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The internet is an extremely over-hyped area of opportunity but here are several tested, proven, practical and almost universally valuable uses.

To begin, you need to create a website for your business, not so much as a means of acquiring customers via cyberspace, but a customer service, education, and information center. For example, your website could offer answers to all the commonly asked questions, diagrams, etc. accessible free, 24 hours a day. You could even make a portion of your site “access restricted,” for customers, clients, subscribers, or “members” only, adding mystique to your marketing, and adding perceived value for your clientele!

This technique would work whether you have a brick and mortar or internet based business. For example, a restaurant could do this with “secret recipes” and special VIP offers; a clothing retailer with etiquette and fashion tips and special offers, and so on. Of course, you’ll also want a promotional area on your website designed for new customers and you’ll then want to add your website address to video brochures, audio recordings and infomercials for your advertising and marketing materials.

Second, begin collecting and organizing the email addresses of your customers and collecting the email address of visitors to your site. Try fax by email

With the list, you can do virtually free, push button marketing anytime you like, as often as you like. You can send out an email newsletter to your customers, or other information like tip sheets.

Let’s say you have a rather ordinary business; kitchen and bath business, for example. Here are a few of the things you might transmit by email to your customer list:

1. Resources to upgrade your countertops to granite or marble
2. Cabinet grade tips and suggestions
3. Special offers for new plumbing fixtures
4. Tips on determining the grade of cabinet materials
5. New product information

Keep in mind, regardless of your business or product you can use the above techniques for creating and marketing your website and business.

Third, in seeking publicity from the media, being able to fax, email or mail very brief, provocative news releases that refer the recipients to your website for more information is very useful.

Everybody in the media is online. And, some are lazy, so if they can research a story without leaving their chair, believe me, that’s the way they’re going to do it. If you go the route of writing articles for publication in your industry journals or article forums, you can even post a whole collection of them on your site, and invite any publication to download and use whatever they like. Try fax by email

In summary of my advice to most business owners about the internet: do Not be seduced, do Not buy into the hype and expect miracles or invest inordinate amounts of time or money. Do Not let the internet take away from your commitment to more reliable, predictable, results-measurable advertising and marketing media. But DO get involved. At whatever pace is comfortable for you, begin learning about the internet, getting your business on the Net, and experimenting with practical applications like those just described. Proceed calmly, deliberately, strategically.

Above all else, Just Do It! Try fax by email

One of the keys to building a successful home business is getting involved with it at a level where you become immersed in it. That means you can’t go at it half-hearted.

The other key and this ties in with the above is you need to step into your prospects shoes. That is, you need to be thinking like your prospect and by doing this you will quickly begin to see what they really want.

Too many network marketers take the half-hearted approach. Yes, the idea and concept is understood and they know with a little effort they can make money and build a successful home business but it’s this point in time where they need to add the effort factor to their business.

Then there’s the other factor; not really knowing what the prospect wants and forgetting to put themselves in their shoes. This leads to premature sales pitches which come across as “I don’t care what you want. You should take a look at this otherwise you’ll be sorry.”

Well, this approach will lose you most of your prospects and the ones who eventually join will be on the backfoot because they’ll adopt your style of recruiting and run into the same attrition rate you’re experiencing.

What Your Prospect Really Wants

But what about the missing puzzle many seem to overlook. Let’s go back to the beginning and ask again…”Do you really know what your prospect wants?” Most network marketers want the usual things; to be able to work from home and get rid of the J.O.B., financial freedom and to be able to take lots of vacations.

They are great wants but superficial. Many mistake these as their prospects wants without really stopping for a minute to find out what they really want. Here’s a clue. A prospect enters your funnel and sees an opportunity which interests them. They also have long term desires such as the ones we’ve mentioned.

That’s a start and an end. What about the important gap in the middle? Have you filled in the main story line? And that is the crucial missing puzzle of what a prospect really wants. They want to know how they are going to go from start to finish and if you can’t tell them then you can kiss them goodbye.

The majority of us want the same things, that’s a given but most people don’t know how to get them. They want to know how and that’s where many network marketers fall down when trying to build a successful home business.

The Importance Of A Strong Marketing System

So what’s the how? That’s simple. It’s the marketing system your implementing in your network marketing business. It’s the missing puzzle in getting someone from interested to achieving their ultimate dreams.

Too many network marketers are blinded by such things as how great the company is, how good the products are, the compensation plan and the timing of an opportunity. That’s all well and good but does that show someone how to get what they want in their drive to financial freedom?

Building a successful home business starts with attracting prospects into your funnel however, once they are there, you need to satisfy their most important question…how are they going to achieve their goals?

The best way to do that is to present them with a good marketing system which confirms the initial message they saw to respond to you. It’s the how they are looking for.

The call center industry is one that is continuously hiring. As a call center agent you will be expected to undergo call center training to prepare you to handle customer issues and problems. You should know a few things before beginning your training. You have to know the difference between working in an inbound call center, as opposed to an outbound call center. Knowing the difference is fundamental in realizing your expected job duties.

Call center training will differ depending on what type of call center agent you will be. If you are an inbound agent, then you will be fielding calls from customers calling in who have issues, concerns or want general information about the company’s product. The outbound customer service agent will act more like a salesperson. They also may be part of a billing department attempting to collect past due monies owed to the company.

Most careers in call centers offer decent pay and benefits but there are some minuses to tally in your plus and minus columns. The first is that you will have to get used to call recording or monitoring. Call center management teams utilize this as a way to ensure that quality assurance practices are being met. They use this tool as a means of training and showing employees what they are doing wrong or right on a call. You should assume that every call is being listened in on so that you will remain in the habit of always following the set script when speaking to and answering questions from customers.

Something else you can expect to have is very strict time schedules. Call center scheduling will only allow you to be off the phones for a specific amount of minutes. Most companies are becoming very strict in enforcing these times and you could find yourself being penalized for being late from break or lunch. If you are not used to working within this kind of environment, then you may want to consider finding employment in a more laid back work place.

So what can you expect with call center training? You can expect to have a short training period before being turned loose on the phones. But it is not all bad if you factor in the pay and the benefits. If you find that both are falling short of your expectations, then it might be best to move on and find yourself a different job. Working in a call center is not for everyone. It takes a special kind of personality to be able to pull it off successfully.