The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission regulations governing the National Do Not Call Registry went into effect nationwide in the U.S. in October 2003. The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule covers calls made across state lines Read more (members only)

You know how critical it is to follow up your initial contacts or mailings with a personal phone call, but somehow your list of calls to make always seems to get longer instead of shorter. Days or even weeks go by before you place important calls, and there always seems to be Read more (members only)

When you think of networking what comes to mind? Going to mixers? Attending business meetings? Meeting new people? Collecting business cards? Eating and drinking? Seeing friends? All of the above? Read more (members only)

If you’ve been networking for a while, you most likely have a long list of people you want to connect with on a regular basis. There’s the initial follow-up you do after you first meet someone, but what are you doing to ensure that people will remember you months or even years from now Read more (members only)

We spend a significant amount of our sales and marketing effort on filling the pipeline with prospects and following up with them. With a full pipeline and consistent follow-up, you are bound to make plenty of sales, right? Well, much of the time that’s true. Finding the right people to contact, Read more (members only)

When you look at your marketing to-do list, do many of the items on it look all too familiar? Have entries like “call Donna Sanchez” and “follow up with Floyd Corp.” been copied from a previous week? Putting off unappealing tasks may be human nature, but for an entrepreneur, Read more (members only)

Once you’ve decided on a networking event to attend, what can you do to prepare for a positive and productive networking experience? Here are seven pre-event planning steps to help you feel more confident when you enter the room. Read more (members only)

What does nearly every independent professional wish for when marketing for new clients? They wish they could see results faster. Time is the worst enemy of a small business owner. I’m convinced that the day I chose to open my business, the clock started Read more (members only)

A question I often get from clients and students goes something like this: “I’ve been collecting marketing ideas… and I have a drawer full! I also have a stack of promising leads I’ve accumulated. And I know it’s important to stay visible, so I do a lot of Read more (members only)

In this audio interview hosted by Cole Silver, author of How to Create Wealth and Freedom in Your Law Practice, C.J. describes key sales and marketing strategies for professionals, beginning with the core principle that you’ve “gotta have a system” Read more (members only)

It often happens that we follow up with prospects multiple times without getting a response. If you call them, email them, and send them letters, but you never get through or hear back, at what point should you scratch them off the list and move on? The rule I’ve always used to make this decision is: evaluate the value of the potential sale. Read more (members only)

Doing a good job at follow-up is a piece of cake. You just capture every lead or potential referral partner you run across, then place a call or send them something, or both. If you don’t make a sale right away, you calendar them for the next follow-up and do the same thing again. Pretty straightforward, isn’t it? So why is follow-up such a problem? Read more (members only)