You’re either in front of a client making your pitch or you’re trying to get in front of a client to make your pitch.

You also learn sales is a numbers game. For life insurance agents, the numbers game was the ratio 100:10:3. That meant for every 100 people you actually spoke with, you’d get appointments with 10 of them and sell 3 out of those 10. And that meant I had a phone growing out of my ear. I’d carry around a stack of index cards with names and phone numbers on them. Almost every evening after dinner, I’d retire to the bedroom to make at least 20 telephone calls; most of them cold calls. Yea, those were the days . . .

Every industry/product has its own version of the numbers game. I think it’s a security thing. It helps takes the uncertainty out of being being self-employed. It also helps focus your energy and activity. If I know I need to speak with 100 people this week to make 3 sales, you can bet I’ll be on the phone with at least 100 people trying to get 10 appointments.

Naturally, it’s a tad more complicated than that. Ultimately, the number of sales I make depends a lot upon the makeup of those initial 100 people. If I decide to speak with 100 people who are all over the age of 65, I’ll certainly get much worse results than the life insurance formula suggests. If I were selling long-term care insurance, however, those are the peope I’d want to be in talking to.

It’s not rocket science. It’s merely knowing who your product or service is best suited for and then doing everything you can to engage those people in a conversation. It works pretty much the same way on the web.

Keep in mind, this is an investment and not charity, so you’re assessing which businesses have the greatest potential to generate the most value for the most people. That includes you (the investor), the business itself, the surrounding community and the potential customer base for the business. By the way, this is based on a real situation.

Here are my top 10:

1. Why are you passionate about this business?

2. Who is your immediate market? Extended market?

3. What will they find remarkable about your product, product line or service?

4. What are your revenue targets for each of the next 3 years?

5. How will you reach those targets?

6. What are the top 3 obstacles to achieving your targets, and how will you overcome them?

7. What unforseen threats could prevent you from reaching your targets?

8. How will you invest this capital, and what sort of return do you project, and when?

9. Where might you go for additional capital if the need arises?

10. What will you do if you don’t receive this capital?

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As for CastingWords, I couldn’t be happier with it. You simply provide a link to the audio file, tell them how long the audio runs, then pay the fee. Very simple. Very easy. The only way it could be better is if it was free and faster, but 36 hours is pretty damn good in my book, and from what I’ve seen, their rates are below most of the transcription services out there. I’ve not yet checked the transcript thoroughly for typos, but it did pass a spell-check with flying colors. If you need some audio transcribed, definitely give it a look.

It doesn’t end there, however. Alex’s embarrassingly simple idea has been copied more than a few times by other folks hoping to milk the MDHP cash cow for all it’s worth. The latest copycat is Teresa Luquette, who created The Million Dollar Womens Homepage this past November. Her earnings from the copycat effort so far: $133,300. Not bad for a couple of months and a knockoff idea.

All copycat scorn aside, the moral of the story is this. Originality is a beautiful, but often over-rated ideal. The smart money invests in an idea that’s been proven to work.

(via Denise Wakeman)

“Some people say I’m afraid to compete. I think one of the jobs of a businessperson is to get away from slugfests and into niches where you can prevail. The fundamental goal is to get rid of weakness, to find a sheltered womb where no one can hurt you. There’s no virtue in looking for a fight. If you’re in a fight, your job is to win. But if you can’t win, you’ve got to find a way out.”

As quoted by Noel M. Tichy and Stratford Sherman in Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will.