Selling involves more than merely taking an order and delivering a product or service. To be successful—and to stand apart from the old-school salespeople—you need to take a genuine interest in your clients and offer what is best for them, even is that isn’t the most financially rewarding for you.

The buzz word today is “solution.” Salespeople often say they offer solutions for their clients or that they are solution providers. It’s easy to say, but requires a fair amount of thought and, in some cases, restraint, to implement. You must avoid the temptation to sell your entire portfolio or at least your most expensive products and services. A sincere salesperson considers himself or herself more of a partner or team member than an outside sales rep.

Even if your firm can offer a host of good solutions, your client may not need all at one time. He may not be able to afford them either. It’s OK to discuss future sales, but concentrate on immediate needs. Use your first sale, as modest as it might be, to establish your relationship. Provide exemplary service after the sale, and you’re more likely to be offered additional opportunities.

Selling solutions means just that: offering solutions to needs or problems that your prospect has. To find out what those needs are, ask the proper questions. Some of these include:

What are you trying to accomplish?
How do you feel about your current program (product/service)?
In what area(s) do you feel you are lacking?
What has been your experience with…?
What are some of the latest trends in your industry?
Anything new your competitors are doing that concerns you?
Where do you see yourself—or, where would you like to be—in three to five years?
Why do you feel that way? (You will find this quite useful during your discussion.)

You will note that many of these are open-ended questions. These provide your prospect the opportunity to offer an in-depth reply. Use this type of question frequently.

Avoid the temptation to start off jabbering about your firm, its strengths, products, and such. Your prospect doesn’t give a rip. Your first meeting should be of an exploratory nature. Remember: You can’t know for certain whether you can help the person if you don’t know anything about him and his firm.

The fun continues. These firms are behind some of the junk that is flying around out there.

List Manager M2, 1187 Coast Village Road Suite 1-189, Montecito, CA 93108

List Manager M2, 1187 Coast Village Road Suite 1-189, Montecito, CA 93108 (This one at least included a link to unsubscribe, but that may have been a ruse to determine if the recipient's address is good. You can't be sure with spammers.)

Consumer Department
10 Anson Road
#16-16 UNT 6156
International Plaza
Singapore 079903
Republic of Singapore
This one also provided a link supposedly to unsubscribe, but I wasn't about to click on it. Who knows what would've happened to my computer.

Customer Care LK, 4712 Admiralty Way, #268, Marina del Rey, CA 90292

Geocities.com continues to be a popular launching pad for spam.

"Emily Mayer" at ://br.geocities.com/Mitzi82_i73/

"Enrique Ervin" at http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/Rosanne41_o125/

"Landon Patrick" at http://br.geocities.com/Liz28_p513/

To be continued....

Perhaps one way to get back at spammers is to shed a little light on them. In my previous message I mentioned that several people use geocities.com to host their e-mail accounts and/or web sites. Some of my latest garbage comes from the following:

"Jamie Oneal" at
http://it.geocities.com/Hanson85_a40/

and "Antonio Curtis" at http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/Lelia37_o1/

But, other sites and service providers are also home to spammers. Other purveyors of garbage include:

"Don McClure" at http://approval.ahrw004.com

"Jack Mejia" at http://approval.hyima002.com

and "Porfori Moon" at http://www.karygo.com/9cz

I suppose we can assume if you pull up those addresses you'll get nailed with some sort of virus or spyware, so I don't suggest doing that. I've provided that information solely for informational and indentification purposes.

Finally (for today anyway), the Golden State checked in with another spammer. This one listed an address of:
2 0 3 3 S a n E l i j o A v e n u e # 4 7 0 , C a r d i f f B y T h e S e a , C A 9 2 0 0 7

The fun--and fight--continues.....

Goecities.com continues to be a popular site for hosting spammers, particularly those offering mortgages and refinancing. Interesting how the spammer can claim I have been pre-approved, when the con man doesn’t know a thing about me.

Another common trait with these so-called lenders is that they never offer a way to unsubscribe. Just hide behind an address situated at geocities.

But now geocities has some “competition.” Another helpful loan provider has contacted me. I’m to visit a site at quadrek.com. Guess what I’ll find when I go there…

For a tastier diversion, I can also buy green tea through other spammers. These folks use a site at didrenatl.com. Haven’t checked it out, and don’t plan to. You can bet it’s all garbage.

Another spammer was kind enough to include a link to unsubscribe. Couldn’t help but notice that the firm is located in California (Encinitas this time). As I’ve asked before: What’s with California that makes it such a favorite hangout for spammers?

As I mentioned the other day, some spammers make you work to get off their lists. Namely, mail in a request. Let's see which addresses pop up on the latest batch of garbage:

204 N El Camino Road
#623
Encinitas, CA 92024

(What's with California, anyway??)

In addition, a lot of others use sites hosted by geocities.com.

The battle continues...