admin's blog

By Jill Konrath

If you're like most sellers, you don't pay a lot of attention to the subject lines. They're an afterthought. No big deal, right?

Totally wrong. Your subject line is the most important part of your message. If it's not a good one, your email gets trashed in a nanosecond. In fact, research by ExactTarget (my email newsletter service) show that the average person spends only 2.7 seconds on a message before deciding if they'll delete it, forward it or read it.

Just 2.7 seconds. That's all the time you have to capture a readers attention. That's why your subject line is so darn critical.

First, let's talk about what you don't put in a subject line. In order to avoid auto-deletes, it's imperative for you to:

• Avoid salesy verbiage. Get rid of words like excited, hot new product, free offer or special pricing.

• Avoid info on your company. No one is interested in your new product announcements or company updates except you.

• Avoid capital letters. Just the first word should be capped. Otherwise it seems like a headline, not a personal message.

Now, let's talk about what works in your prospecting emails.

Here are several options that have proven effective with today's crazy-busy prospects.

By Jill Konrath

You know what your prospects are thinking-all the time? Every time you interact with them, they're evaluating you and asking themselves: "Is this a person (company) I want to work with on a long-term basis?"

If they feel pressure from you, the answer is no.

If they feel like you're trying too hard to be liked, the answer is no.

If they don't think you understand their business, the answer is no.

If they get overwhelmed by what you're saying, the answer is no.

So what makes them say, "Yes, I want to work with you!"

To be most effective in sales today, it's imperative to drop your "sales" mentality and start working with your prospects as if they've already hired you. When you do, it shifts your relationship to a whole new level from the very start.

Overview of the Vending Machine Business Opportunity

The vending machine business is a multi-billion dollar global industry and is attractive to many entreprenuers and investors. Vending machines can be a part-time or full time business and requires a low investment to get started in comparison to other businesses and the path to profitability is pretty clear. You find good locations and keep your machines stocked with hot selling items.

It sounds easy, but starting your own vending machine business can be difficult, primarily because finding good locations is a challenging process. If you don't already know you'll discover that the market is already very saturated. Go to most public places, malls, rest stops, etc... and you'll find plenty of vending machines full of soda, candy, chips, honey buns, and other junk food.

So if you are exploring vending machine business opportunities and want to build a plan for success then you'll want to avoid being another me too vending machine operator. It's certainly possible to find new locations that need traditional vending machines but that may provde too difficult as existing vending machine operators are always looking for new locations. If you can great, but if not then evaluate existing vending machine locations with high traffic and opt to purchase and place newer vending machines that sell healthy snacks, lottery tickets, and the very popular coffee and energy drinks.

Types of Vending Machines

Photo by CarbonNYC

There are plenty of options for what you can sell in your vending machines:

• Traditional Combo Machines with sodas, candy, snacks, junk food
• Healthy Snacks and Organic Food
• Hot and Cold Meals
• Bottled Water, Coffee, Tea, and Energy Drinks
• Scratch off lottery tickets
• DVD Movie Rentals
• Personal Products
• Electronics
• Stamps
• Newspapers
• Ice
• Ice Cream
• Pizza
• Pencils, Stickers, Tattos, and Toys
  

I had a conversation with someone that runs an annual art festival. He told me of all the processes involved for his organization as well as for artists. I was surprised to learn of how much was involved with running an art festival but I was more surprised that they were doing all of this in a very manual way. Doing a quick search there seemed to be a couple of solutions but nothing that was a clear cut industry leader.

When the US Economy tanked people tightened up their wallets more than ever, but even in good financial times people love to find deals and that's why new daily deals websites are popping up everywhere. You've probably heard of the big name players such as Groupon and Social Living. It's easy to find their ads on many of the mainstream websites and for good reason too as providing daily discounts is a big time business so they are trying to buy up marketshare as fast as possible and profit from the lifetime value of each new user.

Photo by JohnONolan

You may be tired of hearing the word "Green" thrown around so much but conserving the planet's natural resources is big business so Green business is here to stay.

Water Saving Toilets - A Green Business Opportunity

If you've been in Arizona and other parts of the southwest where water is very precious then you may have seen the water saving toilets in the rest stops on the interstate, airports, businesses, etc... Typically the urinals are flushless systems and the toilets are designed to flush with less water.

Photo by Eagle102.net