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The relationship marketing strategy developed from the direct response marketing campaigns popular in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. These campaigns emphasized the importance of customer retention and continued customer satisfaction, rather than an emphasis on individual transactions, and per-case customer resolution.

What is Relationship Marketing?

Relationship marketing is a type of strategic marketing that targets it’s audience with more direct information on the specific products and services a customer may have interest in. It differs from other forms of marketing in that it seeks to retain customers by building relationships with them, rather than a direct or intrusive strategy, which focuses on acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics, based upon prospective client lists purchased from third party sources.

As traditional marketing took off in the 60’s and 70’s, companies found it more difficult to sell consumer products. The original model had developed into a system, which focused on selling relatively low-value products in mass quantities to a higher volume of consumers. Since the beginning of modern day marketing platforms, many methods have been developed in an attempt to broaden its scope. Relationship marketing grew out of this era, and is one example of an attempt to expand the reach and applicability of marketing.

Simply put, relationship marketing focuses on targeting the relationship of company to customer. If you have an existing customer base, it makes sense to learn what these customers like about your products and services and how you as a company can improve on this. If you build on the good relationships you already have with your customers, and create customer loyalty, this is more valuable than putting energy towards always attempting to gain new business.

Defensive Marketing vs. Offensive Marketing

Relationship marketing can be understood in simple football-like terms of offensive and defensive approaches. “Defensive” marketing and “offensive” marketing are terms that were coined by C. Fornell and B. Wernerfelt in 1987.

Defensive marketing describes attempts to reduce customer turnover, increase customer loyalty and retain the customer base already in place, by keeping them happy with your service, and interested in your products. In contrast, offensive marketing seeks to obtain new customers and increase purchase frequency. Defensive marketing focuses on reducing, or better managing customer dissatisfaction, while offensive marketing focuses on “liberating” dissatisfied customers from competitors and moving them into the offensive marketer’s customer base essentially getting customers to switch teams.

Customer & Consumer Relationships

Relationship marketing is a key collaborative strategy to retain customers. It is essentially an offshoot of customer and consumer relationship management. The theory is this; attracting new customers is more costly, yet less profitable than developing existing client loyalty. By developing and promoting your existing client base through research and an understanding, you will create a loyal client base for years to come, with less expense and higher returns. Building lasting relationships with the clients you already have is a recipe for long-term marketing success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing
firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by
creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=1

If you’re doing business in the eCommerce universe, it’s vital to build a strong network of relationships with your clients. From time to time, it’s necessary to gain new business, new clients and new customers to bring into the pool of focus for building this network of relationships. You may be doing all the “right” things, such as newsletters, email marketing campaigns and advertising on other websites, but you still feel that you’re not attracting as many new customers, or building as many new relationships as you’d like. Exploring social networks, as a way to form new or expand upon existing business relationships will be worth investigating, if your business has not yet done so.

Social Networking

Popular social networks like Facebook are thought of as a place to keep in touch with long distance friends, share photos and stories about your life. But these online social networks are also a great way to make new business contacts. Each network is structured differently so you may want to join several, or investigate the sites on your own before deciding which ones to utilize for business purposes. Implementing consistent social networking can be the next step in a relationship-marketing based strategy for your business. Below are a few of the most popular social networks and what they have to offer from a business perspective.

LinkedIn

When thinking of a social network, many adults assume they are juvenile or the domain of teenagers and twenty-somethings. If you have an aversion to the idea, LinkedIn is the best place for you to start, as it has a mature, professional audience with a combination of social and business networking. When you join LinkedIn, you can list your contacts, both social and professional, and invite them to join. Once your contacts have joined, you then have access to their social and professional contacts and they have access to yours. This is a great way to reach out to new people and make connections because of the mutual friend/associate you have in common.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore, the demographic of this particular social network continues to broaden, and it’s a great resource for making contacts and potentially looking for people to hire if and when your business expands. Facebook has a number of useful features and advanced applications, along with a certain level of privacy that doesn’t exist in other networks. It also has the sheer volume of numbers on its side: with 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views a month, there is a seemingly endless pool of resources to tap into.

MySpace

MySpace is perhaps the social network that is geared most towards a younger population. However, try not to let that deter you. The Internet is making it easier for younger, tech-savvy people to create their own online companies, which means there is large market of younger business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as potential customers that you can connect with on MySpace. Young people also have more disposable income than ever before, which means that subscribers to MySpace have money to spend, and they’re always looking for unique, niche market products.

Building strong customer relationships as part of a relationship-marketing platform is an important ingredient in the success of your business. Using these social networking sites has the potential to connect you with an extremely talented and professional cross-section of people previously untapped by your business. Part of any successful relationship-marketing platform involves reaching out and building relationships with people with whom you have something in common. These social networks are an excellent way to expand your network of business contacts.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing
firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by
creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/

Investment in real estate is a serious business and market that requires both research and knowledge. While many people get in into the market with all of this, there are others who have decided to simply jump into the process. This is where a multitude of mistakes can be made. Those who think that they do not need a coach, partner, or professional to help them will run into multiple situations that could easily have been avoided. Knowing these mistakes may help make it more important to find one of these professionals for your own real estate investments.

Budgeting Too Much

There are some people who will budget too much money for their real estate investment. They will budget for more money than they have, or they will budget for things that simply will not add value to the home. These different budgeting issues can do two things. They can waste money that will simply break even, or it will cause you to lose money that you do not have. If you cannot afford to pay the mortgage on the home, you will be unable to finish the project; budgeting for more than you have may cause you to dip into your rent, or vice versa.

Not Budgeting Enough

There are others who will run into the issue of not budgeting enough. They will not make a concrete, solid budget, or they will fail to budget for the right things. When they run into issues, they will realize that they have not budgeted for any unexpected monetary issues. If you fail to budget correctly, and budget enough, you can wind up in a rough spot with your real estate investment. Taking the time to create the perfect budget, through the help of a coach, is the only way to go.

Taking Too Much Time

Some people will simply not budget their time wisely. In the real estate investment business, time is money. The more you work on a home that you are intending to sell, the more money you pay through the mortgage. This can cut into profits. By budgeting the time in a specific way for all of the work that needs to be done, you can figure out exactly how much money you waste while paying for the investment. Sticking to this time budget is incredibly important.

Nearly all of these mistakes could have been avoided by working with a professional. By working with someone who knows what they are doing, you can walk into the entire situation with the knowledge needed. Some things are unavoidable; those unavoidable issues become mistakes when there is a lack of knowledge. When you are dealing with as much money and effort as you are dealing with when in real estate investment, seeking the advice of a professional is crucial. By doing so, you can help yourself to not only be successful, but avoid major issues during the entire process.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

End wasteful, expensive and non-productive meetings forever. If you are looking for ideas to help your company stay competitive in this economy, start making every meeting count.

You know how much time is wasted in unproductive meetings. And you know how much money is wasted in unproductive meetings. Read on to understand how you can apply 7 simple steps to running effective meetings and start running meetings that will increase not decrease your bottom line.

Company meetings, project meetings, team meetings, one-time meetings, on-going meetings, none should be exempt from planning for success. In fact, even impromptu meetings should be productive.

Someone once said “Application is the only evidence of learning.”

Start applying these 7 steps to well-run meetings and teach your entire company how to make every meeting count.

In your company ….

– Is it ok for people to show up late for meetings?
– Is it ok for people to not show up at all?
– Is it assumed that the meeting won’t be productive?
– Is it typical that meetings don’t have agendas or if they do, they aren’t adhered to?
– Is someone in charge of each meeting to ensure the meeting starts and ends on time?
– Are notes taken at the meeting distributed in a timely manner?
– Do people waste a lot of time in unproductive meetings?
– Does it seem like people spend way too much time in meeting after meeting?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, teaching your team these 7 simple steps to running effective meetings will fundamentally change your company’s culture and improve your bottom line.

1. Make sure there is a facilitator
The person in charge of running a meeting is called the facilitator. Their job is to make sure the agenda is followed, the meeting is productive and that the purpose of the meeting is met. This may be the leader or the person who called the meeting, or could be a third party, depends on the size, complexity and length of the meeting. They are also responsible for establishing The Parking Lot — an effective tool where ideas that come up in a meeting but aren’t relevant to that specific topic are captured to be taken care of at another meeting or through work assignments.

2. Plan ahead where possible
There are meetings we can plan in advance and meetings that we have to call at the last minute. Try and avoid the latter. But if a last minute meeting is absolutely necessary, keep it short, be very focused on what the meeting is about and make sure everyone is clear, when they leave, what the meeting accomplished. A poorly planned meeting is a waste of everyone’s time.

3. Provide an agenda
An agenda states the time, location, purpose and outcome of the meeting and who will attend the meeting. It should provide specific items to be discussed and who will be responsible for each aspect of the agenda. An agenda should be distributed at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting to allow people to be prepared. The more time you plan ahead, the more likely you are to get the people you need and that those people are prepared.

4. Appoint a time keeper
The time keeper’s job is to notify the facilitator at key points during the meeting to keep things running on time. The time keeper only knows what the time constraints are based on a well thought out agenda. If you leave the timing of the meeting up to the facilitator, they will focus on watching the clock rather than running a good meeting. Make sure you cover this detail.

5. Appoint a scribe
The scribe’s job is to take notes and distribute them after the meeting. Again, by leaving this critical task up to the facilitator, focus is taken away from the purpose of the meeting. Notes are not as clear as they need to be as the facilitator is too worried about capturing information and not on what’s getting done. The scribe needs to know what method to use to distribute them (email, hard copy — who gets them?) and how soon after the meeting the leader expects them to go out.

6. Start each meeting on time
Don’t wait for stragglers. It’s their job to be there on time and to catch up (after the meeting is over) with what they missed. How to cure perpetually late meeting interrupters? (If they let you know in advance they were going to be late, that’s a different story. I’m talking about people who simply can’t get their act together and constantly show disrespect by showing up late to all meetings). Close the door and when they try and come in, don’t let them. Tell them they can read the notes from the meeting and let them know you hope they can be on time for the next meeting. Not allowing people to interrupt your meetings by being late will stop if you just lay down some ground rules in advance.

7. End each meeting on time
Make sure the time keeper keeps you posted on where you are with the agenda. Ending a meeting on time will gain you respect as a leader — showing people that you respect their time. If it looks like you aren’t going to get to the entire agenda before the meeting is over, ask for permission from those in attendance to extend the meeting. It’s a judgment call on the leader’s part as you may lose a lot of people who have other commitments and can’t stay. The meeting may not be productive if you lose key people.

8. Distribute the notes of the meeting quickly
Before adjourning, let people know they will be receiving notes from the meeting by a certain date. The scribe should get the notes ready for distribution immediately after the meeting is over. Don’t let this critical step in the process negate a productive meeting.

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Sure, you want to invest in a down real estate market, but you want to do it smartly; being stupid got people into a lot of hot water recently and you are not stupid. You are smart, the kind of investor who wants to make a well informed decision before plunking down the kind of cash that will be required to make a good investment in a down real estate market. You have to be quick on you feet, so to speak, to be able to weather this current financial fire storm, so here are a few tips to help you make the smart decision in investing in a down real estate market.

1. Land lords are holding all the cards. Right now there are literally millions of people losing their homes. Dows that mean that there will be millions more homeless people running around the streets of towns and cities all across America? Not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the majority of those people who have lost their homes are still working at relatively well-paying jobs and can afford to make rent. Becoming a land lord makes sense because the market is full of renters wanting to get into a house and resume some semblance of normalcy in their lives. Think of becoming a land lord as being a wise, and safe, investment strategy. If you purchase a 200,000 home and rent it out for even 1,000 dollars a month, you will receive 12,000 dollars a year in return. 12,000 dollars a month on a 200,000 dollar house is a 6% return on your investment; not bad in a time when even gold is having trouble finding buyers.

2. Purchase for the long haul. The investment strategy of the past decade or so was to buy and sell quickly, hoping to make some money off the volatility of the stock market. That investment strategy is killing people now as the market see-saws all over the place. The same is true for the real estate market; eventually someone will get bit in the rear end for trying ti flip houses or to make a quick turn around; it may not happen right away, but it will happen fairly quickly. We need t return to the older philosophy of investing; buy when it’s low and sit on it. Some economists say that this down turn is going to last a year, others three. Either way, prices will eventually start going back up and if you buy now, when discounts are made to order, you will have gotten in on the ground floor, so to speak, and be ready to sell at a good profit when the markets return to normalcy.

Be smart about the location of your purchase, your purchase price, and your investment strategy. Think about what people will need and what they will be willing t pay, eventually. This storm will end and while others are running for cover, if you work quickly, and smartly, you’ll be sitting pretty when the dust settles in the real estate market.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

Rental properties are red hot right now. Every metropolitan area in the country, and many rural areas as well, are experiencing a housing crunch in the form of too many renters, not enough rentals. First of all you should understand that the housing market is tanking; new housing starts are at a low not seen in decades and older houses are sitting on the market, just rotting away with nobody in them.

It is a golden opportunity to become a landlord right now. Being a landlord can be a short-term gig where you purchase property and just ride out the storm while people pay you back on your investment. It can also become a long-term job where you are the landlord to multiple places throughout the country; the choice is yours to make.

First of all, you are going to want to remember the golden rule of real estate; location, location, location. Find a house that is supported by travel infrastructure such as trains, bus lines, freeways, and major highways.

Second, the property should be ideally situated to take advantage of supermarkets, schools, and parks or places of recreation. Finally, the house or property should be close to where the jobs are; in other words, a downtown area or large employer. These three factors will make your prospective house more attractive to renters.

Now that you have your property, you need to know a little about buying it. The over inflated prices are gone. Some houses are straight off the market and have been sitting in a bank’s portfolio for some time. Others are from those people who still think flipping will work in this economy. Both are excellent targets for your future investment. Never go higher than a 15 to 20 percent discount of the asking price. If they balk, you walk. Remember you’ve got the money so you are holding all the cards. Once you have your property, you may need to improve it a bit, but do only what will make the place habitable and moderately attractive; don’t think flip-like improvements.

Now you have your house and you have your location, now you need renters. The majority of renters are hard-working people who were taken by shady lending practices, or perhaps even lost their job and had to take a lower-paying one.

Most renters will have had their homes foreclosed on and their credit rating will reflect that. Some landlords had been using credit scores as a test of the worthiness of their potential renters, but that practice is kind of sketchy now, given the amount of foreclosures and layoffs in recent months. Instead, we recommend you interview them (or have a representative interview them); some people got blindsided by the down turn and even well-respected white collar workers are needing to downsize. Interviewing will be a better gauge of their worth than an abstract number that doesn’t even mean anything anymore.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

We have already gone over the idea that you want to invest in a down real estate market, and how to be smart about investing, but so many people don’t know how to find the best deals in a down real estate market. Here are a few tips to help you make an informed decision about investing in real estate in a down market.

1) know ahead of time what the asking price is for other houses in the area. Similar houses may not have similar prices and while some people may be clinging to the idea that they can get their mortgage paid off, the reality is that millions of Americans are going to wind up being up side down in their house. Knowing the average price of the real estate market of the area you want to invest in is going to give you an idea of what the asking price should be and will help you negotiate a good discount.

2) Look around the neighborhood; are there a lot of for sale (or foreclosure sale) signs in the front yards? Are there lots of un-kept lawns or stagnant pools? Are there newspapers piling up on a front porch? These are signs that the recession has hit this neighborhood hard. Banks will be more than willing to have these difficult properties off their hands and your chances of making a good bargain are much, much higher. The people selling their houses will also be eager to sell, so now is the time to strike if you want to acquire lots of small tracts, or relatively small tracts, in one fell swoop. These neighborhoods are likely to be discounted because of the low demand and the high abandonment and foreclosure rate. Work smart and work fast to get a good deal.

3) Some people prefer less investments with a higher rate of return; in this case, look at neighborhoods that seem relatively recession proof; they are the perfect combination of three types of infrastructure. First, they are located near transportation infrastructures such as train lines, freeways and highways, or a reliable bus route. Second, they are near shopping centers, super markets, and good schools. Theses support infrastructures are going ot be very desirable to families once they start returning to real estate. And finally, look for recreation infrastructure such as river, parks, lake, amusement parks and the like. Proximity to these may increase desirability which means that when you do sell, you will sell big.

Remember that investing in real estate in this down market is a long term game of patience and smarts. You can’t (or at least shouldn’t) expect to flip houses like you could have a year or more ago; you just won’t have the buyers, to put it bluntly. Buy now, get a good discount, and sit on the property until the real estate market makes its inevitable return. You will be glad you did.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

Down markets are filled with doom and gloom predictions which discourage investing. That’s the good news. Really, it is a wonderful prospect. There is going to be less people investing in real estate now than ever before and that’s your golden ticket. Down real estate markets can be turned to your advantage very easily if you are smart about it.

You can turn a real estate investment into a long term profit. Purchase when the market is down and wait until the market rebounds. It will definitely rebound, though perhaps not to the levels that they were a year or two ago (but then again, the price levels are nowhere near the levels they were then, either). This means you purchase your real estate and treat it like a precious egg. Sit on it for a long, long time. When the market does bounce back (everyone knows it will you will be able to reap the benefits of patience.

You can try to flip the house. Particularly stressed properties or properties that are deeply devalued can be revalued if the neighborhood is still vibrant and active. If you are looking at a house and the area is looking a little down, or worse, has for sale signs everywhere, forget flipping it. You will wind up spending too much and becoming frustrated. Instead, look for neighborhoods which appear recession proof and have well maintained streets and lawns. This will tip you that a flip is possible in this neighborhood.
You can become a landlord for at least the short term. Landlords are sitting pretty right now.

Almost every region in the country is feeling the pinch of an economic recession and that means people are looking for houses and apartments which will offer a simpler lifestyle. Some people have lost their homes and are looking to remain in the neighborhood, or have even moved back to a less expensive neighborhood. The lower rent they pay is like interest rates for you; a 200,000 dollar house which charges 1000 dollars a month will return 12,000 dollars in a year gross return; that is an interest rate of 6 percent. This return is much better than you will find in a volatile stock market or in a bank account where you are lucky to earn 3 percent.

Once you have become a landlord, you have several options in the eventuality that the land values return to better prices and the economy picks up; you can retain your property and receive interest on your investment.

You can also decide to sell your investment. In this scenario, you can not only sell at a higher value than you bought it, but you have essentially earned 6 percent interest for a number of months while you waited the financial storm out.

You need to be smart, you need to be patient, and you need to keep your money alive while this market is receding. If you can do that, you will have made quite a bit of money during a down real estate market.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

This is a seriously hurting economy, especially in the real estate market. People are throwing the “R” word (recession) around and are talking about a global scale and long term fall out of the sub prime mortgage mess. There are a few bright spots, however, as every analyst knows; there’s money to be made out there even in a down turn like this one.

Real estate’s reputation has taken a huge hit in recent months, and justifiably so. Some of the less than honest dealings that real estate appraisers and mortgage lenders were engaging in is a black eye, without a doubt. Still, real estate offers a potential safety that no other stock, bond, or commodity can match - not even gold. First of all, there are some things you should bear in mind about this market. Flipping should not even cross your mind. If you think you can buy a house on this market, throw some money into it an make 30,000 or more dollars in a few months, you’re deluding yourself.

First of all, dedicated flippers are finding out the hard way that real estate is not moving the way they want it to. The credit crunch is holding up the process of getting mortgages; this means that while you may be able to get a loan if you really, really need it, your potential market is not as likely to get such an opportunity. Also, most flippers are winding up sitting on their house anyway, so why bother to sink thousands into unnecessary upgrades and improvements if you don’t have to? Second of all, real estate investment should be looked at as a long-term investment for at least the next few years. But that is a good thing and here’s why; real estate will bounce back and people will want to buy again. The old adage in investing in stocks was to buy when you were young and sit on the stock; by the time you retire, you’ll be rich.

This is true for real estate now; buying now will get you in on the ground floor of a golden opportunity to make a long-term, stable investment. Prices now are at a 17 year low and there is no real demand for new houses so your competition is being eliminated. Purchasing a properly located piece of property now will pay huge dividends in the future. Finally, you should understand that your purchase can make you money while you ride out this storm. You may not think you want to be a land lord, but you might want to think about it.

Right now millions of people are losing their houses, but are not about to become homeless. Instead they will be looking to rent. These renters are not just going to be the people who lost their houses because they got in over their heads with a bad loan. Renters are now coming from well-paying white collar people who have to downsize their super-sized life; and here you are with a house ready for them.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.

The real estate market being down is not necessarily a bad thing. Sure the credit worthiness of investment banks and even the general public is being questioned, but all is not lost. In fact, the silver lining is, oddly enough, real estate itself. Real estate is still worth something, though not at the hyper inflated values you may have been seeing a year (or even half a year) ago.

That’s good news for you; as a person with liquid assets, you can purchase many of these properties without having to go through the much-tougher practice of getting a loan. Or, if you are able to get a loan, you are in a much, much better position than the majority of the country. But other than money, here’s a quick run down of the other benefits of investing in a down real estate market.

First, real estate has become a long-term investment. There are some idiots out there who think they can flip in a down market, but the handful that do are really, really lucky. Real estate will bounce back; it will not reach the levels it did but at least you will get a return on your investment. The old saw in investment was to purchase while the stock was low and sit on it until you saw it grow. You need to do the same in this market.

Second, if you become a landlord through real estate investment, you will find that your money is returning on you at a better rate than purchasing highly volatile stocks, bonds, or even commodities would right now. The overall return for a year will be about 6% or so; much better than bank accounts or even certificates of deposit. Renters are plentiful too. In this market, people are losing their homes but are not becoming “homeless.” They are turning to landlords to find a place to live while they recuperate and try to regain the losses they have suffered. Many of these people are unfortunate enough to have been caught in the mortgage meltdown without any mis-steps of their own. Others, even if they were in a house they could not afford, are still hard-working people who were sold a bill of goods by mortgage lenders.

Finally, because housing is a crashing market, new housing starts are at a record low. In fact, they are at the lowest in decades so there will be no real competition from new home sales to hamper your purchases. The only other competition is other foreclosed homes or homes where people are up side down and in need of at least some quick cash via a short sale.

Down real estate markets should be no barrier to your investment in the market, especially if you are smart and do your homework before hand. Pick the right location, the right tenants, and the house and you will be glad you invested in real estate during this down market period.

Peter Vekselman has been successfully investing in real estate since 1996. He has completed over 1000 real estate deals, owned a construction company, been a private lender, and owned a property management
company. To learn more about Peter please visit
http://www.coachingbypeter.com.