Is That Your Hand In My Pocket: Ron J. Lambert & Tom Parker - Review

Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?

The Sales Professional's Guide to Negotiating

By: Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker

Published: Jul 18, 2006
ISBN: 0785218777
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: Nelson Business

If relationship marketing and looking for the win-win solutions is your sales technique, then it needs some serious reconsideration. That is the message from authors Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker in their powerful negotiation primer for sales represenatatives tited Is That Your Hand in My Pocket? The Sales Professional's Guide to Negotiating. As the title implies, the book is about negotiation and it delivers on that promise.

Both authors Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker have over twenty-five years of ecperience in training sales people with the negotiation skills necessary to survive and prosper in the modern global economy. They say the days are long gone when a representative could spend years with a client, building and nurturing a mutually beneficial relationship over time. In their view, the modern purchaser doesn't want a relationship with any sales people. They add that the buying company doesn't want one either. The rules of the game have changed, and the modern sales negotiator has to change along with it.

In a series of chapters crammed full of practical hands on advice for negotiating successfully, the authors move from basic negotiation styles to tactics for getting results from even the most difficult prospect. By presenting a breakdown of various negotiation techniques, the writers provide the best means of addressing each method. Whether the potential buyer is a hard nosed type who sees everything in terms of winning and losing, or if the prospect is a bend over backwards compromise specialist, the best way to sell to each person is presented. The authors make it very clear that one technique does not fit all situations. Adapting to the circumstances is essential to successful negotiations in the view of the authors.



They explain in step by step detail how to:

* Set the agenda for the sales negotiation to maintain control.

* Establishing the negotiator in a powerful bargaining position whether that is indeed the case or not.

* Read the other side's non-verbal signals to pick up cues as to their thinking.

* Finding creative solutions to very difficult or stalled negotiations.

As an added bonus, the authors provide a chapter that turns the negotiator from a seller to a prospective buyer. In an information laden section on buying a car, the authors teach would be automobile owners how to hold their own against some of the best negotiators in the business. Instead of car buying being a negotiations nightmare, the authors provide the tips to help the buyer drive away with a fair deal.

Overall, Is That Your Hand in My Pocket? The Sales Professional's Guide to Negotiating by Ron J. Lambert and Tom Parker is a book that everyone entering into negotiations should read. Whether a person is buying or selling, or negotiating a raise, or reaching a mutual agreement with family and friends, this book will get them to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.

That's as win-win as you can get.

Tags: Is That Your Hand in My Pocket?, Ron J. Lambert, Tom Parker, negotiation, business books.

Carnival of the Vanities 202 at Eteraz

The 202^nd edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities appears at Ali Eteraz's Muslim blog known as Eteraz.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, humour, technology, business, and Islam.






I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My post is titled "Case studies: Blogging real world busines" where I discuss how case studies are widely used in business and the academic communities as a teaching tool. They are real life business examples of how a business idea or application worked. Perhaps more importantly case studies can point out failed plans and actions. In any case, the study of real world business experiences from idea conception to the end result are an important study for any business.





To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.





Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the new e-mail address:

cotvmail -at- gmail -dot- com

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at at as yet undetermined location.

In the meantime, head on over to the Eteraz hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

Marketing Sherpa SEO Buyer's Guide: I'm invited

Marketing Sherpa is a well known internet and search engine marketing and information service. Their reputation is one that is the envy of many in the internet marketing field. To be included in any Marketing Sherpa publication is a privilege.



Last year, I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of the 2005 - 2006 MarketingSherpa's Buyer's Guide. (shown left) I have been invited to be part of the 2006 - 2007 MarketingSherpa's Buyer's Guide as well. In both issues, I am included in the search engine optimization section for SEO firms and professionals.

It is free to be included, but it's necessary to qualify for inclusion. The entry form is a survey that requires some time to complete, and not everyone is included in the final edition. A series of questions is asked and answers are required for inclusion with the company and professional profile in the directory.



Here are some of my responses to the various SEO related questions:

They wanted my vision of my ideal SEO client:

My ideal client is a medium to large size business whose management understands and wants to learn more about the process of SEO. Along with the company's desire to maintain its brand image and to present a postive public image, my services of completely ethical SEO techniques makes an ideal combination. The company executive in charge of the SEO process will understand the need for patience, and take a long term view of how SEO, is practiced in an ethical manner. My ideal client is not one seeking a quick fix but a long range holistic approach to SEO, and to achieving solid search engine rankings, rather than chasing the latest fads.

They asked how I would respond to seekers of unethical SEO services:

I would advise the client to seek another firm. I specialize in ethical, "white hat", and search engine approved techniques only. I do not use, and will not consider utilizing any unethical or "black hat" search engine tactics. As a result, the client and I would not develop the ideal working combination that is necessary for good SEO practice.

They requested my opinion of who would be the wrong client for my practice:

The wrong sort of client is one seeking short cuts and fast fixes instead of utilizing a holistic approach to SEO. If the client wants unethical SEO tactics used, and sees no problem with "black hat" SEO methods, they are not right for my practice. I use entirely ethical, "white hat" techniques that are not compatible with unethical SEO practices.

As you can see, my emphasis is on providing entirely ethical and "white hat" SEO services. I don't believe it's necessary to resort to tactics that are in violation of the guidelines provided by the major search engines. In fact, I believe it's a privilege for any online business to be included in their organic search engine results. As such, a website is a guest of the search engine, and such should follow their posted rules.

My current list of clients hired my services precisely because of my ethical SEO position. They like their company reputation maintained and further enhanced by their online presence. They enjoy resting easily knowing their sites won't suffer any penalties or possible search engine bans for unscrupulous tactics.

Three of my clients are as follows:

Alan Wayler at Green Mountain at Fox Run

Tara Lefave at Enerjy Software and Teamstudio.com

Vicky Lincoln at Zeus Technology

I work closely with all of my clients and as a result, I can provide even better SEO services. Knowing the people and their business helps me do my job better. It also gets the clients better search engine placement for the most important keyword phrases for their business.

It's a win win situation.

And I'm proud to be part of Marketing Sherpa's brand new 2006 - 2007 MarketingSherpa's Buyer's Guide.

Tags: Marketing Sherpa, SEO, ethics, client relationships.

Carnival of the Capitalists at Selling To Small Business

This week sees a small business approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to Anita Campbell's (pictured below left) marketing, entrepreneurship, and small business blog known as Selling To Small Business.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.



Anita Campbell (shown left)


As you would expect from Selling To Small Business there are many discussions of economics, marketing, entrepreneurship, and small business.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.



I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "SEO for the MSN search engine" where I discuss how gaining added internet search traffic, via MSN Search, could add huge dollars to your online business bottom line. To receive that much sought after visitor traffic, you will want to know a little about what works, and what doesn’t have much impact, when optimizing for MSN.




If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

Note as well that Carnival of the Capitalists. has a new URL at http://thecotc.com/. Be sure to update your links and bookmarks.



If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will be at Galen's Blog.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Selling To Small Business hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will get some small businesses to work for you. (groan)

Tags: carnivals, capitalism, business, marketing.

Employee motivation: Build trust and respect

Employee and staff motivation is an often discussed topic. The opinions about how to get employees working range from hard driving close supervison to hands off and let the people create on their own. Most business owners and managers fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

One thing is certain and that is no one motivation technique will work for every employee. On the other hand, there is always a way to get the most out of everyone in the organization. All that's needed is to find the key that unlocks each person's talents and skills.

Business creativity blogger EM Sky of Mind Unbound Business shares some thoughts about a terrific motivational boss named "Bill". The management techniques used by "Bill" are not really what are thought of as management school type concepts at all. In fact, they are more about sharing, respect, and trust than about traditional ideas of employee motivation. The important part is EM Sky says the methods brought great results.

The highlights of EM Sky's manager's approach:

He asked for my opinions.

He gave me excellent feedback.

He gave me credit for my suggestions.

He made teamwork a way of life.

He never made me "go it alone."

He gave me room to make mistakes.

He trusted me with real responsibility.



EM Sky continues with some reflection and fine management advice on employee motivation and trust:

"Some people will argue that "you can't trust everybody," but I don't believe that. Trust can start in the small things, and everyone can be trusted with something. It's important to remember that not trusting people often has more to do with us than it does with them."

Learn from "Bill" and trust your staff. Listen to their ideas and treat them with respect. You will be very pleasantly surprised at their motivation and desire to work for the advancement of the company. The great thing about "Bill's" managerial style is its simplicity. The ideas presented are all about treating people well, and earning their trust and respect, in return for the respect and trust they have been given by the manager.

All good employee motivation needs is a liitle respect and a lot of trust. In return, the staff will work more productively and enhance the company bottom line.

Treating employees well is good business.

Tags: emplyee motivation, management, trust, EM Sky.

Free WordPress blogging guide available

The WordPress blogging platform is one of the most popular and advanced blogging systems available. The many users of WordPress for their blog postings are usually very happy with the user interface and the many standard features offered.

One problem, for beginning bloggers on WordPress, has been finding a useful primer on how to use the system. While there are many forums offering advice to WordPress users, many of the tutorials are beyond the beginner level. Finding answers for someone who has never blogged on WordPressbefore is often difficult. That problem for novice bloggers has now been solved.



Teli Adlam, the "WordPress Queen" of OptiNiche Blog (via Self Starter Weekly Tips Forum) has developed a brief, but very concise pdf manual titlled WordPress Primer - Quick Start Guide.

Teli describes her WordPress Primer this way:

The topics covered are:

The Difference Between WordPress and WordPress.com

Installing WordPress and the Famous 5 Minute Install

Update Your Profile and Password

Update Your First Post, Comment, and About Page

Installing New Themes

Installing New Plugins

If you are considering starting a blog on WordPress, or switching from your current blogging software, be sure to download a copy of Teli Adlam, the "WordPress Queen's" WordPress Primer today.

Your WordPress blogging will never be easier.

Tags: WordPress, blogging systems, Teli Adlam, blogging platforms.

Student SEO Contest: Enter today

A contest for students in SEO? Who would have thought? Well, it's true. There is indeed such an event specifically for university and college students sponsored by website hosting firm Dotster.com and ticket sales organization BargainTix.com. The students compete for cash prizes for themselves and for their schools.

The very fact that such a contest, involving search engine optimization, is an indication of how mainstream the profession and the practice of site SEO has become. SEO is a profession for the future and many of the students entering the contest will be its leaders of tomorrow.



Dotster.com and ticket sales organization BargainTix.com provided the following contest information on their website:

Introduction:

This is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest organized by BargainTix.com. It is designed to to introduce students to the SEO field. The contest is interested in comparing results for student pages. The contest date is from June 1st to Sept 1st 2006. Click here for more information on SEO and SEO contests.

Search Expression:
Astromusicologie 101

The search expression was announced on June 1st 2006 at noon (12:00 PM) Pacific Standard Time. This search expression yielded zero results on Google, Yahoo, and MSN at the start of this competition. Search terms for previous SEO contests include: "V7ndotcom Elursrebmem", "retsambew dash klat for Charity", "the four required words", "Carcasherdotcom Seocontest"

Prizes:

Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest point total based on search engine results on Sept 1st at 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. Absolutely no points will be awarded for paid placement or "pay per click" ads.

1st highest point total - $500 cash prize
(An additional $500 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 1st place winner's choice)

2nd highest point total - $300 cash prize
(An additional $300 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 2nd place winner's choice)

3rd highest point total - $200 cash prize
(An additional $200 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 3rd place winner's choice)

Cash prizes will be in USD funds.

Continue reading about the Student SEO Contest and enter here.

The future of SEO is in the hands of the student contestants. As always, I am hoping that a few of the students entered will blog about their experiences in the contest and share with the rest of us.

We all know that employing blogs for SEO could help some wise student win too.

Shhhhhhhh.

Tags: student SEO contest, Dotster, BargainTix, university.

Case studies: Blogging real world business

Case studies are widely used in business and the academic communities as a teaching tool. They are real life business examples of how a business idea or application worked. Perhaps more importantly case studies can point out failed plans and actions. In any case, the study of real world business experiences from idea conception to the end result are an important study for any business.

Case studies set up by outlining a problem facing the business, and then the potential solution to that obstacle is presented. After that, the process used to employ the potential solution is explained. The steps taken by the decision makers may be outlined in detail or presented as a unified whole. In any event, the reader is able to follow what took place in the business over the time period under consideration.

The ending of the story could be a happy one where the idea reached fruition and provided benefit to the business. The study might discuss a new product, process, or the establishment of a new division within the company. The case study would demonstrate what went right for management and staff.

On the other hand, the case study could show clearly where the best laid plans of the company went very wrong. For the reader, and for the writer of the case study as well, putting the mistakes under careful scrutiny is a powerful teaching tool. Discovering what went wrong for the business in the study can prevent the same problems happening in another organization.



The case study is intended as a teaching tool that offers an object lesson in management. By showing real life examples of business successes and failures, dry as dust business and management concepts are brought to life. Living, breathing people working for real companies, as they work on their business, makes for very compelling reading. The lessons become much easier to learn and to remember for the future.

Parallels can be drawn between your own company and that of the business shown in the case study. The lessons can then be applied to your own business, along with the caveat that no two businesses are exactly alike. That said, many business and management problems are common for all companies. Finance, sales and marketing, personnel, public relations, production, and distribution are only a few examples of issues that arise in every organization.

Case studies also make great blog post topics.

In fact, a well written case study is very likely to be heavily linked by other bloggers. People will read your case studies eagerly, and they will want to share them with others. The resulting SEO power in the search engines and the extra new visitor traffic are a pleasant result. A highly ranked case study will attract interest and visitors from all of the major search engines. Blog posts rank well in the search engines and that blog SEO power will be provided to your case study sending new readers and potential clients and customers your way.

More importantly, however, a solid and honestly written case study provides real value to your readership. By offering realistic, open, and honest assessments of the challenges faced and the solutions offered, other business people can benefit from your experience.




As a matter of fact, case studies have much in common with blogs. Both are at their best when transparency, openess, and honesty are part of the presentation. By presenting the truth about the case study, warts and all, powerful lessons can be drawn.

Those lessons are not only valuable to the reader, but to the business person writing the case study. The post game analysis of the business success or failure is part of the business learning process. By writing down objectively how a problem was solved, whether successfully or not, the writer can honestly assess the management's actions. A well written case study could provide a major boost to your reputation in both the business community and in the blogging community. Becoming known as an expert in your industry is a powerful business builder.

Out of that open and honest examination of the facts and figures, a better manager will emerge. The readers will benefit from the solution employed, even if it was a dismal failure. Bloggers should seriously consider writing case studies of their businesses as blog posts.

Everyone benefits.

Both the case study writer and the reader learn valuable business lessons in equal measure. The result is greater understanding of operating a successful business.

And a few extra case study blog posts are handy as well.

Tags: case studies, blogging ideas, management, SEO.

Carnival of the Vanities 201 at Siempre, Cait

The milestone 201^st edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities appears at Cait's teenage conservative blog known as Siempre, Cait.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Siempre, Cait hosted Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, humour, technology, business, and personal finance.






I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My post is titled "Helping bloggers: Donations and Sponsorships" where I discuss how donating money to support a blog is only one of the ways that a favourite blogger and blog can be assisted. Cash is nice, of course, but there are other methods of help for your friends. Not all of them cost any money. In other words, you can help out blogging buddies even if you are strapped severely for discretionary spending money yourself.




To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.





Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the new e-mail address:

cotvmail -at- gmail -dot- com

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at at as yet undetermined location. Either that, or the mystery host is on some sort of Carnival double secret probation.

In the meantime, head on over to the Siempre, Cait hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

Blog visitors: How long must you wait?

For most new bloggers, starting a blog is fraught with concerns. If you're a business or professional blogger, and employing the blog as a marketing or public relations tool, one of those worries is visitor traffic. Without anyone reading the freshly launched blog, all of those wonderful conversations and relationships with clients and customers will never get underway. The new blogger wants to know when some real life vistors will actually read the postings.

My friend Tinu Abayomi-Paul (pictured above left and below left) of the highly informative Free Traffic Tips blog has set out a very helpful timeline for the arrival of that much anticipated visitor traffic. The good news is blog traffic should appear in the first week the blog goes live.



About the early blog visitor traffic, Tinu says:

You can see your first traffic from blogging literally overnight, mostly from your initial pinging, Will it be a lot of traffic? Not necessarily. If you post at the right time of day for your site, you may see as many as 100 visitors come to your blog in its first day, due to a new blog post, just from pinging. You can see more than that if you let your existing traffic know about your blog.

After a certain number of posts, to lay the foundation of an active feed, you will also start to see a trickle of traffic from promoting your RSS feed or blog in directories and feed-specfic search engines. That can happen as soon as three days in, and sometimes after 7 to 10 days. The timing you can expect will depend on your blog.

Tinu continues the good news for novice bloggers as well. She points out that these early entries into your visitor taffic logs are only the beginning. As your RSS feeds (and you do have one live on your blog, right?) kick in with their traffic, those early numbers will take a jump. Another leap in the readership will occur when the search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, and Ask.com send information seekers your way.



As you gain experience in blogging and your number of posts increases, even more visitors will arrive at your blog. Other bloggers will link to your best posts and they will also add links to your blog. Sharing readership with other bloggers is a time proven technique for gaining more visitors.

As Tinu says, it takes hard work, persistence, and a heap of patience to build a successful blog. While you may have traffic levels only a fraction of the blogging superstars, the benefits gained from the blog will more than outweigh any traffic disadvantages.

Of course, if you listen to Tinu Abayomi-Paul and read her blog on a regular basis, your blog traffic numbers will grow. How's that for great advice!

Tags: visitor traffic, blog readership, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, search engines.