Internet Marketing | Lead Generation

Another plug for a good friend of mine. This time, Matthew Glover who as well as being Managing Director of a Leading UK Conservatory Supplier, is also Head of Fundraising for a wonderful charity called Heal.

Matthew is looking for 50 recruits for a charity bike ride through Andhra Pradesh in India. If you are up for a challenge please listen to his video or visit their website Heal.co.uk

A tall order to say the least, so even if you cannot get involved yourself, please consider sponsoring or passing the video on to someone who may be interested in making this trip. The trip of a lifetime - No doubt! - and all for a very good cause.

Well Done Matthew, this will be one awesome trip, no question - and good luck to all of you. Count me in as a sponsor

Unless you have been on some remote island for the last couple of years, it will have been impossible to have escaped the increasing use of video online.

Of course YouTube is perhaps the biggest example of this but for me personally what has most impressed me over the last 12 months or so, has been the ever increasing numbers of private individuals and business people (Not TV or Movie Stars) who have been featuring in their own online movies / videos - and in many cases, doing just as good a job as many of the “Personalities” that it would take $10000’s to employ.

Take for example my good friend Jack Corn of Donations Travel

Jack tells me this video was done in just one take. I would say that is amazing.

Jack, clearly is a Natural. Watch out Hollywood!

My prediction is that in the future, there will be many Big Name TV and Big Screen Stars who first got their Big Break online.

By the way, a fantastic business Jack is promoting - check it out at: InkAgain.org

Anyone who has been following my recent posts about my Attic cleanup and clear out and the resultant re-discovery of some of my original sales training / personal development materials will no doubt, have observed that I have quite an eclectic mix or “taste” in sales trainers / personal development gurus

One of the most influential sales and motivational mentors that I had early on was Zig Ziglar. Now Zig is very well know to just about anyone involved in sales or personal development and has touched I dare say Millions of Lives.

Even today, the mere mention of Zigs name brings a very broad smile to my face and a warm positive feeling. Back in 1982 when I first read his book ” See You At The Top” (SYATT) I was as a rookie sales person to whom Zigs Words of Wisdom really did make the difference between success and failure in selling. You see, sales success is a much about having the right attitude as it is about learning a repertoire of Sales Closes.

I believe that around about 1983 / 84 Zig came to the UK and that was the first time I met him. One of my purchases back then was a set of tapes called: How To Stay Motivated. I must have played those tapes over and over until they were almost worn out.

Interestingly, in hindsight, being in the UK, I did find some people who did not relate well to Zig and his “quirky” all American Positive Mental Attitude. It was some times said that Zig was “too American” and that all this “positive sales stuff” did not work in the UK. I however am very pleased to report that nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. Indeed, in the last 20 years, there has been quite a Mind Shift in the UK to be overall much more accepting of personal growth and personal development materials.

I also had the great privilage of attending Zigs Born To Win Seminar in 1986 - a seminar that still exists today.

Thank You Zig Ziglar

For information on the Born To Win -Seminar Click Here

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”
– Zig Ziglar

As an Irish man this article in The New York Times got my attention.

An interesting story about two entrepreneurial Irishmen who are making money shipping Irish soil to the US and selling it in 12 oz. bags to Irish-Americans who literally want a piece of the “old country.”

Straight from the Auld Sod Export Company in County Tipperary — well, via a warehouse in this eastern Long Island town filled with 12-ounce plastic bags labeled “Official Irish Dirt.” Pat Burke, one of two Irishmen who founded the company last year to capitalize on the sentimental symbolism of Irish soil to Americans, said it had shipped $2 million worth to the United States since November, when it started its Web site, officialirishdirt.com

Perhaps the kind of idea it would help if you were Drunk in the first place, in order to think of it, but impressive none the less!

Entrepreneurs and their creative ways to make money always amaze me. So often, the simplest and perhaps “daftest” ideas turn out to be the Real Winners. Well Done Pat Burke and Alan Jenkins (his business partner)

Today’s temporarily misplaced ATTIC find is a set of Tapes by Hal Krause - Titled: How To Hire Winners (or as it turned out for me, How To Hire Sales Winners)

By 1983/84 I was enjoying considerable success as a salesperson - and everything looked very rosy. I enjoyed selling and being still quite young, sales management was not something I was yet particularly aspiring to. Indeed, I had been offered sales management positions several times before I eventually accepted the invitation from my good friend, Keith Revel (my Area Sales manager at the time) to become a District Sales Manager for a Big Name Double Glazing company.

Looking back on it, I’m not entirely sure why I had been so reluctant to go into sales management (I can only assume it was because I enjoyed selling so much) - but very quickly I developed a real passion for sales management and also for sales training.

Back then, we would put ads in the newspaper along the lines of “Do you want to earn £500 per week” ($1000 per week) - “No Experience Required”

These positions were of course “commission only” and frankly that was a big turn off for a lot of people, so as a sales recruiter you really had to really work to get people to join you. We did not always get it right, but we gave quite a number of people who are still in sales today, their first sales job. Just a few of the previous professions that some of these Sales Superstars had worked in were: Bank Managers, Farmers, Building Labourers, Engineers and Ex Armed Forces.

Of course equally important was to recruit the right types of people and over time we developed a number of processes which allowed us to better sort out the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

One set of tapes, that more than anything else at the time helped was a set called “How to Hire Winners” by Hal Krause.

Hal and I shared something in common, in that we both got into Sales Management and Sales Training at a young age. Indeed Hal was only 23 when he founded American Salesmasters, an international audiovisual company specializing in sales training.

In this series of “temporarily misplaced ATTIC finds” series of blog posts it is perhaps too easy to sound like everyone whose training material I came across had an AWESOME impact on my life - but really, I am not over stating anything in this series of posts. Everyone of them impacted me greatly and made me a better sales person, a better sales manager and a better human being.

Without doubt, the training Hal Krause provided on how to hire winners had the greatest impact at that time on my sales recruitment skills.

Thank you Hal

For more information on Hal Krause Click Here

When I first started making a name for myself in sales, the amount of training materials available in the UK in terms of tape sets and video sets was relatively little. Certainly, there is a lot more available today.

For this reason, most of the training materials I used, were imported from the USA.

Some of the first sets of videos I every purchased was from a company called American Salesmasters. I have even in my Attic cleanup found the original invoice for just two of these videos (Dated 29th January 1985) for the amount of £747.50 ($1444.93 USD currently) That is a lot of money even now, but such was my thirst for knowledge that I actually bought quite a few videos in the end.

I was such a good customer that they actually gave me a Picture signed by the various speakers / trainers and that is what you see below.

It may not be clear in the picture, but the Speakers and Trainers who signed it (all original signatures by the way) are a real who’s who of Sales Trainers and Positive thinkers.

We have Fred Herman, Larry Wilson, Cavett Robert, Dr Norman Vincent Peale, Hal Krause, Zig Ziglar (LEGEND) and J Douglas Edwards (who I believe trained Tom Hopkins early on)

I can in particular remember in Dr Norman Vincent Peales video were he mentions that if you want to find people without problems, we should go to a graveyard. He said we could find plenty of people without problems, 6 ft down! Looking back on it now, I really don’t know why this impacted on me so much - but it did, i.e. Problems (or issues as I later started to call them) are great things, as they prove you are still alive!

Thank you Fred Herman, Larry Wilson, Cavett Robert, Dr Norman Vincent Peale, Hal Krause, Zig Ziglar, and J Douglas Edwards - you enriched my life in so many ways, not just financially.

Some related websites:

Dr Norman Vincent Peale

J Douglas Edwards (Listen to a short clip of J Douglas Edwards speaking from 1966)

Zig Ziglar

Cavett Robert ( Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissory note; only today is legal tender, only now is negotiable.)

Fred Herman (Fred is probably most famous for coining the KISS Principle for Selling - Keep It Simple, Salesman)

More in the Clearing out the Loft / Attic is Good for the Soul theme

Today’s temporarily misplaced ATTIC find is a set of Tapes by World Renowned Expert in Marketing and Direct Marketing: Ted Nicholas

Strictly speaking I don’t believe I bought these tapes in the 80’s - more likely the early 90’s

I did have the pleasure of attending a small intimate workshop with Ted in London around about 1993/94 - and I shall always remember Ted’s less than flattering review of my press advertising at that time. Ted really tells it as it is - an awesome copywriter for whom even the term “world class” does not seem good enough.

If you ever get the chance to hear Ted speak in public or read / listen to any of his material - then please do it. The impact that he has had on so many business peoples lives, both online and offline really cannot be over stated.

I was very fortunate to hear Ted Nicholas speak at the Peter Woodhead and Yanik Silver Underground Online Seminar™ UK in London last year. The impact that Ted made there, will I believe, live with everyone in that audience for ever.

Special Note: There is a Ted Nicholas Copywriting Day before the Yanik Silver Underground III Seminar on March 22, 2007, in Washington DC

I attended Yaniks Underground II last year and I will also be attending Underground III - Perhaps I will see you there?

Click Here For the Ted Nicholas Website

Continuing on the theme of Clearing out the Loft / Attic is Good for the Soul - Today’s temporarily misplaced ATTIC find is a set of Tapes by Master Sales Trainer: Tom Hopkins

This set of tapes was bought at a seminar that Tom did in the UK, sometime around 1983 / 1984 (If you look carefully, you will see Tom, signed the back)

It would be just about impossible to overstate the impact Tom’s sales training had on my life. As a young man in my early twenties I enjoyed a Six Figure income from sales (That’s UK Pounds) - and frankly, that would not have been possible without Tom’s training.

I quite literally listed to Toms tapes over and over to the point were I could almost repeat, word for word, what Tom said on those tapes. This is not hard sell, this is gentle sell - or at least it is if you do it Toms way. I also read his wonderful book: How to Master the Art of Selling over and over. If you are a salesperson, or even if you are not, this is one book you MUST read.

As a little side note, I am attending with some friends, Dan Kennedy’s 2007 Marketing and Money-Making Super conference in Chicago in April and one of Dan’s special guests is Tom Hopkins. It is over 20 years since I saw Tom, so I am looking forward to that very much.

Click Here For Toms Hopkins Website

it is Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere and there is something about Spring that always makes me want to clear stuff out / tidy up my office / organise my files.

I’m not saying I am disorganised - but there is something quite positive and good about having a clear out. Like I say, it is Good For The Soul

Just this weekend, I have been in my loft, sorting out and clearing out. I think I am quite organised but also I have to admit, I am a bit of a collector of “stuff”.

For example, I “found” old sales diaries from my first selling job way back in 1982 and even old sales contracts, from when I first started selling Double Glazing back in 1983/84.

Suffice to say, I did clear out quite a bit, but I am also pleased to say I re-discovered some books and training materials from the early 1980’s - which frankly have quite an awesome impact on me at the time. (Materials I would never throw out)

Over the next week or so, I am going to feature some of this 1980’s material on BarryDunlop.com

It seems appropriate to put this in The Mentors Category - after all, these sales trainers and personal development teachers were my Mentors and the positive influence this material had on my life cannot be overstated.

This material will not be appearing in any particular order - but I thought I’d start with Dale Carnegie and How to Win Friends and Influence People.

This is not a book you hear so much of these days - but if you have never read it, I really would recommend you look it up in your local book store.

I actually went one better than getting the book, I also got the Audio Version on Tape, or more correctly, The Unabridged Audio Collectors Edition (You may not be able to make out the price tag on the front, but it cost $180)

As an interesting side note - I have just realised, I no longer own a cassette tape player (all CD’s now) so this coming week, a new cassette player is on my shopping list

For more information on Dale Carnegie Click Here

Dale Carnegie (originally Carnegey) (November 24, 1888 - November 1, 1955) was an American writer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, a massive bestseller that remains popular today.