Business Tips Guides

The FHA Secure Refinance program was created in an effort to provide greater help for people who weren’t able to obtain FHA-approved loans. As mortgage provider, it’s your job to let homeowner clients know when they’re better off with a FHA Secure loan.

Current Non-FHA Loans
Clients with current adjustable rate loans that hadn’t been provided by an FHA-approved mortgage lender can apply for FHA Secure refinancing. The best way to approach such clients is to draw out their life stories first. Listen to what they’ve gone through just by taking out a non-FHA loan.

Now, highlight to them the various benefits they can enjoy if they take out a FHA-approved mortgage. Let them know that while they may have made a mistake in the past, FHA Secure Refinance gives them the chance to rectify the mistake.

Delinquent Non-FHA Loans
Don’t have clients dismiss their prospects just because they’re delinquent on their payments. Even if they’re not able to pay off their current loan in time, the FHA Secure Refinance program isn’t ready to turn their backs on them yet and neither are you!

Dependable Income
Of course, having a current non-FHA loan, whether of good standing or not, isn’t the only qualification that the FHA Secure Refinance program will be concerned with. Your client must also have a dependable source of income. The FHA isn’t fussy as to what kind of income it is. It may be from full or part-time work. It may come from regular payments from a trust fund, retirement pension, alimony, or some other source. What’s important is that your client will be able to prove its consistency.

Ability to Pay
Naturally, having a reliable source of income isn’t always synonymous to being able to pay off your debts and many are quick to prove this true. You must also ascertain that your client’s source of income is adequate to cover not just the costs of living but his monthly mortgage payment as well. If he’s not qualified to do so then he may not be qualified for a FHA Secure refinance loan.

In this instance, you’ll need to have a heart to heart talk with your client. You might even have to work with them closely and help them determine the actual total of their monthly expenses. You have to determine whether they’re truly unable to afford their mortgages or they’re just guilty of financial mismanagement.

The important thing to remember is not to give up on your client until you’ve exhausted all your options or you’ve realized that another option may be better for him.

Reason for Delinquent Payments
Earlier on, we’ve established that delinquent borrowers won’t be dismissed right away. That’s true. What could get their applications for a FHA Secure refinance loan, however, is if they’re unable to prove that their delinquency is due to higher interest rates or mortgage payments. Again, you might have to work with your client closely to determine whether this is truly the case or not.

More Options for Qualified FHA Secure Refinance Loan Applicants
Now that you’ve guided your client all the way to the finish line, your final job is to ascertain that he makes the right choices till the end. Let him know, for instance, that he has the option to take out a fixed or adjustable refinance loan. When you take care of your clients with a FHA Secure Refinance loan, they’ll take care of you as well with their continued loyalty.

Scott Tucker tells you more on his free audio CD, free e-book, free faxed report, & free telephone seminar, all available for the asking, at www.MortgageMarketingGenius.com/newsletter

Increasing sales is the life blood of any organization. Sometimes sales are up. Sometimes sales are down. Our goal, of course, is to find out what makes the numbers go up.

And I’d venture to say it can take a very simple change in our marketing that can make a big change in the results.

Have you ever done something one way when deep down you sense there’s a better way? Well, so often that’s exactly what we do when advertising our “spectacular” product. For some reason we tend to go at sales in exactly the opposite way than what we should.

We tend to concentrate on the product. Now, there’s no doubt about it, our product is good. In fact, we know it is the very best! As far as we’re concerned everyone should have it. And so we go about doing our best to show why our product is better and cheaper than the competition’s product.

Top Secret Question
But there is one top secret question. And this one little secret can increase sales by leaps and bounds.

In fact, it’s so simple, I have to confess it’s really not a secret at all. It’s something that makes a whole lot of sense. The question we should be asking is six simple words: What does my prospect really want?

Rather than concentrating on your product, concentrate on your customer. Rather than thinking about why your product is so great, reverse you thinking and think about what it is your customer needs.

Sell the Sizzle
You’ve heard the phrase, “Sell the Sizzle.” That’s exactly it. Your customer doesn’t just want a slab of bacon. Your customer wants to satisfy his hunger. And, if it smells good enough, he’ll eat more than just enough to satisfy his hunger!

Freshly Baked Cookies
In the real estate business, brokers often suggest that the seller bake a batch of cookies just before an Open House. Why? Because the buyer wants a home not just a house. The aroma of cookies just out of the oven as you walk in the front door is irresistible. In fact, this one little idea of watching out for what your prospect really wants, could make the difference in their buying your home rather than the one down the street. You’ve simply added the dimension of family, of comfort, of belonging.

Cosmetics Appeal
In the cosmetics business, women don’t just want more make-up. No, they want to look better. They want to feel attractive. Hide a few of the imperfections. Get a compliment. In fact, Charles Revson, creator and manager of Revlon for over 50 years, said it best, “In the factory we make lipstick, in our advertising we sell hope.” Let’s learn from the experts!

Pain Relief
In the pain management advertisements, you don’t see an elderly person being shown a bottle of arthritis pills. No, you see them lifting their little grandchild up in the air. What they really want is more than relief from the pain. They want to enjoy life with their family.

Selling the Farm
And one of my favorite illustrations you’ve most likely heard, but it bears repeating. Back in the 1800’s, Daniel Webster an American statesman, was asked by a friend to auction off his farm.

“Neighbors,” he said, “we’re not auctioning Tom Brown’s 34 good milk cows . . . or 80 acres of fine land . . . or a sturdy home that’s seen 20 winters.”

“No,” continued Daniel, “I’m offering you the chance of biting into a red apple with the juicy sap running over your lips . . . the smell of new mown hay . . . clear mountain steam water on your table . . . the crunch of snow under your feet . . . and the best neighbors in the world.”

After he was finished, bids from the townsfolk came pouring in - because Mr. Webster knew what his prospects really wanted!

And so, as I suggested earlier, let’s learn from the experts. Stop concentrating on the product. Start concentrating on the customer. The question should always be, “What does my customer really want?”

It’s a simple change, but if you will combine the benefits of what you’re selling with what your prospect really wants, you’ll find your products taking wings!

Joyce Racine is an internet marketer determined to sort through the massive amount of “stuff” out there. Her goal is to help make it easier for both the internet novice and the expert to succeed. Find out more. http://www.mlmgoodnewsbadnews.com

Business people who are thinking about using voice broadcasting as a lead generation technique often fail to carefully consider whether they should broadcast to live answered phones, answer machines, or both. This is probably because they’ve read something describing one technique, or a friend has told them about their experience.

Even experienced voice broadcasters will often have tried only one type of delivery, simply because that is the method they’ve always used, they know it works, so they feel “why bother trying something different?”

The thoughtful broadcaster will be more curious, though, realizing that for a particular market, or a particular message, one delivery method will probably be a less costly lead generation solution than the other. It is impossible to accurately predict an outcome for every market and message, but this article will describe the fundamental differences that a broadcaster will experience between live and answer machine delivered messages.

The biggest attraction for broadcasters employing “live only” broadcasts is the immediacy of the experience. They are able to “strike while the iron is hot” by speaking immediately to all the respondents who press “1″ in response to their message. The “live only” broadcaster enjoys the fact that when they turn their broadcast campaign on, their phones begin ringing.

This attraction is also tied in with the biggest drawback to the “live only” broadcast - the fact that it is so easy for the respondent to reach over to their phone and press “1″. The problem is, it’s also easy for an uninterested party who just wants to complain and ask to not be called again. So along with the immediate gratification of receiving calls, and the knowledge that the broadcaster is “leaving no stone unturned”, comes the unfortunate fact that a good proportion of the live transfers have absolutely no value as leads.

Alternatively, other broadcasters may use the “answer machine only” message delivery technique. Their message will not have an invitation to press “1″, of course, but will encourage prospects to call a phone number, or perhaps visit a website, or both. The biggest difference a broadcaster will notice between the two methods is that with the “answer machine only” method, their phones don’t start or stop ringing along with the broadcast running or stopped, and their phones don’t ring nearly as much.

The volume of response to an “answer machine only” campaign will be much lower than for a “live only” broadcast. This is simply because it takes much more effort on the respondent’s part to hear a message, if interested, record or remember the phone number or website, and then to actually pick up the phone and call. This is seen as a large drawback by most “live only” broadcasters, who prefer to have lots of activity corresponding to their broadcasting activity.

Despite this, the biggest positive to the “answer machine only” campaign is that the amount of negative calls (the calls asking to be removed from the call list) is greatly reduced, and sometimes eliminated. Additionally, the quality of the calls that are made back to the broadcaster is usually much higher, that is, the caller is much more likely to be considered a good lead, simply due to the fact that they’ve gone to more trouble to call back, and are usually more aware of the contents of the broadcast message.

The savvy broadcaster should test, and carefully track results, using each method before deciding on one or the other.

David Seldon operates LivePhoneLeads.com providing voice broadcasting services for businesses. Find more informative articles about voice broadcasting at Live Phone Leads.

In every business transaction, there are sales involved. Sales are so important for the company to realize profits along with graduating and developing its targets. During sales issues, there are many elements, which must be considered. Knowledge of basis of sales management is one of them. Yet, there is another new tendency, the sales force automation, the main point of this article.

Sales management is realized when the sales management could check the customer file, to be confirmed if it is digital, hybrid, or hard copy. Thus, the successful sales manager can gather suitable information about his customer, such as his history, requirements, chances, and decision makers, to be able to proceed accordingly.
Consequently, the force of sales, which is understood management focusing on the customer basis will be successful and well arranged.
The management of the customer will be his responsibility, which may arise from the sales management.

In sales force automation, the issue is so different. Sales force automation, (SFA) is defined with the meaning of automating portions of processes, which obligate the regime during dealing with information and transactions. This tendency offers a set of technologically based tools, which must coordinate with the firm principles for its clients. It focuses on that time of the customers’ requirements to extend the ability to become more competitively. Consequently, it can be viewed at the light of other strategic elements with targets of powering competitiveness, such as TQM. It can add to the relationship of value/cost.

As a basic fact, in management and business topics, Pro’s of an issue is meant to give positive tendency towards a topic, to promote it. Mentioning the product’s excellent characters, their usage and benefits, advertising the services, and encouraging customers to purchase them is the main target of Pro’s. On the other hand, there is the negative side of any issue. Hence, the Con’s is contradicted with Pro’s completely. It provided the negative facts about the product or the services, such as its expensive price, bad usage, time consumed, and harms caused by the product or the service.
Sales force automation like any other method of sales promotion has its positive and negative issues, or as they are called Pros and Cons. Following paragraph will discuss separately each of them.

There are many positive tendencies about sales force automations, such as the account information of the customer to be able to proceed accordingly, information about products and services of the company, which facilitate the management and selling processes. It has the capability to generate a price list, a quote and inputs of the order perfectly. It involves inventory management, which is translated into the capacity to investigate the levels of the products to decrease obstacles of shipments. It provides up to date information on regular basis. It gives more chances to track chances via the cycle of sales. At last, it is a great issue to assist in alerts, focusing on business status.

As to the negative issue, or Cons, the sales force automation does not correspond with the term “automate”, thus, it gave some confusion while defining it.
This method in fact focuses on limited scope of cost of opportunity to be able to invest the resources perfectly. It concentrates on the productivity, while the customers are in a necessity to remain demonstrated widely. The lack of competition ability will lead to negative issues.

Sales force automation is considered a contact management functionality, from the perspective of customer to putting order, facilities, quote, and investigation. It is so different from sales management. Yet, despite its benefits, it has its negative issues as well. The keen deal through this method will accompanied with great business success. Recently, this method is used in the globalization as an incredible way to push management towards fulfilling its targets.

Market you business with our
Business Documents and publish your
call center
articles with us

My most popular service lately has been copywriting, both for online web pages and offline sales letters.

Whether you’re a service provider or a retailer, a solidly constructed sales letter (or better yet, a three-letter series) can work for you over and over and over again, for years and years to come. (And I’m not exaggerating on that. Some of the best sales letters have been in circulation for over ten years!)

I would highly suggest you add at least one proven sales letter to your marketing arsenal. To get started today, just follow these simple, proven steps that the pros use:

1. Start studying sales letters.

Instead of throwing out that pile of junk mail, go through it and pull out the sales letters that appeal to you. What do you like about them? What attracted you to them? What was the first thing you noticed? What made you keep reading?

Start a collection of sales letters and direct mail packages that you would like to model. (Make sure the letters you save are actually converting well. There’s no point modeling a letter that doesn’t work!)

2. Take the time to do it right.

A highly converting sales letter can not be written in an hour or two. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it only took you ten minutes to read the most compelling sales letter you’ve ever seen.

It took several weeks of research, many days of writing, many days of rewriting, several weeks of testing, many days of tweaking, several more weeks of testing, and probably a few more days of rewriting before landing on the sales letter that works. Don’t try to create your sales letter in one sitting.

3. Do the research.

Remember, you are not your customer. Don’t assume that your emotions and needs and incentives are the same as your customers’. Knowing the real reasons your customers buy is crucial to the success of your sales letter, so be sure to dig into this before putting any pen to paper.

4. Use a captivating headline.

It may seem strange to include a headline in a letter, but trust me, it works. Many successful copywriters actually consider the headline as the THE most important component of the sales letter. If you’re hung up on the headline, let it go for now and write it last.

Remember, the entire goal of your headline is to get your audience to read the first paragraph of your letter. (And the entire goal of the first paragraph is get your audience to read the second paragraph, etc.)

5. Talk about benefits, not features.

We can spend a whole day talking about converting features to benefits. Briefly stated, think about what the audience ultimately gets from your product or service. Remember, no one wants to buy a drill. What they really want is a hole.

6. Use power words.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am NOT suggesting that you grab one of those lists of a gazillion power words that are “guaranteed” to increase your sales. What I AM suggesting is that you use the words your audience considers power words.

Every industry, every target, every niche has its own jargon and vocabulary. Be sure to use the words that your reader would use, sound like your reader would sound, talk like your reader would talk.

Some of the best sales letters I’ve ever written were the ones in which I “pretended” to be someone else so that I could better relate to the reader.

7. Include social proof.

Again, it may seem odd to use testimonials in a letter, but you’ll have to trust me on this one, too - it works. If you can coordinate the testimonial with the benefit that you are currently discussing, it will be even more effective.

8. Always add a PS.

While the actual statistics vary, studies show that the PS is the second-most read component of any sales letter (the headline is number one). A proven format for your PS: wrap up the offer you just presented in a succinct one or two sentence close.

Writing good sales letters is a little bit art, a little bit science, a little bit testing, and a little bit tweaking. But if you take the time to do it right, you can be reaping the rewards for years to come.

And if you don’t have the time to do it right, consider hiring a professional copywriter. It’s an investment in your business that is sure to pay top ROI.

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

Generating customer referrals is one of the golden keys to building a successful landscaping business. In this aspect, your landscaping business is identical to every single other kind of business.

So, to understand the importance of customer referrals, take a moment to read this story about James. He’s a realtor, but he could just as easily be a landscaper, just like you! You and James have precisely the same need and desire - to grow your business.

Remember, the VERY best way to grow a business is to turn your existing clients/customers into RAVING FANS, who will tell THEIR friends about YOUR business.

Read how James does it, faithfully copy what he does, and you’ll get the same stunning results…

James is an extraordinarily successful realtor. Some years ago he found a house for us, did a good job of organising the whole deal and we went our separate ways.

At least for a while!

Every three months, regular as clockwork, James sends us a handwritten greeting card. I’m sure he sends pretty much the same cards to everyone, but that’s not the point.

He actually sends them - THAT’s the point!

And while most other realtors are sucking their thumbs and whining about how bad life is, James keeps on selling, selling, selling.

I had a coffee with him a couple weeks ago and I asked him how his business was doing, in a flat market.

“What flat market?” he said. Business is getting better and better, year after year. In fact for James, every single year was better then the previous year.

So what’s James’ secret?

“It’s the cards”, he said.

“I remember Tom Hopkins saying how within 3 years of becoming a realtor, ALL of his business came from referrals. And the vast majority of those referrals came because he religiously sent out handwritten cards. Thank you cards, birthday cards. New Year’s cards. Cards for ANY reason. He just kept on sending ‘em. So I do too, and I get exactly the same results.”

Pretty simple!

So, when I’m standing around a barbecue with a beer and a friend asks if I know a good realtor, guess who I recommend? And remember, we only ever had one transaction with James, but I, along with many other people, send him constant business.

Why? Because James is ALWAYS top-of-mind when it comes to real estate. Because he sends us cards!

AND, James could be in any business, and he’d have the same success. Finance broker, lawn mowing contractor, hairdresser, accountant, restaurateur, mortgage broker. Doesn’t matter - the principle’s identical. Keep top-of-mind by sending heartfelt greeting cards, over and over.

So if this is such a bright idea, why don’t more businesses and sales people do this?

Well, primary reason is that most business owners and sales people are lazy and wouldn’t know a smart idea if it jumped up and bit them!

But for people like yourself, who aren’t, probably the main reason is that it’s too hard, too expensive and too complicated. But not any more. Sending custom written cards, with your own handwriting, sent in an envelope with a real stamp, straight from your computer, is now possible. And you don’t have to handle, or even see, the cards!

So, no more excuses - find a computer system which will generate, print and post REAL greeting cards in REAL envelopes with REAL stamps (not those lame emailed ones), and just DO IT!

Philip Langley is a passionate “sender of cards” Take a look here to see just how to make this vital business activity oh-so-simple!

http://www.BusinessReferralsMadeEasy.com