With Black Friday backing up to Thursday for some businesses and Christmas now getting close, a lot of people are buying things online. Here is something a bit disturbing and some suggestions to work around it.
Yes Virginia, it is true, many online stores are charging different amounts for the same merchandise. It can depend on your location (reported by your internet provider) or whether you use a mobile or desktop device. It can even depend on your cookies. It turns out that Victoria's Secret was she had different prices for people depending on their location and other factors. Once that secret was out, it wasn't long until we found out that many other companies do the same. How do you get the lower price and maybe even treated a bit more fairly? Here are some tips: 1. Try pricing the same thing from the same business online with both a desktop and a mobile device. You may see a real difference in price. 2. Keep your browser open to the page with your item and price, so if you do this you won't lose that price if it is lower and then clear your cookies and open another browser tab and check again. You might see a higher price, but you could see a lower price. 3. If you have a VPN, a virtual private network, then try going to the online store through that. It frustrates the location pricing strategy for the company. 4. Check with a friend's computer or mobile device or even have a friend or relative living in another state check the price. 5. Clear your cookies and try at a different time of day. Yes, some stores have different prices for different days and different times of the day. 6. Before you buy, google promo codes and see if you can find a promo code to lower your price or get free shipping that you can use when you check out. There are many promo code sites on the web now. Some good, some not so good. I don't like giving them information to get the codes, but you might consider using a throw away email address if you see something you want on one of the websites that require you to sign up. Happy Shopping, Scott Hogue CChH
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I have a not so smart, smart tv. The picture is great. The screen is big. It is from one of those name brand companies that make things that blow up. But the problem is, the apps. In fact even the internet is a problem.
When I first got it in no time it was locking up and you had to repeatedly turn it off and restart it. A call to tech support found an app failed to update and it was the problem. Then the internet settings were no longer compatible. I had to change them. Then some of the apps quit and I was told that was normal. That they just are no longer supported on your television. What about upgrades, updates and firmware revisions? Not applicable for my apps. I was "orphaned." After another 45 minutes today trying to get the thing online so I could watch tv during breakfast, which was pretty cold after that, I decided to make a move... I will be getting a streaming box for my smart television and bypassing the "smart" functions. It turns out you can save some money doing that. You can buy a nice old dumb television with a really nice picture and then for $29 to $129 buy a streaming box, even with gaming to hook up and be the smart box for your dumb, but with pretty picture television. Amazon has one that comes with a gaming controller and good reviews and roku has several solutions for the cord cutters leaving cable tv. I still have an old roku on one of my televisions. We went for the Friday prime special and got it for $79 with the shipping and other perks. I think I will get the Amazon streaming box with gaming, my grandson is a master crafter at mindcraft. And if that streaming box locks up....well if you are interested, the box will be in my garbage can. best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH You may have heard the saying that A students in school work for the C and D students in the world. It turns out that in a lot of ways that is true.
Angela Duckworth, the author of "Grit" tells us that just because people learn quickly and easily, that doesn't mean they will use that ability in the real world to excel. When things come easy to a person, they may not learn how to persist and work through their struggles. They may not develop "Grit." West Point, the Marines, troubled high schools. even sales organizations, all have tried to figure out who will make it and who will not. School scores and grades, IQ tests, personality tests and more have not been helpful. It turns out the missing link is the "Grit" Quotient, not their Intelligence Quotient. A students can develop a sense of deserving and if things don't go their way they can feel life is unfair. On the other hand, students that have had to fight for every grade point, letter grade and grade level often develop a "Grit," a stick to it ness that keeps them on the job long after others have quit. When they asked Isaac Newton how he came up with his amazing insights and ideas, thinking he would say he had a method or some magical system, even that he had powers that others didn't have, he said, "I think about these things an awful lot." Newton stuck to the problem long after others said, "let's get a bite to eat and try again Monday." Newton even missed meals, almost starving himself when working on the physical and mathematical problems he was obsessed with. It turns out that "Grit" is a better factor to use when predicting success than any other single factor we currently have. The good news is "Grit" is largely a decision. "Grit" is deciding to stay with something no matter what and see it through. "Grit" is deciding that the status quo is not acceptable and doing what it takes to change it. "Grit" is keeping the reward in front of you, the prize before your eyes. "Grit" is knowing the alternative is worse than the effort needed to change. "Grit" is realizing we are only here a little while and making that little while count. The funny thing about "Grit" is if you don't have it, you can get it from yourself. From within. best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH Jim Rohn said he had pennies in his pockets, no money in the bank and was behind on his bills until he figured this one thing out: What was holding him back?
Then he took off like a rocket and became a young millionaire. I have traveled all around the world and I am persuaded that our greatest limits in life are our self limits or self limitations. We live in a Cause and Effect world. You do the same things someone else does and do them in the same way and you have to get the same results. People argue with me on that and I don't look down on them. We are raised and exposed socially to a lot of superstition. If your neighbor or Bill Gates or the CEO of Union Exxon planted corn they would get corn in return, If you planted corn you would get corn in return just the same, not tomatoes, beans or radishes. Believing otherwise would just be supersitious. That means if you aren't where you want to be you aren't doing the things that took other people there. You may have some good reasons and I certainly won't judge you, but you can have excuses or results. You can't have both. So what is holding you back? Some say knowledge, they don't have the knowledge they need. We live in the information age. Not knowing is not a valid excuse. You can find out. If you don't know what you need to know, the first step is to find out. Get that knowledge! The truth is we know what really holds people back. The top two things in surveys are: 1. Fear based on a lack of belief in their own ability. 2. Overwhelm, people just don't know where to start. How do you overcome the fear? Several ways, find a mentor, someone that is doing what you want to do and work with them. Look around and see people that are not as gifted as you doing more than you do and realize you have the ability. If they can succeed you can succeed. Listen to motivation and inspirational material, read success books, crowd out the negative with the positive. Have more "can do" in your life than "can't do." Feel the fear and do it anyway. Do this a few times and the fear just goes away. Try this to change your life in a week and if you do it, see if you aren't on a new track in just seven days. 1. Figure out what you want in life. 2. Figure out what is holding you back. 3. Deal with the issue that is holding you back in baby steps everyday. Just take some action to overcome it everyday. I suggest people keep a journal. I think I lived the same year over five times before I started journaling and learned how to move on and not repeat one day over and over again for five years. Review the day, count your progress, plan tomorrow based on today, build on today and get from the day, not just try to get through the day, but get from the day. Get knowledge, experience, progress, hope, rewards, ideas, feelings, life. Check yourself in a week and see if you don't feel differently about yourself, your goal and your progress. best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH Here is how to get into a business that is successful, satisfying and profitable. Nut Shell Version (NSV)
Six Steps To A Satisfying and Profitable Business: 1. Understand that business is about helping people. 2. Figure out who you are. 3. Figure out how the ideal YOU can help people and enjoy it. 4. Figure out how to trade that help for money. 5. Find or create a platform for that exchange. 6. Promote that platform. The sad secret is that there are two things you must know to succeed in business: 1. The thing you are doing to help people. 2. How to promote that thing, in other words marketing. There are millions and probably billions of people that have some skill, knowledge, point of view, story, or other resource that people would buy and benefit from if they only could. The sad thing is these people know or have their "Thing," but they don't have any marketing skill or knowledge so they struggle in life and people are not helped. If you want to help people and you want to make money, study marketing. I see people that are too good or too "holy" to lower themselves to marketing, they have more important and more valuable things to do than learn marketing. The problem is without marketing they will only reach a fraction of the people they could reach and help with good messaging. That is it in a nut shell. I will try to expand on it in the future. best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH What do you do better than anyone you know?
Bake a cake, teach a child to tie their shoes, fly vintage aircraft, paint windows, perform a martial arts move, read a stock report, set up a computer network, write a blog on a specific subject, organize a room, coach little league baseball, organize a car pool, make sand castles, create reports at work for management decisions, set up an iphone, coordinate clothing and outfits, pour concrete, explain algebra, run a marathon, find the best price on items, match people for relationships, create graphics that convey messages, train dogs, narrate books, catch catfish, arrange flowers, balance a check book, plan an event? What is your Super Power? Here are three important points that apply to you and your Super Power: 1. People want to do things. 2. They need help. 3. They will pay for someone to help them. When I found out that Shoe tying coaches that teach children to tie their shoes make $50,000 or more, I realized that everyone knows something, can do something or has an interest that can make them money. I have a friend that loves horses. How do you make money loving horses? He does it by taking people on trail rides and tours on horse back in his business. He will be retiring soon, but he is keeping the horses. He loves his work so much that he is taking the horse into retirement with him. Did you know you can make money writing a book on how to bake cakes when your oven doesn't work? I heard of a woman that did that. She barely got by with her bills by baking and selling cakes when her oven went out. She didn't have the money to fix it or get a new one. Somehow she got the idea she could write a book about cakes and sell it online. Soon she was back in the money and had a new oven. This time she not only baked cakes, but went into the cake baking teaching business. I know several people that lost their job due to downsizing that went on to become consultants in their industry. Losing their jobs was the best thing that could happen to them. One man said that his company kept all of his work when they fired him, but they couldn't keep any of his knowledge. Here is what it comes down to. Honest business is about helping people. Figure out who you are, where your interests are and what you either can do or are interested in learning to do. Then make a business helping people with that. Some things are more in demand than others, but there are meditation coaches that make very good livings and hair stylists for cats and not just any cat, but Persian cats only and they make a good living too. Tell yourself that if you can make a good living by styling the hair on Persian cats, then you have plenty to offer the world to make your living! Somebody wants to know how to do what you know to do or have the benefit from what you do. Find them and you are in business! best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH I will probably get some bad responses on this one, but I call them like I see them. I just read a news article where a man celebrated working for McDonald's for 59 years. Not a manager, not an owner, just worked at McDonald's for 59 years. With all of the bad news in the world, that may have struck me as the saddest. My daughter, while working in another fast food restaurant became an X ray tech in about two years. In just less than three more years she has added several certificates and abilities to her list and is now a clinical coordinator. She is in such demand she has to turn down work to get a little rest and see her family. She will never have to drop fries in the fryer, car hop in the wet and cold or ask if you want to supersize that again. I have a friend that took a job as an insurance salesman, got all the training he could get and in just over two years became a territorial United State rep for a foreign pharmaceutical company and is making a very, very nice salary with bonuses and benefits, including health and retirement packages. I am working with a man that in about 18 months and starting from scratch made a six figure income internet business and after several more years is now doing quite well for himself and his family. He could just work a few hours a week and keep it going or sell it to another individual or company, but in either case he and his family need never worry about money. When I lost my job unexpectedly after moving here and buying a house with a mortgage I was paying all of my bills from the vending company I started and in less than three months. I was reading where a best selling novel was written on a cell phone "Deep Love" and it sold over 2.6 million copies. The author wrote it on his cell phone over a few months as he rode the bus to work and home. What could this man have done with his life instead of clean a McDonald's? Tolstoy wrote the first draft of "War and Peace" in just over a year, The question is not just what could he have done, but what will he do? What kind of retirement do you get from McDonald's? The answer is a working retirement and if you are working you aren't retired at all. Pretty sad. So what are you doing with your life? Best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH There are only two practical reasons people don't buy from you. Here they are: 1. They don't want what you are selling. and 2. They don't want what you are selling. Let's look at that. One of the ideas common sales training teaches is that people don't buy things they don't need. In fact you often see "No Need" on a list of sales objections. Do people really buy only things they need? Do people really need a sports car, a widescreen television and the latest Iphone? You know they really don't "need" them, but those markets still prosper, even during recessions. The old example is people with cats don't buy dog food, but my wife has. She is a super shopper and when dog food is on sale and she has coupons, she is going to buy dog food for the neighbor's dog. She surely doesn't need dog food and our cat doesn't need dog food, but she wants it and she buys it. Want beats need every time. What about money? People don't buy if they don't have the money do they? Twenty years ago when I bought this house I am living and working in I didn't have all of the money so I took out a loan. I hear a lot of people have home mortgages. How many Iphones are paid for with cash and how many are on some payment plan? People buy things they can't afford every day. It happens every day in every town and city in America and most of the world. The real reason people don't buy from you when you offer your product or service to them is they don't want it. At least not enough to trouble over it. Like all equations there are two sides to this. You can work on making them want your product or service. or You can offer something they already have a strong desire for. Something they really want. Of course it doesn't hurt to do both. With this insight, look over your business. What are you doing to help your prospect want your product or service? Where can you do more? Are you talking a lot about features or are you promoting real benefits to your prospect? Do you have any testimonies of people happy with your products? Do you work on eliminating the reasons they don't want your products? Do you need a product or service that is simply in more demand? This is one of those key areas where a little work and probably not much money invested can pay back significantly to your bottom line. Best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH I was listening to the radio in the car today and realized the advertiser new this technique. They were selling an internet business bundle with television and phone. So what technique were they using that can easily double your sales when added? They were using the excuse method. You first must give your prospect a reason to buy, the television part of the bundle, the sports games, the holiday shows, you know, reasons to want the service. Then you must give your prospect an excuse to buy. After the details on the television and all the wonderful channels, the commercial said something like, "Give your business the edge through faster business internet." I have worked with a a lot of companies and I have to say I haven't seen one that the answer to their financial problems was they only needed a faster internet connection. To maximize sales you must first give your prospects a reason to buy and then an excuse to buy. Some reason they can justify making the purchase. You may want the internet business package for the extra channels and all the neat features, but you can justify it by saying it will give your business an edge through the faster internet connection. Take upscale car sales. Leather seats, a sound system better than you have at home, Zero to sixty in less time that it takes to change stations on the radio. Multiple heating and cooling zones to ensure your comfort and that of your passengers. You want the car because it is cool. A smart salesperson will tell you it got the best safety rating in its class. That will be the excuse you can use to buy it. It you aren't giving your clients excuses for buying from you, then you can easily double your sales when you hit on the right ones. Best and be blest, Scott Hogue CChH I look at online offers and just about any offer or advertising that comes along. I have a few market test email addresses I use for those purposes and I buy this and that to see what people are up to. I try to keep up with the best ideas and use them with my clients. Recently I got an offer from a marketer for a free book if I just payed the shipping. I have done this before and got some nice hardback books and a few pretty nice paperback books. I am actually thinking of doing an offer like this and the chance came along at a good time for me, so I ordered. I went to the mailbox today on the way to town and in the mail I saw a large, but thin envelope. I wondered what it was. It was the "Book." About twenty sheets, slick back and front with a few words on the front and not even a barcode on the back. I open it and it is double spaced with a lot of room between the lines of print. Oh, and the margins at the top and bottom of the pages are wide borders of empty space. I haven't read it yet, just thumbed through it. Of course it might have some really interesting and useful information, but it is packaged poorly. There is an old classic advertisement that shows a pile of potato chips on a table, not even in a plate, just on the table and beside it there is a bag of chips with a nice picture on the front. In big letters the question "Which Would You Buy?" was at the top of the picture and "Packaging Is Everything!" was at the bottom. I came home and this gentleman had an email in my inbox wanting me to buy his latest program. What do you think I was thinking? I wondered if he put as much effort into it as he did the cover and packing of the information in the book was what I was thinking. If I ordered his material would it come in such a small stack it would slide under the door? The take away here is Do You Deliver? Does your delivery live up to your sales offer and hype? I don't feel this man's delivery did. It looks pretty sick beside of the hardcover books about three quarters of an inch thick that I got in similar "Pay the Shipping" offers. Now everything I see or hear from him will be framed by my not so hot experience with his book. Your first exposure to a new client or prospect is extremely important. Try to over deliver and at least deliver. Under deliver and you are cold toast. To your great success, Scott Hogue CChH |
AuthorScott Hogue is a Strategic Life Coach, an Author and a Certified Christian Hypnotist. Archives
September 2017
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