1. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the customer.
You could follow-up with a “thank you” email and include an
advertisement for other products you sell. You could follow-up
every few months.

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your
order page, tell them about a few extra related products you
have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web
site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price.
This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of
joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions
selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You
could include an ad on or with the product for other products
you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and
sales on the back end product.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses’
products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for
other products you sell and have other businesses selling for
you.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon
for other related products you sell in the package. This will
attract them to buy more products from you.

8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the
original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special
services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will
buy the extra add-ons.

9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You’ll make sales
from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient
cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

10. Send your customers free products with their product
package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It
could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will
allow other people to see your ad and order.

Selling is a little like being drunk.

You say and do things in the heat of the moment that might come back to haunt you.

For instance, it’s easy to make grandiose promises, vague pronouncements such as: “We stand behind our products 100%!”

Of course you do; otherwise, you might stand beside them or in front of them, obscuring everyone’s view.

To prospects, it sounds like you just made an unconditional guarantee.

What if your widget breaks or your gizmo grinds to a halt, say five years down the line? Where are you going to be standing, then, in the defendant’s box in court, disclaiming responsibility?

I know, some buyers are influential and charming and disarming.

Full of smiles, being ultra-nice, as he asks for a discount, you might be tempted to reciprocate and be a good old boy and collapse your margins or commissions right there, on the spot.

“Why did I agree to that?” you wonder later on, in the bright glare of your office’s overhead lights.

You might con yourself with the thought, “Sure, I’m losing money on this unit, but I’ll make it up on volume!” or “This one will make a fine testimonial and by selling her, the rest in her industry will follow!”

Of course, it’s nonsense. In bar-speak, you’ve had more than one too many.

So, how can you avoid this occupational hazard?

Try this: When you’re really starting to feel loose in front of a prospect, pull yourself together. Be your own designated disciplinarian.

Shake yourself, and say, “Hey, bud, it’s closing time!”

Ask for the deal, right then and there.

If you hang around any longer, you’re going to say something you’ll regret, and probably blow the deal.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Why is it that some sales professional are more successful than others? Why is it that some sell more in a month than many sales reps sell in their career? What separates the winners from the losers? The answers are simple but not easy.

In my experience working with everything from Fortune 500 companies and their top executives to individuals on social assistance attempting to enter the workforce for the first time, I have found that the difference is as simple as taking complete responsibility for your life. My experience with individuals who are not successful is that they constantly look for the magic pill, the hero on the white horse that rescues them from their dreadful life, while the leaders take complete responsibility for where they are and where they are going. There is no magic pill (sorry); no one is coming to rescue you. You can change jobs every 6 months hoping the ‘next’ one will be better, but it won’t. Your results from your present sales career will 80% of the time follow you, if you are the top sales rep at your current company, you will be the top sales rep at your next company. If you are struggling, frustrated, and unsuccessful where you are you will carry that to where you are going as well. So how do you change your current results? This is where things can get exciting or frustrating depending on whether you think this is a magic pill article or a tool you can use to reach the top of your career. Tools can be helpful ONLY if they are used. A shovel sitting in the garage cannot be blamed for the hole not being dug.

First of all, commit to taking 100% responsibility for your life - no more blaming, no more excuses, it is your life and if you want to achieve superior results it will be up to YOU! Quit whining, get away from the others in your life that bitch, whine and complain about how they are hard done by. 99% of your success will be determined by your relationships. Be very careful with your relationships, they can be toxic or nourishing.

Second - Commit to becoming a life-long learner. Our public education system is set up to give you a minimum education on success principles. You will learn how to survive, but not thrive. No one cares how successful you become, they just care enough so that you do not become a drain on the public assistance trough - that is it plain and simple! If you want to reach the top you must learn from the experts in your field that have achieved the results you are looking for. Imagine a child coming home from his last day in grade 3 saying to you that he is done learning, has learned all he needs to learn. That is ultimately what 99% of the people do when they graduate from high school or college, they quit learning.

Third - Define your outcome. What is it that you are trying to achieve? Be specific, very specific. In my workshops I have heard people say they want more money, that is their ideal outcome. When I walk over and hand them a nickel and tell them they have now achieved their goal, they get upset. Why? Isn’t that what they wanted? No, of course not. The problem is that your subconscious mind will set out to achieve the goal or outcome you set, however, it won’t do much more than that either. Be very clear and of course WRITE IT DOWN. Now, in my workshops I talk about how important writing down your goals is and show all kind of statistics verifying the results of writing down your goals. Next day guess what happens? We go around the table and ask how many people wrote down their goals the previous night, want to guess how many have? Zero, none, zippo. Again, waiting for the white horse (ain’t coming). WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS.
Fourth - Take action, do something everyday that moves you towards your goal. The key here is to separate the learning component from the actual day to day activities that put money in your pocket. Too often people consider learning an action but it is not. The application of what you have learned is the action. - DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY.

And the final component is… NEVER GIVE UP. Life is tough - for everyone and always will be. It is tough to be a loser and it is tough to be a winner (but a lot more fun to be a winner!). You will face difficulties every step of the way and your commitment to overcoming them will determine your results. Babies don’t stop on their quest to walk or talk and neither should you stop trying to achieve your objective.
That in a nutshell is a roadmap to success (or conversely, failure). The choice is YOURS - now what are YOU going to do about it???

Larry Storey is President of Peak Performance Systems in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. Larry has presented to a variety of Fortune 500 organizations and his workshops have been said to produce more usable ideas in 1 hour than most workshops produce in a day! With over 10 years in the field of developing human potential Larry knows what it takes to live the life people dream of living. Married to his dream woman and the daddy to a son (Thomas) and a girl (Rae). Larry Storey can be reached at (204) 654-9465 or by emailing him at mail@larrystorey.com

The best price is that price that maximizes your profits while
building a lifetime customer through value satisfaction.

On the Internet, time waits for no company. Your customer has
access to tons of information through the Web. Your competitor
is a mere mouse click away. You have to get the best price
right… the first time.

In the digital market scene, there are very few second chances.
Pricing is risky. What price is too high? What price is too low?
Will a certain price work three months from now? Do you know? Do
you know for sure?

Pricing is the single most important marketing decision you’ll
ever make. You have to know what price you should charge so that
you can promote it effectively and place it into the hands of
your customer. It’s the marketing guide to success!

Ken Evoy from SiteSell priced their first e-book, Make Your Site
Sell! (MYSS!) at:
http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/myss.html at the
ridiculously low price of US $17 to penetrate a competitive
marketplace.

They wanted to overwhelm their customer with high-quality
information at a price that anyone with *any* interest at all in
selling on the Net could not reasonably refuse. The result? Huge
sales, delighted readers and MYSS! is known as the BIBLE of how
to sell on the Net…

While they knew the general strategy for MYSS!… Did they know
the right price before starting out? No way! Did they know what
effect $5 more or less would have on the bottom line? Nope. Did
they like that lack of confidence? Strike three.

Take a minute or a few more… go back to the computer and do a
search on the Net for the keywords “pricing” or “pricing
software”. I’ll wait right here…. …

No surprise that you’re back so soon! There’s not much out there
to help anyone, small or large business owner, to price
perfectly.

If you are selling a commodity, you already know that your
profit margins have to be razor-thin. You are forced to compete
on price. It’s sometimes the only thing that sets you apart from
the field. Your business operation has to be seamless. Gaps are
too costly.

If you have a proprietary product, its uniqueness and benefits
have to be recognized as such by the market. You have to know if
your product has enough original features to warrant a higher
price than the cookie-cutters around it.

What are the usual approaches for pricing?

The traditional “bottom up” salad bowl approach… direct and
overhead costs tossed together with market pressures before
being “dressed” by the price A chat with your salespeople A look
at the competition’s markup

I think we agree that pricing is critical to our businesses.
It’s the only part of our operating equation that brings money
into the company and into our individual pockets. It’s the P
that “extracts the value” out of the perceived value that you
create through the product itself, and through your promotion of
it. Because of that, the price for a product or service has to
be a top priority.

The perfect price maximizes profits… and income is what it’s
all about at the end of a business day.

Luckily for you, but definitely not for your competition, you’re
on your way to success. After reading this web page, you will
know how to determine the right price. You will know how to
*find* the Perfect price.

THE 4 P OF MARKETING

First of all examine your business using the 4 P of marketing
magnifying glass.

Look at your Product. What do you sell? What does your customer
buy? What are its major benefits? How important and unique are
they? Look at your Promotion. How do you promote your product or
service? Look at your Place. How do you ship from place A to
place B? Look at your Price. How do you decide on which price to
charge? How did you decide on your “macro” pricing model (ex.,
penetration-pricing or priced model) and how did you choose the
exact number?

Write down your answers.

You need a strategy for every part of your business operation to
guarantee success — the pieces of the e-commerce puzzle have to
fit together. You need to be able to set the best price of your
product or service with clarity. And you want to see the results
of that decision *increase* the income side of your ledger.

PRICING MODELS

PRICING TO PENETRATE: Your objective here is to penetrate the
market fast and deep. In other words, sell as many units of the
your product as possible. So, you set your price low.

Use this strategy to establish a powerful position in the market
quickly. Why? The basic goal is to acquire as many customers as
quickly as possible. In other words, you are “buying market
share” to establish dominance.

You may also be sensing that more competition is on the way.
Market dominance is particularly relevant when you consider that
shopping (and buying!) on the Internet is about to explode over
the next two years… all over the world, not just in your neck
of the woods.

You want to have a well-established online presence before the
throngs of new customers are grabbed by other businesses.

The best price to penetrate was the model for Make Your Site
Sell (MYSS!), the BIBLE for making a site that sells.

SKIMMING THE CREAM: This is the opposite pricing strategy to
penetration. Here, the best price is deliberately set high, in
order to reap large profit margins. This is usually at the cost
of losing a large number of customers. High price tactics are
also known as “selling off market share.”

You gain income from those high profit margins, in exchange for
having a smaller and smaller percentage of the market buying
your product. This model works well if you have a proprietary
product.

Some customers will pay more for uniqueness, especially if good
value is perceived as part of the equation.

Typically, two scenarios work with high-pricing…

When you first launch a product and want to recoup all the R&D
quickly. Good examples are consumer electronics

“Prestige pricing” — Mercedes-Benz, Tiffany’s. Sometimes an
example is worth 1,000 words.
“Skimming” carries some important risks…

Big profit margins attract competitors who want a piece of the
same pie. The only difference though… they are willing to
shave dollar signs off to get the eye of that Web customer with
the open wallet.

The second “speed bump” has to do with public relations. Your
business will not survive if customers feel that they have been
“taken for a ride”

BEST PRICE TO KILL: Here, profit is definitely not the
objective. No competition is the goal, at whatever cost it
takes. It’s *not* for the faint of heart. In many cases, it is
not even legal.

OK. Three distinct business/pricing models. Which one matches
yours? For small-to-mid-sized businesses, your choice is usually
between penetration pricing and high- pricing. Don’t make the
mistake of doing a “little of each” — you’ll end up in a fatal
valley between the two.

Ask yourself these four questions…

What was my goal when I chose my model? Knowing where I am now
with my business, would I have chosen a different approach? What
are the pros and cons of my pricing strategy? Which model do I
see myself using three months from now? With confidence?

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRICING

Let’s consider the power of the following selling techniques…

The arranged smell of fresh-baked bread in a house to ignite
childhood memories of food or family in the prospective
home-buyer.

Fresh flowers/produce near the grocery store’s entrance to
encourage impulse buying –something that’s not “on the list”.

Big sale signs at the back of the boutique to force the customer
to walk by all this season’s clothing styles.

The offer of free money or big prizes on the Web site in order
to get the visitor’s click and cookie.

All four strategies above involve pyschology. It’s a reality in
the business world today. You’ve got to be able to get inside
your customer’s head. And not leave one empty space for your
competitor! It’s a race for “share of mind.”

Pricing is no exception. Reflect on the psychology in our
guiding e-commerce statement…

The perfect price is that price that maximizes your profits
while building a lifetime customer through value satisfaction

How do you define “value satisfaction”? By putting yourself into
your customers’ shoes — simple but often ignored advice.
Sometimes a vendor thinks that s/he knows what’s best for the
customer. Let’s call it the “mothering-smothering effect.”

If you reverse your viewpoint by coming at it from your
customer’s angle, then you start to look at your product
differently. (That’s the funny thing about pyschology, it works
on both sides of the business fence.)

Price to attract those first-time customers and let the value of
your product “keep” them with you for a lifetime.

So where do you start? That’s as easy as counting…

ONE) The most common pyschological technique is to use a price
that ends in any number but 0 or 1. We all know how much better
99 cents sounds than $1.00 — and $997 in comparison to $1000.

How W-I-D-E that narrow gap is to our buying ear. The customer
feels like the saving is MUCH more than 3 dollars… And s/he
credits that “good feeling” to you, the vendor. This effect
happens even more so with the next method.

TWO) “Value-bundling” gives the customer the great feeling of
getting something for nothing. Here products that have a logical
association with one another are grouped together and a better
price is set for the combination.

Value-bundling is a powerful method if the price of your bundle
equals the price of the most expensive component. Yup, you
know,the refrain… “I would’ve paid that much just for the… ”

Want an example? SiteSell.com value-bundled Make Your Knowledge
Sell! (MYKS!)
http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/myks.html to the
extreme. MYKS! shows you how to find “the infoproduct within,”
how to create and publish it, and how to market and sell it.
It’s under one single “MYKS!” roof.

You need *absolutely* nothing else to succeed at selling what’s
in your brain. If they had stopped there, the value alone would
be terrific. But they didn’t stop there… They added 7 more
indispensable tools so MYKS! is actually “The Complete
Infopreneur’s Toolkit” and not just a book.

THREE) 15%, 25%, 40%… how much louder that price tag seems to
scream as the percentage grows. You bet, it catches the ear and
eye of the customer.

Use discounting to…

Build existing customer loyalty. This is so easy on the Net. You
can reach previous customers with a quick e-mail and offer them
a price reduction on your new product.

To emphasize the point, set up a special discount url for this
select group (which, of course, should include your deserving
affiliates.) Show your appreciation concretely.

Encourage or reward bulk buying. Go beyond the obvious reduced
“per unit shipping charge”… offer “three for $20″ (or better,
$19.95) for that $7 bottle of wine. Sure, the margin is a bit
less… but your gross is much better. Your customer saves on
shipping, product cost, and gets that Runder $20 psychological
boost.

Compete with your competitors as in the case of seasonal deals
or for special markets like seniors and students. Who can turn
down a good deal? Not me (at least that’s what my wife says!).

Discounting can be a strong tool. But it’s not without its own
Achilles’ heel… Define your goal clearly, before you discount.
Otherwise, you’re just giving money away. Who can afford that? –

FOUR) The third pricing approach uses the pyschology of
perception. You know that truism… Quality is in the eye of the
beholder.

And where does “the eye” land on the Net? That’s right. On your
Web site.

If your site makes a great sales effort, you will be able to
build a higher perceived value. And that will support a higher
price for your product. It’s *worth* it to the customer. This is
IMPORTANT — if you sell via the Web, one of your site’s most
important functions is to build perceived value.

Whatever that value is, when it comes to selling on the Net…
Never price beyond the value that your Web site creates and that
your product supports. Not if you want to build a successful,
growing, long-term business, that is.

FIVE) The final strategy examines the price-sensitivity. I call
it “rubber band” pyschology. Customer perception comes into play
again, as well as competition on the market.

If demand for your product drops when you increase the price by
only 1%, you have a product that is very price-sensitive or
price-elastic.

If on the other hand, doubling the price only causes a slight
drop, you have a price-inelastic product — that means that it
almost doesn’t matter what price you charge because people will
still buy it… within limits, of course.

Make Your Price Sell!
http://newsletter.easy-home-business.com/hts/myps.html can let
you finds those limits, plus the perceived value of your
product, you will be able to use a line graph to see how your
product reacts to changes in the price.

OK. That’s it for the psychology of pricing. What’s the key
point? No matter what approach you use, it has to “ring true” to
the customer. S/he will only be attracted to your price and
product, if it’s *worth* it.

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

I just finished reading another sales copy ending with the Deadline Marketing!

And it’s the sixth I see today saying “If you order by midnight, blah blah blah….”

I’m sure you’ve seen it. And I’m sure you’re getting (if not very) a little bored.

The deadline trick has proven itself to be overwhelmingly successful. It’s a deadly-effective “countdown trigger” that pushes reluctant people to ACT at the scene.

BUT right now the Internet is getting OVERCROWDED with sales letters that try to lure you in with the deadlines.

And now what happens is when prospects get to witness this technique too often, they learn to catch up. They learn NOT to buy it!

So be “extra careful”. It’s been OVERUSED!! Imagine how your prospects will feel when they come across your website and see that your sales copy is not different from others. Imagine yourself in their shoes!

What’s WORSE is not keeping the deadlines…

A lot of marketers specifically use the deadlines to explode their sales faster. And their sales letters are forever like that….with the NEVER-ending deadlines. So prospects can’t help but lose faith in the deadlines.

You could easily risk losing your credibility from your prospects, if they check up on your site again and still find the same “midnight deadline” technique.

This is critical. If you use the deadline, make sure you keep it. When you say the promotion is ending as soon as the clock “strikes at twelve”, prove that you really MEAN it!

Once your prospects see that the discount really ends like you said it would, they’ll regret not having bought from you earlier.

Now that they know you always keep your words, they’ll keep in mind not to let the next opportunity slip away. Next time they won’t wait for another second to buy from you!

What I have for you here is a groundbreaking idea for your deadline marketing…

Instead of saying,

“If you don’t delay and order now, you’ll get 50% off. The original price is $100, but order now and you pay only $50. Order before midnight and you’ll get this special price. Remember if you order after midnight, expect to pay $100!”

SAY,

“Take an unfair advantage of our online marketing test. For 7 days only, our company decides to slash 50% off the original price in order to see whether pricing affects sales. In our doing so, you are the one who gains! During our marketing test, don’t pay us $100. Keep $50 to yourself now!”

See the difference? Feel the impact?

If you decide to use the deadline marketing, don’t forget to make it right and make the most out of it.

Apart from writing a HARD-TO-SAY-NO deadline, here is the “one-of-a-kind” tool to accelerate your prospects’ buying decision….

Go get yourself a dynamic countdown javascript and put it on your site…

http://www.dynamicdrive.com

It’s FREE! And it works like miracle. Believe it or not? People tend to feel the rush to act when they see the clock ticking!

P.S. Be different. You can still offer the deadlines, but make sure you take a different approach!

About The Author

The author, Jaruda Boonsuwan, is offering one-of-its-kind, deadly-effective copywriting e-course — at NO charge.

Beat your competitors now at http://www.groundbreakcopywriting.com

Closing the sale, that mystical, elusive, magical moment when your sales presentation climaxes and the “Tipping Point” is reached, is really just the beginning. Your relationship with your new customer will grow from here. Or will it? That, my friend, is up to you.

Getting the order is great! Getting paid is even better! Enjoying the benefits of a new, long-term customer relationship is priceless. As political strategist James Carville would say, “It’s the relationship stupid.” This new, fledgling relationship must be cultured and grown like any other. Careful attention and concern must be administered. Time and attention must be invested and cultivated for all to benefit.

In this day and age, most customers assume quality, they assume quick delivery, they assume a competitive price, but they demand proper attention. Your level of customer service must be finely tuned so that the efforts made by you and your company are perceived to be quite individualized and properly applied. Customers may forgive errors, but they will not forgive lack of attention. Mistakes, properly and quickly addressed usually will not hinder the relationship, even if a compromise is required, but if you forget about them after you receive that order, it may be the “kiss of death” for the relationship. You will be vulnerable to the next salesperson that comes along to court that customer.

How do you pay proper attention to your customer? The answer varies by industry and needs, but there is a baseline which I believe to be a common denominator among most customers. At the very least, include each customer contact in your newsletter or ezine list. Ask your inside customer service personnel to make a quick monthly or quarterly phone call “just checking in” on the pulse of their general satisfaction. Send a customer survey annually requesting their input on your customer service performance. Send a regular, personalized email announcing some new product or service that they might be interested in learning more about. Mail a copy of a news story or clipping from a newspaper or industry publication where your customer or contact has been featured. Include a short note complimenting them.

If you really want to separate yourself from the other competitive companies and salespersons, send a short, personalized, hand written “thank you” card or note after receipt of the order. This effort almost never happens and you will be remembered for it.

The close of the order is indeed the opening of the door to your long-term relationship with your new customer. Treat them well, never forget them, be attentive to their needs and keep asking for additional opportunities to be of service and you will have a profitable, growing, long-term customer relationship.

Daniel Sitter, author of the highly anticipated book, Superior Selling Skills and the popular, award-winning e-book, Learning For Profit, has extensive experience in sales, training, marketing and personal development over a successful 25 year career.

http://www.learningforprofit.com

A few days ago, I was signing copies of my book - Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness - at the flea market. Nobody expects an author to sign books at a flea market. Some people sell a few worn-over books, but authors just don’t do book signings at flea markets. Especially not books about finding happiness.

I’ve never been afraid to be different, to take the road less traveled, to wander off the beaten path and run gleefully right over a cliff. Fortunately for me, the flea market is on low ground and I had the chance to learn a few things just watching people.

Pop Quiz: Is it best to wedge your booth between other booths piled with junk, where nobody even notices you are there? Or is it better to have a booth out in the open away from the clutter, where people can easily see you and get to your booth?

I learned the hard way. My booth was out in the open away from the clutter, where people could easily pick up speed and zoom right past. (But I was right next to a support beam, so at least I knew the roof wouldn’t cave in on me.)

Apparently, the sales process at the flea market works like this:

Step one, some fool actually stops to look at a toaster-oven with only three coils missing, partially blocking the aisle.

Step two, a traffic jam ensues as more people come along and completely block the aisle.

Step three, to relieve their boredom, they buy “treasures” they would gladly have passed by if they could just have picked up enough momentum to keep walking. Isn’t that a lot like how “gurus” sell stuff on the Internet?

Step four, they go home and brag about their great “find” and how it cost them almost 14 cents less than any of the other “Happiness is surviving your own cooking” commemorative plaques in their collection.

I leaned my second lesson. To sell anything, you have to slow people down. So I stood in front of my booth.

“Free bookmark, sir?”

Sir hesitates, then takes the bookmark.

“It features the nine habits of maximum happiness.”

Sir studies the bookmark.

“Same habits as in my book right here.”

Sir looks up at the display for a moment. Then he starts moving again, staring down at the bookmark, mumbling something under his breath and BANG! hits the support beam. “Ooh,” I thought. “A few thousand more times and that beam might not hold. That could be dangerous.”

Fortunately, I decided to relocate, standing with my back to the beam so people would pass safely to one side. Don’t kill your customers: a brilliant idea whose time had come. I learned my third lesson after running through just 34 first aid kits.

I went through the same routine with Broad-eyed Lady and her husband, except that she missed the beam. She continued walking as she read the 9 habits of happiness on the bookmark, then suddenly slapped it against her husband’s chest. “Here. Read this,” she commanded.

Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. Good thing I was giving away bookmarks and not paperweights.

I thought Broad-eyed Lady was a unique character, until Hunched Old Lady did the same thing. And so did Spunky Crew-cut Girl. And Grizzly Guy, too. I guess it’s easy to expect others to change, rather than ourselves.

In fairness, few people used my happiness bookmark as a domestic weapon, a fact the judge took into consideration later that day. He even commended me for not giving away paperweights.

But he did order me to recount, without looking at my notes, the lessons I had learned watching people at the flea market. Let’s see …

Slow down, or you’ll never spend your kids’ inheritance on priceless knick knacks.

Grab people’s attention or they will just whiz by.

Don’t kill your customers

Don’t expect people to change for you, even if you do wield a loaded bookmark.

About The Author

The author is David Leonhardt, The Happy Guy. To receive his satirical happiness column weekly in your inbox, sign up at http://TheHappyGuy.com/positive-thinking-free-ezine.html or read more columns at http://TheHappyGuy.com/self-actualization-articles.html. Visit his home page “Finding Happiness and Self-actualization” at http://TheHappyGuy.com.

Info@TheHappyGuy.com