IN THIS ISSUE:

1. LIFE SKILL FOR BUSINESS!

Do You REALLY Know Your SELF? Get our new eBook, FREE.
Rate your strength in these 46 Vital Success Factors

2. BUSINESS SKILL FOR LIFE!

Sales is the engine that drives your business!
Turn Customers Into GOLD with a little Sales Alchemy!™

3. TELE-CONFERENCES!

Rejection-Proof Networking...
Get MEGA-Referrals!
How to Build a $50,000 Recurring Income for Life in Three Years on $120/month investment.

4. TV, RADIO, SEMINARS, AND LIVE EVENTS!

Speaking, radio and television appearances...


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1. LIFE SKILL FOR BUSINESS
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Do You REALLY Know Your SELF?
Rate your strength in the 46 Vital Success Factors

With this new FreeBook, "Breakthrough to Higher Performance, and Boost Your Sales Success!"

Are you using all the tools in your toolbox? Which do you use with the highest level of mastery? Which ones do you choose to improve? Which tools do you never pick up? How would your life be if you used all your tools?

It's said we tap a small portion of our vast talent and ability. Why do we accept a little when there's so much available to us? Nobody really knows what your "upside" potential really is, and nobody can say for sure how to release it all.

One thing is for sure: when we take the time and effort to objectively measure our talents and abilities (what's in our toolbox), the insights and the outcomes can be life changing. If you don't take inventory of your toolbox on a regular basis, it is likely you are overlooking some wonderful tools you have at your disposal.

What lies hidden beneath and behind can be more valuable and fulfilling that what we see on the surface.

We are taught to strengthen our weaknesses. I've noticed that...

IN THE PROCESS OF STRENGTHENING OUR WEAKNESSES, WE WEAKEN OUR STRENGTHS.

This approach causes us to move away from "being" uniquely who we are, and makes it more difficult to find what we are here to do next. This model has us striving to continuously better ourselves, to "become" perfect at everything. In the process, we can overlook talents and abilities that are hidden gold.

Many people are searching for their why, as if it lies outside them.

YOUR WHY lies within! It's not extrinsic to you; it's intrinsic. It's inside.

ONLY YOU KNOW YOUR TRUE WHY.

Your uniqueness is infinitely valuable; it's your intrinsic DNA.

When you really find out what's in your "tool-box" you WILL know how to leverage your talents and get the most out of your livelihood. See what's inside, and you'll bring your highest and best to the outside. Chances are good, you'll also make a better living.

One thing is for certain: you'll have a richer life.

We all have blind spots. Some people call them weaknesses. Weakness implies a breakdown. The truth is, WE'RE NOT BROKEN, although many of us think we are. That's why we spend so much time strengthening our weaknesses.

When we can't see what's available to us, it's because something is in the way. Often, what's in the way is our own thinking; how we look at ourselves, and the world around us. Shining a light illuminates what's in front of us, and enables us to get past what's in the way.

Why walk in the dark when you can walk on a brightly lit path?

Entrepreneurs and business owners, companies and employers of all sizes make huge financial investments in rent, equipment, people, marketing, advertising, tele-communications and many other products and services needed to run a business successfully.

Intra-preneurs (employees) invest their most valuable resources in their work every day: their time, talent, heart, mind, commitment, ability to perform, and the desire to produce.

The most important information we need is NOT ABOUT THE JOB OR WORK.

THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION WE NEED IS ABOUT OURSELVES!

The most important investments are NOT in plant, machinery and equipment.

THE MOST IMPORTANT INVESTMENT IS IN PEOPLE!

THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD IS YOU!

Invest in your most valuable asset: YOU!!! Know Your SELF!

An investment in better knowing yourself is modest. The return can be huge. The results - are for LIFE!

Don't wait to discover and capitalize on your strengths, release your potential, and experience the kind of success and personal fulfillment that is possible for you to have!

I invite you to download and read our new eBook, "Breakthrough to Higher Performance, and Boost Your Sales Success!" THE EBOOK IS FREE.

Then, I invite you to join one or more of our tele-seminars. When you register, you'll get your own personalized DELUXE Sales Success Profile, FREE.

Follow this Power of Three!™

1. Download and read the FREE eBook

2. Register for the tele-seminar series

3. Complete your DELUXE Sales Success Profile

This Week's Life Skill for Business...

Know yourself better than you know your business or your work.

Breakthrough to Higher Performance, and Boost Your Sales Success!

Download and read the FREE eBook

Share this with others. The eBook is FREE.

Success is not.

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2. BUSINESS SKILL FOR LIFE
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Turn YOUR Customers Into GOLD with a little Sales Alchemy!™
Sales is the engine that drives your business!

What's one of the biggest investments and at the same time, most under-utilized assets in almost every business?

CUSTOMERS.

Acquiring customers is a big investment for businesses of every shape and size, from home business owners to mega-corporations. But leveraging customers and generating maximum return on that investment is costing even more.

Customers are the most under-utilized assets of most businesses.

Sales Alchemy™ is a process of turning customers into GOLD. Sales Alchemy turns prospects into customers, customers into lifetime buyers, and lifetime buyers into marketing associates. Sales Alchemy makes you more effective at the holistic cycle of business life - attracting, converting and keeping customers.

Rewind to 1990, the beginning of the marketing mania that has gripped business for more than a decade. One year earlier, I had invested an unheard of sum of $15,000 for one week of training. When I got to the LA hotel and walked into the amphitheater, in struts a guy with no socks (30 minutes late of course). He sits down on stage in a big comfy chair, people bringing him hot tea and lemon as if he were a king holding court.

You might be thinking that $15,000 is LOT OF MONEY to pay a guy for one week of training. You're right. I've never paid that much before and I haven't paid that much since. Understand this: I didn't pay $15,000 for him to consult with me 1:1. There were 200 other people in the room who also paid $15,000 to be in the room for that week. You add up the numbers.

The next thing that struck me after I walked in and said, "I am not the ONLY crazy man to pay this outrageous fee" was "I must be in the right place." I figured that anyone who could get 200 people to pony up $15,000 for one week had to know a whole lot about marketing. After all, who in their "right" mind would even conceive they could do this, let alone believe they were worth it?

C'mon. $3 million for one week? That's beyond absurd. Well, while we're on the subject of beyond absurd, this guy did five more of these and would up putting nearly 1,000 people through this protégé training. If you haven't figured it out yet, the guy is Jay Abraham. He made a big contribution in the past decade to put marketing on the map and into people's minds.

Why do I tell you this story? Because with all the marketing know-how available, and the billions of dollars companies of all shapes and sizes have thrown at it, more businesses failed in the past decade than in any decade before it. As a percentage of business start-ups, the Department of Labor reports that within five years about 90% will be out of business. Half of them are gone within the first 18 months.

Many of them will close because they weren't able to attract, convert and keep customers and generate high enough profits to keep the doors open.

With all the marketing know-how available...

Simple. Marketing ALONE isn't enough. Plus, marketing is an expense.
Attracting customers is only the first part of the process, and often the most expensive part.

SALES are what you take to the bank. Sales show up on your financials as INcome.
Converting customers is what counts. Sales is where the payoff is.

Turning prospects into buyers is the bottom line measure of business success. Sales is the engine that powers a business; marketing is the fuel. The best marketing in the world may have people beating a path to your door in record numbers, but if you don't convert them into customers, your "investment" in marketing might just force you to close your doors.

A lot of businesses go out of business after investing large sums of money in marketing, because the marketing results in too few sales, and not enough profit. Clearly, marketing that doesn't "sell" leads to red ink.

Most marketing is not designed to sell, but to attract and qualify prospects. Selling is where they are converted to buyers. Effective selling converts prospects into buyers. Delightful customer service keeps customers coming back for more. Raving fans are happy customers transformed into marketing associates.

Marketing... sales... service is a continuous and holistic process. Yet, they are also three distinct disciplines. Most companies treat them as three different departments and far too often, competing units. No wonder 90% of businesses go out of business. The head, heart and hands are all doing their own thing, separately and independently from each other. Imagine if your body functioned that way? You would shut down also.

Attracting, converting and keeping customers is the Holy Grail of business.

Here's a paradigm shift to consider:

MARKETING is the FUEL that powers the engine.

SALES is the ENGINE.

If you don't have marketing (fuel), your engine won't fire and you go nowhere. You need fuel to propel an engine. On the other hand, you can have a full tank of super unleaded, but if the engine isn't firing on all cylinders, your vehicle will sputter.

Marketing and sales work best when they are integrated, not DIS-integrated. You don't put jet fuel in a car engine, and you don't use lighter fluid for the Space Shuttle. You match the fuel with the engine.

Designing a marketing plan before your sales strategy is like buying a diesel car because you have some extra diesel fuel in your garage.

YOU BUY THE CAR YOU WANT, and use the fuel that works best for that kind of engine. Apply the same integrated strategy to your marketing and sales, and you can transform your company.

First, decide YOUR method of converting customers. What is your SALES PROCESS!

Then, design and develop a marketing approach that matches your sales process.

If you convert by phone, you want lots of leads for people to handle.

If you convert face-to-face, you want as many qualified appointments as you can fit in a day.

If you convert on the Internet, you must have excellent copyrighting skills, marketing and sales letters that both ATTRACTS and CONVERTS buyers. That's why many businesses that rely on the Internet alone go belly up. With no human interaction, they need powerful sales copy to do the attracting AND converting for them.

The toughest kind of sale is one in which the written marketing piece must also do all the selling. Very few people have copyrighting skills that sell product. Those who do, make a fortune and charge very high fees to write copy.

Service is the last part of this holistic process and the most important part of this equation. Service is an area too many businesses view as an expense not an investment. The truth is...

Serving IS the purpose of a business.

You may be great at attracting prospects and converting them into buyers, but if you don't KEEP them as customers, your business is built on sand.

Another paradigm shift:

The customer (service) drives the bus. Serving customers IS the best marketing you can do. It's easy to romance people (attract them), and get them excited enough to buy in (convert them). But the rubber meets the road after the wheels start to turn on the relationship.

Keeping customers is where YOU get the highest return on your investment. If you spend a lot of time and money to attract and convert, but you don't keep them, your ROI and profit will suffer terribly. IF you invest to keep them, you can turn buyers into lifetime customers, and lifetime customers into marketing associates.

If marketing is the fuel, and sales is the engine, then serving people is the gas pedal. How much pedal to the metal you put into service ultimately determines how far your bus will go, and especially in today's world, how fast you get there. Word of mouth, relationship and "viral" marketing are highly leveraged and the most cost-effective.

Many successful businesses are built solely on word of mouth. ALL successful businesses invest in service and aim to turn buyers into lifetime customers. The most successful companies leverage customers into marketing associates.

The best leverage, highest ROI and biggest profit is earned when you invest nothing to get a customer.

If you serve well, it's possible to get 50% to 75% or more of your new sales from 100% of your existing customers. With that kind of service, you just might find yourself saving a fortune in marketing.

The more you save on marketing, the more effective you sell and serve, the lower your expenses and the higher your profit.

Serving is the BEST investment. Sales powers your profits. Marketing fuels the engine.

Tune up your marketing, sales and service. Your business will run smoother when it's firing on all cylinders.

This Week's Business Skill for Life...

Use Sales Alchemy™ to turn your customers into GOLD.

Merge your marketing with your sales and service.

Reverse the order. Focus on keeping customers, and enhance your ability to convert them. Match your marketing fuel with your sales engine, and make service your highest priority. Turn buyers into lifetime customers into marketing associates.

Are you ready to attract, convert and keep more customers?

Join our NEWEST tele-seminars and turn customers into gold...

We're making the tapes of the training I did for Jay Abraham's proteges available again in limited quantity. Here's what Jay said about the program, "How to Build a Six Figure Consulting Income"...

"Mitch conducted three of the most heavily attended and lauditorily reviewed tele-conference calls we ever sponsored with 200 marketing consultants in one day. His seminar is two of the most illuminating and expansive days you will ever spend. If you want to increase your sales and income, call Mitch."

Email us... If you're interested in these tapes.


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3. TELE-CONFERENCES, SEMINARS...
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Enroll in these FREE Tele-classes THIS WEEK ONLY, October 29 through November 2.

Click on the link to find out more or sign up...

Rejection-Proof Networking

Get Powerful Testimonials, Ringing Endorsements and MEGA-Referrals

Boost Your SELF... Esteem, Confidence and Belief

How to Build a $50,000 to $100,000 Recurring Income for Life in Three Years on $120/month Investment.

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4. TV, RADIO, LIVE EVENTS
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Speaking, radio and television appearances...

After nearly four years off the road, I'm back to do what I do best and love most: speak, train and teach.

It's a good time to get Back to Basics.

I'm ready to share some fresh and timely material to get the most out of work and career, while balancing time for family and self. Better work/life/self balance is something many of us seek.

In changing times like this, we are reminded of the importance of our basic skills, what I call Success-Abilities.™

Even before September 11, more and more people were looking to find their center of gravity, and balance life, livelihood and living. Since 9/11, we've all been tossed further from center.

Most people are not content with JUST earning a living, yet earning a living may be more challenging in the coming decade than in any we've experienced in the past. We pursue loftier goals, success and achievement. We want to enjoy a livelihood, and live a rich life. We seek intrinsic wealth that money CANNOT buy.

The intrinsic dimension of life holds the most value for us. Balance is living more fully in all dimensions of life. We are challenged in the post 9/11 world to get back into the WORLD, resume TRADE and return to CENTER.

I'm re-emerging to assist and bring what I do best and love most to the world: teach and train, brainstorm and support.

I'll be sharing and exchanging ideas, introducing new points of view, and getting back to the tried and true fundamentals.

We are looking for groups, companies, businesses, organizations, associations and corporations that want to...

* turn MORE customers into GOLD with our process of Sales Alchemy™;

* hire and train, develop and retain the best and brightest people, and save a fortune in lost investment in the most valuable asset: people. Combining the breakthrough science of Axiology and the Value Profile with the unique practice of Axelrology™ can positively impact every aspect of your business;

* increase productivity, performance, and profit-ability; In the new millennium, EVERYONE must think and act as if they are The Virtual Entrepreneur™ We'll show you how to bring out the best you have to offer. In the 21st century, EVERYONE IS THE CEO OF HIS OR HER LIFE;

* master the vital business Success-Abilities™ of market-ability, sales-ability, service-ability, leverage-ability, and profit-ability; and hone the vital life skills of adapt-ability, flex-ability, bounce-ability, response-ability, and coach-ability;

* create better work/life/self balance by using the Power of Threes™.

We customize EVERY talk to EVERY audience, EVERY TIME.

To inquire about one of these programs for your group live, via satellite, tele-seminar or web conferencing...
Send us an Email or Call 1-800-7 Axelrod (1-800-729-3576).

Until next time...

Know Your SELF!

Use Sales Alchemy™ to Turn Customers Into GOLD!

Join our tele-conferences.

Mitch Axelrod
Axelrod Learning
14 Seaman Road - West Orange, NJ - 07052
Voice: 973-736-1304
Fax: 973-736-3930

Contact Mitch

Axelrod Learning Center

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