Archive for August 14th, 2008

by Patrick Robinson

Are washington state public records vital to your job, your relationship or your life as a whole? You may even be just curious about a government run project in your area? Don’t worry; there is an easy solution to your curiosity. The washington state public records you want are already easily available for your purposes.

It is after all every American’s right to be able to file for the release of government maintained information and public records. This right is upheld under the Freedom of Information Act. All government agencies are actually obligated to release any record concerning any part of the government upon a formal written request by an individual.

This is not without its red tape though. Some information can be legally omitted in the interest of national security. Several pages of the said document may be censored or blackened in order keep the information obscure to the public. This is probably the most serious reason why they don’t fully disclose everything about certain documents they possess.

You may be curious as to what type of information you can acquire when you exercise your right to view such public materials. You can gain access to many different data related to many different subjects. This information may relate to the local government in the area, the various businesses operating or the individual residents themselves.

Do you want to have washington state public records ready at your fingertips because you’re the owner of a small business? If so, you may want these records for a little background check on the current candidates for a job position you are offering. Now how else could you make an informed decision on a crucial matter?

The reason you want to get information about a person may be for your business or it may be personal. Your reason could be as trivial as the information available, but whatever that reason may be; the truth is you want to gain access to these washington state public records legally.

The world smiles on those who have correct and complete information. Things become easier when you have accurate knowledge of things. If your decisions are based on the quality of information you have then you need it to be as correct and reliable as can be. You need to be correct in decisions that could prove life changing.

If you’re living in the state of Washington and want to get your hands on washington state public records, then head on over to my site for further details.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Christina Williams

Brief: There are many great scholarships for women available online. These scholarships are best accessed by scholarship search engines that are designed to match prospective students to the right scholarship.

Finances are the number one reason that women do not attend college as many wish they could. One option that could increase women’s likelihood of attending college is the college scholarship. How does one find these scholarships?

Several scholarship search engines house databases filled with scholarships for women. For example, Scholarship Experts has more than 2.4 million scholarships valued at more than $14 billion. With the significant opportunities that exist, whether for your region, major, ethnicity, or religious affiliations, you can easily find scholarships for your college education.

There are many great scholarship search engines that one can use to access college funding. FastWeb.com is an excellent site which is updated frequently and promises the best results for women. This search engine also carries the ability for women to apply online, which cuts down on the time, complexity, and paperwork of the whole process.

Scholarship Monkey also offers information to women and parents on how to obtain scholarship money. Like FastWeb and Scholarship Experts, Scholarship Monkey is also a search engine, which allows women and parents to find only the one’s that apply to them and their children.

Although Broke Scholar, another scholarship database, boasts fewer scholarships in its list (650,000), they are more adept at precisely matching your profile to qualifying scholarships than several of the other, larger search engines. After all, sheer numbers are useless if a database matches you to a non-relevant scholarship. Additionally, Broke Scholar provides a calendar for each of its members, listing important deadline dates for all of their qualifying scholarships. This comes in handy as deadlines draw near and dates and places tend to blur together.

One would hope that people would not take advantage of students trying to improve their lives. However, this does happen. It is very common for some search engines to charge money for the service of finding a good scholarship. It is also common for there to be fake scholarships that require some type of processing fee. This is not normal practice by the legitimate search engines and is considered phishing.

Within minutes of filling out a short questionnaire about yourself, you can be on the road to finding plenty of money for college, like so many other women just like yourself.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Terry Stanfield

If you are weighting the benefits of outsourcing your teleprospecting for sales leads against setting up your own teleprospecting program in house, you are trying to decide which will be most cost effective way to go for the leads you need to increase your sales.

So we are going to look at both sides of the coin for you to determine which one is best for your business. Starting with an In House Program you will first need to advertise for applicants. Then there will be the screening, interviewing, and hiring the applicants.

Next step will be to train the new hires along with supervising, monitoring and motivating the new employees. Cold calling is tough, so there will be a lot of monitoring to keep them on the phone and motivating to keep up their attitudes.

Script writing is a must. You will need to have some basic plan of actions for them to take in order to get the information you need from the businesses. You will need to provide them with answers to unexpected questions which may arise during the course of the phone conversation.

You will need to keep track of the results of the phone calls in order to determine whether you are acquiring the information you need. You will also want to know the progress being made by the telemarketers. This will enable you to weed out the ones who are not performing to the standard you have set.

Finding and making space for the telemarketers along with setting up the phones and making out schedules. Then there are the payroll taxes, the insurances, the actual phones, chairs, desk, etc need by each telemarketer. There are other expenses not yet mentioned here, but this will give you an idea of what to expect if you choose to set up an in house teleprospecting program.

If you choose to outsource your teleprospecting needs, you will be required to pay a price for the service they will provide, however the cost should be less than what it would cost you to start an in house teleprospecting program. They already have the quality people needed to get the job done in a shorter amount of time than it could take you to get it yourself. Their people will implement your project immediately, while you will have none of the headaches and all the rewards.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Ray Lam

Online Law Schools offer students, with different goals and different requirements, to acquire the legal education they seek. Online Law School programs designed to fit the needs of individual students are plentiful in subjects of Online Law School studies.

Through an online law program, you can work to achieve the degree of Juris Doctor, which can possibly allow you to get into legal practice, depending on whether you choose to take the Bar program or the Executive program. If you take the Bar track, you will enroll in a four year program that is geared towards preparing you to take the state bar exam, which on passing will qualify you to practice law as an attorney.

Specialized programs offered through Online Law School studies will develop analytical thinking, intellectual acuity, self-discipline, and interaction skills. These Law School programs allow for specialization in tax law, maritime law, immigration and naturalization law, patent law, international law, or any legal discipline the student desires. Specialized studies will allow for employment in corporate counsel, risk management, legislative analysis, technology licensing, contract administration, and many other disciplines.

Online Law Schools also offer courses for students who want an education in law without practicing law. The Executive JD program of study is for those who want to know how laws affect their professions, but do not wish to practice law. Online Law School Executive JD programs are intended for working professionals in the health field, in communications, education, accounting, etc. Students enrolled in the Executive JD Online Law School program receive many of the same courses offered in the Juris Doctor program, but these programs of study are more flexible and specifically focused.

This may all sound like work in itself, but choosing an online law course is a big decision to make. It can effectively define your path in life and make or break a potential career. Attention to detail is necessary to find the best college and university online law degree and give you a firm foundation to build upon.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.

Sales people know there are two critical decisions that must be made before starting a cold calling campaign. How many leads do you need, and how qualified do you need them to be?

While these are two questions, they’re really two parts to the same question.

Let’s say you start up a telephone prospecting program and ask the caller to refer you to all interested prospects.

It’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get many more leads if you don’t put constraints on how “qualified” these leads are. But, you’re also more likely to get tire kickers and individuals who are not serious about purchasing.

On the other hand, when you stipulate that each lead must be fully qualified, your telephone prospecting program is likely to generate fewer opportunities. But, virtually all your leads will be “the right” kind of prospect. Ready to buy!

You see, there is often a trade-off between quantity and quality.

What is a “qualified lead?”

Simply put, a qualified lead is an individual with a near- term need for your product or service, who also has decision making authority and the required budget.

To a lesser degree a qualified lead is someone who may need your product or service in the future and is shopping now.

What kind of lead do you get when you don’t apply stringent qualification “constraints?”

Of course, you still will get the qualified leads, but you’ll get others, too. Some will turn into sales. Others will turn into future sales. Others may refer you business in the future. Others will amount to nothing. You may have to work harder at selling, because many may not even realize you can help them.

Should every company choose quality over quantity or vice versa?

Every company has its own sales strategy, and should establish a telephone prospecting campaign to fit this strategy.

You probably want to accept only highly qualified leads if: you want immediate revenue, your product or service is simple to describe on the phone, the decision making timeframe for your product or service is short, and/or your sales team cannot dedicate time to relationship building.

You probably want to accept less qualified prospects if: you are entering a new market or geographic area, you want to establish relationships that could result in future sales or referrals, your sales team has available time, the decision making timeframe for your product or service is lengthy and/or you have a product or service that is not quite so easy to describe in a 15 minute phone conversation, or requires technical knowledge a cold caller may not have.

Here are two Case Studies from VSA’s prospecting experience:

Company A: Willing to meet anyone

One of our clients, in the commercial property improvement business, wanted us to forward anyone who expressed interest in a face to face meeting. This company felt prospects who wanted to talk about their product were worth the time investment.

This company was entering a new geographic area and needed to develop name recognition, and business relationships.

In the end based on our leads, our client sold several accounts, and developed relationships with many companies who may purchase in the future or refer business.

Company B: Wanted appointments with qualified prospects only

Another client, also in the commercial property improvement business, wanted a completely different strategy. This company wanted us to forward only very qualified leads.

This company was already established in its target geographic area, and employed a small sales team. The reputation was extremely positive. This sales team wanted to focus on leads that could convert to immediate sales.

In the end based on our leads, we helped this client generate sales and revenue, without wasting the sales team’s time on leads with little likelihood of closing soon.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.

When you’re the one who receives the cold call, what is the sales person doing to create success?

Introduction You’re deep into your work and the phone rings. Someone wants to sell you something. You think to yourself, ‘Another sales person? Talking to this person is the last thing I want to do right now,’ and you begin to hang up.

Analysis: Less than 25% - and more like 10% - of cold calls reach the decision maker on a single try. Equally importantly, recipients never expect a cold call and want to end the call almost immediately.

It is critical that the sales person be respectful and quickly present a compelling statement about why they are calling, without being too eager.

Conversation The sales person starts talking about something you’ve already been thinking about, or something you might actually want to learn more about.

Analysis: About 20% of decision makers will have an interest in continuing a conversation. The best prospects are familiar with the product or service and already want to buy it. But, a good caller can also pique the interest of those who ‘might’ have a need.

An overly-persistent caller will annoy those with no interest, denigrate the brand, and waste time.

Conversation, continued While you’re interested, this is just not the right time. Besides, you need some proof the company is legitimate before you agree to meet. You ask for more information.

Analysis: About 90% of decision makers who ask for more information simply want to get off the phone. A good sales person can tell when the decision maker might have true interest. Otherwise, sending more information is a waste of time and money.

Conversation, continued You and the sales person talk a bit about your needs. The sales person learns that you are involved in the decision making process.

Analysis: Yes, all good sales people ask for the appointment first. No experienced cold caller resorts immediately to ’sending more information.’ However, despite what some sales courses say, often a decision maker requires documentation before agreeing to a meeting.

The sales person always tries to send information directly to the decision maker and not to an assistant or secretary. (Sometimes the gatekeeper is the only way in the door, however.)

Email This sales person sends you a professional email, from an account that is not Yahoo or Hotmail and attaches a professionally created PDF. A website address is included.

Analysis: A generic email address is an automatic red flag. Companies who do not have web sites, likewise, reduce their credibility.

Conversation, continued The sales person calls you back, at the agreed upon time. This time, you pick up the phone and are ready to talk. The sales person references prior notes, showing they remember you.

Analysis: Who knows? You might become a client.

What went right?

1) Got quickly to the point, so you didn’t hang up first. 2) Asked questions to confirm that you were truly interested. 3) Confirmed that you had decision making authority. 4) Set a specific time to call you back. 5) Acted respectfully and professionally.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.

But four specific steps can turn disastrous campaigns into successes. Despite frustrations, B2B cold calling is alive and well and continues to fill companies’ sales pipelines. Professionals at the highest levels of their careers employ this prospecting activity to augment sales made through warm referrals and introductions. But for many salespeople, telephone canvassing has posed challenges that have driven them to stop cold calling altogether. Here’s why: a. Only 5% to 30% of prospects are at their desks and answer their phones. b. Most calling lists do not contain the decision-makers’ correct names. c. Voicemail is universal and blocks most calls. d. Roughly 30% of a cold caller’s time is spent navigating phone systems and company directories.

How, then, do successful cold callers make sales this way? Here are four critical activities to make cold calling worth the time, aggravation and investment: a. Make absolutely sure you have the very best list you can obtain. Your calling list accounts for 70% of the success of your campaign. Today, successful calling campaigns require a targeted, accurate list. There is an entire cottage industry of Internet researchers who create custom lists - at rates of $60 to $150 per hour - using proprietary databases and other techniques. The rates are well worth the investment if your campaign relies on reaching prospects with specific criteria that cannot be found on generic mailing lists. For instance, a global technology firm wanted to target prospects who owned specific hardware. It paid an outside company to identify these prospects and create a qualified list. As a result, the technology firm implemented a focused and effective calling campaign.

b. Develop a compelling voice message and call multiple times. Most sales training imbues people with the practice of never leaving voice messages because they are a waste of time and money. It is absolutely false that no one will return a cold call. Recipients in greatest need of your product or service will return persuasive voice messages. More importantly, every voice message serves as a “touch.” Advertising experts say it takes six to 30 “touches” such as print ads, TV ads, phone calls, or letters for a prospect to take action. If an individual is not ready to respond now, he or she may respond to another “touch” in a month or two. Each voice message is a new touch. Three companies - a major national marketing firm, a 60-year-old national fund management company, and an up-start regional advertising firm targeting Fortune 100 companies - can attest to the benefits of repeat calling. Each reported gaining some of their most valuable prospects after the third or fourth phone message.

c. Create a B2B cold calling department or hire an outsourced calling team. A top-tier sales person could be on the phone for five hours before getting a single qualified lead. This is a waste talent ant time. You don’t need a top tier salesperson to make calls. Callers need to know two things and only two things: what problems your products or service solve for prospects, and what makes your firm unique. You can hire an entire team of callers with no experience in your industry to canvass prospects via the phone and hunt down hot leads. Your team of cold callers must be conversational, work without a script and sound alert for every call. Leave the technical and pricing details to the high priced salesperson.

d. Create campaigns that intersperse mailings and calls. Mail prospects before and during your cold calling campaign, especially if your product or service is: 1, Visual, such as advertising or promotional products. 2. Complex, such as a technology or pharmaceuticals. 3. A mature product in a saturated market such as printing or collections.

If the mailing piece is memorable, it will create a warmer reception for the cold caller and enhance opportunities for success.

In today’s environment, planning and creative thinking result in cold calling success - and help sales professionals fill pipelines during times when referrals fall short.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Alice Sy

Nokia released it latest model of cellular phone called N95 last February 2008. It is the most sophisticated of all the cellular phones found in the market today.

Nokia N95 is a multi-system smart phone. Aside from the traditional call and text messaging system, it somewhat resembles a personal computer with most, if not all, of it functions and capabilities, all packed in a small 99×53x21 mm size. Nokia N95 is MP3 ready and has a built-in GPS receiver. But its most attractive highlight is its 5 megapixel camera.

Nokia N95, with its two-way sliding cover allows easy use of main control buttons. The cover is spacious enough for the 2.6 inch monitor and basic functions keys. On the opposite sides open the alphanumeric keys and the multiplayer controls. And an important feature of the Nokia N95 is its 320×240 pixel resolution monitor.

Nokia N95 supports different accessories maximizing all its features. The sides are lined with ports for the infrared, power connector and USB. Headset jack and microSD expansion slot can be found also. With big memory capacity including 160MB built-in and space for additional memory card, Nokia N95 is ideal for capturing pictures and videos and even playing music.

Transmission of data through Nokia N95 is possible through infrared, wireless or Bluetooth connection. It is a small smart personal computer. With its big memory capacity, tons of information can be accessed from Nokia N95. Its phonebook is capable of holding unlimited entries and fields. And data can be processed using business application software such as word, excel and PowerPoint.

Nokia N95, just like the other recent Nokia cellular phones, has GPS radio. Nokia N95 is easy-to-carry especially for travelers who want access to maps, directions and different points-of interest. Nokia N95 also brings out good quality pictures and videos at a maximum VGA resolution. The camera built in Nokia N95 resembles that of a regular digital camera with normal functions like adjustments of color, contrast and brightness.

MP3 is another useful function included in Nokia N95 system. Like the regular radio, Nokia N95 has FM receiver and built-in sound equalizer enhancing the sounds. MP3 support in Nokia N95 enables user to organize playlists. RealPlayer support, on the other hand, allows video streaming.

Nokia N95 is a multi-system cellular phone. It has all the functions you would want to bring with you all the time.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »

by Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.

Unlike virtually any other marketing tool, cold calling lets companies change courses at almost any time.

In today’s ever-changing business environment, this flexibility is critical.

Companies new to cold calling must watch early results closely.

Testing, assessing, and refining the program from the onset are critical first steps. These actions can result in a long term program that produces a predictable stream of sales opportunities.

Veteran cold callers also must work. Constant attention is needed to keep the program sharp. Here’s a recommendation: continue with the program that works, but apply a portion of your tele-prospecting investment towards testing new approaches that may surpass your existing model. When you find one that is more effective, replace your existing program, but continue to test new approaches.

It’s easy to test and change cold calling campaigns. Unlike print ads, radio spots, billboards, or most other marketing vehicles, cold calling programs make testing and applying those results to the program easy.

Here are some of the items that every program should assess:

1) The offer. Do you want to set a sales appointment? Do you want to invite people to a webinar? Do you simply want to collect email addresses for a campaign? Are you offering a free assessment, or a free trial? Do you need an incentive to enhance your “call to action?”

2) The list. Are the decision makers and the companies on your list the best prospects?

3) Talking points. Do your callers have the conversation points to highlight the key aspects of your program? Is there something compelling that needs to be added? Are the talking points too complicated or long?

4) Your calling team. How well do they represent you? How effective are they in talking to decision makers? Can they ask for the appointment?

5) Your ability to close the leads. This is the part that comes after a cold calling lead is identified. Can you cost effectively convert that lead into a sale? Do you have the people and processes in place? Are you getting qualified leads?

Case Studies

Here are short examples of savvy VSA clients who tested, assessed and refined their programs.

1) A software company implemented a program which successfully produced leads. However, the company was unprepared to convert the leads to sales. Now, this company plans a product-specific website, marketing materials and the right expertise to make sales calls. A second cold calling initiative is scheduled.

2) An online marketing company completed a program that produced poor results. The company has changed its offer to simplify steps prospective companies must take to enroll. A second campaign has been launched.

3) A commercial roofing company implemented a program and generated desired results. Later, the company realized the prospective clients were not a good fit. The company has implemented a second campaign targeting a different prospect list.

If you are planning a cold calling program, please call us to talk about the factors that can make or break your campaign. We’d like to know what marketing tools have worked for you in the past and show you how we can add to that success. We are happy to help.

About the Author:

Comments No Comments »