When it comes to increasing your sales, there is a basic principle that you must remember:

Your prospects buy the Benefits to fill specific needs or wants.
Your job as a business owner is to know, understand and deliver the benefits they’re looking for, which will differ depending on the needs of the customers, even for the same product or service. Therefore, it’s critical that you know multiple benefits for each of your products and services. And know exactly what your prospect’s needs and wants are. This is the essence of marketing: to create a match between your buyer’s needs and wants and your lists of benefits.

There are two primary categories of information that will help you with this determination.

The first category is demographics. These are the characteristics that identify the ability, need and interest of a client to purchase your product or service. Demographics define those clients who need what you sell.

The second category is psychographics. These are the factors that identify the motivation or reasons why someone wants to buy your product or service. Psychographics define those clients who want what you sell.

As you identify your prospects’ wants and needs, based upon their demographic and psychographic characteristics, then compare this data with your own wants and needs, you will gain greater insight into your ideal client. And once you accurately target your ideal clients, you’ll spend less time and money to acquire them.

To start, you must research your current clients – the ones you presently deal with day in and day out. Select at least three of your current clients to interview. Perform the demographic research by personally interviewing these clients either on the phone, or in person.

Your Retail Consumers: You must know your consumers; invest some time to understanding your prospects. Find the answers to questions like these:
· Who are your current clients men, mostly women, do they represent a 50/50 mix?
· Is there a certain age or age range that tends to buy from you?
· Are most of your typical clients single or married?
· Do they have high school or college graduate or some where in between?
· Do you know their approximate income level?
· If not, do you know what zip code they live in? (Most zip codes contain homes or apartments that represent specific income ranges.)

Your Business Buyer: If you sell to businesses, interview at least 5-7 typical businesses you sell to. Find out the number of employees they have and their location to learn about their company culture and the number of subordinates you may have to speak with in order to get your sales message to the decision-maker.
When you in other cities, you may require different approaches. For example, you may need to position your product or service differently when selling to a Manhattan based business compared to a Houston based business. In some cases, that difference can be day and night.

Traits and Patterns
When you have completed the interviews, compile all of the information to determine commonalities among your current clients. Collecting this information will help you find the traits they have in common, which will help in future marketing.

Having this demographic information will help you create a picture of your current clients. By identifying this client with demographic information, you can later begin your lead-generation efforts, and create a marketing message that is laser-targeted toward your ideal client. So take your time and be as specific as possible when completing these interviews.

It will pay off when you have a steady stream of ideal clients, increased sales revenues, and more profits.

Remember whether you’re selling to businesses or retail consumers 80% buy with the 5th -12th follow-up.

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Water   Hydration is essential. Drink lots and lots of water – a good rule of thumb is drink half your body weight in water. So lets say you weigh 140 pounds you would drink 70 ounces in water, soda, coffee, and juice doesn’t count. Remember this during winter people tend to drink more hot drinks that dehydrate the body.

Oxygen   Cells need oxygen to produce energy. If you don’t have time to workout take 7 minutes to do some deep breathing.

Minerals   The body uses vitamins and minerals to perform many different functions – from building strong bones to transmitting nerve impulses and fight infections – your body needs vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium, just to name a few.

Alkalinity   Eating high-alkaline foods help maintain the acid/base balance of your system. An ideal diet should consist of dark green and yellow vegetables, soybeans, sprouted grains and nuts, and essential fatty acids. Coffee, Hot Chocolate, and alcohol increase acid in your body which affects how you function.

Nutrients   There are seven groups of nutrients which your body needs to stay healthy – Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals, Roughage (Dietary Fiber), and Fluid (water).

Simply put,  to maintain the cycle of balance within your body, everyone needs a good W.O.M.A.N.

Fox News|By Paul Eisenberg -Thursday, October 01, 2009

“I would never in a million years pay what you pay in New York City rent,” my houseguest said.

This statement was uttered a few years ago by a friend of a friend of a friend who had just regained consciousness on my living room couch. My response, according to witnesses, was “Well, then I guess you’re lucky you get to stay here for free.”

My guest’s comment was probably made in a more good-naturedly fashion than I recall, and neither of us had had our coffee yet. But let’s face it, while there are no official rules of conduct for houseguests, one of the basic ones ought to be refraining from remarks that make your host feel like an idiot for living where he does.

If you’ve ever hosted an overnight traveler or been one, you’ve likely walked this sometimes tricky terrain. With no money changing hands, what further obligation do you have as the host? What should you say and do as the guest?

Whether you’re planning to crash with friends or family, or are heading to an exotic destination where they don’t have the courtesy to live, there are a growing number of ways to sleep for free on vacation that are easy and fun. And the rules aren’t all that complicated.

Catch the couch surfing wave.

In case you’re late to the party that is the worldwide phenomenon of couch surfing, it’s generically defined as the act of crashing on someone’s couch, or letting someone do the same, with no money changing hands. Recently, this practice has been somewhat formalized at couchsurfing.org, a website enabling surfers and hosts to find each other and share experiences.

On a whim this summer, travel guidebook writer Erica Rounsefell headed to Great Britain. Couch surfing figured into her visit to York, England, where she stayed with a “dentist originally from Poland. He and some friends of his took me on a road trip through Yorkshire, visiting the seaside at Whitby, an historic abbey, North York Moors National Park, and culminating in a musical performance in the village of Harrogate.” Not incidentally, she saved “at least $1,500 on what I would have had to spend on hotels, but more importantly I met local residents that I never would have gotten to know otherwise.”

Hosts don’t particularly expect anything in return, Rounsefell says, though couch surfers find that the best way to reciprocate is to act as hosts themselves. However, some surfer guests make exceptions for particularly good “service.” One of Rounsefell’s hosts “was very interested in Pakistan and we had a good discussion about it, so I got the book ‘Three Cups of Tea’ for him. Some travelers cook a meal from their home country to share with their hosts, but there’s no expectation on the side of the host.”

Indeed, a surfer visting health coach Melissa Wood’s house cooked her dinner by way of payback. But when Wood offered to buy breakfast for some hosts she crashed with “they said they always buy for the guest, because to them it seems like the thing to do.”

For six of the years he lived in Amsterdam and Dubai, corporate executive Michael Flink hosted more than two dozen travelers, some of them couples. “For me it was a way to meet different people, from all walks of life and all cultures. It may sound strange to open your house to strangers, but only once did I have a bad experience, and that was mild – someone who just wanted to stay longer and wouldn’t take no for an answer until I walked them out.”

Flink concurred with other surfers and hosts that the best payback from the experiences was enduring friendships, though he adds “in terms of little thank yous, a couple from Estonia brought me a bottle of their homeland’s well known booze…and a guy from Poland shared his ‘how to pick up women’ secrets, which eventually led me to meet my wife.”

Stay at (a) home.

By traditional definition, a homestay typically entails renting a room in a family home. But with several homestay services, such as Servas, no money is paid to the host, though the traveler is required to pay Servas a membership fee that varies from country to country. Unlike couch surfing, whose community of hosts and guests is self-policing, Servas reps need to interview and approve potential hosts and guests, all of which must be 18 or older.

“I rarely stay in hotels. Mostly, I visit people in their homes, make new friends, have more fun, and enjoy a much higher quality trip,” says Shel Horowitz, author of “The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty With a Peasant’s Pocketbook” who has done homestays with Servas for more than 25 years.

His typical stay, whether in the United States or abroad, is two nights and he confirms that “no money changes hands, though there is an annual membership fee and we usually bring a small gift.”

Tour leader and Trip Chicks co-owner Ann Lombardi, who has overnighted in more than 70 countries, says her US Servas membership letter of introduction has been a lifesaver. “I’ve used it for last minute homestays when my flight or train is delayed or cancelled, or there’s a problem with a hotel booking.” As with the other lodging scenarios, good advice for and from travelers is often a happy fringe benefit.

“I can call a member if I am in the area and ask if he or she can recommend a good value restaurant,” Lombardi says. It’s like Twitter, but the old-fashioned way.”

Barter a bed.

In the spirit of the expression that “the most expensive suit in your closet is the one you never wear,” many travelers in our sour economy are looking to trade their unwanted and unused stuff for big-ticket travel items, including housing.

The site swapthing.com permits you to barter your unused stuff for just about anything, including timeshares and apartment rentals. Similarly, milehighswap.comlets you trade your unwanted things for airline miles as well as mileage for stuff that might include housing.

Motivational coach Bert Martinez says he has also successfully placed ads on Craigslist.com and Kijiji.com to barter for travel. “As a speaker and trainer company we have had a lot of success trading and bartering for items including airline tickets, hotels, time-shares and condos,” Martinez says. “I estimated we routinely saved thousands of dollars by not using a traditional hotel experience.”