There’s the old joke about the two buzzards sitting in a
tree overlooking a highway. One responds to the other, “Be
patient? I’m hungry. Let’s kill something.” Just like that
buzzard, it is not in the nature of most marketers to be
patient for business to grow. They want to go out and “kill
something,” too.

The trouble is that most marketers go after new business the
wrong way. They want to “take down” the new piece of
business using all the tools of the trade from advertising
and direct mail to cold calling and event marketing. This is
an expensive way to drum up business. Your existing clients
are just waiting to tell you about people they know who
could use your services, and then help sell you in to these
people they refer. Not only is this more cost effective, it
practically guarantees the prospects will share the same
characteristics of your best customers.

“OK, Harry,” you’re asking, “but how do I do it?”

The first rule of getting referrals: ask. When should you
ask? Let’s review.

- After your customer has purchased something from you is a
great time to ask. The new customer is pumped up about your
offering and you can harness that energy by asking for names
of others who could beneft from doing business with you.

- Upon delivery of your product or service is the next time
to ask. The benefits of your offering should be readily
apparent now, so you can remind the customer of the
importance of their referrals.

- Anytime you have personal contact with your customer is a
good time to ask. You are continuing to build a relationship
with them and can use the opportunity to ask for referrals.
Don’t ask more than three times per year.

Many people hesitate to ask for referrals because they are
not sure how to do it. Just be honest. Tell your customers
that referrals are very important to the growth of your
business, and that you want to grow it with people just like
them. Remind them that the people they know will benefit
from your service the way that they have. Then, ask.

Tell your prospect that you’d like for them to give you the
names of three or four people who might benefit from your
services. Pull out a sheet of paper and pen and look
expectantly at them. If they can’t immediately give you
names, ask some prompting questions. Such as:

Who are your three best friends?
Who are the most successful business people you know?
Can you think of anyone who would benefit from my services?

Write the names down and keep writing until the customer
runs out of names. Then, go back and ask for contact
information for each one.

Thank the customer in the way you feel most comfortable.
Some people like to send a gift, others will just drop a
note of thanks. Some wait to see if the referral becomes a
customer and then send a higher end gift. Do whatever works
for you, but do thank them and keep them in the loop,
letting them know about your follow up and the outcome of
your prospecting.

So, don’t just sit there in your tree. Get out there and
kill something.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR, http://www.hoover-ink.com. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Duke Energy, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, VELUX and Verbatim.

According to the Equipment Leasing Association (“ELA”), U.S. businesses lease every thing from laptop computers to commercial airplanes, racking up more than $ 200 billion in equipment leased each year. Although four out of five U.S. companies use leasing to acquire equipment, many don’t know the ins and outs of leasing well enough to negotiate a good deal. By focusing on a few key aspects of the lease transaction, you can save a bundle on your next lease and eliminate potential aggravation.

1. Choose the Right Leasing Partner

The starting point for saving money on your lease is to select the right leasing company. The biggest savings in this area come from saving time and dodging substandard lease transactions. The wrong lessor choice can result in a slow approval, inability of the lessor to deliver, hidden fees, a poorly designed lease transaction or worst. Give this aspect of obtaining a lease your highest priority. To save a bundle on your next lease, you must do your homework in pre-qualifying bidding leasing companies. Look for lessors with: 1) experience and knowledge; 2) good reputations; 3) the ability to perform; 4) helpful business contacts; and 6) a relationship approach. Ask for and get lessor financial information, background information on the key managers, a listing of recently completed leases, and contacts at key funding sources for each leasing company being considered. Review this information and follow up with all contacts provided.

2. Choose the Right Lease

You can rake in big savings by obtaining the right lease for the equipment you are acquiring. When planning your lease financing, determine the top three or four attributes your lease should have. During this process, carefully evaluate the importance of: lease pricing, lease flexibility, balance sheet considerations, equipment obsolescence, the anticipated period of equipment usage, and your firm’s credit status. The wrong lease choice can be costly.

Lease pricing is market driven, so get at least three lease bids. Carefully evaluate bids by doing a comparative analysis of discounted cash flows incorporating all anticipated costs and fees. Make sure your lease has favorable end-of-lease options, a reasonable end-of-lease notice period, the ability to relocate equipment by notifying the lessor, the right to terminate the lease early without an onerous charge, and the right to assign the lease to another user under agreed upon conditions. Look for an arrangement that will cover equipment needs for at least the next six to twelve months.

Big savings can be realized by knowing when to select a lease with a bargain purchase option versus a fair market value option. If you know you will be keeping the equipment beyond the initial lease term, a bargain purchase option is usually the most cost-effective alternative. If the equipment is prone to obsolescence or if it is unlikely you will retain the equipment at the end of the lease, consider a lease with fair market value, end-of-lease options.

Know your firm’s credit standing. If your firm has been in business for a number of years, is profitable, has a good track record and has a strong balance sheet, it deserves great lease pricing and terms. If your firm has a spotty credit record or weak balance sheet, the challenge is to get the best deal possible. Identify and offer credit enhancements that will make your transaction more attractive. Allow plenty of time to get through the credit review and due diligence process.

3. Ask for Fair Market Value ‘Caps’

If you decide that a fair market value lease is the way to go, you can realize big savings by limiting that value. Fair market value rental and purchase options at the end of the lease allow the lessee to either continue leasing the equipment or to buy the equipment at the then fair market value. These values are generally quoted by the lessor at lease end based on aftermarket data, but most leases allow the lessee to obtain an appraisal from a qualified equipment appraiser. To realize significant savings and to eliminate unpleasant surprises, request fair market value options that are “capped” (have upper limits). Beware, however. Lessors may insist on fair market value ‘floors’ (lower limits) when they agree to ‘caps’. The availability of a fair market value cap will depend on the size of the transaction (may not be available on small transactions), competition among lessors, and the credit status of your firm.

4. Keep the End-of-lease Notice and Renewal Periods Short

To avoid hefty unintended lease charges, seek notice and automatic renewal periods that are short. The primary purpose of the end-of-lease notice period is to allow the leasing company sufficient time to redeploy the equipment if you elect to return the equipment. The secondary purpose is to notify the lessor of your plan to either continue leasing the equipment or to purchase it. The notice period generally ranges from one to six months, with three months being typical. If you violate the notice period, the lease kicks into an often unfavorable automatic renewal period, usually one to six months. If the lessor is unwilling to negotiate this provision, you can save money by making sure the notice requirement is fulfilled within the allowed time.

5. Slash Interim Rent

You can slash lease costs significantly by limiting interim rent. Interim rent is the rent you pay for daily use of equipment between the equipment acceptance and lease start dates. The rationale for interim rent is that you have use of the equipment and the lessor is obligated to pay the equipment vendor during this period. While the rationale is not unreasonable, interim rent can balloon lease pricing by arbitrarily extending the term of the lease (albeit by only days). The best approach is to schedule equipment delivery and acceptance toward the end of the month. Most lease terms officially start the first day of the month following equipment acceptance. Another strategy is to negotiate a truncated period at the end of the lease such that the interim period and truncated period total one month of the quoted lease term. A last strategy is to request a limit on interim rent (perhaps ten or fifteen days) regardless of equipment acceptance.

6. Manage Equipment Returns

Save a bundle on your lease by managing the equipment’s return. Although you may not anticipate returning the equipment to the leasing company at lease end, it can be costly if you do. When equipment is returned, most lessors care about and will hold your firm accountable for the equipment’s condition. Equipment should be properly maintained and returned in good condition. Make sure that you understand the return provision of the lease and that you have good internal controls to adhere to these requirements. If the lease contains an ‘all or none’ return provision, one strategy is to subdivide the lease into several smaller lease schedules on the front end. Place equipment you are most likely to keep on the same schedules. Try to negotiate the right to return up to 20% of the equipment (based on original value) at the end of the lease, as long as you agree to renew the lease or purchase the balance of the equipment. Track and save all equipment accessories and documentation.

7. Match Lease Term with Projected Equipment Use

The term of the lease should match the expected use of the equipment as closely as possible to save money. If the term is too short, cash outlays for the equipment might exceed the expected equipment benefits over the term. If the lease term is too long, you might lose the flexibility of upgrading to newer more desirable equipment. Notwithstanding your preferences, the term allowed by the leasing company may depend on their perception of credit risk and the expected economic life of the equipment. Any mismatch between your preference and lessor’s can be managed by obtaining favorable end-of-lease options.

8. Identify and Understand All Potential Fees

Leasing proposals vary in the types and amounts of fees and penalty charges. Common fees and charges include: commitment fees; non-use fees or facility fees; per schedule documentation charges; attorney fees; UCC financing statements; penalty charges for late rental payments; and early lease termination charges. These are only a few of the possible fees and charges. You can save a bundle by carefully going through each lease proposal and lease agreement to identify and compare likely charges. If fees or charges are significant and likely, they should be incorporated into your pricing analysis. Where possible, especially where one proposal contains fees/charges excluded from the other proposals, try to negotiate these fees/charges.

9. Offer Credit Enhancement to Reduce Lease Rates

In some cases, you can trim lease pricing substantially by offering credit enhancements to improve your firm’s credit profile. Enhancements can include: shortening the lease term, cash or other assets as additional collateral, personal or corporate guarantees, advance rentals payments, and security deposits. Since most credit enhancements involve giving up something of value, do a cost/benefit analysis to determine whether the net benefit is in your favor. If your firm has assets that are not working for it why not put them to work in the leasing arrangement. The value of credit enhancements can differ from lessor to lessor, so identify and discuss possible enhancements upfront. Try to assess whether your firm’s credit will improve significantly by credit enhancements and get lessors’ pricing with and without the credit enhancements.

10. Request Several End-of-lease Options

If the lease contains a nominal purchase option, there is little need for additional end-of-lease flexibility. Otherwise, flexible end-of-lease options can save you a bundle by preventing you from incurring extra expense. One of the most cost-effective options is the ability to return the equipment at the end of the lease. If you no longer need the equipment, why incur additional charges? Additionally you should have the ability to purchase the equipment at a fair or reduced price and the right to continue leasing the equipment at a fair or reduced rent. As discussed, use of caps in fair market value purchase or rental options can greatly reduce potential costs at lease end.

Conclusion

Saving a bundle on your next lease is a cinch if you know where to look. By focusing on a few key areas, you can wring huge savings out of your lease. Remember to set your priorities in evaluating lease proposals and to choose the right leasing partner. Also, while front-end lease pricing is usually a high priority, evaluate each lease carefully to sniff out hidden fees and expenses. Don’t be bashful about negotiating points in the lease that have the potential to save you a bundle.

George Parker is a Director and Executive Vice President of Leasing Technologies International, Inc. (“LTI”), responsible for LTI’s marketing and financing efforts. A co-founder of LTI, Mr. Parker has been involved in secured lending and equipment financing for over twenty years. Mr. Parker is an industry leader, frequent panelist and author of several articles pertaining to equipment financing.

Headquartered in Wilton, CT, LTI is a leasing firm specializing nationally in direct equipment financing and vendor leasing programs for emerging growth and later-stage, venture capital backed companies. More information about LTI is available at: http://www.ltileasing.com.

Last night my wife was helping my 12 year old learn some new things when my daughter and I walked in playing and giggling. Once we stopped in respect for them, I noticed he was having trouble concentrating because the television was on. After I suggested he turn it off, they made great progress very quickly.

We all have done it, whether we are parents or not. We’ve encouraged someone to remove a distraction so they could focus on the task, conversation or subject at hand.

If you wear corrective lenses of any kind and go for your annual vision check, you know what it is like when your new prescription is applied. You see more clearly with greater focus. Suddenly your mind doesn’t have to think about focusing, things already are without “working” at it.

It is crystal clear to me that we all know how important focus (of all kinds) is, but many of us aren’t very good at it. (As a side note, I write this article because focus is something that I continually work on getting better at; it is my hope that the things I will share from my journey, will help you too.)

This article will target three specific areas with specifics suggestions for practicing improved focus: planning, questioning and removing.

Planning

Daily planning is critical. Many people have a “to-do” list, and while having one will help you be more focused than not having one, most people don’t use them to their maximum benefit. Too often the list degenerates into a list of the crises that MUST be handled today – or as Dr. Stephen Covey says in his work, the urgent, but not necessarily important things. The other problem with many people’s lists is that they are way too long (too often, mine included).

Here are three things to do to improve your daily planning for greater focus:

1. Align your daily work with your goals. The most important thing you can do to increase your focus is to have goals. If your goals are clear (which includes having them written down) it is much easier to re-focus your efforts towards them. Goals provide a compass for your efforts. Make sure your list for the day includes items specifically related to your goals.

2. Do your daily planning before the day begins. Many suggest it is best to do this the evening before because it allows your subconscious to “work on” your list as you sleep. If not then, do it at the close of the previous day or at the very start of your morning.

3. Prioritize the list. If you have the long list syndrome, identify the 5 things that are most important to be completed that day. Make sure that at least one of those things is in service of your most important goals, not just putting out the urgent fires you are facing.

Questioning

There are some questions you can ask yourself throughout the day to help you stay focused. They include:

Is what I am doing now focused on my most important objectives? If the answer is yes, great! If the answer is no, time to re-focus.

How is my energy level? If you feel it waning a bit, take a five minute walk, a ten minute power nap or eat a smart snack of almonds or some other energy food.

What is distracting me now? If something is, determine how to quickly handle it, or remove that distraction. Which leads to my third set of ideas

Removing

Distractions are everywhere. The TV, a cluttered desk, the “ding” of a new email being delivered, more advertising in more places, cell phones and pagers I could go on, but you are already thinking of the distractions in your life.

Turn off the TV. Clean your desk. Turn down the volume or turn off the ding. Have someone answer your phone while you work on that project. Screen your calls.

You get the idea.

Make a list of the 5-7 top things that distract you (at work or at home – wherever you are trying to increase your focus). That’s right make the list right now.

Then identify what you can do to remove, eliminate or defer the distraction when you most want to be focused.

Focus and clarity are siblings. Both of them are required for us to get greater results, and come ever closer to unleashing our potential. I wish you the best in your efforts to increase your focus. I promise that your efforts will rewarded with greater productivity, higher quality work, and greater opportunities.

Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. Kevin publishes Unleash Your Potential, a free weekly ezine designed to provide ideas, tools, techniques and inspiration to enhance your professional skills. Go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/current.asp to read the current issue and subscribe.

If you’ve just started publishing your own ezine then you’ll soon discover that getting visitors to subscribe to your ezine is not as easy as you might think. If you already publish your own ezine, it is likely you have already discovered this. Besides getting more traffic to your site, here are 8 tips that have been proven to boost ezine subscriber rates.

– Give a free bonus away to anyone who subscribes to your ezine. This will give your visitors an initial reason to subscribe. With the amount of spam going around the internet today, people are becoming less forthcoming about giving their email address away and so make sure your bonus is a worthwhile one. I recommend using an ebook because they cost nothing to produce and are very easy to distribute.

– Promote your ezine in a signature file at the end of every email you send. If you wish to be a successful webmaster, you should be sending at least 10 emails a day and so a large number of people who will be interested in what your ezine has to offer will see. Try to keep your e-signature short and sharp; giving information about how your ezine benefits its readers.

– Submit your ezine to ezine directories. Ezine directories are free to submit to and attract people who are looking to sign up to ezines on a subject that interests them. When submitting your ezine, bear in mind that a lot of ezine directories list their ezines in alphabetical order so try to make the first letter of your ezine’s name begin with a letter at the lower end of the alphabet. This way your ezine will be the first people see.

– Have a good subscription request to your ezine on every page of your website. This way, visitors are looking at your offer the whole time and if it looks appealing then they will subscribe. It also ensures that no matter which page of your site a visitor enters, they will always have the chance to see that you have an ezine.

– Swap ads with other ezine publishers. Swap ads with ezines of the same subject as yours so you can guarantee that those who view your ezine offer will be interested. This method is completely free too. Don’t be afraid to ask other ezine publishers to swap ads because they will have very little to lose and everything to gain and so they are very likely to agree.

– Write articles relevant to the subject of your ezine. In the resource box of your article, promote your ezine. If your article is well written then readers will look for more of your quality content and are likely to subscribe to your ezine. This is another great way to promote your ezine because you know that those looking at your ezine offer will be interested.

– Make sample issues of your ezine available on your website or by autoresponder. Visitors won’t enter their email address unless they know exactly what they are signing up for. Your sample issues should be short and sharp, giving readers a taster of the top quality content that can be found in your ezine. You could also make previous issues of your ezine available.

– Publish testimonials about your ezine. Visitors are unlikely to believe everything you say about the quality of your ezine but if you have good testimonials then this will lead visitors to trust you and sign up to your ezine. Do not be afraid to ask your current subscribers for testimonials. People will help you and will probably feel honoured that you consider their opinion.

For more information on this subject or about making money online go to http://www.info-ebooks.co.uk

100s of free ebooks and software products are also available at this address.

Thank you for reading

William Johnston
(will@info-ebooks.co.uk)