, to making a sale. Your potential client is in the market for your product or service and you’ve had a couple of good meetings.

Based on his most recent e-mail, “Everything looks good — I’ll get back to you so we can move this forward”–everything points to a probable sale. You feel so relaxed, happy, and hopeful. Then a couple of days go by with no phone call or e-mail. You tell yourself, “He’s probably busy. I know he’ll get in touch tomorrow.” But tomorrow comes and goes with no word.

You start to panic. Your self-talk turns negative: “I can’t believe this…This is really starting to hurt…He let me believe it was a sure thing…I trusted him…now he’s disappeared on me, and I was counting on this sale…” The relaxed, happy feeling is gone. You’ve fallen victim to “hopeium ” again.

Have you been in this situation before?

Of course you have–we all have, and it’s painful. So, can you keep from getting dropped? Yes–With the new mindset, you can abandon the salesperson role and come from a place of integrity that stems directly from your personal brand that doesn’t compromise your authentic self. This opens communication with your potential clients so you can learn the truth about their situation–and that’s what you always want.

These suggestions will help:

Don’t assume the sale. Potential clients are used to the traditional buyer-seller relationship, so they may decide not to tell you things that might make them vulnerable to you. Until you’re sure you know the complete truth, you can never assume the sale.

Keep making it easy for potential clients to tell you their truth. Toward the end of your conversation, ask, “Do you have any more questions?” If potential clients say no, follow up with the 100-percent-final truth-gathering question: “Now, are you 100 percent sure that there’s nothing else that I can do on my end to make you feel more comfortable with this situation?” You’ll be amazed how often people then say, “Well, actually, there is one more issue…” And it’s at that point that you really start to hear their truth.

Call back to get the truth, not close the sale. Most potential clients who suddenly “disappear” will be expecting you chase them down by calling them and saying, “Hi, I was just wondering where things are at?” Instead, eliminate all sales pressure by telling them that you’re okay with their decision not to move forward, based on their not having called you back. In other words, take a step backward. Most of the time, it’ll open the door to a new level of open, trusting communication.

Reassure potential clients that you can handle a “no.” Of course we’d rather not hear a “no.” But the only way to free yourself and your clients from subtle sales pressures is to let them know that it’s not about the sale but about the best choice for them–and if that means no sale, it’s okay, because it’s ultimately not about you but about them.

Ask for feedback. Whenever potential clients “disappear,” call them back (e-mail them if you have to, but only as a last resort because dialogue is always better) and simply ask, “Would you please share your feedback with me as to how I can improve for next time? Now that our sales process is over, I’m committed to understanding where I went wrong.” This is not being feeble or weak — it’s being humble, which often triggers the truth.

Don’t try to “close” a sale. If your intuition tells you that the sales process isn’t going in the direction it should be going – which is always toward greater trust and truth–trust those feeling. Then, make it safe for potential clients to tell you where they stand. It’s simple–all you have to say is, “Where do you think we should go from here?” (But be prepared: you might not want to hear the truth of how they’re feeling. You can cope with this by keeping your larger goal in mind, which is always to establish that the two of you have a “fit.”)

Give yourself the last word. Eliminate the anxiety of waiting for the final calls that will tell you whether the sale is going to happen–instead, schedule a time for getting back to each other. This eliminates chasing. Simply suggest, “Can we plan to get back to each other on a day and at a time that works for you–not to close the sale, but to simply bring closure regardless of what you decide. I’m okay either way, and that’ll save us from having to chase each other.”
You’ll find that these suggestions make selling much less painful because you learn to focus on the truth instead of the sale.

About The Author

With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari Galper discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years.

His profound discovery of shifting one’s mindset to a place of complete integrity, based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world’s leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling.

Leading companies such as Gateway, Clear Channel Communications, Brother International and Fidelity National Mortgage have called on Ari to keep them on the leading edge of sales performance. Visit http://www.unlockthegame.com to get his free sales training lessons.