July 5th, 2009 -- Posted in Bussiness, Marketing |
What sets your product, service and company apart from your competitors? What value do you provide and
how is it different than the alternatives?
Competitive positioning is about defining how you’ll “differentiate” your offering and create
value for your market. It’s about carving out a spot in the competitive landscape and focusing your
company to deliver on that strategy. A good strategy includes:
- Market profile: size, competitors, stage of growth
- Customer segments: groups of prospects with similar wants & needs
- Competitive analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the landscape
- Positioning strategy: how you’ll position your offering to focus on opportunities in the market
- Value proposition: the type of value you’ll deliver to the market
When your market clearly sees how your offering is different than that of your competition, it’s easier to
generate new prospects and guide them to buy. Without differentiation, it takes more time and money to show
prospects why they should choose you; as a result, you often end up competing on price – a tough position to
sustain over the long term.
June 5th, 2009 -- Posted in Marketing, Shipping |
Is it possible to start a successful Ebay drop-shipping business for zero out of pocket? Yes, it is! The problem is that there are hundreds of supposed drop-shippers online and many so called “instant auction success kits” and all but two are useless. There are only two Ebay approved drop-shippers and joining either one is the first step to creating an Ebay work at home business drop-shipping business.
For those who are unfamiliar with drop-shipping it works like this:
You locate products to sell from a database of over 250,000 products.
You can use tools through your drop-shipper that allow you to select products, set pricing and automatically send them to eBay.
Your item sells on eBay and you receive payment through Paypal.
You purchase the product from the drop-shipper using your Paypal funds. You pay the wholesale price and keep the profit.
The drop-shipper will process and ship it to your customer. They will handle any returns, exchanges or problems or instruct you how to resolve the issue through the manufacturer when warranties apply.
You will have tracking information on every order.
You can expect to spend at least a good week getting your business set up. The good news is that you will probably already have made a profit by day 5, and once you have set up all your products the business will pretty much run itself without a whole lot more effort on your part, but I am getting ahead of things. Let’s start from square one, shall we?
To start your business you are going to need:
A Paypal account <br>
An eBay account <br>
A drop-shipper account
As we already said, there are many supposed drop-shippers out there that are nothing but a scam.
There are only two Ebay approved drop-shippers and only one drop-shipper is fully integrated with Ebay. Follow the links at the end of this article to explore them both and decide which is right for you. Both charge membership fees but the fee structures differ greatly.
If you choose to go with a free trial drop-shipping account then by the time you need to pay membership dues you will have easily earned more than enough money to cover your monthly dues.
Remember I told you it would cost $0 out of pocket? Here’s how:
Sign up for the free 7 day trial
Make a real effort to get things started
Call customer service or contact live chat on the fourth or fifth day of your trial. Let them know how hard you have been working and that you very much would like to extend your trial period so your auctions have time to run their coarse, you can get a better feel for the system, etc…. I was able to get my trial period extended to a full month by taking this approach. Take the time to ask them any and every question you have since you are on the phone anyway! The customer service reps are amazing and it is well worth taking advantage of their expertise.
Work your butt off during the trial period and you will easily earn the few bucks your membership will cost you and more. Then you can pay your membership with your earning and thus have a $0 start up. In fact in my first two weeks I earned enough to pay for a one year membership at a huge discount which leads me to step 5….
When you have convinced yourself how wonderful your new business is and you are ready to pay your membership dues DON’T!!! Don’t do a thing until you call the customer service department back and ask to speak with someone in the promotions department. They will be offer you HUGE discounts on your membership and they will usually throw in free tools as well.
Before you go any further you need to take some time getting familiar with Ebay, Paypal and your drop-shipper. Explore each site carefully. Read about Ebay’s fees (you will not have to pay any fees up front to use Ebay but you will need to understand the fee structure to price your items properly). Get extremely comfortable with the tools and products offered by your drop-shipper. If you run into any questions or problems along the way contact the customer support for the site you have issues with and they will be glad to assist you. It will be much easier for you to follow the rest of this guide if you have a basic understanding of your new accounts first.
Now that you have a feel for the tools you will be using there are five more areas we need to cover in detail to make sure you are off to a solid start. My free detailed start up guide looks at:
Product Selection-You have instant access to over 250,000 products to pick from. Find out how to determine which products to sell.
Product Pricing-How to set prices that will earn you the best conversions.
Traffic-There are over 60 million Ebayers out there. Learn how to drive them to your listings.
Things to Avoid-Find out the most common mistakes newbies make.
Advanced Tools-Reviews of some of the best tools available to expand your business when you are ready
May 19th, 2009 -- Posted in Communication, Marketing |
Using jargon, technical terms, abbreviations, and specialized vocabulary in email messages is filled with peril. This language can lead to miscommunication. And, this misinterpretation of terminology can be expensive in many ways.
1. It can affect your professional relationships.
2. It can make you, or your company, liable.
Relationships
Miscommunication can jeopardize business relationships. Using jargon can crush the rapport you have worked so hard to build with customers or coworkers.
To read more on avoiding miscommunication visit: http://www.keepcustomers.com
A reader who receives an email message filled with technical terms and industry jargon may have several reactions – none of them good. For example, the reader may become irritated, aggravated, or mad. It’s a natural human reaction to become defensive when you encounter something you don’t understand.
The reader may also think you’re trying to be condescending, or that you’re trying to show off. At the very least, the reader will become frustrated. The person may, or may not, bother to ask you to “translate.”
Why subject your customers or coworkers to that type of treatment? Don’t take the chance of ruining a good relationship with people by sending them information they cannot understand in email messages.
Liability
If a customer misunderstands information you have provided via email, and then acts upon it, who is responsible if something goes wrong? There are liability issues involved with miscommunication.
For example, let’s say you are providing financial data to a customer, and he/she misunderstands that information. If the customer makes a decision based on the miscommunication, it could lead to costly mistakes.
The “cost” to the customer may be monetary. The “cost” to you may be a loss of credibility. Misinterpretations can be expensive and embarrassing. To learn more ways to avoid misinterpretation visit: http://www.keepcustomers.com.
Why take the risk? Don’t put yourself or your customer in a risky situation. Try to use clear wording and avoid potentially confusing technical jargon.
