I’m not a big fan of joint ventures.  If I have to partner, I’d rather it be limited or ending at some point.  I find that if I have to split profits with anyone, my motivation immediately decreases.

As a follow up to my post on automating sales with an auto responder, here are 11 ways to annoy people with spammy email practices:

1. Don’t let me opt-out of your list. This is actually a legal issue. If you don’t have an opt-out method, you’re going to get shut down. Find a service provider who will do this for you - they’re not that expensive.
2. Email me daily. The only people I want to hear from on a daily basis are my wife and my kid. Some days, not even them.
3. Sales pitch me constantly. I know I signed up for an email list, and I recognize that you have a business to run, but can’t we talk about anything other than your amazing special offer?
4. Use those pre-packaged marketing templates that look like everyone else’s. Actually, I like this one - it’s an easy way to tell which emails I can delete without reading them.
5. Poor grammar. I also hate it when people type in ALL CAPS or use too much punctuation!!!!
6. Send me generic content. You know - info about the weather in my area, local restaurant reviews, and other random stuff so you don’t have to type. I obviously get email, I probably have the internet too and I don’t need you to deliver it to me.
7. Don’t include any contact information. What if I actually want to investigate you further? A little link to your web site goes a long way.
8. Don’t have a web site. Why would I bother to invest in you if you’re not willing to invest in your own business?
9. Don’t customize my email in anyway. You went to the trouble of collecting my first name, why aren’t you using it in your message?
10. Write way too much. I have a limited amount of time in my day. Get to the point and have some respect for my time.
11. Don’t include anything of value in your email. I hate when people send me stuff that talks about what they want from me without giving anything in return. Do you really not have a story or a helpful piece of advice you could share in your message?

I’m a big fan of sequential auto responders (the automated email programs that send a pre-written set of messages over a period of time). I like them because they automate part of the sales process and automation is good.

I use them to great effect on sites like my ITAR Compliance Training web site.  For this site, I give away a free product in exchange for email and contact information.  Once you sign up for the product, you’re placed in the queue for follow up.  I have about 11 emails written for that site, and they go out:

1. On the first day
2. On the second day
3. On the first week anniversary
4. Once week for a while after that
5. Once every other week for a while
6. Lastly once every month until the end of the sequence.

I’ve had prospects purchase the products almost 200 days after their initial sign up.  It’s just a matter of tickling the prospect at the right time and staying conveniently in front of them for when they’re ready to buy.

Total time to setup an auto-responder for this site: one afternoon.

Total cost: about $10/month.

Value of the auto responder: 30% increase in sales for a web site earning an annual five figure income.

A friend of mine and a fantastic in-person salesman shared this gem with me the other day. Hopefully he won’t mind if I publish it.

Next time you get a booth at a trade show or similar and you’re doing the put your business card in a fishbowl giveaway, try this:

1. When people walk up to the booth, give them your spiel. Ask for a business card or have them fill out an information card. Business cards are better because the information probably isn’t faked.
2. If the prospect is hot, take their card and mark the back of it. Act like you’re going to put it in the fishbowl, but stick it in your pocket instead.
3. At the end of the day, group up with your sales team (who should all be doing the same thing). Decide who has the hottest lead and the best chance to close a sale.
4. And you guessed it - the most prospective lead will also be the winner of your giveaway!

Hey, it’s your money - you rented the booth and you set the rules for the giveaway. I’ve never once had someone ask me the rules for a fishbowl drawing, but if they do feel free to tell them the truth.

I’m not the world’s greatest salesperson by any means, but one thing I’ve learned is that people want to do business with people who are already successful. For the most part, they view your business relationship as a stepping stone to something they want to achieve. There’s nothing wrong with this self-preservation style of thinking, and it’s actually responsible for many mutually beneficial business relationships.

The thing people desperately want to avoid, however, is being dragged down by someone else. If you’re out hustling your product, cutting your margin to the bare minimum, pleading for every scrap of business like a dog hoping for a bone, then you’re driving away your best clients.

Go out today. Buy a nice suit, set your pricing to a respectable level, and fire your worst performing clients. Walk around for a week treating yourself the way you want and deserve to be treated, and you’ll find that people respond. If you believe that you are a success and a rising star, other people will believe it too. They’ll want to be a part of whatever you’ve got going and will bend over backwards to help you.

Don’t like the “Fake it until you make it” phrase? Here are some others that mean the same thing:

• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.
• Believe to achieve.
• Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

When you’re doing network marketing, you might hear the phrase “giver’s gain” being thrown around. Basically, this is the idea that people will respond to your referrals and goodwill in kind by sending you referrals. There’s a lot of truth to it, and it’s definitely something I believe in.

But what happens when you have nothing to give?

There’s nothing worse than running into a hot new referral partner who services your target market and has excellent potential to bring you business when you have nothing to offer them. Sure, you might have something for them down the road, but we all know that the longer you go without “making a sale” (e.g. securing the new partnership), the less chance you have of developing a long term relationship with them.

This used to happen to me a lot. I’d meet a new referral partner (not a prospect, but someone who was in a position to send me some business). We’d hit it off and would talk about what kind of business we could refer to each other, shake hands, and leave. I’d go back to the office and desperately look through my contact list hoping I could scrounge up an introduction for my new partner so that I didn’t lose their interest. Most of the time, my search came up cold and the referral partner was never heard from again.

Nowadays, I have a different strategy. I got together with a close friend in a similar but non-competing business. We discussed the situation and agreed to be each other’s “guaranteed referral”. Essentially, we would refer each other whenever we needed to score points with a new relationship. This would put us in good graces with the new partner while we found some more legitimate prospects for them.

So far, the new strategy has worked out well! Having a guaranteed referral in my pocket when I meet with a potential partner gives me the window of opportunity I need to keep my name in front of them while I dig up some legitimate leads and secure a mutually beneficial and profitable relationship.

So, focus on negative sh**, and the bad crap and all the terrible things going on in the news or your life, and you’ll ONLY get more of it… you MUST focus on the future, where you need to be, where your familiy need to be… you’ve made some recent screw-ups, so what? That’s life… when you have no more problems you’ll know it, because you’ll be DEAD… to live is a challenge, to live is to have daily problems, sure they exist, sure they occur, deal with it and move on! If you FOCUS on all the CRAP, you’ll ONLY get more crap… the little problems in life are just that “life”… understand and fully ACCEPT that and open your eyes to this beautiful world we are living in…

I can say that Buddha’s light is shining bright on me right now!… I have not felt this good in a long, long time… mentally and physically. A good part of getting me out of the rut I was in, was of course cutting ties to Houston, and moving to Las Vegas. The new surroundings have done well for me… it was a HUGE challenge, to step into a NEW city, virtually knowing know one… and find a job, a new apt, a new car, new friends… and be without my much loved Friends & Family! Not to mention my new plan the past 2 months of eating right and kickboxing — my new boxing coach is THE bomb… he trains from a “holistic” approach to everything… Ive had many trainers in the past 10 years, but NONE like him… he completely changed my eating habits, cleaned and detoxed my system, and now has me on certain supplements and only chicken and vegetables daily. He also has me on this cool product called Vibe… its all your daily needed vitamins minerals and other natural supplements… gives you energy and helps clear your head. And… I listen to Anthony Robbins almost DAILY to keep me on track! The Anthony Robbins CDs have helped change my life around for the better… love life is stronger than ever too… not sure where that’s going, but it feels good.

And one last gem for the day, you may have heard this, but read and re-read this one, because we have all been faced with this, and have often times felt guilty about it later for letting it control us… ready for this dandy quote? “The BIGGEST Risk in Life, is NOT taking one!” Read that again! The last thing you want to be doing years from now is saying to yourself, I should have done this, or I should have done that, or if only I had done that… Just like NIKE has said for years and years, JUST DO IT!

“Relentless Determination!” You must REPEAT THIS OVER, AND OVER AND OVER TO SUCCEED in today’s business climate. Whether you are in a start-up phase, 5 years into your business, or more… without it, you’ll die! You MUST have it! Further, another quote to go along with this is short, simple and right to the point, STAY Relentless! You must go over, around, or through the obstacle in front of you to succeed. As I like to say, if at first I knock on the door of a new prospect, or face a new problem and don’t succeed , then I MUST go over it, around it, under it… or if all else fails, BLOW IT UP!