Bartering is the process of trading goods or services for other goods or services. Specifically, my Dad traded his motorcycle for an above ground pool. And traded the above ground pool for patio. I think thats how they got our swing set when I was a kid too.

They would barter all of the time because it was as good as money and with the economy as it was, most people did not have the extra money but did have the extra goods or talent lying around.

Well recently, I have learned the joy and addiction of bartering. I wanted an iPad, but I did not want to spend the pricy ticket price for one. So I traded an extra pair of rims I had lying around. Unfortunately, no one who wanted the rims wanted to trade an iPad. But I was able to get an iPhone 4 out of the rims. Literally minutes after receiving the iPhone 4, I placed the iPhone 4 on craigslist.org for barter and received more than a few offers for iPads. I took my pick, met at Starbucks and there you go, I have an iPad.

I bartered a few more times after that, and today just did it again. I bartered an old PS3 game for an Apple wireless keyboard. In fact, I am writing this right now from it and it works great. Oddly enough, it is not my first post written from an iPad. I have to say this is a million times easier, except I do miss the auto capitalizing.

If you have not tried bartering yet, you should give it a try. It is actually kind of fun.

Stay tuned and I will add some tips on this topic shortly.

If you have ever managed a sales organization, you know the importance of a CRM solution. The most popular are ACT! and Goldmine. These are both wonderful solutions. But what is keeping your data in-house? Have you ever interviewed new experienced sales associates and find that their employment comes with their own database? I know I have always taken my database with me.

It is time to secure our data in-house. If you use a solution, make sure it prohibits exports. Goldmine software and new web based solutions like SalesForce.com can prohibit this feature.

It is time to lock down our data. We are only as good as our last sale and we are only protected in our current solution.

Make the change now.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

Through out my career in the Data Industry, I have been faced with customers who have been burned in the past by list companies on a daily basis. I have heard every excuse in the book to why they have been burned. However, there is a simple way to avoid this. Follow these simple rules below and I assure you, you will choose a winning lead provider.

Rule #1. Understand Marketing: Marketing is not a science. If it was, every business would be rich and your leads would cost a fortune. Set realistic goals prior to seeking out leads.

Rule #2: Know Your Deal: You must have an idea in your head of whom you want to contact. You must understand what your customer looks like and what drives them. If you don’t know who your customer is or will be, then your leads will be a shot in the dark. Going in blind is what will get you burned.

Rule #3: Research & Ask Questions: When choosing the best business lead provider, you must understand how they work and have trust and faith that they will deliver. Below are the key components to choosing a lead partner.

• How do they get their data? Listen for multiple sources. This is important because it will determine the age of the leads and lists as well as limit the chance of them being sold to your competition.
• How often is their data updated? All of the good lead providers update their data on a quarterly basis. Any less is unacceptable.
• What are their guarantees? If a business lead source is not willing to not stand behind their data, why should you?

• Does your lead provider understand what you do? Do not forget that your business lead provider is your marketing partner. Every list should be put together based on your offer.

Rule #4: Negotiate: You can always negotiate in the business world. However, never forget the age-old rules such as “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. If you find multiple quotes and one source is more than 10% cheaper than a competitor, without a promotion, run away. The rule of thumb is “good leads are not cheap, cheap leads are not good”. Keep in mind, to
generate a good business lead list takes a lot of money and time. Your lead provider’s quote should reflect this. If not, there is something wrong.

Rule #5: Execute: Work your business leads & lists. If you have a list of 10,000 records and you only call through 500, you cannot make an accurate assessment to its success. Sometimes the best part of the drink is at the
bottom, same with business leads. There is gold in there, your job is to contact them and guide them down the path of mutual agreement.

Follow these rules above and you will achieve success when purchasing business leads for you and your sales team.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call us!

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

The above comment came in a conversation when I was talking to a manager about a specific supervisor and my suspicions of his integrity. Knowing myself and my diligence, I knew it was only a matter of time before I began to dig into the files and look for internal fraud. I had no idea what I was in for.

It turned out, not only did I find that the supervisor was stealing an average of 80k per year, but each person I had suspicions of turned out to be stealing as well. How were they getting away with this for so long?

If you know everyone steals, why are you not trying to stop it and recover your funds?

The supervisor clearly was a large case and this one was not overlooked once identified. But the small ones? Does it make sense to count every penny? Does it pay to employee an anti theft officer over a few hundred dollars a week? Or have you not put in the proper procedures and mechanisms in place to stop these thefts before that happen?

On top of the above, I think the most important question is why are your employees stealing? Are they shady people or are you not paying enough attention to their needs?

I do not have an exact answer for this dilemma outside of increased security. Increased security certainly does the trick, but it inhibits creativity and in a competitive sales environment, this might be more costly in the long run

then just letting the few hundred disappear a week.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

Everyone reading this has at one point had a client from hell. Often we justify their work load, abuse, criticism, and downright rudeness because we believe that it is what we are supposed to do. We do it because we don’t want them to go to a competitor. We believe that because it is a big account that we MUST put up with them. Truth is, that is strait BS.

First step: Get the courage to fire their ass!

Do two things right now.

1. Put a dollar amount on your time working for clients. If you make an average of $500 per week, or if you make $50,000 per week, it is the same formula. Your Gross Per Month / Total Hours Worked Per Week = Hourly Rate. How many hours are you working per week for this client? How many hours of your total income are really attributed to this client? You would be suprised to find that a lot more hours per week are spent on this client and yet the smaller clients add up to more than this client’s total revenues. Do not forget to add the hours of stress and anxiety, it may be at home, but it is still wasted hours.

2. Check out the Pareto Principle. This is the 80/20 priciple. It states for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This means that roughly 80% of your revenues come from 20% of your clients. It also states that 80% of your problems comes from 20% of your clients. Identify which clients fit into which category. Concentrate on the 20% that brings in the most revenue and remove the clients that cause 80% of the problems, and stop worrying about the rest.

You may be afraid that losing these clients might hurt your income. Truth is, it wont! Because the amount of hours you save on not working with these hell clients can be better spent on the better clients. Even more, these hours could be spent with your family or friends.

Take a moment, imagine what is the worst thing that can happen if you lose these clients?

We can go into so much more detail on this subject. I can talk for days on about this, but I am trying to keep it short. If you need help or examples, let me know. I am always happy to help.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein