The Context Machine

The success of your next sale may be riding on more than the
product or service you’re offering. Your presentation will play
a major role in the sale — the words, your style, and the tone
of your delivery. Here are five phrases to avoid during your
next presentation. By avoiding these common phrases you will
have a better chance at making a favorable impression.

Hey “y’all,” “you guys” or “yous.” As endearing as these words
are, they are best left out of your presentation. These and
other informal words can drain the professionalism out of your
presentation and may send the message you want to win them over
with your charm. Instead, work to draw attention to your
product, the customer service after the sale, and the
professionalism of your organization. Remember to use formal
words delivered with a friendly tone.

“The competitor’s product is not as good as ours.” Instead of
saying, “Theirs is very low-performing,” say “Ours meets all
industry standards and recently won awards for best performance
in all three major categories.” It is acceptable to make
objective comparisons to help the audience in the
decision-making process (”Ours has three xyz’s and theirs has
one”). Remember that the decision-makers in the audience may
have purchased the product you’re disparaging! What happens when
that competitor you mentioned merges with your company and you
have to come back and meet with this same group? Or if you take
a job with that competitor? Instead of drawing attention to the
competitor, keep them focused on your product or service.

“I don’t know.” OK then, who does? It’s a natural response to
say, “I don’t know,” but that doesn’t help your audience. What
they want to hear is that you are pleased they asked that
question up and that you will be on the telephone to get an
answer within minutes of the close of the meeting. They don’t
want to hear you say, “I’ll get back with you,” they want to
know when and how you will get their answer.

“We never make a mistake.” You might not say it that bluntly but
you might imply it with your praises, your promises, and your
passion. On the other hand, you don’t want to dwell on the
mistakes you and your company have made. If they ask you about
reliability of your product, tell the truth. Focus on what you
do to make things right when things go wrong, your clients’
comments about your recovery strategies, and your commitment to
excellence. Every organization has challenges. It is how you
respond to those challenges and your customers’ concerns that
can help you stand apart in your industry.

“We’ve just always done it that way.” So they’re asking for
something you’ve never tried before. Just because you haven’t
tried it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Isn’t it true that many of
the best ideas come from customers and clients? Probe for more
of their ideas. Tell them about something else you currently do
that was first done to meet another client’s needs. Most of all,
thank them for their creative ideas and suggestions. When your
organization decides that this really is a good idea, send them
something special. If their idea is something you can’t
implement, then still help them find a reasonable solution.
After all, you are there to listen, learn, and help them find
solutions.

Thank you to all of our professional educators who dedicate themselves to our children! We know how difficult it can be working with ADHD children, so here are your teacher tips for the week, brought to you by the ADHD Information Library and ADDinSchool.com. You can read over 500 classroom interventions at http://www.ADDinSchool.com.

Here are some tips on Organizing Your ADHD Students:

See what you can do to help organize the ADHD child’s environment. Use dividers and folders in his desk so he can easily find things. Teach him how to organize himself better. These are skills that he does not know, and needs to learn.

Help the child to organize his written work or numbers. Allow the child to move a pencil or his finger across the page while reading. If he’s writing, allow him to use one or two fingers for spacing between words. During math, graph paper may be very helpful to organize his numbers and columns.

Your student will function better when able to anticipate times requiring increased concentration. A visual representation of the day’s schedule will provide another opportunity to internalize classroom routine.

Completing school work and maintaining behavior during the school day can be exhausting experiences. Large homework loads on a regular basis can become discouraging for him and very stressful for the parent involved. Attempt to have homework reduced, if possible, and limited to guided practice on material that he has begun to master. Attempt to break down long?term assignments into steps to lessen your student’s feeling overwhelmed. Consider having the student complete every third problem, instead of answering each one.

Emphasize practice and assignment completion on the word processor to lower the frustration many students feel with written work.

Model an organized classroom and model the strategies you use to cope with disorganization.

Establish a daily classroom routine and schedule. Show that you value organization by following 5 minutes each day for the children to organize their desks, folders, etc. Reinforce organization by having a “desk fairy” that gives a daily award for the most organized row of desks.

Use individual assignment charts or pads that can go home with the child to be signed daily by parents if necessary. Develop a clear system for keeping track of completed and uncompleted work such as having individual hanging files in which each child can place completed work and a special folder for uncompleted work.

Develop a color coding method for your room in which each subject is associated with a certain color that is the that subjects textbook cover and on the folder or workbook for that subject.

Develop a reward system for in-school work and homework completion. One example of a system that reinforces both work quality and work quantity involves translating points earned into “dollars” to be used for silent auction at the end of grading period. For children needing more immediate reinforcement, each completed assignment could earn the child a “raffle ticket” with her/his name on it . Prizes or special privileges could be awarded on the basis of a random drawing held daily or weekly.

Write schedule and timelines on the board each day. Provide due dates for assignments each day. Divide longer assignments into sections and provide due dates or times for the completion of each section.

Tape a checklist to the child’s desk or put one in each subject folder/notebook that outlines the steps in following directions or checking to be sure an assignment is complete. Provide study guides or outlines of the content you want the child to learn, or let the child build her/his own study guide with worksheets tat have been positively corrected.

Be clear about when student movement is permitted and when it is discouraged, such as during independent work times.

Your student should be encouraged to utilize assignment sheets, broken down by day and subject. He or his teachers can record assignments at the completion of each task. An organizing time at the end of each day can be helpful to gather the necessary materials for the assignments and develop a plan of action for completion. This will greatly aid the development of the “executive processes.”

Your student can become overwhelmed with floods of paper and be unable to find the needed materials. It is often helpful to carry only two work folders, one that contains work to be completed and one with work to be filed. Reviewing these work folders should become a regular part of the daily routine, with irrelevant work removed.
Some students now take a small dose of their medication when they come home from school to aid in studying/homework completion. Check with the doctor about the time period of maximum medication effectiveness to help set?up a sensible homework schedule.

Quite often, variability in work performance will be related to the teacher’s style and your student’s temperament. Teachers tend to instruct using their own preferential learning style. Sequential teachers may help by providing more structure for him but the teacher may become frustrated with his disorganization and behavior. Random teachers, while not providing external structure, may be more likely to utilize flexibility in adjusting to his needs. Attempt to place your student with teachers who have similar styles that have proven effective for their particular needs. Some teachers have received training in dealing with students with attentional problems that would make them a particularly effective resource.

One of the simplest interventions with the most power is to have an extra set of textbooks at home to minimize the problem of not having the necessary homework materials.
Since fine motor activities and spelling can be a problem, consider a major emphasis on using a word processor at an early age. Software to practice keyboarding should have stimulating graphics to motivate their use. Using a “spell check” program is critical.

Along with the “executive process” of organizing for homework at the end of the day, a daily check-in time at the beginning of the school day can be helpful in preparing for a successful day. Checking the previous night’s homework, highlighting changes in the daily schedule, and even pre?teaching some of the lessons for the day can ease stress.
Your student should have a regularly scheduled time for cleaning his desk at least once a week. This will improve his ability to find his materials. It may, however, require the assistance/instruction of an adult to make this a successful experience.

Hopefully these will help the ADHD students in your classroom to be more successful. You can learn more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder at the ADHD Information Library.

Douglas Cowan, Psy.D., is a family therapist who has been working with ADHD children and their families since 1986. He is the clinical director of the ADHD Information Library’s family of seven web sites, including http://www.newideas.net, helping over 350,000 parents and teachers learn more about ADHD each year. Dr. Cowan also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of VAXA International of Tampa, FL., is President of the Board of Directors for KAXL 88.3 FM in central California, and is President of NewIdeas.net Incorporated.

With MLM Leads, you will get honest and reliable network leads. You will have great prices and all of the promising clients that you can take on. When you are starting a home based business or any other type of new company, you will find that you will have to start somewhere with clients. You will have to find a way to get more and more clients and this is the way to start.

When you are choosing to work with MLM Leads, you are going to get a high level of satisfaction and guarantee. You will not have to worry about find a new and improved job market to sell to; you will have everything that you need at your fingertips. You will have a lot of leads and not have to pay a high cost for them.

The best part about choosing MLM leads is that you are getting great service at an affordable price for your company and you are not going to have to deal with the middleman. This is what is going to save you money for you new and upcoming business. Many leads turn into prospective customers and then will make a profit for the company. This is a great way to start for any newly formed company.

When you choose MLM leads you will fill out the appropriate paperwork online and then you will be all set up. All of the information that you are going to need will be mailed to you so that you are fully informed. You can view all of the promising leads and even download them on the spot. You will not find better and faster service than right here. You are going to be happy that you decided to go with the company that will service you the best and make you the most company.

With MLM Leads, you will even find that you can get a great list for phone prospects. This will help you spread the word about your business and get your foot in the door of most companies that are looking for your services. This is an awesome opportunity for any new and upcoming star in the business world. You will not have to worry about getting leads and great business adventures with MLM Leads.

You will not find satisfaction anywhere else like you will when you are using a great company like MLM Leads. You will have all of the customers and soon the money will be pouring in for your company to profit. You are not going to find another service to help you start and build up your customer cliental like that of MLM. Once you see what you can achieve, you will never want to use any other company again.

For more info visit: http://www.onlinecompany.org/

The author work with SEO and Adsense and delivers info on different kind of products. To find the best MLM Leads for you, the author provides a detailed website with info and resources on MLM Leads.

Valencia is famous for its wine production; many of its wines are exported overseas for use in restaurants, or for personal use. Valencia’s weather climate and soil consistencies form the perfect conditions for wine production.

Wine is a delicacy to be served with meals and on special occasions. Valencia is well known for its fiestas and celebrations throughout the year, so wine is often a part Valencia’s lifestyle.

Knowing which type of wine to select with your meal, or to give as a present is important, as you will want to compliment your dinner with the right wine, or surprise your guest with a wine that suits their tastes.

Essentially, there are types of wine and all of some of these are more suitable to certain types of foods than others. White wines usually go well with white meat dishes, such as fish and chicken, while red wines traditionally go with red meat and pasta dishes.

Generally, there are sweet and dry wines, which can be found in both white and red wine varieties. If you are looking for a sweet white wine you might choose a Riesling. Leaving the grapes on the grape vines for a longer period of time makes sweet wines.

When looking for a sweet red wine you might try a merlot, or a cabernet sauvignon, both of which a delightful sweet red wine varieties. If looking for a dry white wine, you might try a Pinot Noir, or Sauvignon Blanc and if looking for a dry red wine you might try a Shiraz.

All wines should be chilled either in a fridge, or bucket of ice, prior to drinking, as this allows you to derive the most benefit from the wines flavors and experience. Also, most consumable wines are designed to be drunk within a few years from being made, so if you are buying wine for your cellar, keep this in mind.

Well, now that you know a little bit more about wines, you can enjoy Valencia’s wines by making the right choices. Valencia wines can be sampled in its many restaurants and also at the Spanish Wine Festival, known as the ‘La Rioja Wine Festival’.

The ‘La Rioja Wine Festival’ Wine Festival is a celebration of Spanish wines and, during this time, there are events and wine tasting, dinners and lots of merriment. Valencia also holds many fiestas throughout the year, which feature food and wine, such as the ‘La Tomatina’ Fiesta and the ‘Fiesta Fallas de San Jose’.

P. Vermeeren is webmaster of http://www.about-valencia.com, the information site about Valencia , Spain as well as the owner of the martial arts and fitness portal http://www.kamikaze-portal.com

Appreciation rates for real estate have been phenomenal in many parts of the country for the last five years. This creation of massive amounts of equity has lead to interest in home equity loans.

Home Equity Lines of Credit - Be Careful

A home equity line of credit provides a homeowner with the liquid equivalent of a hard asset. Real estate has returned excellent rates of appreciation recently. This means the value of homes has risen, creating new wealth for homeowners. The problem, of course, is the wealth is locked into the home and difficult to use. After all, you cannot use a door to pay the bills. To answer this dilemma, lenders have come up with home equity lines of credit.

A home equity line of credit is exactly what it claims to be. Programs vary, but a lender essentially issues you a credit line roughly equal to the equity you have in your home. If you have $100,000 in equity, you get a $100,000 line you can write checks off of and so on. On top of this, the equity line is usually issued with very reasonable interest rates at or just above traditional mortgages. Throw in the ability to claim a tax deduction on the interest paid, and the popularity of home equity lines of credit becomes clear.

Americans are infamous for abusing credit cards. Most Americans carry thousands upon thousands of dollars in credit card debt. If you are not careful, credit card debt can lead to financial disaster. Interest rates on cards are astronomical. Monthly payments are so low that you never really make much headway on the debt if you don’t have the discipline to pay more than the stated amount. Inevitably, a person’s credit card balances will just continue to grow and grow.

A very high percentage of people use their home equity lines of credit to pay off credit card balances. This strategy absolutely makes sense. The interest rates are lower on the equity line and interest charged on the equity line is deductible. The decision is really a no brainer with one caveat.

If you transfer the thousands of dollars in credit card debt to an equity line, you must be careful. Just because your credit cards are free and clear, you should not consider it a license to go out and start making purchases on them. Doing so can lead to financial ruin where you have used up both the equity line and again have massive credit card debt. If you use an equity line to pay off credit card debt, make sure to cut up your credit cards or hide them somewhere so you do not run up the balances again.

Dan Lewis is with Great Western Mortgage - San Diego mortgage brokers.

We’ve seen and heard about the latest investing method on TV informercials, in newspapers and everywhere. It’s even said to be so easy it’s like taking cendy from a baby. They’re talking about tax liens and you should be vary wary.

Tax liens are liens placed against ones property by local counties and similar municipalities for non-payment of assessed property taxes. According to a website I just looked at its states that every county of every state sells these late or derogatory property tax bills for immediate funds after placing a tax lien against the property in question. This did use to be true in the past, but most states don not allow the public sale of property tax liens under any circumstance. One os these states is North Carolina. You cannot legally buy or profit from these sales in North Carolina. Yet these websites state you can - they just want your money for their kit $49 or more. They will take your money and run.

Upon further review over 37 states do not allow the public sale of these tax liens. Furthermore, even if they did the homestead laws in many states would suprecede any supposed foreclosing rights and make it so you could not evict these people from their homes for non-payment. Yet their advertisements state the opposite- good in any state. 5-25% guaranteed returns on every lien and most pay within 1 year, etc… These are all lies. The rule is this - if it sounds too good to be true than it is. If tax liens were such a great business than why isn’t everybody else in it? By the numbers propsed by these shows, infomercials, websites and similar and the fact that this idea has been around for over 5 years there should be many, many millionaires. Where are they?

This scam is similar to ISC (Invention Submission Corporation). They promise new inventors a patent and big royalties. Finally after thousands of coomplaints the FTC looked into many submission companies and found that most just lied, took money and didn’t deliver anything. It was a pure ripoff. This is the same. Keep your money. There is no money to be made by the property tax lien scam.

David Maillie is an alumni of Cornell University and specializes in biochemical synthesis for public, private, and governmental interests. He holds numerous patents and awards for his research. For more useful information please visit:
http://www.bestbraindrain.com

Because GardenDirect.co.uk was opened around 1996 it has with speed become one of a group of greatest mail order stockists of plants. And in the business’s twelve years which they have been doing business Garden Direct now have 2 million customers who have been drawn in by real convenience, great costs, top value for money & consistently high quality plants. Their stock are so wide ranging; the business are also year after year praised in their wide ranging shrub varieties that can be found continually brought to the recent range, and it furthermore includes garden shears and add ons that can help customers that can purchase the very greatest for their precious garden. The business sell more than 130 million superb quality plants each year, the massive majority farmed on their own nurseries, all this permits you yourself to be sure about the get and consider that what one have ordered is of the highest standard.

Garden Direct additionally give the choice of a catalogue aimed at one to investigate through or maybe get from in a bit of your own time. GardenDirect.co.uk sell a very good choice from classic favourites to more unique sorts folk can not observe within the best part of the garden outlets; the catalogue can often also incorporate a variety of seasonal special offers also. The online store sell different options of shrub plants that you could acquire from www.gardendirect.co.uk’s online store. Folk might well either go for a plug, ready or super seeding. Each of which are entirely different, plug plants, supplied 4-6cm tall in a plug of compost all of these can be found the best the greatest value for money, you then have the bigger set flower plants that are sold at at 6-8cm high & being more mature might often be planted straight into one’s garden, not forgetting you have super flower plants these are idyllic for folk who have less time to spare, distributed at 9-11cm tall they of course will often be directly planted into your precious garden. Click here for garden shears, garden loppers and other tools that will help you to make the most of your garden.

Along with shrub plants you have the accepted garden products that folk might often buy; the aforementioned consist of garden tools, garden sheds & garden shears along with many others.

The wide variety of Contact Lenses that are now available means that
almost anyone who would normally need to wear glasses can now
wear Contact Lenses instead. There are a number of benefits that
Contact Lenses have over glasses, here are just a few to convince you
that Contact Lenses are the better option:

Contact lenses obviously have no frames so they provide clear all-round
vision, unlike glasses which also have poor side vision. Contact lenses
are therefore much better for driving than glasses.

Glasses can be fairly weighty on your nose and ears whereas contact
lenses have no weight and are not always needing to be pushed back
up like glasses do.

Contact lenses do not fog up with changes in temperature like glasses
do. This can be especially annoying when opening the oven or in a
steamy bathroom.

If you wear eyeglasses then you need prescription sunglasses whereas
with contact lenses you can wear any sunglasses that take your fancy.

Contact lenses don’t give you problems with blurred vision in the rain or
snow as glasses can do. This is because the water does not collect on
your contact lenses.

A few things to watch out for when wearing Contact Lenses. Dont try to put them in after chopping chillies…seriously I did this and lived to regret my stupidity for a good few hours of eye watering pain!!!

When tired try not to rub your eyes too hard with your lenses in them as this can result in them folding over and again watery eyes can result and yes I have done this aswell!

One important thing to note is that however hard you try your lenses will not disappear round the back of your eye!!

Check out the deals and information available at http://www.ur-contact-lenses.com

Let’s say that you’re in charge of buying new computer equipment for your company. How would you get a salesperson to give you the lowest possible price? I would let the other person come in and have her go through her entire presentation. I would ask all the questions I could possibly think of and when I finally couldn’t think of another thing to ask, I would say, “I really appreciate all the time you’ve taken. You’ve obviously put a lot of work into this presentation, but unfortunately it’s just not the way we want to go; however I sure wish you the best of luck.” I would pause to examine the crestfallen expression on the salesperson’s face. I would watch her slowly package her presentation materials. Then at the very last moment, just as her hand hit the doorknob on the way out, I would come back with this magic expression.

There are some magic expressions in negotiating. If you use them at exactly the right moment, the predictability of the other person’s response is amazing. I would say, “You know, I really do appreciate the time you took with me. Just to be fair to you, what is the very lowest price that you would take?”

Would you agree with me that it’s a good bet that the first price the salesperson quoted is not the real bottom line? Sure, it’s a good bet. The first price a salesperson quotes is what I call the “wish number.” This is what she is wishing the other person would do. If the other person said okay to that, she would probably burn rubber all the way back to her sales office and run in screaming, “You can’t believe what just happened to me. I was over at XYZ Company to make a bid on the computer equipment they need for their new headquarters. I went over the proposal and they said, ‘What’s your absolute bottom line price?’ I was feeling good so I said, ‘We never budge off list price less a quantity discount, so the bottom line is $225,000,’ and held my breath. The president said, ‘It sounds high, but if that’s the best you can do, go ahead and ship it.’ I can’t believe it. Let’s close the office and go celebrate.” So, the first price quoted is what I call the wish price.

Somewhere out there, as the song says, there’s a “walk-away” price. A price at which the salesperson will not or cannot sell. The other person doesn’t know what the walk-away price is, so he or she has to do some probing, some seeking of information. He or she has to try some negotiating Gambits to see if they can figure out the salesperson’s walk-away price.

When you play Reluctant Buyer, the salesperson is not going to come all the way from the wish price to the walk-away price. Here’s what will typically happen. When you play Reluctant Buyer, the salesperson will typically give away half of his or her negotiating range. If that computer salesperson knows that bottom line is $175,000, $50,000 below the list price, he will typically respond to the Reluctant Buyer Gambit with, “Well, I tell you what. It’s the end of our quarter, and we’re in a sales contest. If you’ll place the order today, I’ll give it to you for the unbelievably low price of $200,000.” He’ll give away half his negotiating range, just because you played Reluctant Buyer.

Remember that when people do this kind of thing to you, that it’s just a game that they are playing on you. Power Negotiators don’t get upset about it. They just learn to play the negotiating game better than the other side.

Key points to remember:

Look out for the Reluctant Buyer.

Playing this Gambit is a great way to squeeze the other side’s negotiating range before the negotiation even starts.

The other person will typically give away half his or her negotiating range just because you use this.

Roger Dawson

Founder of the Power Negotiating Institute

800-932-9766

RogDawson@aol.com

http://www.rdawson.com

Roger Dawson is the author of two of Nightingale-Conant’s best selling audiocassette programs, Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople. This article is excerpted in part from Roger Dawson’s new book - “Secrets of Power Negotiating”, published by Career Press and on sale in bookstores everywhere for $24.99.

Pay per click or search engine optimization, which one should you use? Many view PPC marketing as a colossal waste of money while others disdain search engine optimization. In reality, the two marketing strategies form a perfect marriage.

Pay-Per-Click - PPC

PPC marketing is a love it or hate platform. For the “love it” crowd, PPC marketing is a way to get instant exposure and feedback on site designs. In a matter of minutes, you can start receiving traffic and adjusting your site to convert the traffic at the best rate possible. For those in the “hate it” crowd, bids are to high and one never knows how may of the clicks are fake and worthless.

Search Engine Optimization - SEO

As with PPC, seo marketing has its proponents and detractors. Those who love it look at the free traffic and glorious profitability of a site that converts the traffic at a decent rate. Detractors view seo as an unnecessary waste of time since it can take a year or more to get high rankings, particularly on Google. Detractors also argue that high listings are subject to changes in the search engine ranking process, which means you can lose your rankings.

So, who is right? In truth, both sides make accurate arguments. PPC is expensive and click fraud is a monstrous problem. Seo produces free traffic, but it takes along time to get to the top and rankings are subject to the whims of search engine ranking changes. The truth, of course, is both marketing platforms should be used whenever possible.

Marketing Marriage

Every site is unique, but most should combine PPC and seo marketing as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. When starting out, the PPC campaign is critical for getting immediate traffic and tweaking the site to maximize conversions. At the same time, a seo campaign should be undertaken. As the site rises in search results, the PPC campaign should be fazed out for the relevant high listings.

PPC and seo marketing are not mutually exclusive. When married together as part of an overall marketing strategy, both platforms will deliver the goods.

Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm - www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company.