A few weeks ago, I wrote about our “Adventures In Car Shopping – how not to sell” and shared a somewhat painful story about our initial visit and test drive experience with 3 different car dealerships.

As I mentioned previously, 2 of the dealerships / salesmen basically knocked themselves out of the running with a combination of poor sales techniques and some ethically challenged tactics.

The good news is that we liked the other car (a Ford Edge – pictured above) and the salesman and the dealership correctly read that we are the kind of buyers that just wanted a straight discussion and limited ‘help’.

So what did they do right?  Read on and find out…

Read More…

©2004 Martin Ouellet

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Vegas, but one of the things I really enjoy there is the game of craps.  It’s a fast moving game that the players and the crowd get excited about.  You can win (and lose) a lot of money very quickly, but if you play correctly, your odds of walking away a winner are better than any other game in the casino (except maybe blackjack if  you can count cards…). 

Because the game moves so fast and requires some math to bet correctly, it can be overwhelming, but once you’ve got it figured out it’s a lot of fun (especially if you’re winning)!

The proper strategy of craps can also teach you a lot about successfully running a small business (it’s my blog, I get to use what ever analogies I want!).

Read on and let me know what you think – it won’t take me long to reach the point.  (pun intended). 

Read More…

  photo by respres 

Twitter - it’s everywhere. 

Ashton racing CNN to get to 1,000,000 followers.  Oprah’s on, along with lots of other celebrities.  Growth for twitter the last year has been 2565%.  It’s even being used successfully for business – here’s a great Forbes article on a CEO that’s using it for her business.

The number of twitter profiles is now over 18 Million.  I think it’s safe to say that twitter has hit a tipping point.

But if you’re like most people that I know, the first question is ‘What is Twitter?’ followed closely by ‘What is the big deal and why should I care?’.

The reality is that if and when you go out and try twitter, you are extremely likely to shake your head, look confused and shut your computer off in disgust trying to figure out what all the noise could possibly be about.

One of the secrets about twitter that’s not obvious is that www.twitter.com actually sucks right now when it comes to using twitter – that’s what most new users try to use and justifiably walk away frustrated and overwhelmed in a very short time.

Twitter’s not for everyone, but read on and see if some background and suggestions on what everything means and tips on how to use it might help change your perspective.

Read More…