Hello Friends & Colleagues,
Here's a peek at what's inside this issue:
Feature Article - Which one are you?
Zack Speaks - On your mark, get set...
To ensure Insights is delivered to your Inbox, be sure to add
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to your whitelist or address book in your e-mail program, so that you have no trouble receiving future issues! For helpful how-to hints, go to www.slamdunksystems.com/whitelist-us
In honor and memory of one of the true greats of business and motivational teaching, Jim Rohn, who passed away recently, we'd like to offer these gems:
On Personal Development:
"Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got."
On Leadership/Management:
"Good people are found, not changed. Recently I read a headline that said, 'We don't teach our people to be nice. We simply hire nice people.' Wow! What a clever shortcut."
On Activity/Labor:
"The soil says, 'Don't bring me your need. Bring me your seed.'"
On Desire/Motivation:
"When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you'll find a way to get it."
On Knowledge/Education:
"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around."
On Results/Success:
"My goal is to translate response into results. Some teachers teach for others to learn. That's not me. Some teachers teach for others to accomplish. That is me."
Thanks, Mr. Rohn, for all you taught us.
To your best success,
Dom & Kerry Cassone
P.S. Please forward this publication to your friends and colleagues. Invite them to subscribe as well: www.SlamDunkSystems.com
P.P.S. We’d love to hear your feedback or questions anytime. You can reach us at 508-393-7726 or
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What Are You Doing to Prepare for an Awesome 2010?
Hello adoring fans…and the number of you is growing by the minute! I know what you are saying…. Thanksgiving is just barely over, it isn’t even Christmas yet and Zack wants me to start thinking about 2010. Yep, that’s part of my job and my charm to challenge you like Dom & Kerry challenge me.
But why am I really starting so early? Well, for a couple of reasons. Most people shut down partially between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then shut down totally between Christmas and New Year's. Then they try to pick up anew on January 4th, but they are not prepared.
Now, before I start getting hate mail (which I never do, my fans love me!) I am NOT saying not to enjoy the holiday. You should abolutely take time to relax, recharge, enjoy being with your family and celebrate any traditions that you have for this time of year. Please do that and be fully involved with that.
What I AM saying is that if you want to be far ahead of your competition you need to spend some time now, so after you are regenerated, you are ready to hit the ground running. Otherwise, you take all that renewed energy and have nowhere to direct it.
As a bird, I don’t really get why January 1st is such a big deal, because anytime is a good time to look back to see what you have accomplished and figure out where you are going. But you people seem to place a special significance to the first of the year, so I am going along with the flow for once.
By the way, I have been told that Dom got some great advice from Bill Harris of Centerpointe Research about measuring your progress as you review the previous year. Bill says you should never judge your progress by the ideal, because it will always look very far off (sort of like looking at the horizon and as you move toward it, it is ALWAYS the same distance away). Instead, he suggests that you look back from where you are to where you were. That way you can see how much progress you really made.
Anyway, to help you get started, I have asked Dom & Kerry to attach a Goal Setting document to this issue of Insights (I don’t really understand all this stuff, but they do). This document was adapted from the work of Jim Rohn, who was a great man who died a few weeks ago. His contributions will be missed!
In case you are interested, since everyone else is doing it, here is the start of my New Year's Resolutions:
- More Peanuts
- More Brazil Nuts
- More time out of my cage
- More snacks of all types
- I will scream less
- I will behave better
- I will start doing chores
The first four will be easy, but I’m not sure I can really do the last three….I may decide that I tried to make too many changes at once and drop the last three.
Hanging out on my perch till next time,
Well, Which Are You?
by Dom Cassone
In Zack’s last article she talked about being a welcomed guest instead of an annoying pest. So, my question to you is “Which one are you to your clients & prospects?” Have you thought about it since Zack’s article? Have decided which you would rather be? She certainly got me thinking.
Here are some criteria that you might use to help you decide:
- We all know that regular communication with our clients/customers is important (remember, you lose 10% of your influence with your clients for each month you do not communicate with them), but how are you communicating with them?
- Are you blasting them with nothing but sales pitches? (Annoying pest)
- Or are you giving them some useful information when you contact them? (Welcomed guest)
- If you communicate with them via email, do you give them an easy way to opt-out of further emails? I know that you can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want your words of wisdom, but some may not. By the way, it is the law to have an opt-out link in all commercial emails. However, I can tell you that I get stuff that I don’t even know how I was put on the list and can’t figure out how to get off....definitely an Annoying Pest!
- If you are a retail business, where customers come in, or a business where prospects call you on the phone. How do you treat them?
- Are you or your sales people driving them hard for the sale immediately (Annoying pest)?
- Or do you answer their questions listen to their needs, build a relationship and let then know why what you offer is the best solution to solve THEIR problem?
- How about your business practices and the appearance of your store (on-line or brick & mortar). As Sydney Barrows says, “What are the holes in your bridge that prospects have to cross to become customers?”
- Are you hard to do business with? Do you make your customers jump through unnecessary hoops to buy from you? Is it hard to actually buy something from your website (“Where is the CheckOut button?”)? Is your store so disorganized that customers can’t find what they are looking for or can’t move around in the store? (Annoying Pest)
- Or are you easy to do business with? Simple buying processes, clear and easy to navigate websites, well lit, clean and well laid out store, etc. (Welcomed guest)
This list could go on and on, but you get idea….In all aspects of your business, you want to become a Welcomed Guest.
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Contact Dom at 508-393-7726 ext 3# or
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Disclaimer
Is creating the business of your dreams giving you headaches? Does the thought of making technology, systems, and marketing work FOR you, not AGAINST you, keep you up nights? Would you give your right arm for someone who can help you put it all together faster, better, more effectively, and more creatively?
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Entrepreneurs tend to try to be the be-all and end-all for their businesses. We kid ourselves into believing that we can do it better than anyone else... so we keep doing it all. Then we hit the wall. Sound familiar? There are only so many hours in a day, only so many brain cells that function before you through up your hands in desperation. That's when you need Zacaw. Or maybe you'll realize you need us BEFORE you hit the wall.
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