Profitability Channel

Give the gift of unique note cards to any business professional and you are giving them the opportunity to establish a memorable reputation.

Handwritten notes create a memorable connection between sender and recipient. A gift of note cards featuring unique art and motivational quotes allows the recipient of your gift to connect personally with individuals to whom they write notes.

Is there a sales professional on your gift list? A regular practice of handwriting notes could make 2009 their best year ever. Joe Girard, The Guinness World’s Record Greatest Retail Salesman for 12 years, received that title after selling an average of 6 cars everyday throughout his selling career. This was due in part to his stay-in-touch practice of sending all previous car customers 13 personal note cards each year – turning them into repeat buyers and sources of regular referrals.

How about a C-Level executive? Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup has written over 16,000 notes, as many as 10 a day, raising morale and energizing Campbell’s in the process. "In business we're trained to find things that are wrong, but I try to celebrate what's right," says Conant.

What about a gift for you? Build your own personal brand through the regular practice of handwriting notes to clients to show appreciation, to referral contacts to say thank you and to leaders to show your support. Establish your own memorable reputation through the personal connection created by handwriting notes.

The gift of unique note cards is the first step to note-working success!

Vanessa Lowry is Chief Connection Officer and owner of Profits in Progress, helping businesses expand connections and build relationships using handwritten notes. She can be contacted at vlowry@profitsinprogress.com or 678-521-8820. Purchase unique note cards at www.ProfitsinProgress.com.

In a word: Intent. . .according to Dave Lakhani.

Dave Lakhani has made persuasion his life's study. Why?
Dave and his brothers grew up in a religious cult. No real education - unless it was cult education. Living in shacks. Eating from the dumpsters outside supermarkets. Total cult domination of thoughts, media, and activities.

Somehow, he knew that there was a different world than the one he knew.

At the tender age of 16 Dave broke away from the cult. He was forced to go on stage where the entire cult congregation, including his mother, prayed for his death. Dave was cut off from all communications with his brothers, mother, and the few friends he had. He was alone. Everything he knew was gone from his life in an instant.

At that moment Dave made it his life's work to determine how people were persuaded...both in the good and bad sense. Why people did do what they did? What persuaded them to join groups? Live in cults? Buy things?

From Dave's perspective, persuasion is helping people to come to their most logical conclusion that you share. It is the ability to get an individual or the masses to see your message as the one message that will change their life for the better right now.

Dave's mantra:
- People buy what they believe.
- Believers are buyers.
- With no persuasion there is no profit.
- Only polarized people buy things. People in the middle don't do things.

The Persuasion funnel - An upside down triangle:
- Visibility
- Credibility
- Relationship
- Profit

Relationships are the most critical element of the funnel. Where there is trust, you can positively persuade.

By the way, I keep Dave's book, Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want, nearby. I review it when I need ideas. His new book, Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets they Don't Want You to Know, is out. Go to www.subliminalpersuasionbook.com for more information.

Click here to see Dave’s program on ProfitabilityChannel.com.