The Pencil Principle.

I was reading an article by Richard Adams regarding the Pencil Principle,?In short, what he is saying is that the success of the humble pencil is due to the fact that it does just one thing and does it very well. It makes marks on a piece of paper.

It does not pretend to be anything other than what you can see or feel. There are a number of other ways of making marks on a piece of paper but the pencil is still up there with the best of them.

Can a fountain pen write upside-down? Can you easily wipe out the marks of a ball point pen when you change your mind about something you have written? The pencil will be with us for a long time to come.

Richard quotes both Amazon and eBay as brilliant examples of this principle.. Their success is due entirely to concentrating upon doing just the one thing and doing it extremely well.

How many of us are trying to do too many things at once? How many of us have started to do one thing and been side tracked into trying something else before we have reaped the potential rewards of our first project? It has happened to a lot of us. Myself included.

How many of us have seen what looks like a fantastic venture that had nothing in common with what we are doing at the time and jumped in with two big feet only to find that it was no better than the project that we were working on before? (Be honest, at least with yourself.)

Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked. Concentrate on the one thing. Develop a condition similar to Tunnel Vision.?Let nothing outside distract you from the purpose in hand. Do just one thing and do it better than anyone else. Be like the pencil.

To be successful in business you don't need to be different from your competitors. You need to be better than your competitors. Study the project. How does it work? What makes it tick? How popular is it? How long has it been in operation? Could you cope with the work involved? Have you the right qualifications to enable you to succeed? If not, can you realistically gain those qualifications?

How strong is the opposition? Study them. What exactly do they do? How do they do it? Is there another way of doing it? Is there a better way of doing it? Is there a niche within the system that is not being exploited? Concentrating upon a small section of the potential market can often prove more profitable than the wider audience.

What can you offer that the others can't, or don't? Can you package it in a different way? Do you offer freebies? Are your freebies more valuable than those of your competitors? What about your guarantee? Most companies offer a guarantee of up to three months. Customers expect that much at least.

Try offering a full twelve months guarantee. That is a lot more than expected and if your product is everything that you say it is, you won't get any more returns than your opposition.

Is your product easy to use? Would an instruction manual help to increase sales? A half page of information on how to get the best results from their purchase can often tip the balance between buying from you rather from someone else who does not provide this service.

Be honest. Be strictly honest in every aspect of your business dealings. Don't over hype your product. Tell it as it is. Say exactly what it will do. Explain how much better off your clients will be if they purchase from you. Whatever claims you make, be prepared to prove them to the clients satisfaction.

Don't try to convince people that if they buy your product it will make them rich. Products don't make people rich. Using the product to it's best advantage could possibly make someone rich. It is up to the purchaser as to how much effort he or she puts into using it.

How can they contact you if they have a problem?

They will already have your website address. They will need an e-mail address as well. Make sure that it is printed on every piece of correspondence that you send out. Your office or home phone number is the biggest confidence booster that you can provide.. It proves that you are a real person who is genuinely interested in ensuring customer satisfaction.

Don't worry about being hounded by phone calls day and night. Just say that they can call you on this number during normal office hours. Or whatever is more convenient. I don't get more than a dozen phone calls a year, but the fact that they could call me if the need arose is what matters.

Think like a pencil.

Copyright 2006 Homer Farey

Homer sells and gives away software and e-books on line. He is also a member of a number of affiliate programs that he joined when he first came onto the net. He finds them too lucrative to even think of giving them up. If you would like to know where he gets the freebies to give away, Take a look by clicking here.:www.runurl.com/xx.php?2ld

Hot Topics In Online Marketing

Most Recent Online Marketing Supplements

Newly Popular Business Articles

    Make Your Money Count: The Advantages Of Forex Trading

    Forex currency trading is quickly become the most popular method of investing in a particular global market. Forex trading is basically the buying and selling of currency in order to make a profit, bu...

    Key to a Successful eBay Business!

    We all know that in Ebay, it is all about selling in volumes. We need traffic, and traffic is marketing. Marketing is an art. It's a science. It will help if you remember that you do not sell a produc...

    The Top Ten Ways to Attract Buyers, Not Just Visitors to your Web Site

    Have you put a lot of effort, time, and money into your site and are frustrated with low sales?

    If you are like many professionals out there, you know your subject; you are excellent at your c...

    How Good a Deal Is Your Banks Mortgage Insurance Plan?

    When you go to the bank to get a mortgage, you'll inevitably be asked to take out mortgage insurance. The idea behind mortgage insurance is simply that if something happens to you or your spouse then ...

    Want To Achieve Success In Home Business, Follow These 7 Steps Now

    Prior to starting your home business, do adequate research to find the common mistakes made by others and learn to avoid the same mistakes. By doing this, the chances of failing in your home-based bus...

    Trading Psychology: Mistakes in a Trading Environment

    When it comes to trading, one of the most neglected subjects are those dealing with trading psychology. Most traders spend days, months and even years trying to find the right system. But having a sys...

    30+ Ways to earn money online

    1. Content writer for you best subjects, if you like something then you can write about it and there are always some one on the internet wanting to higher a content writer for your subjects, start by ...

    Debt Consolidation Tips

    When a person seeks out a loan, he aims for the minimum rate of interest. The rate of interest he decides on will be fixed for the entire duration of his payment plan, so he must choose wisely the fir...

    A beginners Guide To Making Money Online

    Copyright 2006 Anwar Ahmed Ally

    Okay, you're reading this because you want to make money online. You are fairly new to this, so you want some assistance. Well, you're reading the right article. I ...

    Program Yourself For Success

    The purpose of the night tapes is multifold. One purpose is to have something for your mind to listen to over and over to get a certain message across. The tapes have all been written using the patter...

Interesting Today:

Most Recent Business Blogs:

Releated to Business:

Online Marketing Links: