Six Tips to Survive the World of Sales and Get Paid More

It has been said that a good sales person could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. This is essentially true, in that outstanding selling skills can apply to any sales transaction, even the most challenging ones. 

Sales is a competitive profession, but it can be highly rewarding, too, when helping customers get their needs met and getting paid well for it. Here are some tips to help move to the top of the sales ladder and get that raise in base pay or commission rate: 

Know Your Product

Most companies now offer specialised training for their sales staff. Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions about what you’ll be selling and get as much background material as possible. 

The more complicated the product, the more information there will be to learn. Try to commit as much to memory as possible, so you can talk easily with your customers about it in a conversational way. 



Carry a binder or briefcase with brochures or fact sheets, usually provided by the employer, and be sure to have a few to leave behind with key clients. Become the expert in your area, beyond your own product. Know the competition, market trends and new developments. 

Talk With Your Clients, Not At Them

To create a winning sales pitch watch a truly good salesperson in action, and you’ll find him or her asking a lot of questions. Beware of being too quick to just offer information or debate when a customer raises a concern. 

Ask the customer what current needs are not being satisfied or what could be done better. Inquire about spending time with your customers outside of the sales pitch to find out what they do on a day-to-day basis. 

This can be extremely informative and help build rapport with your clients. Know how to craft an effective sales pitch so you can sell your product while telling the customers what they want to hear.

Offer Value

Value is the ratio of customer satisfaction to the price of goods or services. Think about what you can offer your customers that goes beyond just selling them something. Maybe it’s helping a busy bookstore owner pull in more business by setting up a reading group or bringing surgeon medical journal articles that are not even related to your product but help the practice nonetheless. 

Try to provide value in every sales encounter. Remember, good salesmanship is a marathon, not a sprint, and maintaining a helpful relationship with your customers will pay off in the end. 

Be Proactive

Check in on your clients from time to time, even if it’s not time for them to buy something. Make sure everything is going well, not just with your products, but with their lives in general. 

Stay on top of weddings, graduations, new baby arrivals, and life’s unfortunate incidents, too, such as illnesses, loss of family members, or downsizing in the workplace. Your clients will remember you as someone who cared more than just about selling, and if you ever get made redundant, you will have a network of people who can offer references and potential future business.

Work for a Good Company

This may sound like an odd sales tip, but people who are happy in their work tend to do a better job, and doing a better job is rewarding personally and financially. Strong salespeople are always in demand, so take some time to find an employer that is the right match for you. 

A smart employer will offer fair remuneration, benefits, training, and mentors to help hone your skills.

Don’t Be Afraid to Be Competitive

Sales is a business where you are almost always competing against someone else. This is not the time to be a shrinking violet. If you work for a good company and believe in your product, you can stand toe-to-toe with the competition with pride. 

Don’t forget to ask for the business. You don’t have to be pushy or forceful, simply ask the customer in a way that feels genuine for you if he or she will be making a purchase or would like a follow up in the near future.

If you maintain a standard of excellence about your work and find an employer to do the same, you will do more than survive in sales. You can thrive and become the model all other salespeople emulate.

Ways to Avert a Financial Meltdown When You Lose Your Job

Getting the devastating news that you are losing your job is never easy. The bills keep coming whether you have a job or not. There's rent to be paid and groceries to feed the family. The first thing to remember is not to panic. There are some smart ways to cope with losing a job that will keep your heart rate down and the family off the street while you look for that next career opportunity.

Apply for Unemployment Insurance Benefits

The Labor Department can be your best friend when you lose a job. Checking out the website of your State's Labor Department or visiting their office is the first thing you need to do to get the checks coming as soon as possible. Companies actually pay into this fund as a mandatory expense designed to protect workers when they are laid off. You owe this money, but you must apply for it to get it.

Make a New Budget

Calculate the money you have in savings and the unemployment funds you are awarded. Then add up your monthly bills, leaving out all unnecessary purchases. Necessities are the only bills you should consider paying.

Turning off cable and other luxury items should be a top priority. Staying away from the mall and other places where it is easy to spend money is also an effective way to keep your cash in hand. Eat at home and stretch your food dollars.

Downgrading your cell phone coverage is another option that some people find painful. When the goal is to make it through a challenging financial period, it is easy to put things into perspective. Paying for the most basic cell phone coverage still gives you the ability to call without all the bells and whistles.

Borrow Money if Necessary

Keeping a roof over your head and the utilities on is not something to be taken lightly. Borrow money if you have to in order to keep your home base safe and secure. Even if you don't have rich relatives, you can still borrow money from several sources. Life insurance policies often have a cash value associated with them that can be withdrawn. The older the policy, the more likely there will be an accessible cash amount.

You can often borrow using your car as a collateral. This type of loan is called a title loan and does not require excellent credit since it is based on the car's value. The reason this is a popular loan is because you can obtain cash within a couple of days with few strings attached. You can even drive your car while you are paying off the loan. TitleMax is a reputable source for a car title loan. 

Summary

Losing a job can be challenging. It is critical that you immediately apply for unemployment insurance and make a new budget, restricting spending for anything but absolute necessities. Borrowing is also an option if you need the money to keep the rent paid or groceries on the table.

Author Bio:
Belinda Collins is a financial writer and has published hundreds of articles on personal finance and business.

Use Price Action Strategies And Signals And Know The Best Time To Trade

Forex trading involves the trading of currencies on different trading platforms. Many factors affect the currency market. And, you want to trade currencies, you need to adopt a host of analysis and strategies to strike the best deal and reap maximum benefit. These strategies help in assessing the market well. 

With these strategies, you can gain a competitive edge over other traders in the global market. Learning these strategies will contribute to your success in trading. By following the simple three methodologies, you can interpret the data well and trade at the appropriate time. Trading a new market can be intimidating at first. That’s why you should try a MT4 demo account from Hantec Markets first – a safe environment to practice and experiment before you commit.

Data at your fingertips

The term price action trading implies to the methodology of laying down all data required for trading on a price chart. There is no scope of confusing data in this procedure. These charts capture data related to global data during the stipulated time. The resistance and support zone, as well as the ranging market, is also depicted in the chart. 



The movement of price in the market, the actions of the brokers in the specific period the time is reflected in the chart. Global development and other economic updates affect the market, but as a trader, you need not analyze those. This news is automatically reflected in the price action chart.

Pin bar strategy

You can follow a few trading patterns to succeed in the Forex market. Pin bar setup is one such price action pattern used for trading. These bars can be generally located in the resistance, and support zones provide accurate structures. 

They indicate the trend and the rejections, as well. These bars can also be used in the context of the trending market. Depending on the movement of price, these bars can be categorized as a bearish or bullish pin bar.

Indicates the market trend

Another strategy or pattern used for Forex trading is fakey strategy. This generally indicates the rejections in the global market. There are times in the foreign exchange market when the market seems to move in one direction only and then turns reverse. These conditions lure amateurs a lot as the experienced traders push the price in the opposite direction. 

Depending on the fakey setup, you can really take some bold steps in the Forex market. The last one is Inside Bar Setup. This can be used as a continuation signal as well as a turning point one. This setup is best used in weekly and daily price charts. It denotes the combination and also the recent trend of the market.

Spot the favorable time

Forex market is dynamic; the information or the trend that it leaves behind is also referred to as footprints. These footprints, also known as clues, help in determining the pattern of the market. Well, these clues are also known as signals of price action trading. 

The best time to enter the market depends on these signals. Along with this signal, another factor is a hot point that also decides this time. This point is also called confluence, which is the intersection of more than two levels. Traders generally look for areas where two or more level conglomerate. These can be assessed with the use of different tools.

These setups and strategies make Forex trading easy and reduce complications. If you have mastered the use of these strategies, then the trading will be really easy for you. When the market is bound by range, then trading in the consolidated is the best option. Following these strategies, you can trade according to the trend of the market. 

From the daily chart, you can spot the time which is most favorable for trading. A daily chart gives the actual depiction of the foreign exchange market. Knowing the basics of price action strategies is essential for successful trading.

Author Bio: Neil Hyden writes blogs on Forex trading. He writes a great deal on strategies and signals used in price action trading and elucidates how it helps in trading as a whole.

Top Tips to Start a New Business

All of us love to lead a comfortable life in all aspects, and most of us used to adopt various tips and techniques to make it smooth by all means. 

People all around us love to start their own businesses rather than work as an employee for others throughout our life. To achieve this target, people plan many tactics in their minds to start a new business. 

But the business world is highly competitive in nature, and ‘Survival of the fittest is the most suitable phrase which can be used to symbolize the happenings in the business sector.

While selecting a new business, you should be very careful and should always make sure that it is going to be profitable in the future. 

If you pay close attention and care to every aspect of your new business, it will surely emerge successfully, and you will come out with flying colors. You need to plan everything from the initial investment, to the marketing, to the packaging of goods you will be selling. For instance, even just a simple idea like using custom stand up pouches for your products can really be useful for the modern entrepreneur.

In each phase of your business, you should be very careful, and even a small flaw from your end will lead to business collapse. There are various tips you can follow to start a new business, and some of the noted ones are mentioned below.

Find the appropriate arena: This is the first and foremost tip you should follow while starting a business of your own. You should try to do what you love. 

First, you should find a business sector which is loved by you. Always remember that you will spend your future with this business, and it should be lovable to you. 

If you are doing business with love and passion, then it will surely bring about success in your life, and you will literally enjoy each and every moment of your business.

Prepare a business plan: This is another tip you should follow while starting a business. You should first create a business plan, and this will surely help you to conduct the business in a much more effective manner. 

You should possess a clear idea about the things which you are going to do, and thus you will climb the stairs of success in a quick way.

Find the startup money: Money plays a crucial role in all areas of our life. If you need to conduct your business effectively, then you should find the proper sum of money which is required to run the business. If you fail to do so, it will drastically affect the effectiveness of your business.

Adopt proper marketing tips: If you want to conduct your business successfully, you should adopt proper marketing techniques. In this arena of science and technology, you should adopt new and innovative ways of marketing. Social Media Marketing is the best way to proclaim your products and services.

Find the right employees: This is another topmost tip that will help you to run the business effectively. Employees play a crucial role in determining the fate of any company, and so you should select them with utmost care. 

You should make sure that the employees are highly sincere in their attitudes, and this is one of the key factors you should consider. Also, your employees should be capable of finishing the work on time, and they should be well proficient in your business area.

All the business ideas mentioned above are highly effective, and they will help you to find success in the business sector efficiently.

Costly Debt Traps-This the Way to Avoid Them

There are many reasons why people go for payday cash advance loans but it draws down to lack of other options to raise money. However, while the cash advance facility meets you at your most desperate moment and makes things much better, it is not one to rush into, especially if the bill or need can wait. The reason is because a pay day loan advance is quite expensive to service and getting quick cash into your hands comes with a price. For those with debts, it is important to explore other available options first to avoid costly debt traps. Those individuals unfortunate enough due to excessive debt have a number of ways to deal with the problem.

Borrowing from family and friends

While this is the default borrowing option for some, a good number see it as a very difficult way of raising money. Friends and money do not go very well and relationships are broken if the loan goes unpaid. No matter who the person is, the hard lesson is that your relationship changes forever. 

Debt consolidation

Through this facility, a single loan is used to help deal with all the glaring bad debts. Debt consolidation allows a person to manage all debts effectively. Having debts from so many creditors make it rather hard to track or manage payments and budgeting is next to impossible. 

Creditors’ negotiation

Some people almost go bankrupt as a result of too much debt and negotiations with creditors is a wonderful idea. The creditors can reduce the owed amount towards a full payment. It is also a better idea if your debt amount is large and you owe multiple companies a hefty sum of money. 

Bankruptcy

Once you have exhausted all the other available options, it is hard not to file up for bankruptcy. In turn, you become radioactive in the financial and business world and cash advances and no one really want anything to do with you. A bankruptcy changes your life completely, thus should be the last resort. 

Credit cards

Sometimes people find it convenient to have multiple credit cards they use to pay college fees for their children, buy new cars, home amenities, clothes and basically anything they desire ending up with a seemingly insurmountable credit card debt. While many end up with ever increasing interest rates and loans, it is possible to completely pay back your credit card debt. The best way of dealing with such a debt is lowering the interest rate and finding other ways of boosting your entire income, cutting expenses and using the additional money to expedite the payoff.

At times, the balances are on more than one card and the best idea is attacking the debt with the highest rates. Starting with the card with the smallest balance and clearing it fully might also give you the much needed psychological boost to also weather on and complete the others. If you have a good credit record, you can receive offers from credit card companies for zero interest when it comes to balance transfers, meaning you will pay the debt faster since the interest rate is eliminated for a period.

About Author

Mark is a business graduate working for a leading financial brokerage firm in Sydney. He occasionally blogs in his free time on how Jet Lending cash loans can help in getting much needed cash in troubled times and how to ensure you repay to avoid hefty penalties.

Keeping Control of your Household Energy Bills Could Help you to Afford a Bigger Mortgage

The global financial crisis represented a watershed moment in consumer borrowing as it changed the way many of us look at borrowing and it changed the way lenders now think when it comes to granting new finance deals, especially mortgages.

Keeping control of your personal finances and avoiding over-stretching yourself has always been the right approach to take but now more than ever, the household bills you have and how much you pay have a big impact on your ability to buy your home with a mortgage.

Tighter lending criteria

The era of cheap and easy loans is over and mortgage lenders in particular are exercising a far greater level of caution when it comes to the amount that they agree to lend so that you can buy a property or move to bigger one.

Borrowers who already have a family to look after are now finding that mortgage lenders are sometimes penalizing couples with children and reducing the amount they are prepared to lend in these circumstances.

One of the questions on an application form has always been to ask how many dependants you have and depending on who the lender is, if you confirm that you have children it could trigger a reduction in what they offer you by as much as between 10% and 20%.

The key to getting the loan you want in today’s financial climate is to have as high a credit score as possible and to reduce the perceived financial impact of raising children by keeping a tight control of your household finances, so you can demonstrate financial prudence and lower outgoings.

Your credit rating

The Money Advice Service has a useful guide as to what affects your credit score and how it also affects the overall cost of borrowing and how much you are offered by a lender.

Credit scoring for a mortgage application works on a number of factors such as the information contained on your application form and also what your past payment performance and credit history looks like.

Paying your credit card, water and gas and electric bills on time is an important thing to do if you want to get the best possible rates and the maximum loan amount available for your income.

Household finances

A good way to get your financial house in order and keep your financial commitments as low as possible is to try and get the best possible deal for your energy bills, as these are a major expenditure in household budgets.

An energy comparison site like UK Power can help you to find the best possible deal so that you minimise the impact of rising prices on your finances and also your credit score.

If you can demonstrate stability it can boost your credit score, so make sure you are on the electoral register so that your residency can be confirmed and shop around to get the best deals on not just your energy bills but also other borrowing costs such as credit cards and personal loans.

Keeping good control of your household bills and finances can certainly help boost your chances of getting a bigger mortgage.

Scott Byrom is an experienced writer and often provides tips and advice to help consumers keep their finances in order and reduce their outgoings and bills.