#sentence arrangement questions for bank po

[ajayvermablog]

How to Prepare for Government Banking Exams: Strategies for Success

Government banking exams are highly competitive, requiring a focused and strategic approach to succeed. These exams, including the prestigious NABARD Grade A, are sought after by aspirants aiming for a rewarding career in the public sector. Whether you're appearing for the RBI Grade B, SBI PO, or NABARD Grade A exam, the preparation strategies are quite similar. This article will walk you through key strategies to enhance your preparation and improve your chances of success.

1. Understand the Exam Syllabus and Pattern

Why it’s important: A clear understanding of the syllabus and exam pattern is essential for focused preparation. It will help you prioritize subjects based on weightage and difficulty level.

How to do it: For example, if you're preparing for NABARD Grade A, go through the detailed syllabus on the official website. Be familiar with the sections like Economic and Social Issues (ESI), Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), and general awareness.

2. Create a Study Plan

Why it’s important: A well-structured study plan helps manage your time effectively and ensures coverage of all subjects.

How to do it: Divide your preparation into daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Allocate more time to subjects you're weak in and ensure you revise regularly. For NABARD Grade A, dedicate specific time slots for ARD and ESI since they hold significant weightage in the exam.

3. Practice with Previous Year Papers

Why it’s important: Solving previous year question papers gives you an idea of the types of questions asked, the level of difficulty, and the time management required.

How to do it: Collect past papers for NABARD Grade A and other banking exams. Set a timer while solving them to simulate real exam conditions. This will help you improve speed and accuracy.

4. Focus on General Awareness

Why it’s important: General awareness, especially current affairs related to banking, agriculture, and rural development, is a crucial component of banking exams.

How to do it: Read daily newspapers, follow reliable online portals, and make notes of important events. For NABARD Grade A, concentrate on topics related to rural development, agricultural policies, and economic affairs.

5. Develop Strong Concepts in Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning

Why it’s important: These sections test your problem-solving abilities and can be scoring if prepared well.

How to do it: Strengthen your basic concepts in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data interpretation. Practice reasoning puzzles, seating arrangements, and logical reasoning questions daily to improve speed and accuracy.

6. Enhance Your English Language Skills

Why it’s important: The English section evaluates your grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. A good command of the language can significantly boost your score.

How to do it: Read articles, editorials, and practice mock tests for sentence correction, comprehension passages, and essay writing. NABARD Grade A exams often have a descriptive section where clear and concise writing is essential.

7. Take Mock Tests Regularly

Why it’s important: Mock tests give you the opportunity to evaluate your preparation and identify areas of improvement. They also help in managing exam-related stress.

How to do it: Opt for online mock tests that simulate the real exam environment. Analyze your performance after each test, focusing on mistakes and weak areas.

8. Stay Consistent and Motivated

Why it’s important: Consistency is key when preparing for competitive exams. Staying motivated helps you maintain focus and avoid burnout.

How to do it: Set small, achievable goals, and reward yourself when you accomplish them. Surround yourself with positive influences and take short breaks to refresh your mind.

Conclusion

Preparing for government banking exams like NABARD Grade A requires a combination of discipline, time management, and effective study strategies. By understanding the exam pattern, practicing regularly, and keeping yourself updated on current affairs, you can boost your chances of success. Stay focused, work on your weaknesses, and keep revising to ensure you're ready to excel when the exam day arrives. With the right approach and dedication, a successful career in government banking is well within your reach.

[smartkeeda-blog]

Sentence rearrangement in English for bank exams. Here, we are going to discuss about topic “Rearrangement of the sentence” and Sentence rearrangement tricks, rules, shortcuts, etc which you can apply during your competitive exams. Best online mock test for IBPS Clerk Prelims 2017 and IBPS PO Prelims 2017.

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Overview- Details and Syllabus for IBPS Clerk Exam

About IBPS Clerk Exam

IBPS is an autonomous body that conducts the recruitment process of IBPS Clerk exam once every year.

Any eligible candidate who aspires to join as Clerk (CRP Clerk IX) in the participating organisations (Indian Banks) can apply for the IBPS Clerk examination.

The details of the IBPS Clerk examination along with scheme and syllabus of the IBPS Clerk exam are given below.

Eligibility for IBPS Clerk exam

Nationality / Citizenship

A candidate must be either:

A     Citizen of India or

A     subject of Nepal or

A     subject of Bhutan or

A     Tibetan Refugee who came over to India before 1st January 1962     with the intention of permanently settling in India or

A     person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka,     East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania     (formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar), Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and     Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India,

Provided that a candidate belonging to categories 2, 3, 4 and 5 shall be a person n whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

Educational Qualification

The     minimum qualification required for IBPS Clerk exam is Graduation in     any discipline from a University recognised by the Govt. of India or any     equivalent qualification recognized as such by the Central Government.

To     apply for IBPS Clerk exam, the candidate must possess valid Mark-sheet     / Degree Certificate that he/ she is a graduate on the he / she     registers and indicate the percentage of marks obtained in Graduation     while registering online.

Computer     Literacy: Operating and working knowledge in computer systems is mandatory     i.e. candidates should have Certificate/Diploma/Degree in computer     operations/Language/ should have studied Computer / Information Technology     as one of the subjects in the High School/College/Institute.

Proficiency     in the Official Language: candidates should know how to read/ write and     speak the Official Language of the State/UT) for which vacancies a     candidate wishes to apply is preferable.

IBPS Clerk Exam Pattern

Any eligible candidate is required to register for the Common Recruitment Process. The IBPS Clerk examination consists of two phases,

Online Preliminary

Online Main examination.

IBPS Clerk Exam Syllabus

The exam syllabus of IBPS PO is similar to other banking exams. Based on the previous year questions the topics that are asked for different subjects are given below:

IBPS Clerk Prelims & Mains Syllabus

English Language

Reading     Comprehension

Cloze     Test

Para     Jumbles

Error     Correction

Sentence     Improvement

Narration    

Numerical Ability

Simplification    

Time     & Work

Time     & Distance

Profit     & Loss

Simple     Interest & Compound Interest

Mensuration    

Data     Interpretation

Ratio     & Proportion

Percentage    

Number     Systems

Reasoning Ability

Logical     Reasoning

Alphanumeric     Series

Data     Sufficiency

Coded     Inequalities

Seating     Arrangement

Puzzle

Syllogism    

Blood     Relations

Order     and Ranking

Input     Output

Coding     Decoding

Computer Awareness

History     and Generation of Computers

Introduction     to Computer Organisation

Computer     Hardware and I/O Devices

Computer     Languages, Basics of DBMS

Operating     System

MS     Office Suit and Short cut keys

Computer     Memory, Computer Software

Number     System and Conversions

General Awareness

Banking     and Insurance Awareness

Financial     Awareness

Current     Affairs

Govt.     Schemes and Policies

General     Knowledge

Important things to remember

Negative     marking: There is penalty of one fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to     that question.

Marks     obtained in Preliminary exam of IBPS Clerk are not considered for final     selection.

Candidates     must qualify Mains examination to be eligible for final merit.

Marks     scored out of 100 are used for the final merit list for each category.

You can upgrade your career with business, management or many other topics today. The study material, assignments and tests will surely benefit you.  From Unoreads you can have all the knowledge you need with all the possible updates for competitive exam preparation, and it can bring you at a higher pace than your competitors. Log on to the Best Educational Websites in India to explore more about subjects for competitive exams.

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[ibpspoexam]

How to Crack IBPS PO 2021 in First Attempt, Know Expert Tips Here

IBPS PO Syllabus

Preliminary Exam Syllabus

English Language

Reading comprehension, Fillers (Double fillers, Multiple Sentence Fillers, Sentence Fillers), New Pattern Cloze Test, Phrase Replacement, Odd Sentence Out cum Para Jumbles, Inference, Sentence Completion, Connectors, Paragraph Conclusion, Phrasal Verb Related Questions, Error Detection Questions, Word usage/ Vocab Based Questions.

Numerical Ability

Data Interpretation (Bar Graph, Line Chart, Tabular, Pie Chart), Inequalities (Quadratic Equations), Number Series, Approximation and Simplification, Data Sufficiency, Miscellaneous Arithmetic Problems (HCF and LCM, Profit and Loss, SI & CI, Problem on Ages, Work and Time, Work and Wages, Number system, Speed Distance and Time, Probability, Mensuration, Permutation and Combination, Average, Ratio and Proportion, Partnership, Problems on Boats and Stream, Problems on Trains, Mixture and Allegation, Pipes and Cisterns).

Reasoning Ability

Puzzles & Seating Arrangements, Direction Sense, Blood-Relation, Syllogism, Order and Ranking, Coding-Decoding, Machine Input-Output, Inequalities, Alpha-Numeric-Symbol Series, and Alphabet Related Questions.

Mains Exam Syllabus

Reasoning Ability

Analogy, Syllogism, Passage and Conclusions, Statement and Conclusion, Statement and Assumptions, Statement and Arguments, Decision Making, Assertion and Reasoning, Ranking and Sequence, Coding-Decoding, Blood Relations, Alphabet/ Numeric Series, Direction Sense, Figure Series, Input-output, Sitting Arrangement.

Computer Aptitude

History of computers, Basics of computer’s hardware and software, Short Cut Keys, Windows operating system, Internet, Networking, Basics of MS-Office: MS-word, MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint, Database, Hacking, Security Tools and Viruses

General English

Reading comprehension, Fillers( Double fillers, Multiple Sentence Fillers, Sentence Fillers), New Pattern Cloze Test, Phrase Replacement, Odd Sentence Out cum Para Jumbles, Inference, Sentence Completion, Connectors, Paragraph Conclusion, Phrasal Verb Related Questions, Error Detection Questions, Word usage/ Vocab Based Questions.

Quantitative Aptitude

Data Interpretation (Bar Graph, Line Chart, Tabular, Caselet, Radar/Web, Pie Chart), Inequalities (Quadratic Equations, Quantity 1, Quantity 2), Number Series, Approximation and Simplification, Data Sufficiency, Number system, Miscellaneous Arithmetic Problems (HCF and LCM, Profit and Loss, SI & CI, Problem on Ages, Work and Time, Work and Wages, Speed Distance and Time, Probability, Mensuration, Permutation and Combination, Average, Ratio and Proportion, Partnership, Problems on Boats and Stream, Problems on Trains, Mixture and Allegation, Pipes and Cisterns).

General/ Financial Awareness

Current Affairs and Static Gk related to banking, economic and financial sector, Latest Reports and Data such as Budget, GDP, Repo rate, Interest rate, tax rate, etc., Basics of Financial Institutions such as RBI, SEBI, IRDA, World Bank and IMF, their headquarters location, name of their head/ chief/ chairman, etc., Financial and Banking Abbreviations, Acronyms, terminologies, Government Schemes and Policies

Take IBPS Clerk mock tests: Once you have finished the entire syllabus, take our full-length IBPS Clerk mock tests and assess your performance. Identify your weak areas and work on them to improve.

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There are many benefits to becoming a professional and freelancer translator. Like how many hours do you work? Your income depends on how busy you are in your work? And how many clients are in contact with you? Your luck wants to see you as a professional translator, so you need a better skill to succeed. So here is I describe some translation skills for you.

Before doing any translation you need to focus on the source-target language. Apart from this, one more thing to note is that you are the original speaker of the target language. You also need to focus on the target language for Genuine Ukrainian Translation Services . Apart from this, you have to be an excellent writer in your native language. However, translation service is a special type of process that gives an ordinary person the experience of understanding the language of another country, most translation agencies do not consider freelancers for translation work because they are not original speakers. The best thing to improve your skills is that you need to spend time in those countries where language is your source.

For the success of the source language, not only is it right for you to speak but it is also very important to read and under1stand it. By reading, you will have the experience of fully understanding the source texts, what you are translating. As the question arises in your mind that how can you flow in the source language? So it would be better for you to spend more time in the country where the source language is spoken, and enhance it by viewing, listening and reading content in that language. If you want, you can also choose your favorite source language, but while translating, keep in mind that whatever language you are using should be right language and style guide references.

If you want to become a successful translator, then understand your power and trust it. You do not have to worry about any translation work, but doing every translation work. There is more benefit in Native Romanian Translation Services than you just have to understand your ability. If you are bilingual and have years of experience in a particular field or subject, this may be your starting point. If you have an understanding of your content then you can market your service according to your own.

Although you do not have to be a computer expert, you must demonstrate your knowledge and ability to navigate through many computer programs. If how to add language translation to your website your computer knowledge is excellent, then you have more chance of job in the field of translation. There is also CAT tools that you have to use and master.

So, These are the main points that need to be in mind.

We inherited English Language from the British. Even after 70 years of after them leaving India, it is one of the strongest bonds that unites this multicultural, multilingual country of ours. Therefore English is an important element in any competitive exam and so is the case with SBI PO

There is an English Language section in both the preliminary, as well as, the main examinations of the SBI PO selection.

The importance of the English Language section

This section is approximately 30% or 1/3rd of the preliminary exam with 30 questions carrying 30 marks out of a bank of 100.

In the Main exam, answering the 35 out of the 155 questions earmarked for English will get you 40/200 marks. In other words, 1/5th of the total marks rests with this section. You can literally earn 1 mark a minute if you prepare and answer perfectly.

The parts of the English section

This segment of the prelims and the mains of SBI PO bank exam can be broadly divided into:

Grammar

Vocabulary

Reading and comprehension

Verbal Ability

Grammar

English grammar cannot be learnt in a short period; it is acquired by usage over time, by reading, and by speaking. Still, practice can help in scoring. Expect at least 8-10 questions in grammar.

Do not let terms like 'parts of speech,' or 'degrees of comparison,' or 'gerunds,' or 'standard construction,' confuse you. You don't have to learn the terms; you have to know correct grammar.

The questions on grammar are predominantly based on error spotting and phrase replacement.

If you had joined a good coaching program, you would have got the correct practice to help you score high. English grammar exercises, previous papers, and mock tests are the best workout that you can hope for, to score high in English grammar.

Vocabulary

Once again, you cannot collect words or cram their meanings to learn a language superfast. Reading is a good way to improve your vocabulary, and the reading habit should be something included in your daily routine.

You can use the internet to learn about easily confused words. You can also try memorising techniques (mnemonics) to remember words and their meanings.

If English is your weak point, practise as much as you can. Pay particular attention to:

Fill in the Blanks

Cloze test

Sentence Improvement

Parajumbles

Antonyms & Synonyms

Reading Comprehension

Practice 'double fillers': in this you have 2 sentences with a blank in each, followed by choice of 5 words. You have to choose a single word that fits both blanks.

If you have a doubt about the correctness of your choice, read the sentence through after filling in the word or phrase. This might give you a better idea about the correctness.

Reading and Comprehension

Vocabulary cannot be divorced from the comprehension part of the language.

The topics will probably be based on banking and finance, or the economy, social issues or business. The passage will not be mid-length, and you will have to read and assimilate the meaning quickly.

The questions will be fact based to test your understanding of the passage. You may also be asked to draw inferences; this means that the answer will not be stated in so many words in the passage but will be implied by the content.

If you are asked word-replacement questions and find yourself in doubt, it is a good idea to understand the general context and find the best fit; or eliminate the worst ones.

Verbal ability

This is essentially, finding arranging phrases (parts of a sentence) in a sequence to form a correct and complete sentence.

Again, practice is the most important factor.

And yet again, it is a good practice to formulate the sentence in your mind as fast as you can and repeat that formed sentence to get the feel of its correctness. Only practising continuously can help you do this. You have to keep track of time- remember that!

The Descriptive Test

This is the old fashioned long answer type section of essay and letter writing. This is also online, so you will have to think and type simultaneously. Hope your typing skills are reasonable.

You will be given 30 minutes to complete this section. The maximum marks are 50. This is a qualifying test in more than one way:

The point to understand is that the marks you get in the descriptive test will not be added to your objective section marks to consider you successful.

The last few words

You will be facing the English language section in BOTH the prelims and the mains. Expect the difficulty level in the mains to be higher.

Practise. Practise some more. And keep practising. There's no other way to learn the language and earn that SBI PO prize.

Practice on previous papers and mock test papers will do wonders to improve your standard and your chances.

At TalentSprint, we bring you the best practice sessions and tests to sharpen your English language skills. Our training will make you speak in English and think in English. This is the only way to score high and beat the competition.

[makemyexam]

Practice and persistence is the key to success when it comes to short of time to prepare for competitive exams like IBPS PO 2020. According to the latest updates the tentative dates for IBPS PO 2020 prelims exam are October 3, 2020, October 4, 2020 and October 10, 2020. If bank aspirants start now for the exam preparations for IBPS PO 2020 prelims exam then they have at least two months comfortably to study effectively with systematic time schedule.

Let us discuss the significant tips to follow to cover the entire syllabus of IBPS PO 2020 in two months.

Significant Tips for IBPS PO

1. Know the entire syllabus and exam pattern from the official website of IBPS.

2. Divide the topics day-wise and try to cover the topics in the time slot allotted for the same.

3. Make two time tables one for mornings and another one for evenings.  Morning time table should be kept to learn the topics by reading the resource books and making notes. In case you have joined any IBPS PO COACHING institutes then prefer to take morning classes. Evenings should be kept for revision whatever you have studied in the class or otherwise in the morning.

4. After revising the relevant topics, take one practice test from the online test series of IBPS PO EXAM and submit to the portal for appraisal and analysis.

5. On receiving the performance analysis of the test taken for practice, analyze your weak points and revise again if needed with the help of subject expert. Subject expert will give you the best way to learn it thoroughly.

6. There are three sections in IBPS PO 2020 prelims exam these are

Reasoning

Quantitative Aptitude    

English Language

Give equal time to all these subjects while studying in the morning. Study for at least one hour for each subject and cover one or two topics depending upon the length of the topics. Further revise the same topics in the same evening as you do not have much time to revise later.

7. Take timely doubt sessions from the subject experts either from the coaching institute or from the portal where you have joined online video course for IBPS PO exam. Every coaching institute and online coaching portals are giving constant assistance from their faculty members to the aspirants. Just make a call or visit them and you will be given timely help. Your persistence matters much than anything else. Look for their availability and reach them in time whether online or offline.

8. Make a list of important formulas and theorems related to Quantitative Aptitude section as it is a complex section requiring more of conceptual knowledge. Revise them daily to make it a scoring section.

9. Reasoning is scoring if you practice quizzes and previous year questions frequently. It is a new topic for those who have never taken any competitive exams, if same is the case with you then you need to work more on the aptitude and reasoning based quizzes and puzzles. It will be easy for you to attempt the sections and make it a scoring one.

10. English language section is framed to analyze the comprehension skills of candidates which can be enhanced by reading lot of news articles, novels and cover stories in English language. Most of the English questions such as Reading comprehension, cloze test and sentence re-arrangement exercises given in the IBPS PO exam are based on the latest or current affairs. It becomes easy to understand the passages and answer them subsequently.

Hope these ready to follow preparation tips for IBPS PO 2020 prelims exam will prove to be the best for you to cover the entire syllabus before the exam date.

Syllabus is vast but not impossible to cover if you have an inclination to work hard with persistence. Do not forget to practice whatever you learn for the best outcomes.

All the best!!!

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Bank Exam Coaching Center In Chennai | Chennai School of Banking

Quantitative Aptitude

Clearing a bank exam is all about answering maximum questions right within the specified time. To be able to do this, getting trained from an experienced bank exam coaching center in Chennai like CSB is a necessity. At CSB, we extensively train you with shortcuts that help answer the questions at lightning speed. Not just the shortcuts, we implant necessary skills and confidence to clear the quantitative aptitude section seamlessly.

  A simple calculation of the time available can tell you that you need to solve a question in less than one minute. Normally on an average, candidates take more than two minutes for solving a question.

  That surely means solving questions at lightning speed. It also means that if one solves questions the way one does in a 10th standard or graduate exam (writing 8 steps to solve a problem after putting down all required formulae), one will need over twice the amount of time that Aptitude tests are willing to extend.

  Therefore, it is imperative that you know as many shortcuts as you can. Not just know the shortcuts, but use them extensively so that they become second nature to you.

  Accordingly, keeping in mind, the necessity to provide Aptitude Test aspirants with such professional training and the requisite competence, the CSB has developed a unique and value-based training delivery system that not only enhances the students’ aptitude and competence but also fine tunes their skills and implants the necessary confidence to help them in their quest to qualify.

Verbal Ability

The experienced hands at the Chennai School of Banking help you in enhancing your verbal ability skills seamlessly. We one among the best bank exam coaching center in Chennai, enable the students enhance their analytical power, balanced perspective, general awareness and communication skills. The outcome is, students outshine both written test and interview as well.

  ENGLISH LANGUAGE Competitive Exams are conducted by different Banks. There is a standard syllabus for all Banking Examinations, we consult the question papers of exams conducted by the different banks in the previous years and we find a striking symmetry in the questions asked the syllabus as follows

  SYLLABUS COVERAGE Basic English Grammar, Comprehension Test, Common Errors, Fill up the Blanks, Cloze Test, Jumbled Sentences, Jumbled Words, Spelling Errors, Phrase Meaning, Phrase Replacement, Miscellaneous.

  DESCRIPTIVE TEST The Descriptive test – not a test of English language but it is a test of your general awareness and understanding, analytical power imaginative thinking and a balanced perspective

Reasoning Ability

Reasoning ability section of bank exam is meant to test their logical and analytical thinking ability. Answering the reasoning ability question right requires mental alertness, quick and accurate thinking. CSB, one of the best bank exam coaching center in Chennai conduct session to train their students on approaching reasoning ability questions in the right way so as to be able to answer the question right in no time.

  Reasoning plays a pivotal role as it probes the candidate’s logical and analytical abilities. The Logical Reasoning questions test the basic intelligence and aptitude of the candidate. The main difference between reasoning and a traditional test is that reasoning tests your inherent capacity to solve problems while a traditional test is a test of your acquired knowledge. The problems may appear in the form of letters, words, patterns, and pictures or in any other form suitable for the purpose. Reasoning is generally not taught as a regular subject in any college or university. That is why majority of students are reluctant or at a loss to comprehend the problems.

  Reasoning plays a pivotal role as it probes the candidate’s logical and analytical abilities. The Logical Reasoning questions test the basic intelligence and aptitude of the candidate. The main difference between reasoning and a traditional test is that reasoning tests your inherent capacity to solve problems while a traditional test is a test of your acquired knowledge. The problems may appear in the form of letters, words, patterns, and pictures or in any other form suitable for the purpose. Reasoning is generally not taught as a regular subject in any college or university. That is why majority of students are reluctant or at a loss to comprehend the problems.

  A majority of questions are based on common sense and verbal ability. It is essential to understand the ‘crux’ of the question while solving these questions. Mental alertness, quick and accurate thinking, keen observation and in-depth knowledge of interplay of key words are required to successfully solve a test of reasoning. Questions in the paper can be classified into two types. Verbal Reasoning Nonverbal Reasoning

Awareness

Be it current affairs, computer awareness, banking knowledge or marketing knowledge, we at CSB make sure all the students enrolled are up to date with all the political, technical and technological updates happening across the globe. We, the best bank exam coaching center in Chennai provide all the study material necessary to make you well-equipped for the exam.

  CURRENT AFFAIRS Economy, General Socio-Economic & Banking, Insurance, Defence and National Security, Committees/Commissions, Agreement, Summit/Meet/Visit, National, International, Personalities, Place in News, Sports and Culture, New Appointments/Election, Awards and Honour, List of Important Days, Science and Technology, Books and Authors, Abbreviation, Business Terminology and Miscellaneous.

  COMPUTER AWARENESS History of Computer, Early Electronic Computers, Computer Generations, Definition-Computer, Input, Processing, Output, Storage, Elements of a Computer, Hardware, Memory, Rom, Input and Output Devices, Software, Characteristics of Computer, Advantages and Disadvantages, Classification of Computers, Super Computers, Mainframe Computer, Mini Computer, Microcomputers, Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power-Point, Short Cut Keys, Computer Terminology and Miscellaneous.

  BANKING KNOWLEDGE Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Banking System In India, Scheduled Commercial Banks In India, Plastic Money, Global Player In Credit Card Market, Standard Segregation of Credit Cards, Money Transfer, Foreign Banks In India, Co-Operative Banks In India, The Regional Rural Banks, Capital, Important Commercial Institutions, The Investing Institutions, Resources, Banking History at a Glance.

  MARKETING KNOWLEDGE Nature and Scope of Marketing, Definition of Marketing, Types of Goods, Understanding Marketing Mix, The Marketing Planning Appraisal Process, Market Segmentation Defined, Marketing Research, Market Demand, Market Forecast, Socio-Cultural Influence, Participants in the Buying Process, Learning Objectives of Managing Products Life Cycle, Importance of Marketing, International Trade, Organizational Structure, International Market, Consumer Behaviour, Buyer Behaviour, Business Market, Buyer Decision Process, E-Commerce, Market Segmentation, Stages of Stragies Alternatives, Ethics of Marketing, Categories of Marketing Purpose, Types of Organizational Structures, Features of Marketing, Service Marketing, Categories of Pricing Analysis, Strategies Involved Characteristics, Maintainance Factor, Decision Categories, Types of Wholesales, Advertising, Planning Model, Information Technology, Electronic Networks, Internet Marketing and Miscellaneous.

  TEST OF CLERICAL APTITUDE Matching the Address, Coding, Arrangement of Words in alphabetical order, Classification, Data Interpretation and Statement and Conclusions.

Classroom coaching starts with Basic Math fundamentals and short-cut method using Vedic mathematics.Vedic mathematics takes this fact into account and reduces large calculations involving many numbers with the help of formulae so that calculations can be quicker than the quickest and more accurate.A quick refresher and shortcut method to solve Reasoning Ability and English Language.

Well arranged collection of General Awareness and Computer Awareness study material.Section wise regular test for developing your working speed and accuracy.To prepare students for a high score level periodic tests will provide practice required for speed and accuracy.Every chapter starts with approach session, Illustrative Examples having detail and quick explanation and Class Exercise with hints and answers.

CHOICE OF YOUR FIELD, CHOOSE YOUR GOAL WISELY

There can be no planning without any target or goal. Therefore, you have to decide what you want to achieve and prepare your timetable or plan. Besides, in order to build a strong foundation, there should be:

(1)    Clear-cut demarcation of your goal,

(2)    Clear-cut strategy to achieve the goal,

(3)    Formulation of a planned framework of the strategy chosen.

   Among the white-collar jobs, these jobs are coveted ones and are considered to be the best; they give you a brilliant start.

  Being at the top of selections it is the best time for you to take up right decision regarding the preparations studies.(Candidate will be trained to attend all Bank PO & Clerk Exams)

  A personality or a career has but a brief span of no more than one’s life. This is the span you can handle. This time span permits you to decide, plan and make the right choices.

 To know more visit:  https://www.chennaischoolofbanking.com/

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How I Crack SBI PO Exam!

Bank exams require more preparation and strategy for crack the exam and you have to see where your strength lies, and capitalize on that. You are extraordinary in Quantitative and Reasoning, but not quite in General Awareness and English. In this case, try to maximize your marks in the two sections, and try to clear the cutoff. Somehow, in the other two sections, I will share it in the order of my preparation level in each section, in decreasing order.

● General Awareness

This is the strongest section, and believe me. If you need to get as marks as others could in General Awareness so that you get a clear edge over other candidates. Since you prepared General Awareness in a very holistic manner, you will divide this into a few parts-

1.Current Affairs (CA)

This has the most weight in the General Awareness section, almost 40-45% questions come from that, and hence, it becomes quite a scoring part. It requires very less effort to prepare this. This is how you prepared Current Affairs “Reading” you just read, a lot, from multiple sources. Just spend one hour every day in CA, and you will score more marks. Some people like to make notes so that it can be helpful while revision. But this is a very personal thing. You should start preparing for a Current Affair for the last 100 days from the day of the exam.

2. Banking Awareness

This part is easy to prepare. First, go through the Faq on the RBI website. Once you’re done with this, go through the Banking Awareness Modules of General Knowledge today. It is freely available to read online on their website and there is no need to buy any book or you should be practiced by any free mock test for SBI PO Clerk site online freely.

3. Static GK

This part has the least cost-benefit ratio. As everything under the sun can be asked, but still, one should prepare it. You should focus on Indian Static General Knowledge Like Dams and rivers, National Park and Wild Life Sanctuary, Nuclear, Thermal and Hydro Power Plants, Content Management System and Governors, Capital and Currency of Countries, Head Quarters of major Organizations and also, the capitals and currencies of the countries to which our Prime Minister or President recently visited or the countries whose heads visited India.

● English Language

You should be the strategize for English in two parts.

1. If you belong to the “strong basic” group:  If you have a strong base of the language, then it becomes an easy task to score decent marks. Then you just need to read the newspaper every day. Take the mock tests diligently. Analyze your mock test by free online practice test series and you’ll score well.

2. If you don’t have so strong basic group:  The first thing that you should do is, buy book for grammar and read it from cover to cover as many times as you can and try to understand it. The other thing is reading. Read anything, newspaper, novels, magazines, advertisements. That helps you in knowing how to form sentences, where to use which idiom and phrase and so on. Vocabulary is something that is built over a period, and not overnight and it requires patience and hard work, the best way to widen your vocabulary is reading. It will just increase your vocabulary.

● Logical Reasoning

This is the most dynamic section in nature and it becomes challenging also in a way that it doesn’t have any “set syllabus”. We have seen a lot of change in banking exams, especially in Reasoning section. It is important to keep an open mind or one needs to be ready to face anything. The biggest part of this section is covered by Puzzles or Seating Arrangement. There is NO textbook for this section because this section is an ever-changing one. It has been noticed that the pattern of Reasoning is changing with every exam that IBPS is conducting and you should be practiced for this is free mock test IBPS Clerk. So, the biggest question bank or repository for Reasoning is this wonderful information. The questions in free mock test SBI PO clerk are of great help, as they provide a lot of variety. After that comes the miscellaneous questions like Input-Output, Coding-Decoding, Inequalities, Syllogisms, Direction Sense, Data Sufficiency, Ranking and Order, Critical reasoning – Assumptions, Conclusions, Cause, and Effect, etc. If you are not comfortable with Puzzles and Arrangements, then you should try to solve the “miscellaneous” part.

● Quantitative Aptitude/Data Interpretation

This section is hard. So, set your goal was to clear the sectional cutoff, somehow, anyhow or you should be practiced free mock test online. The problem with going for questions of the chapter of Quantitative Aptitude like Time and Distance, CI-SI, Time and Work is, they take a lot of time to prepare and you cannot complete any decent book on these chapters in a month. When you have a good concept of mathematics and time in hand, you should take up the book. This is a great book, and everyone who is preparing for Bank or SSC for that matter, must have it and solve online practice test series. Data Interruption is a very scoring part. It is calculative. The best source for a decent level of Data Interruption are free to mock test SBI PO Clerk come up a new type and set of Data Interruption in every test and this helps in building the concepts. Lets you know the variety of questions that can come.

[erhhyhyth-blog]

Market

Marketing Insight Guides Book 5 The Marketing Attitude M M Marcia Yudkin Author, 6 Steps to Free Publicity This complimentary copy of The Marketing Attitude is my way of thanking you for being a subscriber to my Marketing Minute newsletter. Other volumes in the series are: Persuading People to Buy Meatier Marketing Copy Strategic Marketing Publicity Tactics All five volumes in this series are available in these formats: Paperback Kindle Nook Audiobook If you enjoy this complimentary copy of The Marketing Attitude, I would be grateful if you would post a review, tweet or blog post online. Thank you! - Marcia Yudkin The Marketing Attitude Insights That Help You Build a Worthy Business The Marketing Attitude: Insights That Help You Build a Worthy Business Copyright © 2011 by Marcia Yudkin Publisher: Creative Ways Publishing PO Box 305 Goshen, MA 01032 www.marketinginsightguides.com All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or medium. For information on ob- taining reprint permission or arranging for bulk sales, please write to Creative Ways Publishing, PO Box 305, Goshen, MA 01032. Cover Design and Interior Design: Kitty Werner, RSBPress Cover Photo: © Silavsale/Fotalia.com Author Photo: Gila Yudkin ISBN 978-0-9716407-4-0 Printed in the United States of America The Marketing Attitude Insights That Help You Build a Worthy Business Marcia Yudkin Marketing Insight Guides Creative Ways Publishing Introduction Seven years into our relationship, my primary care doctor, who practices solo, asked me what I did for work. His immediate next question: “Marketing, what’s that?” “Marketing is everything you can do to make sure you are as busy here as you want to be,” I explained. “Oh, you mean advertising?” he asked. I steered the conversation back to the topic of my health, but I thought a lot afterward about his response. It’s a com- mon misconception that only advertising brings customers, clients–or patients–in the door. Networking, referrals, di- rect mail and media coverage also boost business. It’s even more common to overlook the subtler and sometimes intangible things that attract or repel customers, especially factors in the realm of attitude. Your demeanor, expectations, mindset and ethics profoundly influence what people do after interacting with you or the business environ- ment you’ve created. Introduction | v vI | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE How you speak, what you do over time, decisions you have made (or not made) and elements you focus on or ig- nore also have a significant impact on your business fortunes. In this book, you’ll find anecdotes, explanations, tips and reflections that help you understand the attitudes and ac- tions that can hold back success or nudge you toward a busi- ness that is as financially and psychologically rewarding as you dare to dream. The chapters in this book originate in a weekly column, The Marketing Minute, that I’ve published since 1998. You can sign up for a free email subscription at www.yudkin. com/markmin.htm. I always welcome marketing anecdotes from subscribers and suggestions for topics to cover. Contents Introduction v Part 1 | Basic Marketing Truths Acquire Poise 13 Opportunity Can Strike Anywhere The Power of Asking 17 Nothing Sells Itself 19 When You Stop Marketing 21 Profiting from Mistakes 23 Your Preferences Shouldn’t Rule Accepting Feedback is Hard 27 Patience, Patience, Part I 29 Patience, Patience, Part II 31 Delays Happen 33 The Familiarity Effect is Real 35 11 15 25 Part 2 | The Importance of Quality 37 Forget “Good Enough” 39 Setting a Standard 41 Why Quality? 43 Contents | vii vIII | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Why Good Enough Stinks 45 Be a Good Client 47 Part 3 | You Vis-à-Vis Clients 49 Forget About Wanting Folks to Like You 51 Can You Please Everyone? 53 Serve, Don’t Be Subservient 55 Client Crises: Resolved or Rejected? 57 Respect Potential Employees, Too 59 Everyone Knows–Or Do They? 61 Pricing: Don’t Explain 63 Price Complaints? Here’s What to Do 65 Unwittingly, You Attract 67 Oh, You Do That? 69 Create Fans, Not Customers or Users 71 Cultivate True Fans 73 Part 4 | Find Your Own Best Path 75 Ignore Other People’s “Musts” 77 They Said I Had To 79 Personality Stereotypes in Marketing 81 Silent Like Cal? 83 Redefine Yourself–Why and How 85 What’s Your Business Philosophy? 87 Set the Right Tone 89 Understand Your Limits 91 Cheesy or Credible? Your Choice 93 Forget Other People’s Numbers 95 Part 5 | From Success to Greater Success 97 From Small Successes to Big Ones 101 Beware Misplaced Pride 103 Create a Dependable Pipeline 105 Are You In Front of Customers Enough? 107 Not Advertising? Think Again! 109 The Grapevine Speaks 111 Long-ago Connections Can Return 113 The Power of Intention 115 What a Standup Comedian Learned Become Unforgettable 119 Don’t Get Drained by Questions 121 Part 6 | My Own Business Lessons 117 123 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part I 125 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part II 127 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part III 129 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part Iv 131 What You Already Know 133 Time for “Thank You” 135 Part 7 | Recession-Proof Marketing 137 When Recession is in the Air 139 Don’t Let Customers Feel Neglected 141 Bob Bly’s Advice for the Last Recession 143 In a Recession, Reconnect 145 Before You Lower Prices 147 Recession? Don’t Run Scared 149 The Get-Clients-Next-Week Formula 151 Be Choosy, Even in a Recession 153 The MarketingCAotntitteundtes | ix x | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Part 8 | Customer Service Matters 155 The Math of Satisfaction 157 Small Touches, Big Impact 159 Soliciting Useful Customer Feedback 161 Apologies That Defuse Disaster 163 Where’s the Start Button? 165 Worried About Bothering Customers? 167 No Parking? No Problem! 169 A Tale of Two Banks 171 Appreciative Gestures Work 173 Recommended Books 175 Get the Whole Series! 177 Index 179 About the Author 183 Part 1 Basic Marketing Truths Acquire Poise While listening to the introduction to Napoleon Hill’s 1928 masterwork, The Law of Success, I was struck by a word we don’t hear much in business discourse today. Hill promised his reader the ability to go through life with harmony and poise. Poise–it’s composure. Dignity. The ability to remain bal- anced and confident while being pulled at from this side and that. Someone with poise neither dominates nor gives in most of the time to the forces around them. If they have passion, they also have the willingness to wait until that passion meets the proper place and time for its expression. In marketing, poise comes from clarity of purpose, deep knowledge of cause and effect, and attunement to reality. Instead of frantic efforts, desperate enthusiasm, robotic copycatting, nasty bluster or greedy pressure on others, you Basic Marketing Truths | 13 14 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE focus serenely on getting from where you are to where you want to go, making adjustments whenever necessary. You make your mark on the world with pleasure and grace, receiving respect and affection in return. Poise certainly gets my vote as a virtue in business.   “Kill the habit of worry, in all its forms, by reaching a gen- eral, blanket decision that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry. With this decision will come poise, peace of mind, and calmness of thought which will bring happiness.” –Napoleon Hill Food for Thought Opportunity Can Strike Anywhere Do you divide your life into business and pleasure? Great self-promoters go by the slogan “You never know” and never close themselves off to opportunities. One woman was on an airplane and her seatmate wanted to know about her work. Instead of thinking, Geez, I’m on va- cation, the woman talked about her work–a book for handi- capped travelers that she had just published. Her seatmate turned out to be Abigail Van Buren, of “Dear Abby” fame, and a notice in Abby’s column brought the other woman sacks and sacks of orders for the book. Sam Yost, a music producer, was on his way up a ski lift in Sun Valley, Idaho, when the man next to him started a con- versation. He turned out to be an Arizona radio executive, and before they reached the mountaintop, he agreed to play Yost’s recordings on his stations. And Joann Stoutenburgh of Antelope, California, once got nervous when a man followed her car for several miles Basic Marketing Truths | 15 16 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE and then pulled alongside to talk. He was a lawyer, desperate for a word processing person, and he’d noticed her vanity license plate, “TYPNG4U.” Aha! She was happy to oblige. Opportunity can knock any day of the week, anywhere. So heads up!   “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you, kid. Let’s go.’” –Maya Angelou Food for Thought The Power of Asking Ionce learned a valuable lesson from Tony, a silver-haired man who looks like the corporate executive he once was. At a conference where he, another man and I had been hired as speakers, Tony was staying on the VIP floor, with a free computer and fax in his room and free room-service break- fast. “I asked for a complimentary upgrade,” he explained. “I always do. I’ve been put in first class on planes too just for asking.” The other speaker and I, staying in ordinary rooms, sat with this, stunned. “Do you give a reason?” I asked. “Nope. You just ask as if you deserve it.” Mentally I started rehearsing the magic sentence, “Do you have a complimentary upgrade?,” knowing that I’d have to practice my way into it. It reminded me of another key sentence, “My fee is...,” which equally requires confidence. Basic Marketing Truths | 17 18 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE After all, what’s the difference between the $70/hour and $700/hour consultant? Mostly, the latter asks–or simply tells. Daring to ask, and to ask convincingly: how scary and how utterly powerful.   “Wishing gains you nothing, but decisions can change everything.” –Alan Weiss Food for Thought Nothing Sells Itself What could be more lucrative than selling ice in the tropics? The attempt of twenty-three-year-old Mas- sachusetts entrepreneur Frederick Tudor to do that in 1806 holds a lesson for anyone who thinks that brilliant ideas sell themselves. The plan called for Tudor to secure a monopoly over the ice trade from the government of the Caribbean island Mar- tinique. Packed in sawdust, most of the ice did make it from New England to its destination intact. However, the venture ran aground because his advance team met with derision and disinterest. Even the actual ice, once it arrived, did not inspire sales. According to historian Diana Muir, “Ice has a long his- tory of luxury use in parts of the world where hot summers alternate with cold winters, or where wealthy cities nestle against snow-capped mountains.” But in the tropics, no one Basic Marketing Truths | 19 20 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE had ever seen or heard of ice, and they did not feel any need for it. Tudor did finally establish an ice empire, becoming rich by transporting frozen water to warm places, after bouts of bankruptcy and spells in debtor’s prison. Creating the mar- ket took 20 years.   “Advertising is the fine art of making you think you have longed for something all your life that you never heard of before.” –Anonymous Food for Thought When You Stop Marketing AMarketing Minute subscriber told me that three years ago, his company took in more than a million dollars. This year he’s on track to earn one-fifth of that, if he’s lucky. What happened? He handed over responsibility for market- ing to an employee who didn’t think continuing to reach out to new, current and past clients was necessary. Two years ago, his company did no marketing. Coasting on referrals and repeat business, not till January of last year did he notice that orders were drying up. Come spring, the drought became dire. Frantically he’s now trying to make rain, but there are few clouds left to seed. Save this message to reread in case you think you’re doing so great that you can give up marketing. You may not feel the slowdown for a while, but you eventually will, in a dreadful, delayed effect. Basic Marketing Truths | 21 22 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE The law of entropy applies to businesses as well as physi- cal objects: Anything in motion will eventually come to a rest unless given a boost. Marketing provides the energy enabling not just growth, but also maintenance of your success. Be wise! Food for Thought “Hell is a half-filled auditorium.”   –Robert Frost Profiting from Mistakes Remember “New Coke”–when the corporation decided people were tired of Coke’s traditional taste, changed the formula and consumers revolted? Because the alteration was pulled back within weeks in favor of “Coke Classic,” this episode usually gets cited as a whopping marketing failure. Sergio Zyman, the marketing guy then at the helm, says the campaign was a great success. His reasoning bears think- ing about. The purpose of changing the formula, he says, was to in- crease the attachment of the American public to Coca-Cola and sell more of it. Although no one foresaw the insurrection of Coca-Cola fans, their outcry and the quick reinstatement of the established flavor did deepen the bond between con- sumers and the brand. Sales shot up, reversing the trend of Coke losing market share to Pepsi. Basic Marketing Truths | 23 24 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Being able to learn a lesson like this is a hallmark of en- trepreneurial maturity, I believe. When results don’t turn out the way you expect, don’t whine, wail or hide your head. In- stead, consider what you now know not to do and how you can invest money and energy more wisely in the future.   On the Web Read an article on the six biggest mistakes people make in growing their businesses: www.marketingformore.com/mistakes.htm Your Preferences Shouldn’t Rule Two years ago, my dentist moved into a new office. Visu- ally, it sparkles. Auditorily, it flunks. Treatment rooms connect with one another, so patients hear drilling and con- versation in the next room. There’s no effort to create privacy, and no music playing for a soothing ambiance. For me, going there is so stressful that I am looking for a new practitioner. This dentist’s operation ignores sound as an ingredient of customer satisfaction. Apparently everyone working there has a visual orientation to the world and assumes the rest of the world resembles them. It’s common to overlook the need to provide for people with divergent perceptual preferences. Some people learn best through hands-on, in-person experiences, some by watching demonstrations or seeing diagrams and pictures and others by listening. Basic Marketing Truths | 25 26 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE In developing products, offer options: the same content that some can read, others listen to and still others come to a seminar to master in person. Surprisingly, some custom- ers even buy the same content in more than one format. It’s comparable to people who watch the movie and then read the book, or vice versa.   “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” –Erma Bombeck Food for Thought Accepting Feedback is Hard You’ve slaved over your product and your marketing copy–or over a blog post, position paper or proposal. Your audience–not just one person, but a chorus of four or five–offers a response that’s radically off the mark. One of two reactions is very common: Ø “Ouch!” You withdraw, lick your wounds and sulk. Ø “You’re wrong!” A vigorous counterattack ensues. Hard as this might be, don’t take the feedback as a per- sonal failure or evidence that people are hasty readers, sloppy thinkers or downright stupid. Instead, communication has failed. Communication has a sender and a receiver. Consider therefore that you are 50 percent responsible for the misfire. Take a deep breath and turn on your curiosity: Ø What did you say or do–or not say or do–that led to that impression? Basic Marketing Truths | 27 28 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø What can you change or add to help people receive your message as intended? If it’s too late to modify what went out, learn for next time. Getting upset or angry about feedback is natural. I’ve been there, too. Transcend that, though, and your marketing gets better and better.   “To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.” –Leo Burnett Food for Thought Patience, Patience, Part I Keep working the plan even if you don’t notice immedi- ate results,” I’ve told several clients recently when deliv- ering their customized month-by-month, one-year market- ing plan. I’m taking my own advice now as I systematically implement my own marketing plan for increasing traffic to and sales from my web site. I’ll admit, it’s frustrating to work so hard and watch the numbers inch up, oh so gradually. Yet I stay focused because of something I read more than 20 years ago in a book called The Path of Least Resistance. The author, Robert Fritz, pointed out that when you initiate change and don’t notice any results, you’re tempted to give up just when the effect is beginning to take hold. The evidence of success has not had sufficient time to appear. Quitting is understandable, but unwise. Showman P.T. Barnum understood this. “If a man has not the pluck to keep on advertising,” he wrote, “all the money he had already spent is lost.” Basic Marketing Truths | 29 30 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Courage! Take the right actions and close your eyes to re- sults until the slow-acting, steadily improving consequences show up.   On the Web Read comments from Marketing Minute subscribers on the question of how long is reasonable to wait from results from marketing: www.yudkin.com/waiting.htm Patience, Patience, Part II How quickly did you learn about the loss of the Colum- bia space shuttle and its astronauts or of the collapse of the Twin Towers? Chances are, you knew the sad news within hours. In today’s fast-notification society, it’s natural to expect potential customers to make up their minds quickly and to conclude that a campaign failed when it didn’t produce re- sults on first try. According to Jay Lipe, author of The Mar- keting Toolkit for Growing Businesses, impatience derails too many marketers. “Ninety-nine percent of successful market- ing happens over the long haul,” he says. Lipe recounts one very non-instant sequence of interac- tions that resulted in new business. His firm sent out a direct mail piece, to which Prospect X responded. A face-to-face meeting took place. Lipe sent a proposal. Prospect X received nine issues of his newsletter. Prospect X visited Lipe’s web Basic Marketing Truths | 31 32 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE site, then sent an email inquiry. A second face-to-face meet- ing took place, leading to a second proposal. Voilà! Prospect X became a client. Total time from the first contact to the sale: five years.   “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas A. Edison Food for Thought Delays Happen Years ago, Arik Schenkler developed mathematical cross- word puzzles and tried to sell them to publications in Israel, where he lives. There were no takers. So he went on to other projects, eventually deleting his sample puzzles from his computer. Then he received a note from an editor saying he’d been impressed by the samples and wanted to run the puzzles in his magazine. Seven years had passed before Schenkler’s marketing ef- forts came to fruition. Back then, the man now contacting him had been im- pressed by the puzzles, but his boss at the newspaper where he was deputy editor didn’t care for them. Now, as managing editor of a magazine, he had the power to buy. In 1710, Bishop George Berkeley appealed to God’s all- seeing powers to explain how we know that objects don’t van- ish when we’re not looking at them. Today, business requires Basic Marketing Truths | 33 34 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE a secular variety of faith that marketing may be working un- seen when no such evidence appears before us. Remember this example when you’re tempted to wail, “Nothing’s happening!” (And pray that results occur sooner than seven years.)   “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” –Barack Obama Food for Thought The Familiarity Effect is Real In a fascinating book called The Luck Factor, British psy- chologist Dr. Richard Wiseman sheds light on something shrewd marketers know: Generally, the more times someone has heard of or encountered you or your company, the more well-disposed they become toward you. Therefore marketers aim to become a familiar name. Wiseman reports a study in which people were shown a large number of meaningless squiggles and asked which they liked. Respondents preferred the squiggles they’d previously seen, without consciously remembering they’d already seen any of the squiggles or realizing the factor underlying their choice. “This familiarity effect is not limited to squiggles. With- out realizing it, we all prefer things we have seen before,” Wiseman comments. “It is part of the theory behind brand- ing and explains why companies are willing to spend millions Basic Marketing Truths | 35 36 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE of dollars on advertising campaigns to keep their products in the public eye.” Don’t have a fortune to spend? You can still use this prin- ciple by understanding that ten exposures of your name and offerings have a greater impact on your target market than one. Never spend your whole marketing budget in one go.   On the Web Learn how to become ultra-familiar by turning yourself into the company’s highly visible hero: www.yudkin.com/hero.htm Part 2 The Importance of Quality Forget “Good Enough” As copywriter extraordinaire Gary Halbert once point- ed out, you don’t need to be twice as tall to see twice as far. “Just a few more inches will put your head above the rest of the mob,” he says. The same goes for your marketing materials. Tweaks for clarity here and there, a creative turn of phrase, fresh graph- ics and ordinary, sincere language instead of jargon can turn basic and banal into compelling and powerful. “I made a conscious decision to put enough money into my web site to make it ‘good enough,’” one client confided recently. The trouble is that “good enough” evokes no enthu- siasm and fails to provide reasons for someone to choose you rather than the alternatives. To put it plainly, “good enough” produces a lousy response. “Better” begins to make your efforts profitable. “Outstand- ing” still isn’t perfect, but gets you noticed, remembered, The Importance of Quality | 39 40 |THE MARKETING ATTITUDE recommended and revisited when the time comes for some- one to plunk down payment. Last week, two people became clients who remembered me from five years ago. Are you making that distinctive an impact?   On the Web Discover how to go beyond quality to offerings with ca- chet: www.yudkin.com/cachet.htm Setting a Standard When E.H. Harriman was expanding the Union Pa- cific Railroad at the start of the twentieth century, he insisted that one stretch of track be made as perfect as it could be. Then he held out that stretch of track as a model for the entire railroad system. While many people ridicule an ideal of perfection as a waste of time and energy, I don’t agree. By having high stan- dards and striving constantly to reach them, you become better at achieving a top level of quality in less time. This doesn’t happen when you stop with “good enough.” In my copywriting mentoring program, where I’m teach- ing marketing writing, I’ve watched proteges internalize my standards and improve week after week. It’s like what hap- pened when Winston Lord turned in a speech to Henry Kiss- inger at the US State Department. Kissinger asked, “Is this the best you can do?” The Importance of Quality | 41 42 |THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Lord said, “I guess not. I’ll try again.” The very same exchange reoccurred, until the ninth time Kissinger asked, “Is this your best effort?” Lord exploded, “I couldn’t possibly improve another word!” “Good. Now I’ll read it,” Kissinger replied.   “Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper, the resulting effect is physi- cal as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.” –Mark Twain Food for Thought Why Quality? In an online discussion, I was surprised to see quite a few Internet marketers define “quality” as whatever gets cus- tomers to buy and keep a product. That sets the bar way too low. Set it higher, and you’re more likely to inspire devotion, referrals and long-term pa- tronage. I’d define “quality” as having a low annoyance factor and prompting delight in at least one relevant respect. Annoyances like spelling errors, poor organization, lousy layout, inconsistent facts or an abundance of “umms” rarely prompt returns or refund requests, but they register with us- ers and affect enthusiasm for an encore performance. Merely getting rid of all the annoyances gets you only to “ho-hum,” however. To achieve quality, try listing at least five kinds of excel- lence for your service, publication, event or merchandise. The Importance of Quality | 43 44 |THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Then honestly rate yourself–or have customers do so–along those dimensions. Or identify competitors who stand out in those respects and assess whether you can match or surpass them–or stake out a different reason for reverence. A dearth of quality causes indifference. Quality creates fans.   On the Web Read an article on how and why to create respect for quality throughout your organization: www.yudkin.com/everymarketer.htm Why Good Enough Stinks I’m so much more productive, now that I’ve learned to stop when I’ve achieved ‘good enough.’” Chances are, you’ve heard something like that and prob- ably nodded your head. Consider, though, this perspective from literary agent Jennifer Lawler in Writer’s Digest: “As an agent, I turn down ‘good enough’ ideas every day. The distance between ‘good enough’ and ‘great’ may not be huge, but if you go that extra 10 percent, I can tell. So can everyone else. ‘Great’ has me making lists of editors I should pitch as soon as you sign with me. ‘Good enough’... I’d rather eat ice cream.” In a down economy, in a competitive environment, on an Internet where short attention spans rule, “good enough” gets you passed over. Note that Lawler’s extra 10 percent isn’t exactitude of de- tail–so-called perfection. Rather, she means more developed, The Importance of Quality | 45 46 |THE MARKETING ATTITUDE more distinctive, more encompassing, coming from deeper within oneself and producing a stronger impact. Whether you sell plumbing or divorces, do you always give your work your best effort? People can tell, and they choose accordingly.   “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time, and I owe him my best.” –Joe DiMaggio Food for Thought Be a Good Client Years ago, a motivational speaker told me he needed new web site copy, and after asking a lot of questions, I told him the fee would be $3,000. “I’ll pay you $3,500,” he said. “I want your best work.” I always deliver my highest quality work. But his gesture may have persuaded me to be sure to deliver my very best customer service as well. Besides raising the fee, you can become someone’s A-list client by: Ø Being as clear as possible in specifying what you want Ø Setting reasonable rather than unrealistic deadlines Ø Supplying the information or items they need to com- plete their project for you Ø Refraining from changing the scope of work mid- stream whenever possible Ø Saying “thank you” explicitly and often The Importance of Quality | 47 48 |THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Providing honest feedback, both praise and construc- tive criticism Ø Paying on time or earlier Why bother? Treating your vendors well lowers your stress, raises the quality of your operations and may someday enable you to ask a favor so you can deliver out-of-the-park service to a client of yours.   “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” –Henry David Thoreau Food for Thought Part 3 You Vis-à-Vis Clients Forget About Wanting Folks to Like You Do you want people to like you? This near-universal hu- man desire can hinder the growth of your business. According to Marketing Minute subscriber Steve Clark, a sales trainer and proprietor of NewSchoolSelling.com, people whose need to be liked outweighs their need to take money to the bank fear upsetting potential buyers. They waste time with prospects who will never buy, never ask fence-sitters to make up their minds, and accept “maybe” because they dread “no.” I’ve seen clients of mine drop promising opportunities out of fear of being perceived as a pest and delay raising pric- es to remain well-liked. To counteract such a tendency, Clark recommends iden- tifying self-sabotaging beliefs, like “It’s rude to ask someone about their budget” or “Follow-up is annoying.” Create and drill into yourself more constructive beliefs to replace them, You vis-à-vis Clients | 51 52 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE like “Discussing money is enjoyable” and “Follow-up is a ser- vice to others.” “Selling is not a place to get your emotional needs met. It is simply an arena for conducting commerce. Becoming more detached can make you a 35 percent more effective salesperson,” Clark says.   “You can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you.” –Katie Couric Food for Thought Can You Please Everyone? Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker, which he understandably calls “the best job in the world,” once set out to find a cartoon that nearly everyone who had any sense of humor would find funny. He sent what he thought was his own very best cartoon to 2,000 men and women, asking them to rate it from 1 (com- pletely unfunny) to 10 (extremely funny). About 80% rated Mankoff’s cartoon 7 or above, which delighted him. Yet some respondents gave it a 1. Mankoff threw up his hands, calling this item “the most highly rated cartoon for funniness that I ever did, or (sob) will probably ever do.” His survey has implications for your marketing efforts. Whatever target market you’re aiming at, its members differ from one another, having diverse personalities, vary- ing educational and cultural backgrounds, diverging tastes You vis-à-vis Clients | 53 54 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE or lifestyles and disparate values. Therefore, they won’t all interpret what you present to them in the same way. It’s foolhardy to aim at universal praise or acceptance. So long as you have enthusiastic advocates, ignore those who think you’re incredibly off the mark.   “I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.” –Bill Cosby Food for Thought Serve, Don’t Be Subservient Over the years, I’ve mentored hundreds of people, first in writing for publication and more recently in writ- ing effective marketing materials. While much of the work focuses on improving technical skills, of equal importance– and lasting impact–are unexpected lessons in how to act like a masterful professional. Some mentorees assume that serving clients means be- ing subservient. They’re surprised to learn that as a consul- tant, you don’t have to accept the client’s definition of the problem. Indeed, fulfilling the client’s request may lead the client into a dead end. Instead, explain why they’d reach their goal faster by taking a different route. Likewise, just because the client’s paying you, you don’t have to kowtow by accepting fees below what your experi- ence merits or by putting up with nasty behavior. You vis-à-vis Clients | 55 56 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE For some people I’ve coached, their crucial step forward involves learning to deliver their work so their clients accept their knowledge and advice. In a nutshell: Think before doing. And respect yourself as much as you respect others. The best clients respect you in turn for standing tall and telling them what’s what.   “No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be con- stantly educated about the many advantages of doing busi- ness with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives.” –Robert G. Allen Food for Thought Client Crises: Resolved or Rejected? Do your clients have emergencies? Jack Mitchell, author of the marvelous book Hug Your Customers, describes scores of urgent problems solved by staff of his clothing stores: a groom spilling coffee on his pants on the way to his wedding, switched luggage leaving someone without a suit to wear to a funeral and a woman desperate to buy men’s underwear on a Sunday. (She’d packed her house for a move and her husband was furious that she’d forgotten to put aside clean briefs.) I read about Mitchell’s heroics while suffering through four days with muddy water at our house. The well company came on a Friday, seemed to have fixed the problem, then 20 minutes after the crew left, the water turned to mud again. They didn’t return my call till Monday morning. “If this happens again, can you give me a cell phone or beeper number where I can reach you?” I asked the company owner. You vis-à-vis Clients | 57 58 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE His response, counseling patience, conveyed that to him, living without water was no big deal. And until competitors move in on his territory, perhaps he can remain top dog.   On the Web Read responses from Marketing Minute subscribers to the question of whether or not they cater to client emergen- cies: www.yudkin.com/emergencies.htm Respect Potential Employees, Too Do you treat prospective employees as well as you treat prospective buyers? Marketing Minute subscriber Mark Sherman, a copywriter in Lantana, Florida, says you should. Sherman interviewed for a marketing position with a well-known software company and was told he was one of two finalists. The company had a hiring freeze, though, and he should call back in two weeks to set up a second interview. Two weeks later, when he called, the HR director said the position had been filled. What about the hiring freeze? “Well, the position is filled, that’s all I can say.” Understandably, Sherman felt something fishy was going on and that he had not been dealt with honestly. And the in- cident had long-lasting repercussions when he shared his un- ease with fellow staffers for a popular online forum who had been recommending the company’s flagship product. The You vis-à-vis Clients | 59 60 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE consensus was to remove the demo from the forum library and stop recommending the program. “Hundreds, maybe thousands, of prospective sales were lost,” Sherman reflects. Honesty and respect in all your dealings can have a ripple effect benefitting your company.   Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.” –Elbert Hubbard Food for Thought Everyone Knows–Or Do They? Last Saturday, I watched with pleasure a presentation for children that included musical instruments from around the world. As he concluded, the performer invited the audi- ence to come up and touch the instruments he’d brought. I asked about a long bamboo cylinder that produced the mes- merizing sound of a waterfall when tipped. “It’s a rain stick, from Chile,” the musician said. “I don’t bother to introduce it any more since so many nature stores carry them now. Everybody knows it.” Well, I hadn’t seen one, I thought, and I know a fair amount about music. And judging from their reactions, some of the kids present were encountering both his violin and rain stick for the first time. It’s tempting to assume that something you see or hear everywhere is equally familiar to everyone in your audience. You vis-à-vis Clients | 61 62 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE This exchange reminded me of times I’d been baffled by sports and fashion brand references in business copy, or by names well-known to enthusiasts but not to every customer. In marketing, it’s best to bring the uninitiated along by unobtrusively explaining insider references.   On the Web Learn how to demystify jargon in your writing without offending those who are already in the know: www.yudkin.com/jargon.htm Pricing: Don’t Explain Why does Report A, with 292 pages, cost less than Re- port B with 129 pages?” “Why does your X service cost $997?” “How much time do you spend on Y for $2,295?” When you get questions like these, act like a sphinx. Smile. Change the subject. Not every customer question deserves an answer, and these demand to peek into the sanctum of your business, where you lock away your preferences, procedures and strat- egies. Those belong to you and you alone. In addition, such questioner curiosity shines attention on factors that you don’t want customers focusing on. As Mike Schultz and John Doerr put it in their Fees and Pricing Benchmark Report: Consulting Industry 2008: “The more the conversation focuses on the underlying compo- You vis-à-vis Clients | 63 64 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE nents of the price and price structure, the less it focuses on value, quality and outcomes.” You want customers to care not how efficiently you work or what you pay contractors and employees, but how they benefit from what you do for them. Value, quality and outcomes: Keep their eyes on that trio!   On the Web Obtain a crash course in the psychology of pricing from my article, “Four Paradoxes of Pricing”: www.yudkin.com/pricing.htm Price Complaints? Here’s What to Do When potential buyers whine that your prices are too high–or seem to stay away for that reason–what should you do? Add value. Pile on extra benefits that cost you little and mean a lot to the recipient, such as: Ø More personal attention. Say you’ll answer their ques- tions, offer advice for no extra charge. (Maybe you al- ready do this, but they don’t know it!) Ø More affordability. Accept credit cards if you haven’t, start an extended payment plan, offer a pre-payment discount. Ø More speed. Stop dilly-dallying with orders, and de- liver service faster than they think they can expect. Ø More security. Strengthen your guarantee. This nudg- es many potential purchasers over the decision line. You vis-à-vis Clients | 65 66 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø More stuff. Toss in bonuses. Often you can get these from businesses complimentary to yours at no cost to you. Ø More duration. Lengthen the duration of each trans- action: free updates for a year, free six-month follow- up. Ø More convenience. Make house calls. Deliver when and where the customer wants it. Create standing or- ders. Ø More accessibility. Perhaps you already have people on staff who speak Portuguese or know sign language. Tell this to your market!   “Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of su- preme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.” –William James Food for Thought Unwittingly, You Attract Acouple of decades ago, when I was a young college pro- fessor, a colleague flopped down next to me and com- plained. Students flocked to her office hours to beg for advice about their personal problems. I wondered about this, since students never dumped their problems on me. Surely some- thing about her behavior in class was inviting the response she didn’t like. This incident floated back in memory when someone I was coaching mentioned that most of her clients had a hard time deciding what they wanted from her. “I’ve had a few cli- ents like that over the years, but not many,” I replied. “Might you be encouraging that somehow?” She agreed with the principle that if you don’t like how customers relate to you, the first place to look is how you comport yourself toward them. You vis-à-vis Clients | 67 68 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Bothered by bargain hunters? You’re probably sending signals that it’s fine to try to dicker with you. Plagued by last- minute, gotta-be-done-tomorrow projects? Consider how you’re inviting crises. To paraphrase down-to-earth Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can take advantage of you without your consent.”   On the Web Read an article describing ten copywriting techniques for warning away unsuitable clients and inviting ideal ones: www.yudkin.com/idealcustomers.htm Oh, You Do That? Yesterday at the copy shop I’ve patronized for seven years, I read a poster about the shop’s publishing program. I read it again, more carefully. “Adam, you’re printing books now?” I called to the man who was binding manuals for me. “In house?” “Since last year. On that.” He pointed to a machine be- hind him. “Would you quote me on a book order?” “Sure thing.” Driving home, I marveled at how hard it had been for me to make the connections needed to realize they could get the business I was about to give to a company in Tennessee. I knew the local shop was publishing books. I had paged through some on previous visits. It never occurred to me that they would own the expensive machinery needed for digi- You vis-à-vis Clients | 69 70 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE tal book printing. Their poster talked about publishing, not printing. I practically had to be hit on the head to get it. They should have told me–explicitly–either personally (they know I’m an author) or through a newsletter (they don’t have one). Don’t let loyal customers wander around oblivious to your capabilities.   “Early to bed, early to rise, advertise, advertise, advertise.” –Ray Kroc Food for Thought Create Fans, Not Customers or Users Have you been trying to attract clients and increase buy- ers of your products and services? Don’t, says Market- ing Minute subscriber Bob Baker, author of Branding Yourself Online. “I used to describe people who complimented my articles and books as ‘happy readers,’ or if they purchased something, ‘satisfied customers.’ Others talk about ‘users.’ ‘Fans,’ on the other hand, cheer you on, rave about you to their friends, fol- low everything you do with interest, go to great lengths to attend your public appearances, and more. Which would you rather have?” Although “fan club” usually connotes glamorous fields like entertainment and sports, Baker argues that angling for fans encourages anyone to develop some distinctive quality that in turn increases memorableness, repeat sales and refer- rals. You vis-à-vis Clients | 71 72 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Your distinctive quality might be an unusual point of view, a unique personality, an impressive background, re- markable connections, spiritual depth, or something else competitors lack. Your marketing and publicity materials then play up that quality along with all the more usual information. With a clear, appealing brand identity, you’ll have taken the first step to generating a crowd of clamoring fans.   On the Web Read my article on marketing tools that turn first-time contacts into long-term fans: www.yudkin.com/fans.htm Cultivate True Fans In March 2008, Kevin Kelly published a provocative piece suggesting that artists can make a decent living by attract- ing 1,000 “true fans.” A true fan purchases everything you produce, drives 200 miles to see you sing, comes to your openings, has a Google Alert set for your name, buys your out-of-print stuff on eBay. They can’t wait for your next work, and they spend $100 a year with you–for you, that’s $100,000 a year. Bloggers have quibbled with his math and attacked his assumptions, but Kelly’s idea of going for depth of apprecia- tion has validity far beyond art and music. How? Ø Nourish long-term relationships. One year-after-year customer has more value than four fickle ones. Ø Be responsive. Marketing Minute subscribers express surprise when I reply to their emails. You deserve it! You vis-à-vis Clients | 73 74 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Be different. No one has intense loyalty for a “me too” product, company, person or service. Ø Show up often. Fans won’t forget you when they run across your name continually. Ø Be authentic, personal and consistent. Fakery and wobbling repel fans. Personality cements the bond.   “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a sec- ond-rate version of someone else.” –Judy Garland Food for Thought Part 4 Find Your Own Best Path Ignore Other People’s “Musts” Has some know-it-all ever told you, you must do la-de- da to get work? You must have an up-to-date résumé or brochure. You must call friends of friends to network. You must... Some- times these general “musts” set you up for failure. If these “musts” don’t fit your personality and your past success pattern, you may not execute them well–or get around to them at all. My friend Kathleen has gotten hired for numerous jobs by walking into a certain office upon a signal from her intu- ition. No “Help Wanted” ad or sign, and no résumé on her part. Just being at the right place at the perfect time. A computer programmer friend gets the nod when he has a chance not just to talk but to demonstrate what he can do. He needs to engineer these kinds of opportunities, not talky interviews, to move around in the work world. Find Your Own Best Path | 77 78 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Once a business partner insisted I had to make cold calls to drum up clients. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Do it your way when that’s worked for you before.   “I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.” –Billie Holiday Food for Thought They Said I Had To But you have to make cold calls,’ they told me. I believed them, reluctantly, since they were the experts.” Over the years, numerous clients have told me this sad tale. Cold calls, properly made, are powerful, and one of my favorite books, The Well-Fed Writer, describes how Peter Bowerman used them to launch a business communications practice despite having no experience and no connections. But cold calls are not necessary to build a business. Through publishing, publicity, public speaking and network- ing, you can build a reputation that attracts business without you ever telephoning a stranger. Likewise, web sites are powerful business attraction tools. Yet you can certainly have a thriving business without a web site. My favorite local restaurant keeps its tables full without one. Find Your Own Best Path | 79 80 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Are any marketing activities or paraphernalia mandato- ry? Maybe a telephone. Maybe an email address. Maybe just one or the other. In deciding how to market yourself, clear your mind of “musts.” Come up with a fresh plan that suits both the ex- pectations of your target market and your own preferences.   “Re-examine all that you have been told; dismiss that which insults your soul.” –Walt Whitman Food for Thought Personality Stereotypes in Marketing Abusiness contact with whom I’d become acquainted by email and then by phone once sent me this candid comment: “Over the phone, you seem somewhat introverted. You must do some kind of Clark Kent/Superman thing when you give a talk if all of those testimonials are true.” Indeed, I do flip some sort of switch when I teach a tele- class, lead an in-person seminar or perform on radio. I’ve been known to flip the switch with clients, too. But the “in- troverted” comment reflects a popular misconception that certain personality types do better in certain media. In fact, many radio stars, like Garrison Keillor, and acclaimed actors, like Laurence Olivier, consider themselves shy. Because while growing up I was the quiet one in my fam- ily, not until my mid-30’s did I have an inkling that I could hold the attention of an audience, and enjoy it. With prac- tice, I’ve developed and polished my presentation skills. Re- Find Your Own Best Path | 81 82 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE cently several people have told me they envied my “natural” speaking talent. Don’t allow personality stereotypes to keep you from ex- ploring any method of marketing.   On the Web Download my free audio manifesto on marketing for in- troverts: www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm Silent Like Cal? Last month marked the one-hundredth anniversary of Calvin Coolidge becoming mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, two towns over from me. This got me read- ing up on America’s thirtieth president, who comes to us through the fog of history as “Silent Cal.” This taciturn man, I learned, was actually a distinguished communicator. The first US president to give a political speech on the radio, he held more press conferences than any president before him or since. Most Americans liked him and considered him principled and competent. His nickname points to a paradox that remains surpris- ing in today’s society: Someone deeply introverted can shine on stage, on the air and on paper, can persuade and even be popular. Though Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren G. Harding, voters elected him to a term after that. Contrary to stereotypes, introverts can excel at market- ing–in business as well as in politics. Find Your Own Best Path | 83 84 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE A quieter style can be strong, creative, empathetic and alluring. Too often, though, introverts swallow the myth that they compare poorly with chatterboxes when it comes to bringing in business.   On the Web Read about four ways that introverts can magnetically at- tract admiration and followers: www.yudkin.com/in-charisma.htm Redefine Yourself–Why and How Alament I often hear: “The market is starting to regard what I do as a commodity, driving down fees.” However, by presenting you (or your firm) as offering something unique, not some same old thing, you come across as deserving premium pay. First, articulate what makes you different from others with the same title or those performing the same services– “executive coach,” “human resources consultant” or “virtual assistant,” for instance. Think: Who would be a perfect client for you who would not suit most competitors? Or try filling in these blanks: “I specialize in helping ___ (who?) who have ___ (what prob- lem?) get ___ (what result?).” Second, toss away or greatly downplay the title you previ- ously used and come forth with your uniqueness. Then you’re no longer a commodity. Find Your Own Best Path | 85 86 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE BEFORE: Executive recruiter AFTER: We specialize in helping rapidly growing entre- preneurial companies find their first professional CEO. BEFORE: Virtual assistant AFTER: We turn “to-do’s” to “done’s” for overburdened moms. BEFORE: Used car salesman AFTER: Using matchmaking psychology, we find your next favorite car.   “If what you are selling is energy, charisma, and enthusi- asm, there is no competition, because most others are selling things that are lifeless, loveless, and dull.” –Stuart Wilde Food for Thought What’s Your Business Philosophy? My company helps people in distress save their homes before they lose them via auctions to sharks,” wrote a guy named Ike Okwuosa from San Francisco, introducing himself. “I operate under the abiding business ethos that a mutually beneficial solution for all concerned is a win-win deal, and every human interaction, no matter how innocu- ous, is a holy encounter. This way of thinking is reflected in my company position statement, ‘Because People Are More Important Than Property.’” Sincerity came through loudly and clearly in this state- ment. It got me wondering how many other people express a personal calling, a spiritual philosophy in their work. Later in our correspondence, Okwuosa asked me a ques- tion I couldn’t answer at first: “How about you, Marcia–what is your business philosophy?” Find Your Own Best Path | 87 88 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE After thinking and thinking, I came up with two prin- ciples I hold dear: Integrity always matters, and excellence is worth pursuing for its own sake. These values have gov- erned my life for more than 30 years. Yet I’ve rarely put them into words and never used them in marketing. They’re simply who I am.   On the Web Read responses from more than 30 Marketing Minute subscribers on the question of their business philosophy: www.yudkin.com/philosophy.htm Set the Right Tone Gosh, you certainly don’t sound like a stressed-out aca- demic” is a typical opener I hear on voicemail messages from friends who are college professors. “You sound so up- beat,” marvel friends who call me. So much is conveyed in the way someone answers the phone, and I’ve adopted the habit of using a cheerfully ener- getic tone of voice. Someone who calls me in a depressed or angry mood isn’t quite as lugubrious or upset after such a greeting, and some- one who doesn’t know what to expect from me may begin to feel rapport building even before we’ve started the substan- tive part of our conversation. Other communication elements besides your telephone voice set a tone. Photos: Do you smile in yours, frown or look off into the distance, aloof? Find Your Own Best Path | 89 90 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Prose style: Is your web site jammed with jargon or does it talk accessibly to the reader? Reception area: Does your office waiting area offer com- fortable seating with up-to-date, appropriate reading mate- rial? First impressions last, and they begin sooner than you might think.   “Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.” –Mae West Food for Thought Understand Your Limits AMarketing Minute subscriber asks: “When is it time to cut loose a difficult customer instead of trying to improve communication?” View difficult customers as a mismatch between your expectations and theirs, what you’re prepared to deliver and what they want, or your personality and their needs. Customers who try your patience, for example, aren’t horrible in themselves. For someone who loves extended in- teractions, they might be perfect. The issue then becomes: How willing and able are you to stretch for someone with different needs, expectations or habits than what you’d prefer? Sometimes attention to your communication skills re- solves the problem. Then you become able to help a wider range of people. Other times, it’s not cost-effective for you to contort to what they want. Find Your Own Best Path | 91 92 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Or accommodating them is too stressful or unpleasant for you. And perhaps you simply can’t–psychologically or practi- cally–satisfy them. In the last three instances, you might be better off to cut them loose. Prevent such headachy mismatches by describing your work process in such a way that ideal customers say “Yes!” and unsuitable ones go elsewhere.   “If you want to catch a trout, don’t fish in a herring bar- rel.” –Ann Landers Food for Thought Cheesy or Credible? Your Choice In one week, two clients voiced the same worry to me: “I don’t want to be cheesy.” One added, “I provide a high- quality service.” My dictionary defines “cheesy” as “tasteless and showy, often in a vulgar manner; cheap, shoddy.” According to Molly Gordon, author of Authentic Promo- tion, you can find important values in such concerns and then turn them into commitments. Like this: Complaint: Marketing takes too much time. Underlying Value: Balance, efficiency. Commitment: I am committed to efficient and effective use of my time. Complaint: Marketing costs too much. Underlying Value: Frugality, wise use of resources. Commitment: I am committed to making wise market- ing investments. Find Your Own Best Path | 93 94 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Underlying the “cheesy” fear might be respect for sub- stance over image, in contrast to the image over substance that pervades the media around us, Gordon suggests. “Mar- keting can be about sharing your enthusiasm and being avail- able to those who want what you have to offer. Try sharing your energy, excitement and ideas without feeling attached to whether or not someone hires you.” That way, your message clicks with your ideal clients– tastefully.   On the Web Learn how to become not only credible to potential cli- ents but also believable: www.yudkin.com/believability.htm Forget Other People’s Numbers We Americans have too much faith in numbers. The other day a client informed me that the av- erage response rate to offers on postcards was 4 to 6 percent. It reminded me of advice I’d once read on getting published. The Rule of Twelve, this author called it: Send out twelve book proposals and one will be accepted. There are similar statistics floating around about how many résumés you must send out to get one interview, and how many interviews pro- duce each job offer. If these numbers encourage you to try harder, terrific. But please understand, such numbers have the solidity of air. They do not come from research. And they have no power to predict how quickly your marketing campaign will succeed. If you create a perfect match, averages mean nothing. If you can write a project proposal that sparkles and per- suades, averages don’t apply. If you can keep trying after 200 Find Your Own Best Path | 95 96 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE rejections, and succeed on try #201, who cares what other people’s numbers were? Not averages but creativity and persistence get you where you want to go.   “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not ev- erything that counts can be counted.” –Albert Einstein Food for Thought Part 5 From Success to Greater Success From Success to Greater Success | 99 Always Alert, Always Learning During the season of going back to school, I thought I’d provide a few suggestions for free, on-your-own mar- keting education. First, just becoming conscious of your reactions to the scores of marketing messages you encounter every day can teach you a lot. Which envelopes, letters, ads, newsletters and non-news stories in the news grab your attention, and which ones make you roll your eyes? With any “don’t” you discover, try turning it upside-down into a “do.” For example, recoil- ing from a brochure with an unfriendly, off-putting photo reminds you that your photo should be friendly and inviting. Second, discuss the best and worst that you find with business colleagues. When the headline you loved leaves someone else confused, and the design you hated doesn’t stop them from copying down the phone number to place an order, you’ve learned something valuable. Other times some- 100 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE one else will be able to identify in words the aspect of a piece that disturbed you. Third, think about how you can borrow the techniques used successfully by others for your own business. For in- stance, I’m constantly hearing from readers inspired by The Marketing Minute to start their own email newsletter.   “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” –Galileo Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 101 From Small Successes to Big Ones Susan RoAne, author of How to Work a Room, calls it the “Go Know!” theory of marketing: “One day my Aunt Yet- ta is standing next to someone somewhere who just happens to..., which leads to...” Marketing Minute subscriber Diane Darling has a sto- ry like this. Every couple of months she would send out an email newsletter containing tips on better networking to a growing list of more than 1,000 subscribers. In May 2001, she announced an upcoming seminar on networking in the newsletter. Fifty participants attended, among them a woman who was later asked by a Wall Street Journal reporter about the role of networking in a job search and mentioned Darling. Journal reporter Joann Lubin attended Darling’s next semi- nar and described it in vivid detail in an article. NBC Nightly News called after seeing Lubin’s article and filmed a networking session led by Darling that night. A 102 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE month later, that segment aired. McGraw-Hill called: Would she be interested in writing a book? The Networking Survival Guide by Diane Darling came out in April 2003. Aesop might put it this way: Large achievements from small actions grow.   “Luck to me is something else: Hard work–and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” –Lucille Ball Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 103 Beware Misplaced Pride Are you proud to say you get 90 percent of your new cli- ents by referral? That does indicate people trust you, but it should also send up a warning flag: Your business may be shaky, just six months or a year from collapse. Too many times to count, people have come to me who used to get all their business through personal connections. Until it was too late, they didn’t notice referrals were drying up. Their industry had changed, their contacts had mainly moved on or younger folks became in charge. Because they’d had such steady, dependable referrals, marketing was a cloud of mystery to them. They suddenly had to learn the basics, as if they had just hung out a shingle. How to avoid their peril? Create a reputation that extends beyond those who personally know you. Publish. Speak. Pursue publicity. Be known for a specific expertise or point of view. Get to know influential people by 104 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE commenting on their blogs. Offer resources on your web site that strangers want to link to. Don’t wait. Get going on building that reputation now.   “Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.” –Liz Smith Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 105 Create a Dependable Pipeline Is your pipeline in tiptop shape? If yes, you dependably experience a steady stream of inquiries from potential clients or customers, with little ef- fort or attention. If no, consider one or more of these measures, thereby creating a marketing infrastructure that continually delivers leads: Ø Regular direct mail outreach. Each month, a mailing list company ships a local printer labels for newly in- corporated or newly registered businesses in his area. Sending them a special offer for printed stationery yields a couple dozen new faces in his shop a month, some becoming long-term customers. Ø Periodic seminars. For years, terrific leads came my way through several adult education programs where I taught every other month or so. After preparing 106 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE once, I merely had to show up and perform well–and I even got paid a small amount to collect these leads. Ø Recurrent publishing. A blog, a column that you write every week or month or your own email newsletter will normally bring you inquiries like clockwork, too. Make marketing regular so you won’t suffer dry spells.   “Repetition makes reputation and reputation makes cus- tomers.” –Elizabeth Arden Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 107 Are You In Front of Customers Enough? How often is too often to contact customers? This question comes up at many of my seminars. Interestingly, I rarely hear it asked in a positive way: How often should we be contacting customers? In truth, hardly anyone contacts their customers too often. And hardly anyone contacts customers as often as is most profitable. Denise Lones, founder of The Lones Group, says that of 27,000 real estate agents she has asked over the years to add her to their database for marketing mailings, only five send her stuff more than four times a year. “And most of what they send is generic and boring,” she adds. Repetitive contact maximizes the odds that when the customer is ready to buy, you’re the one who gets the busi- ness. Educate customers on a variety of issues and you build credibility. Sprinkle in some creativity so that readers enjoy 108 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE hearing from you, vary your offers, and you’ve got a scrump- tious recipe for revenue. Contact might be by mail, email or advertising on radio, in print and so on. Stay in sight, in mind–and solidly in the black.   On the Web Download a free recording in which I interview the own- er of a postcard marketing company on ways to use post- cards to get and stay in front of customers: www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm From Success to Greater Success | 109 Not Advertising? Think Again! Moving to a town of 920 people changed my perspec- tive on advertising. The phone company wouldn’t send us the Yellow Pages for three weeks, so I read ads in the local paper as if they held clues to buried treasure. When the phone directory finally arrived, it didn’t answer all our needs, since many tradespeople and personal service providers in the area don’t spring for a business phone and therefore aren’t listed. Even now that we’ve figured out where to shop or who to call for most of what we need, we occasion- ally get stumped, and asking around for referrals or search- ing on the web doesn’t work, either. When local businesses decide they can’t afford or are getting along fine without advertising, they don’t give even a passing thought to the folks who are urgently trying to find someone like them. National companies have their blind 110 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE spots too, like skipping Yellow Pages in outlying areas and distributing glossy circulars that don’t mention locations. If you don’t advertise, you’re missing perfect customers who are making do, going without or tearing out their hair. It’s inconsiderate and shortsighted!   “Put yourself in the path of a charging stampede of peo- ple who are desperate to buy what you are selling.” –Ben Hart Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 111 The Grapevine Speaks According to Northeastern University professor Walter Carl, when college students keep track of how many times any brand, organization, product or service spontane- ously comes up in conversation, the average tally comes to 25 times a day. You can improve the odds that your company or brand gets talked about. Zipcar, a car-sharing service, gives each customer a col- orful card to keep on their key chain. What tangible item can you give away that will be seen–and asked about–by others? When professional speaker Patricia Fripp is at home watching TV, she signs stacks of “Thank you” cards so that every shipment from her office can include a hand-signed note. What personal touch can you add to your operations so buyers feel special? Post-it Notes became a runaway success only when they were put directly into the hands of secretaries, who quickly 112 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE couldn’t live without them and spread the word. How can you get your product to influential users who will tell their networks about your stuff? When making a purchase, nearly 80 percent of people rely on recommendations, which you can encourage.   On the Web Find out how to form bonds with people who are often in a position to recommend you and your company: www.yudkin.com/influence.htm From Success to Greater Success | 113 Long-ago Connections Can Return Legendary advertising executive John Caples tells the sto- ry of a man who walked into a Steinway showroom to buy “the instrument of the immortals” 10 years after he first saw Steinway’s ad with that phrase. Only then was he in the position to buy the piano the ad had made him want. I experienced a similar demonstration of the long-term impact of marketing recently. In 1991, to promote our book Smart Speaking, my co-author Laurie Schloff and I appeared on a Boston radio show. Eight years later, the host of that show called me to say she was now launching a business show on WBNW Personal Finance Radio. Would I like to be a featured expert on her program? I became a Monday morning regular on the show, talk- ing about marketing. She would never have remembered me, much less known about my current interests, had I not put 114 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE her on my mailing list and sent three postcards a year to her home. With every bit of marketing you do, you plant seeds. Keep them watered so that they can sprout and bloom when their time comes.   “The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.” –Garth Henrichs Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 115 The Power of Intention Do you believe that rustling up clients is hard work, or do you feel that they are waiting for you everywhere? Often, life brings you exactly what you expect. Here’s a story told by coach Zev Saftlas in his book, Motivation That Works. When his brother Ira got called for jury duty, he de- cided that one of the several hundred strangers he was sitting around with was undoubtedly a perfect client for his adver- tising agency. Ira relaxed in the waiting room until he got an idea who the potential client might be. After going over to start a con- versation, he learned that the man owned several businesses and did indeed need advertising services. “The rest fell into place by itself,” writes Saftlas. “All he did was set a goal.” Coach Andrea Conway puts it this way: “You have to ‘have it’ on the inside before you can ‘get it’ on the outside. The more you identify with struggle, the more struggle you 116 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE attract to yourself. Instead, when you reach a place of inner security, knowing that potential buyers are asking for your offering, you can really soar.”   “By the act of observation and intention, we have the abil- ity to extend a kind of super-radiance to the world.” –Lynne McTaggart Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 117 What a Standup Comedian Learned During a cross-country call with copywriter and mar- keter Tony Blake, I couldn’t help pelting him with questions when I learned his first career was standup comic. How did he get from there to a career similar to mine? What had he learned from entertaining crowds in comedy clubs that applies to wooing customers? “As I traveled the comedy circuit, I saw that some clubs thrived while others were failing because they weren’t mar- keting themselves properly,” Blake told me. “I told club own- ers that I would do my standup gig at night while spending days coaching them on what was working elsewhere. Other comics asked for my help too, and before long I was doing much more advice giving than performing.” Blake added that one can’t succeed as a comedian with- out becoming an astute observer and amateur psycholo- gist, listening closely so one can shine the light of humor on 118 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE human behavior. “You learn to think on your feet, and you become familiar with failure. If the audience doesn’t laugh, you simply move on to the next gag–and any successful mar- keter does the same.”   “Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind.” –Samuel Taylor Coleridge Food for Thought From Success to Greater Success | 119 Become Unforgettable Cowgirl Smarts: It doesn’t sound like a serious business topic, and perhaps that’s why meeting planners and audiences have been cheering wildly since Texan Ellen Reid Smith, author of a book called e-Loyalty, began giving talks wearing black leather chaps and an outsized Stetson. “I walk out on stage to a room of smiling, whooping at- tendees,” Smith says. “We start off the hour with everyone giving their best ‘Yeehaw!’ It breaks down all formality and gets their energy flowing.” Smith’s web site CowgirlSmarts.com continues the theme with historical lore, a series of books on the cowgirl approach to business and a period photo of one of her cowgirl heroes. “Before signing the contract, some clients ask ‘Now you’re going to wear your chaps, aren’t you?’ I’d been speaking to groups on e-loyalty for years, and I wish I’d done something like this sooner. Showing up in costume makes me more 120 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE desirable as a speaker, more memorable and definitely more fun. I’ll still drag out my silk suits for the right market, but I prefer boots and attitude.”   On the Web Read my article on how and why to create a personal trademark: www.yudkin.com/trademark.htm From Success to Greater Success | 121 Don’t Get Drained by Questions Experts and consultants often find themselves perplexed on how to handle topical questions too big for a one- sentence answer but too small for a paid consultation. My colleague Joan Stewart channels some “How can I...?” publicity questions by inviting readers of her weekly ezine to post suggestions for the questioner at her Publicity Hound blog. “This lets my subscribers flaunt their expertise by pro- viding creative ideas and helpful suggestions–far more than I could offer by myself,” she says. Others have occasional call-in times, where anyone who gets through between, say, 1 and 2 p.m. gets up to 10 minutes of complimentary advice. You could also respond, “Thank you for your question. It’s queued up for a possible answer in my monthly newslet- ter. Make sure you subscribe at...” 122 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Another option: Answer questions by email, then com- pile the Q&A’s into a freebie report, a product or a Frequently Asked Questions page. I’ve seen specialists offering a low-cost pay-per-question service. My own solution is occasional “Ask Marcia” teleseminars, which I make available afterwards in recorded form. Somehow, leverage those questions!   On the Web Download my free Q&A recording on getting media cov- erage: www.yudkin.com/publicityideas.htm Part 6 My Own Business Lessons 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part I In January 2006, I celebrated my 25th anniversary of suc- cessful self-employment. Looking back, I identified four lessons learned to share with you. Lesson #1: Your first big success contains clues to a dy- namic that comes easily to you. Figure out how to harness that strength, give it a good run on a regular basis and you’ll experience a champion series of successes. On January 4, 1981, my first published article appeared in the Sunday New York Times. One tantalizing sentence in my query letter to them two months before had opened that door of opportunity: “In January, I will be retiring from col- lege teaching at the age of 28 and want to write about what it has been like to be a professor, compared with the way I saw professors when I was a student.” With that sentence, I promised an out-of-the-ordinary story skillfully told. This they wanted. My Own Business Lessons | 125 126 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE For me, words have opened doors over and over again. I’d be loony to forget this. For others, impulsive calls or old connections sparked their first and later successes. Repeat what worked!   “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” –John Wooden Food for Thought 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part II Lesson #2 learned from looking back at 25 years of suc- cessful self-employment: Customer comments can con- tain pure gold. Many of my most in-demand services came about from a suggestion made by someone who wanted to do business with me. Ø A decade ago, someone emailed, “I want to learn how to be you. Can you teach me?” I emailed back, “What do you mean?” We worked out a tutorial program through which I passed on my marketing consulting skills. With periodic updates, that training program has proved a consistent seller. Ø Years before that, a Harvard professor called and said he couldn’t make my seminar. Could I present it to him at his office, privately? I met with him weekly and gradually realized what I was doing for him had My Own Business Lessons | 127 128 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE a name: consulting. Undoubtedly others would want that too, I guessed, correctly. Ø When I started teaching seminars, the topics I knew the most about were already taken. The director of the Cambridge Center for Adult Education suggested “So You Want to Write a Book,” a class that went on to generate long waiting lists year after year.   “We are not doing the customer a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so” –Mahatma Gandhi Food for Thought 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part III Lesson #3 from 25 years of being in business: Important strengths are not always obvious. While I knew from the get-go that I had a knack for the written word, I had several misconceptions or blind spots that it took years to overcome. Ø I believed I couldn’t captivate an audience. In my family, I was the quiet one, the bookworm. To me, good speakers were extroverts like my uncle, known for storytelling and oratory. I taught reasonably well, though, and with practice, eventually shone as a speaker and radio performer. Ø I also assumed I couldn’t sell. I briefly had a business partner who excelled at schmoozing, but my semi- nars and referrals worked much better than her net- working. Finally I understood that I did very well at bringing in business. My Own Business Lessons | 129 130 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Only in the last few years, because so many clients and subscribers have mentioned it, have I realized that my moral beliefs and practices set me apart from some other marketers. It wouldn’t otherwise have oc- curred to me that considering moneymaking in the context of honesty and service could be a differentiat- ing factor.   “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” –Katharine Hepburn Food for Thought 25-Year Marketing Insights, Part IV Lesson #4 from 25 years of being in business: Keep your feet firmly on the ground instead of getting swept up in what seems to be the hot new thing. During the Internet gold rush, many of my peers scram- bled to get their piece of the action. Some closed down de- pendable businesses in favor of unproven concepts or high salaries at companies that did not last. I had job offers that would have required me to suspend the business I’d worked hard to build. So I said no. And I did not redefine my focus to online-only expertise, specializing in tactics that could quickly become obsolete. Consequently, my income dipped only slightly with the dot-com crash and quickly rebounded. By understanding and applying the fundamental princi- ples of marketing and persuasive communication–knowing who you’re selling to, differentiating a company from com- My Own Business Lessons | 131 132 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE petitors, generating targeted offers–I maintained compe- tence that can’t go out of date. And unlike those who flitted around during the dot-com boom, I still have clients who’ve been hiring me and singing my praises to others for more than ten years.   On the Web Read my tips on creating an email newsletter that lasts: www.yudkin.com/stay.htm What You Already Know Occasionally I get a product return or refund request with the rationale, “I already know all this.” I process the refund, of course, but sadly. My regret is not for my loss of revenue but for the buyer’s loss of value. I’ve experienced countless inspirations from reading or listening to points I already know. Ø Being reminded of something you’d forgotten can bounce against a problem you’re currently trying to solve, sending the 8-ball right into the pocket. Ø What you know but aren’t implementing isn’t doing you much good! Listening to or reading what you al- ready know can rouse you into action. Ø An expert who knows what you do may add surpris- ing examples or perspectives challengingly different from yours. My Own Business Lessons | 133 134 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Communication strengths or flaws can teach you what to do or not to do in your own work. Ø The very process of engaging with a topic sets thoughts swirling into novel patterns. For me, audio listening is particularly generative. If my neighbors asked what I’m scribbling as they drive past me walking with a headset on my ears, I’d say, “Ideas sparked by stuff I already know.”   “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the an- swer but wish we didn’t.” –Erica Jong Food for Thought Time for “Thank You” Inspired by the holiday season, I think, last week I received an unusual number of “thank you”s and tributes from subscribers. This reminded me that the “thank you”s should equally be headed in the opposite direction. Every week, well over 11,000 of you decide to let me into your in-boxes, and I want you to know that I do not take that permission for granted. Without you, I would be missing a powerful stimulus for reflection and growth. So, thank you for your interest and for the minute or so that we spend to- gether every week. Thanks for agreeing with me–and for disagreeing with me. (I’m not always right, and I enjoy knowing you see things differently.) Thanks for correcting my errors. (Like the time dozens told me “inertia” should have been “entropy.”) My Own Business Lessons | 135 136 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Thanks for forwarding my emails to friends, colleagues, clients, students, networks, blogs or your Twitter followers. Thanks for sending questions, clippings and topic ideas for future Marketing Minutes. Most of all, thanks for the challenge of creating a zippy, useful marketing tip or anecdote week after week.   “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” –Anthony Robbins Food for Thought Part 7 Recession-Proof Marketing When Recession is in the Air In 2001, my two biggest dot-com clients had to cut me out of their plans. I had to hustle to make the year’s income match the previous year’s, but I was not concerned because I knew which marketing tactics to use when the economy contracts. Most businesses pay much too much attention to acquir- ing new customers and too little to current and former ones. When recession is in the air, it’s especially smart to contact your customer base more often. Studies show that it costs one-fifth as much to sell again to your customers as to turn a stranger into a buyer. Remember too that when folks believe a slowdown is in process, they become more cautious. Therefore anything you can do to reduce buyers’ risk will help. Reconsider your guar- antees–can you make them stronger? Add more testimonials to your marketing materials. When you do contact people Recession-Proof Marketing | 139 140 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE not already within your sphere of influence, extend a get-to- know-you special offer that invites them over your threshold with little ventured and much gained.   On the Web Download a free booklet, 33 Keys to Thriving During a Recession: www.yudkin.com/recess.htm Don’t Let Customers Feel Neglected According to BBC radio in 2001, animals in the Col- chester Zoo were suffering effects of Britain’s foot-and- mouth disease outbreak. None actually caught the illness, but because zoos shut down as a precaution, animals were beginning to show signs of depression. They missed the hu- man crowds to which they had grown accustomed. As I listened to this story, I immediately drew a parallel with the economic slowdown in the United States. Advertis- ing spending had dramatically shrunk, in many cases as a precaution against possible cash flow problems rather than as a remedy for a bona fide financial crisis. “People should maintain spending to keep and expand market share,” I said to an editor for a chain of community newspapers. “Folks don’t think that way,” he replied sadly. Recession-Proof Marketing | 141 142 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE The BBC story gave me a new angle on this. If you stop sending catalogs and cut back on ads, customers will miss you and feel neglected. Keep marketing–and you’ll be among fewer businesses reaching their mailbox or appearing in their magazines. Picture customers’ long faces, then make them brighter.   “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” –Anonymous Food for Thought Bob Bly’s Advice for the Last Recession Don’t get cocky. No matter how successful and busy you are, your business can take a downturn. Quickly. And quite unexpectedly. Take it from me.” Bob Bly wrote these words in his 1991 book, Selling Your Services, revealing that when the recession of 1990 hit, his two biggest clients stopped giving him work. His best source of leads slammed to a halt. His proposals were turned down one after the other. His income plummeted. He recovered within months, though, with these and other strategies: Ø Get back in touch with former clients and those who previously put projects on ice. Ø Propose new projects to current clients. Ø Bid at the lower end of your usual fee structure. Ø Give great service and don’t be temperamental. Ø Accept smaller jobs than you previously would. Ø Spend more time and energy marketing. Recession-Proof Marketing | 143 144 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Above all, he says, keep a positive attitude. “If you are depressed, prospects can sense your desperation and fear. Remember that you are talented and successful; the lull is temporary; and people will call you and hire you again.” Timely wisdom for many people.   “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” –Horace Food for Thought In a Recession, Reconnect Years ago, Bob Bly wrote an article on marketing your way through a recession. He suggested that simply by calling past clients to say hello and find out what was going on in their business, you would get an average of one out of ten giving you a new assignment simply because you showed up in their awareness at an opportune time. My experience bears this out. A new client, an attorney, asked me what kind of work I’d previously done for attor- neys. So I contacted two lawyer clients to find out whether or not I could give their names as references to the new client. Two out of two, in addition to saying “of course,” asked if I could help them out with a current project. “Warning: Don’t call up and say, ‘I’m not busy and need work right now; do you have any assignments?’” says Bly. In one case, before sending my email, I visited the past client’s web site and learned he had won a major publishing Recession-Proof Marketing | 145 146 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE award. Congratulating him on that news was a perfect way to reestablish our connection.   On the Web Find out how to network your way to connections that spell success: www.yudkin.com/networking.htm Before You Lower Prices Should you lower prices when cash flow slows down? Not necessarily. Try these tactics first: Ø Payment plan. Divide what clients owe into more in- stallments than usual, which often feels more afford- able to them. Ø Discount for prompt or early payment. Not only do you thereby get your money sooner, you lessen the odds of having uncollectable receivables later on. Ø Delayed payment. If prepayment or payment on deliv- ery is standard in your industry, allow people to pay later, perhaps even much later. Ø Bulk rates. Charge less when people buy more. This often raises the amount of your average order while making people think they got a great deal. Ø Bargains. Promote low prices on items or services you don’t ordinarily sell but that make good “loss leaders,” Recession-Proof Marketing | 147 148 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE enabling new customers to sample your stuff and be- come more interested. Ø Bonuses. Offer extras with each purchase. Colleagues in related businesses may happily furnish bonuses at no cost to you for the promotional value this holds for them. Anything you can do to reinforce perceptions that you provide top-notch quality helps you keep prices stable, too.   “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.” –Warren Buffet Food for Thought Recession? Don’t Run Scared During a recession, scared businesses tend to cut back on marketing expenses. This appears to be the smart bet. After all, most customers have become more cautious about spending. So why not conserve your resources, wait out the downturn and have funds to spend when the econo- my picks up? In fact, smart businesses expand during a recession because they know there will be a shakeout caused by the scared businesses shrinking. During any recession, there are always more than enough clients out there to keep you busy if you continue to market, and market smartly. Capitalize on your strengths. Make the most of your business relationships. Create or revive pro- grams that enable customers to move ahead. (I just filled a seminar teaching a highly marketable specialized skill.) Above all, stay upbeat, putting the dynamics of self-fulfilling prophecies in your favor. Recession-Proof Marketing | 149 150 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE If you behave like the scared businesses, or target them, you will contract. If you market to the smart businesses dur- ing a recession, you will continue to prosper. It’s up to you. On the Web   Discover five options for generating income fast: www.yudkin.com/newfast.htm The Get-Clients-Next-Week Formula Numerous Marketing Minute subscribers have been ask- ing me how to get clients in today’s slower economy. Here’s the winning formula. 1. Select a problem urgently felt by people or companies you know how to find. Sample problem: High gas prices have tripled the no-show rate at high-profile restaurants. 2. Create a specific offer that solves the problem for a low cost and that serves as a logical lead-in to your usual product or service. For instance: “For $295, I’ll suggest five creative and publicity-worthy incentives not being used in your mar- ketplace.” (Upon getting excited about those ideas, some will want to hire you to execute them.) 3. Give the offer a catchy name, such as “The No More Skittery Customers Solution.” 4. Add scarcity–you have space in your schedule for just three new clients or the offer is valid only through the Wednesday after Labor Day. Recession-Proof Marketing | 151 152 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE 5. Put the offer in front of potential customers by calling them, sending a postcard or emailing them. Because desperation repels, take these steps with confi- dence and a positive attitude.   “In good times, people want to advertise; in bad times, they have to.” –Bruce Barton Food for Thought Be Choosy, Even in a Recession According to Reed Holden and Mark Burton, authors of Pricing With Confidence, 79 percent of business-to- business companies serve any customer they can get. What’s wrong with that? Typically, they explain, 20 per- cent of the customers account for 225 percent of the profit, with 80 percent causing the firm to lose money. And that statistic doesn’t take into account the extent to which the un- profitable customers increase your worry wrinkles and gray hairs. Being choosy about customers benefits both the bottom line and your sanity. Consider sending away those who: Ø Always press you for discounts Ø Need or demand an exorbitant amount of handhold- ing Ø Previously requested refunds Ø Are unpleasant to deal with, nitpicky, abusive, fren- zied, uncooperative or irrational Recession-Proof Marketing | 153 154 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Threaten to go to the competition Ø Never pay on time Ø Represent where your company used to be rather than where it is going “It’s simply better for you that unprofitable customers are served by your competition,” say Holden and Burton. After shedding the undesirables, develop a clear picture of who you want as clients and pursue those. You’ll then have the positive energy needed to land them.   “He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.” –Harry Emerson Fosdick Food for Thought Part 8 Customer Service Matters The Math of Satisfaction Are your clients “satisfied”? Maybe even “very satisfied”? Then get worried. According to customer service guru Ron Zemke, the mathematics of customer satisfaction have surprising implications. If customers rate you on a five-point scale, the increase in loyalty from two (poor) to three (satisfactory) is minimal. Improving your score from three to four (good) gets you just a modest rise. Only when you boost your rank from four to five (excellent) does customer loyalty take a dramatic jump: someone who gives you a five is two to six times more loyal than some who gives you a four. Now let’s translate that into revenue. You get a dramati- cally greater payoff moving fours to fives than raising threes to fours, because you will lose just a fraction of the fives every year compared to the fours. Fives spend exponentially more with you in the long run than fours. Customer Service Matters | 157 158 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Anything less than a five–“extremely satisfied” or “de- lighted”–and your buyers remain iffy and unreliable. What steps can you take today to lift your ratings to the top of the scale?   On the Web What is the optimal refund rate? Read Marketing Minute subscribers’ input on that question: www.yudkin.com/refunds.htm Small Touches, Big Impact While interviewing financial services clients about their experiences at one firm’s office, Marketing Minute subscriber Reva Dolobowsky found a surprisingly large impression left by a simple gesture. Being offered cof- fee in the waiting room set a tone of hospitality and helped transform what could have been a stressful meeting into a positive one. Clients also liked the fact that their advisor highlighted important points in a packet of information he was giving them to take home, and inserted all the materials tidily into a folder. “This was psychologically calming for the clients, signifying that chaos had been turned into order,” says Dolo- bowsky, head of Dolobowsky Qualitative Services. In another focus group, customers expressed apprecia- tion for handles on big bags of pet food. “This often over- looked detail expresses a thoughtful concern for making cus- tomers’ lives easier,” Dolobowsky notes. Customer Service Matters | 159 160 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE “Another thing that comes up again and again from cus- tomers is tone of voice. When someone is being patient with them, they can tell right away, and it matters,” she adds. What extra touches do you offer that have an emotional impact on customers?   “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” –Roger Staubach Food for Thought Soliciting Useful Customer Feedback As a shopper, I go nuts when a store is perpetrating some easily avoidable outrage on customers and there’s no easy way to tell the managers. As a marketer, I don’t under- stand why suggestion boxes, common in my youth, have gone out of fashion. The most popular feedback tool today is comment cards, usually in the format of self-addressed postcards. Marketing Minute subscriber Susan Keane Baker, author of Managing Patient Expectations, offers these do’s and don’ts based on more than 20 years of experience with the use of comment cards by hospitals. Ø Keep the number of questions to a minimum. Ø Avoid two-part questions. “Confuse them and lose them!” says Susan. Ø Tell customers you appreciate their feedback. Customer Service Matters | 161 162 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø If you ask for respondents’ personal information, do so at the end of the card, not the beginning. ØMake comment cards available where customers wait, or mail them with your newsletter or invoices. Ø Ask permission to share what they’ve said, as in “Please initial here if we may share your comments on our web site.” Making customer feedback easy is a must when you aim at excellence.   On the Web To learn how to generate more repeat business, listen to a coaching session in which I help the owner of a translation agency with both traditional and innovative customer reten- tion tactics. It’s a free downloadable audio just for readers of this book: www.yudkin.com/repeatbiz.htm Apologies That Defuse Disaster Inevitably, you will make some horrible mistake. To keep the mistake from turning into a disaster, understand the difference between an apology that appeases indignation and one that turns a spark into a public relations wildfire. An effective apology has three components. Ø Admit blame. Say that what you did was wrong. Ø Express regret. Say the magic words: “I’m sorry.” Ø Extend an olive branch. Offer something to help take away the sting of the harm done by the mistake. Do not offer excuses. This is probably the hardest part of the formula. Do not blame the person who was wronged. You may have read about the magazine based in my neck of the woods, Cooks Source, which reprinted without permis- sion a previously published article. The author learned of this copyright infringement and complained. Customer Service Matters | 163 164 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE The editor’s aggressive, you-should-be-grateful apology, shared by the aggrieved author and many outraged bloggers and news reporters, flashed around the Internet, igniting a firestorm of condemnation and the uncovering of scores of additional copyright violations. The magazine folded–mainly because of the wretched apology.   “The first rule of holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.” –Molly Ivins Food for Thought Where’s the Start Button? An entrepreneur profiled in Forbes Small Business called her system for sending payments via cell phone “sim- ple: once you complete the registration and download the software to your phone...” Simple? Yikes! Downloading software to my cell phone is something I’ve never done and would attempt only with trepidation. I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to technology, and com- panies don’t cater to me. This week I looked at a disk I ordered from an informa- tion marketer and could not determine whether it was a CD or DVD. It arrived without a cover letter, with no instructions on or in the case. When I popped the disk into my computer, I could see both audio and video files on it, but the video files wouldn’t open properly no matter what I tried. I couldn’t find a “read me first” file on the disk, either. Also missing: a contact email. Customer Service Matters | 165 166 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE What’s easy or obvious to a techie may not be to the cus- tomer. Keep in mind the power of fear and unfamiliarity. Plan for rampant cluelessness and you’ll see wider success.   “If you have knowledge, let others light their candle at it.” –Margaret Fuller Food for Thought Worried About Bothering Customers? Ionce read something shocking from Anne Holland, Mar- keting Sherpa’s Content Director: Some 40 percent of those who purchased her company’s PDF reports did not download what they bought–much less read them. After discovering this, Holland took steps to encourage customers to consume what they bought. After all, except for shopaholics, buyers who don’t use an item won’t turn into repeat customers or recommend the company. This story completely changed my feeling about follow- up after the sale. Instead of thinking, “Well, they bought, now it’s up to them to put it into action,” I understand now that it doesn’t serve them if what they were trying to do or learn remains in the purgatory of their to-do list. I am hardly bothering customers if I send follow-up mes- sages like these: Customer Service Matters | 167 168 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Ø Don’t feel overwhelmed! Here are two ways to get started. Ø Still have questions? Some have wondered about X or Y. Read today’s additional tips. Ø Here’s how so-and-so used the product you bought. Such follow-ups help customers–and by doing so, also help the company sending them.   “We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” –W.H. Auden Food for Thought No Parking? No Problem! Considering the traffic, scarcity of metered spaces, ex- pensive parking garages and merciless ticketers, driv- ing to do business errands in downtown Boston is not for the faint of heart. Tom Roulston, a Business Printing Specialist at the Kinko’s near Boston’s Government Center, makes this chore easier for his regular customers. They call him on their cell phone and describe what they’re driving, and he goes outdoors to meet them in their car. While the car is double parked with the engine running, he takes their printing or copying order. For the customer: no ticket, no parking fee, no need to drive around the block looking for a non-existent space. For Roulston: customer retention that costs him nothing but the willingness to leave the store at a moment’s notice. Marketing Minute subscriber Minerva Sprogis, a cus- tomer of Roulston’s and the owner of a consulting com- pany called The Magic of Manners, told this story during Customer Service Matters | 169 170 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE a Recession-Proof Marketing seminar. “I’m not a huge cus- tomer, but Tom makes me feel like a million bucks when he meets me in my car,” she says.   “If you don’t care, your customer never will.” –Marlene Blaszczyk Food for Thought A Tale of Two Banks Last week I called a local bank where I’d opened an ac- count two weeks earlier. I hadn’t yet received the box of checks they’d ordered. Could they please print me four checks that I’d pick up in an hour? An hour later, I walked into the bank, and a teller waved the checks in the air and rushed over to hand them to me with a big smile. I smiled back in astonishment. The teller had seen me exactly once before. Her warmth was echoed by others in the office. In New England, where I live, such feelings are rare in everyday business transactions. Compare now the branch of a large national bank that tries hard to be friendly. A designated greeter waylays me with pointless conversation. The tellers always chat me up, and once when I failed to play along, a teller repeated her question to me more aggressively. Customer Service Matters | 171 172 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE The policy-driven friendliness of the second bank grates on me so strongly that I dread going there during business hours. I feel the opposite about my new bank. Don’t fake it. Phony cheer chills the soul.   “Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.” –Mother Teresa Food for Thought Appreciative Gestures Work People like to be thanked. People like to feel important. I know these principles intellectually, yet still I’ve been surprised to see how the famous Gallup Poll organiza- tion carries them out. For the last five months, I have been a member of the Gallup Poll “panel” (note the flattering term!), offering my opinions on politics, health care, consumer purchases, etc. As many times as I’ve been asked to fill out a four-page survey and send it back, I’ve received separate mailings en- closing a magnet, a memo pad, a calendar, a members-only magazine–always thanking me for my generosity and ser- vice, urging me to get in touch if I have questions. On every survey, they even ask how interesting it was. Their sincerity feels real. Aren’t they going overboard? I’ve wondered, then re- mind myself that their testing undoubtedly shows that such Customer Service Matters | 173 174 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE gestures keep their respondents from sighing and rolling their eyes when another survey form arrives in the mail. It feels great to be appreciated. Do you see a lesson here for your business? I do: Never take customers for granted.   “The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life.” –Robert Louis Stevenson Food for Thought Recommended Books The following books provide valuable insights into mar- keting fundamentals, especially the inner side of at- tracting and keeping customers. Abraham, Jay, Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition. New York: St. Martin’s, 2001. Tips for growing your business from one success to the next. Goldsmith, Marshall, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Success- ful. New York: Hyperion, 2007. Learn how to overcome your business blind spots and get out of your own way. Hill, Napoleon, The Law of Success. New York: Tarcher/Pen- guin, 2008 [and many other editions]. Originally pub- lished in 1928, this is a timelessly wise course in achiev- ing success from the inside out. Recommended Books | 175 176 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE Kennedy, Dan S., No B.S. Business Success. Irvine, CA: Entre- preneur Press, 2004. A good place to start if you haven’t yet encountered this street-smart expert’s marketing and self-management perspectives. Levinson, Jay Conrad, The Way of the Guerrilla: Achieving Success and Balance as an Entrepreneur in the 21st Cen- tury. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. How to create a business you love that sustains you in return. RoAne, Susan, How to Create Your Own Luck: The “You Nev- er Know” Approach to Networking, Taking Chances, and Opening Yourself to Opportunity. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004. Teaches the art of creating and seizing opportuni- ties. Vitale, Joe, There’s a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Bar- num’s Secrets to Business Success. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007. A fun read offering a three-ring circus of ideas for overcoming business obstacles and creatively capturing public attention. Yudkin, Marcia, 6 Steps to Free Publicity, 3rd edition. Frank- lin Lakes, NJ: Career Press, 2009. Contains a chapter on overcoming fears of self-promotion, along with ideas for spreading the word by harnessing the media, network- ing, public speaking, social media and more. Get the Whole Series! What you are reading is the fifth of five volumes col- lecting my Marketing Minute columns and present- ing them by theme. The other volumes are: Book 1: Persuading People to Buy: Insights on Marketing Psychology That Pay Off for Your Company, Professional Practice or Nonprofit Organization Book 2: Meatier Marketing Copy: Insights on Copywriting That Generates Leads and Sparks Sales Book 3: Strategic Marketing: Insights on Setting Smart Directions for Your Business Book 4: Publicity Tactics: Insights on Creating Lucrative Media Buzz The series includes two audio CDs for each volume, on which I read the columns in that book. Listening to the con- tents in your car or while exercising often triggers ideas you’ll want to implement in your company, professional practice or nonprofit organization. Get the Whole Series! | 177 178 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE For more information or to purchase the rest of the Mar- keting Insight Guides, go to: www.marketinginsightguides.com. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up to receive the Marketing Minute free in your inbox every Wednesday by going to www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm. Index 33 Keys to Thriving During a Reces- sion 140 Abraham, Jay 175 Advertising 109–110 Allen, Robert G. 56 Angelou, Maya 16 Apologies 163–164 Appreciation 173–174 Arden, Elizabeth 106 Asking 17–18 Assumptions 61–62 Attitude v–vi, 144, 149–150 Attraction 67–68 Auditory orientation 25 Authentic Promotion 93 Baker, Bob 71 Baker, Susan Keane 161 Ball, Lucille 102 Barnum, P.T. 29 Barton, Bruce 152 BBC 141 Beliefs, self-sabotaging 51–52 Berkeley, Bishop George 33 Blake, Tony 117 Blaszczyk, Marlene 170 Bly, Bob 143–146 Bombeck, Erma 26 Bonuses 148 Bowerman, Peter 79 Branding Yourself Online 71 Buffet, Warren 148 Buren, Abigail Van 15 Burnett, Leo 28 Burton, Mark 153 Business lessons 125–136 Cambridge Center for Adult Educa- tion 128 Caples, John 113 Carl, Walter 111 Clark, Steve 51–52 Coca-Cola 23 Colchester Zoo 141 Cold calls 78–79 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 118 Commodity, seen as 85–86 Controversy 113–116 Conway, Andrea 115 Cooks Source 163–164 Coolidge, Calvin 83 Cosby, Bill 54 Couric, Katie 52 Index | 179 180 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE CowgirlSmarts.com 119–120 Credibility 94 Crises, client 57–58 Customer comments 127–128 Customer contact 107–108 Darling, Diane 101–102 Delays, marketing 29–34 Difficult customers 91 DiMaggio, Joe 46 Doerr, John 63 Dolobowsky, Reva 159 Edison, Thomas A. 32 Einstein, Albert 96 e-Loyalty 119 Emergencies, client 57–58 Employees, respect for 59–60 Entropy 22 Fakery 171–172 Familiarity 35–36 Fans 44, 71–74 Fast income 150–152 Feedback 27–28, 161–162 Fees 18 Fees and Pricing Benchmark Report: Consulting Industry 2008 63 Follow-up messages 167–168 Forbes Small Business 165 Former customers 139 Fosdick, Harry Emerson 154 Friendliness 171–172 Fripp, Patricia 111 Fritz, Robert 29 Frost, Robert 22 Fuller, Margaret 166 Galileo 100 Gallup Poll 173 Gandhi, Mahatma 128 Garland, Judy 74 Gestures, appreciative 159 Goldsmith,Marshall 175 Gordo, Molly 93 Gratitude 135–136 Halbert, Gary 39 Harding, Warren G. 83 Harriman, E.H. 41 Hart, Ben 110 Henrichs, Garth 114 Hepburn, Katharine 130 Hill, Napoleon 13–14, 175 Holden, Reed 153 Holiday, Billie 78 Holland, Anne 167 Honesty 130 Horace 144 How to Work a Room 101 Hubbard, Elbert 60 Hug Your Customers 57 Ideal clients 94 Information formats 26 Intention 115–116 Introverts 81–84 Ivins, Molly 164 James, William 66 Jargon 61–62 Jong, Erica 134 Keillor, Garrison 81 Kelly, Kevin 73 Kennedy, Dan S. 176 Kinesthetic orientation 25 Kissinger, Henry 41–42 Kroc, Ray 70 Landers, Ann 92 Lawler, Jennifer 45 Law of Success, The 13 Learning styles 25 Levinson, Jay Conrad 176 Liked, being 51–54 Lipe, Jay 31–32 Lones, Denise 107 Lones Group, The 107 Lord, Winston 41–42 Lubin, Joann 101 Luck Factor, The 35–36 Managing Patient Expectations 161 Mankoff, Robert 53 Marketing education 99–100 Marketing infrastructure 105–106 Marketing Minute vi, 21, 30, 51, 58, 59, 71, 73, 100, 101, 136, 151, 158, 159, 161, 169, 177, 178 Marketing Sherpa 167 Marketing Toolkit for Growing Busi- nesses, The 31 Maturity 24 McTaggart, Lynne 116 Mistakes 23–24 Motivation That Works 115 Muir, Diana 19 Musts 77–78 NBC Nightly News 101 Networking 146 Networking Survival Guide, The 102 New customers 139 NewSchoolSelling.com 51 New Yorker, The 53–54 New York Times, The 125 Numbers 95–96 Obama, Barack 34 Occupational title 85 Okwuosa, Ike 87 Olivier, Laurence 81 Opportunity 15–16 Path of Least Resistance, The 29 Patience 29–32 Personal Finance Radio 113 Personality 81–82 Philosophy, business 87–88 Photos 89 Pipeline, marketing 105–106 Poise 13–14 Postcard marketing 108 Post-it Notes 111–112 Price complaints 65–66 Pricing 63–64, 147–148 Pricing With Confidence 153 Publicity Hound blog 121 Quality 39–48, 66, 148 Questions, customer 121–122 Recession marketing 139–154 Redefinition 85–86 Referrals 103–104 Refunds 133–134, 158 Repeat business 162 Results 29–32 RoAne, Susan 101, 176 Robbins, Anthony 136 Rule of Twelve, The 95 Saftlas, Zev 115 Satisfaction, customer 157–158 Schenkler, Arik 33 Schloff, Laurie 113 Schultz, Mike 63 Selling Your Services 143 Sherman, Mark 59 Smart Speaking 113 Smith, Ellen Reid 119–120 Smith, Liz 104 Sound 25–26 Index | 181 182 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE So You Want to Write a Book 128 Staubach, Roger 160 Steinway pianos 113 Stereotypes 81–82 Stevenson, Robert Louis 174 Stewart, Joan 121 Stoutenburgh, Joann 15 Strengths, personal 129–130 Style, writing 90 Subservience 55–56 Teresa, Mother 172 Thoreau, Henry David 48 Tudor, Frederick 19 Twain, Mark 42 Union Pacific Railroad 41 Values 93–94 Visual orientation 25 Vitale, Joe 176 Voice 88, 160 Wall Street Journal, The 101 Weiss, Alan 18 Well-Fed Writer, The 79 West, Mae 90 Wilde, Stuart 86 Wiseman, Dr. Richard 35–36 Wooden, John 126 Words, power of 126 Writer’s Digest 45 Yellow Pages 109–110 Yost, Sam 15 Zemke, Ron 157 Zipcar 111 Zyman, Sergio 23 About the Author Since 1981, when she joined the ranks of the self-em- ployed after deciding college teaching didn’t suit her, Marcia Yudkin has built a worldwide reputation as an au- thor, consultant, coach and expert in creative marketing. Prior to the books in the Marketing Insight Guides se- ries, she published 11 books, including Freelance Writing for Magazines and Newspapers, a Book-of-the-Month Club se- lection, and 6 Steps to Free Publicity, now in its third edition. Her articles have appeared in publications as diverse as The New York Times Magazine, New Age Journal, Cosmopolitan and Business 2.0. Her “Marketing Minute” segment aired weekly through- out New England for more than a year on WABU TV, and it turned into a free weekly newsletter on marketing and pub- licity that reaches more than 12,000 loyal subscribers on five continents. About the Author | 183 184 | THE MARKETING ATTITUDE As a marketing mentor, Marcia Yudkin advises business owners, independent professionals and corporate marketers on actions and attitudes that attract ideal clients and keep them. Her clients range from publishers and software pro- ducers to financial planners, executive coaches, management consultants and psychotherapists. She has a Ph.D. degree from Cornell University and a B.A. from Brown University.   For More Information Main web site: www.yudkin.com Subscribe to the Marketing Minute: www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm Mentoring program: www.marketingformore.com Publicity services: www.pressreleasehelp.com Naming and tag line service: www.namedatlast.com Contact Marcia Yudkin: marcia@yudkin.com Marketing/Business “Marcia Yudkin is one of the very few hype-free and totally trustworthy sources of marketing information out there.” –Nick Usborne, Author, Net Words and New Path to Riches Happily Create Customers for Keeps If marketing is the art of creating a customer, sustainable marketing creates customers who want to stick around and who match the values and approach of the business owner or organization. Discover the rarely discussed assumptions and actions underpinning the ability to build a solid base of customers you enjoy doing business with. Drawing upon her 30 years of business successes and mistakes, creative marketing expert Marcia Yudkin explains the principles that help entrepreneurs and companies attract a distinct set of buyers while maintaining the enthusiasm of both sides. According to Yudkin, following formulas that worked for someone else doesn’t guarantee a successful outcome for you. Instead, cultivate your own business philosophy, tone, persona and pace. • QUALITY: Earn attention and loyalty by setting high standards and ignoring those who talk about business as a “numbers game” • INDIVIDUALITY: Discard myths standing in the way of your unique path to success • TIMING: Cultivate patience–a marketing necessity • DOWNTURNS: Know how to prevent and recover from a business famine • INFRASTRUCTURE: Understand why “Rinse and Repeat” is a profitable marketing mantra • SERVICE: Learn what customers really care about and why • FANS: Develop resiliency and staying power via a core group of supporters Author of 15 previous books, Marcia Yudkin is a popular marketing mentor and publicity coach. An introvert who delights in the spoken and written word and in the power of an unusual angle, she guides clients toward creative, practical, short-term and long- term business success. $15.99 Marketing Insight Guides Creative Ways Publishing www.marketinginsightguides.com

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Prepare for SSC and Bank Po Exam

Yes. It is quite easy to Get ready for Each SSC and Bank exams. First, Always concentrate merely on one examination of your aptitude and get ready for it thoroughly. the likelihood of succeeding is much greater since you are devoting your energy time and skills to just one examination. There is no other distraction. Jobs, a lot of believe it is advisable to always have PLAN-B career-wise. If you do not succeed in one examination, you can try your luck in the other one. this way the hope of getting a job is still alive. But if you concentrate on just on examination and if you fail, your likelihood of having a shot at elusive govt. jobs are lost forever.

Understand the nature of the examination

Whether the examination is offline mode or online. How many questions and topics are asked. total time allotted, is there any sectional cut-off ? Negative marking etc.

Understand the syllabus

Find out the similar matters and the different ones. Make a list of the common topics which are asked in each SSC and BANKING exams. get ready for these common topics in a single slot.

Your current preparation level.

Once you understand the pattern and syllabus, you should know where you stand in terms of preparation. This is an extremely essential step since it will assist you do the reality check. Appear for 1-2 mock tests for each the exams and check if you are comfortable with the kind of questions.

Devise an efficient timetable for the different topics for both SSC and BANK exams. This category of matters will challenge you the most. Refer a great book, online study material, Youtube videos etc.

➤Make useful notes for all the topics. Making your own notes is a vital part of the planning for competitive exams. These notes allow you to a lot at the last moment revision.

➤Buy a standard online test series, take one Mock test every day for SSC and Bank examination.

Check the examination schedule for each SSC and IBPS/SBI. If the SSC examination date is first, then get ready for SSC and vice versa.

➤Quant Section

In Bank examinations: the questions are primarily asked from Data Interpretation, Averages, Time Speed & Distance, Mensuration, Interest, Percentage, Algebra, Time & Work, Approximation, etc. The concentrate of the Quant portion of SBI PO Mains, however, will be on Data Analysis & Data Interpretation.

On the other hand, SSC CGL will probably carry a larger variety of topics apart from the ones asked in SBI PO examination. A few of these are Geometry and Trigonometry.

➤English Part: In Bank examination, the questions are primarily asked from Reading Comprehension, Para Jumbles, Cloze Test, Fill in the Blanks, Error Spotting, Phrase Replacement & Sentence Correction, Word Association Pair etc. Now, because the pattern has been changed, IBPS and SBI are asking English Questions depending on the CAT level exams. These questions aim to test your understanding and usage skills.

On the other hand in SSC CGL examination, more emphasis is presented on Grammar & Vocabulary. In Tier I examination, you will have Phrase or Idiom Meaning, Spellings and One Word Substitution to handle in addition to the SBI PO topics. In Tier II examination, you will discover a number of questions on Direct & Indirect Speech as well as Active & Passive Voice.

➤Reasoning Aptitude (Logical Reasoning)

The type of questions and trouble level is extremely various in both exams. In SSC CGL exam, the level of reasoning is extremely easy. On the other hand, most pupils call Reasoning the hardest part of the Bank exams.

In SBI PO, the questions are dependent largely on Seating Arrangements , Syllogisms, Puzzles, Input-Output, Coding & Decoding, Ordering & Ranking, Inequalities, Directions & Distances, Blood Relations, Verbal Reasoning etc. Bank Coaching in Chandigarh and SSC coaching in Chandigarh.

[sscglcoachinginbangalore]

Information on detailed Banking Exams & SSC CGL Syllabus

What is Bank PO Exam?

The position of a Probationary Officer (PO) is one of the most coveted in bank jobs – because it offers good compensation, job security and is well-respected in society. Bank PO exam is a professional-level entrance exam through which banks induct eligible graduates for jobs on probation for a period of two years.

Categories in PO exam are:

IBPS PO (Institute Of Banking Personnel Selection Probationary Officer).

SBI PO (State Bank Of India Probationary Officer).

What is SSC Examination?

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is a government organization to recruit staff for various positions in the Departments and Ministries of India and in Subordinate Offices.

Exams Conducted By SSC (Staff Selection Commission)

Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGL)

Combined Higher Secondary Level (CHSL) 10+2 Examination

Multitasking (Non-Technical) Staff Examination

Scientific Assistant Exam

Stenographers Grade 'C' and 'D' Examination

SSC Constables (GD) in CAPFs, NIA & SSF Examination

Sub Inspector In CPOs Exam

Junior Engineer (Civil & Elect) Examination

Junior Translators (CSOLS) /Junior Hindi Translators Examination

Section Officer (Audit | Commercial) Examination

Food Corporation of India (FCI) Examination

Lower Division Grade Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDC)

DETAILED BANKING & SSC CGL SYLLABUS

The detail syllabus will help you in understanding the important general topics of each subject.

COMMON TOPICS FOR COMPETITIVE EXAMS& SSC CGL

QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

Simplification, Interest, Percentage, Ratio And Proportion, Average, Problems On Ages, Speed, Time And Distance, Profit And Loss, Number Series, Number System, Mensuration, Data Interpretation, Time And Work, Mixture Problems, Partnership, Boats & Streams, Permutation & Combination, Probability, Simple/Linear Equations and Pipes & Cisterns.

REASONING

Mathematical Inequality, Coding Decoding, Direction Sense Test, Blood Relations, Syllogism, Puzzles, Series, Data Sufficiency, Seating Arrangement, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Spotting Errors, Sentence Improvement, Articles, Idiomatic Expression, Sentence Completion, Prepositions, Cloze Test, Reading Comprehension, Question Tags, Tenses, Conditional Sentences, Jumbled Sentences, Fill In The Blanks, Spellings, Phrase/Idiom Meaning, and One Word Substitution.

GENERAL AWARENESS

Indian Constitution, Technology & Research, Sports, History, Geography and Culture.

COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE

Computer Software & Hardware, Operating System, Shortcut Keys, MS-Office, Internet & Networks and New Technology & Research.

 SSC EXTRA TOPICS

Aptitude: Arithmetic, Fundamental Arithmetic Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration, Trigonometry and Statistical Charts.

[smartkeeda-blog]

Get some important tips on how to prepare for Sentence Rearrangement for your next Bank PO Exam. Bank PO Solved Sentence Rearrangement Questions of previous year. Sentence Rearrangement Questions for SBI PO and upcoming Banking and Insurance Exams. Para jumble questions for bank exams like IBPS PO, SBI PO, LIC AAO, etc.

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13 Preparation Strategies to Crack RBI Grade B Exam

We are all very well aware of Bank PO jobs. Thousands of students across the country apply for Bank PO Jobs.

However, there is another job which is related to the banking sector that young aspirants do not know about it. And that job is RBI Grade B officer. Of course, the major difference between Bank PO Career and RBI Grade B Officer Jobs is the later one is really tough compared to former.

Hence we decided to dedicate a full article shedding some light on preparation strategies to Crack RBI Grade B Exam.

RBI Grade B Exam

Something About RBI Grade B Exam As I have said earlier the RBI Grade B Exam is really tough. Thousands of students every year apply for just 134 vacancies. You can imagine how tough the competition is. The exam is vast and the students require a lot of knowledge from different areas like economy, finance, society etc.

I recommend you to start preparations early so you get more time to focus on all the different areas. There is a lot of difference between appearing for a Bank PO exam and RBI Grade B officer exam.

RBI Grade B Officer Selection Procedure Before we get into details of exam pattern you need to know about the entire selection procedure. You can divide the exam into two phases, phase 1 and phase 2.

Phase 1 is a written exam which comprises 4 sections quantities aptitude, reasoning, English and General Awareness.

Phase 2 is also a written exam for topics related to the economy, social issues, finance, and English.

After Phase 2 you have to appear in an interview. Once you successfully clear the interview round a merit list is created and the first 134 students from the list are selected.

So selection procedure is not easy.

Exam Pattern for Phase 1 As I said earlier in Phase 1 there are four sections.

The entire written exam containing four sections is 2 hours long. In two hours you have to answer 200 questions for 200 marks which mean one question is of 1 mark. Here is the breakdown of 200 questions for 4 different sections.

The maximum weightage is for general awareness with 80 questions, followed by reasoning with 60 questions, finally English and quantitative aptitude with 30 questions each. General awareness is very important followed by reasoning. You have to finish these 200 questions in just 120 minutes. So for 1 question 1 minute!

Each of these 4 sections has cut off marks. So you have to attempt all the following 4 sections.

Preparation for Each 4 Sections You have to start making a plan to prepare for each of these 4 sections.

QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

The first one is quantitative aptitude which has 30 questions. QA is tough than other sections. Here are some of the topics that will come under the QA are

– Operation on brackets

– Linear equations

– Average

– Ratios

– Profit, Loss, %, SI, and CI

– Arithmetic and Geography progression

– TSDW (Time speed distance and Work)

– Permutation & Combination, Probability

-Data Representation

DI questions alone is for 15 marks. There is no theory in DI. The questions that you will be asked is related to speed, distance, %, addition, subtraction etc.

You have to be very fast to answer these questions because time is very less. Practice hard for the quantitative aptitude. You can practice from the Aggarwal’s books on Quantitative aptitude.

The questions asked in QA are quite similar to other competitive exams like Bank PO or railway exams. So you can refer to books designed for cracking these exams also.

Finally, for QA section, I would say speed is very important. So you have to practice a lot of questions before you sit for the exam.

REASONING

Second most difficult section after QA is the reasoning. Reasoning will have 60 questions and they are very important. This section is most scoring among all other sections. Here you have to interpret data from puzzles, brain teasers and answer following questions.

The cut-off score for reasoning is 24 out of 60 marks. If you practice enough then you can easily score over 30 – 35 marks. You should not give more than 40 minutes for this section. You have to practice beforehand so that you can finish off this section in just 40 minutes. Always remember there is a negative marking also. So answer questions carefully.

Here is the list of following topics that you need to practice.

– Blood relations. (a case/paragraph followed by questions)

– Sitting Arrangement (a case/paragraph followed by questions)

– Coding –decoding

– Input-output

– Inequality (x>y and y<z)

– Data sufficiency

– Number series- find the next number

– Assumption and inferences

– Syllogism

For practicing reasoning you can use Aggarwal’s book on verbal reasoning, M K Pandey for Analytical Reasoning by BSC publications.

ENGLISH

Only 30 questions will be asked from the section. The questions can be tough and confusing if you have not prepared beforehand. Here you will be tested for the good grammar and the reading ability.

You have to score at least 15 to 17 marks out of 30. You should not devote more than 20 minutes for the English section. The cut-off marks for English is 14 so you need to score above that. Comprehension questions can be of 8 marks, fill in the blanks for 12 marks and sentence arrangement and correction are for 5 marks each. You must try all of these questions.

For preparation, I would advise that you brush up your grammar. Your English must be good. You also need to work on comprehension part. For English grammar, the best book is Wren and Martin plus S P Bakshi from Arihant publications.

You must also look into previous year question papers.

GENERAL AWARENESS

General awareness is the section that can be the high scoring section with just giving 20 minutes to it.

Here 80 questions can be answered in just 20 minutes and the cut off marks is 32 marks. Out of 80 questions, 55 questions will be asked for economy and rest of them are from geography, science etc. Hence you have to focus on the economy because that is where you can score most.

Some of the topics you have to prepare for GA are

– Committees formed by RBI

– Schemes started by the government

– New Plans and Role of RBI

– Union Budgets

– Credit Rating Agencies

– Economic Terms and Abbreviations

Always remember General awareness section needs time to prepare but if you good knowledge of economics then you can score up 60 marks out of 80.

Exam Pattern for Phase 2 So phase 1 is over and now you have to move on to phase 2. Phase 2 consists of 300 marks divided into 3 sections. The duration of the paper is 2 hours long.

These three sections are English, economic & social issues and finance & management with a weightage of 100 marks each. There are no cut off marks for Phase 2 sections like Phase 1 sections.

However, there is negative marking so answer carefully.

PREPARATION FOR PHASE 2

Let us look deep into 3 sections.

Economic and Social Issues

Here are the topics from this section that you have to read.

– Growth and Development, Measurement of growth

– Poverty alleviation and employment generation in India

– Economic reforms, Industrial, and labor policy, Privatization, Globalization

– IMF, WB, Regional economic cooperation

– Multi culturist, Demographic trends, Urbanization, and migration

– Positive discrimination, Indian political system

Read NCERT text books and always watch the business news channel.

Finance and Management

Topics for Finance and Management are

– Financial system

– Financial Markets, Derivatives

– Recent developments in Banking, Public sector reforms, Disinvestments

– Finance commission recommendations, Inflation trends

Read books related to finance and management.

English

For English, you will be asked questions related to grammar and comprehension. You also have to prepare for speeches like direct speech and indirect speech. Tenses are very important here.

So this was all about Phase 2.

Interview The last round after Phase 2 is an interview.An interview is for 50 marks. Here you will be asked all types of questions starting from your intro to economy.

So come prepared for the interview and do not take it lightly. For clearing interview round I recommend you to follow books on IAS and IPS interview.

Few Tips for Effective Preparation Here are few tips for effective Preparation for RBI Grade B Exam.

SPEED AND ACCURACY

Speed and accuracy are must for the Phase 1 of the exam. Especially for the QA and reasoning section. You have to practice questions so that you hone your skills for these two sections.

I recommend you to practice books from all other competitive exams like NDA, CDA, SCRA etc. You will get an idea how to answer questions in few seconds.

MOCK TESTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT

Mock tests are very important because it gives you confidence for facing the real exam. Mock tests help you to answer questions under great pressure. You can join coaching center where you can take up these mock tests.

You can also appear for the mock test conducted online. Mock tests are very important for QA, reasoning and English section.

So do not ignore mock tests.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Managing time is the essence of the RBI Grade B exam. How much time you are going to devote on each section is very important. Like for studying General Awareness which is for 80 marks you have to start early and devote only a few hours a day.

However, for Reasoning and QA, you can start late but you have to give 3 to 4 hours a day. Similarly, for English, you have to give enough time. So create a timetable and devote time to each section in Phase 1 and Phase 2.

REVISION

Finally, revision is very important. Keep at last few days for revising your preparation. It will help you to recall better when you are sitting in the examination hall.

So these were few tips for preparing RBI Grade B Officer Exam.

The post 13 Preparation Strategies to Crack RBI Grade B Exam appeared first on Jobsnhomes.

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Online SBI Bank PO Exam Syllabus and Exam Pattern

SBI bank PO exam syllabus : Takshila provides SBI PO exam syllabus officially provided by SBI. SBI bank  PO exam syllabus for those aspirants who want to qualify this test should prepare as per the syllabus given below: SBI PO exam syllabus

SBI PO exam Syllabus of Reasoning Section:   

The reasoning section is of high level and have problems in three levels easy, moderate and difficult. 1. Directions. (5) – Easy 2. Sentence coding (5) – Easy to moderate 3. Logical Reasoning (15) – Moderate 4. Syllogism (5) – Moderate 5. Data Sufficiency (5) – Moderate 6. Puzzle / Seating Arrangement (10) – Difficult – Time consuming questions 7. Input – output (machine coding and decoding) (5) – Difficult

Latest SBI PO exam syllabus of English Language:

This section will have problems with 1. Errors Correction / spotting errors (15) – Easy to Moderate – You need to know all the English grammar rules to get good marks from these questions. 2. Close Passages (10) – Moderate 3. Jumbled Sentences (5) – Moderate – Practice is the key to these types of questions. 4. Reading Comprehension (10+10) – Moderate to difficult – It takes a lot of time to find answers to these.

SBI PO exam syllabus of Quantitative Aptitude: 1. Number Series 2. Simplification 3. Data Interpretation 4. Quadratic Equation

5. Approximation

6. Miscellaneous

SBI PO exam syllabus of General Awareness + Banking Awareness + Economy Awareness

Problems on the following topics are questioned. This section have an easy and moderate level questions. Only better preparation of this section’s topics can make an aspirant to score high. 1. General Awareness:- current affairs of last 6 months, important events, Full forms, awards, sports, politics, people, places, deaths etc. 2. Banking Awareness: Banking institutions, terms, SIDBI, SBI, IRDA, Finance, Financial terms, Insurance, Shares, bonds, etc. 3. Economy Awareness- Questions related to the economy of India, terms, share market,business developments, etc.

SBI PO exam syllabus of Computer Awareness:

Questions based on Computer basics, fundamentals, operating system, hardware, software, shortcut keys, Microsoft office -word, Excel shortcuts, PowerPoint, Internet & networks are asked.

SBI PO exam Syllabus 2017 – Phase 3: Group discussion and Interview

Group discussion will carry 20 marks and interview will be of 30 marks. The candidates who qualify in both tests will be called for group discussion and interview.

SBI PO Final Selection will be based on the marks scored in the written test, group discussion and interview.

Hope you like this detailed analysis of SBI exam syllabus. Please take out a minute to visit our site for online/offline classes for SBI exam preparation. www.takshilalearning.com

Click here for bank po sample papers

Related blogs: online bank exam

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How to crack IBPS/SBI PO

In India the biggest job rush to happen every year is the ibps and sbi po exams. Approximately 600,000 people are taking any of these exams each year and the selected candidates are in the range of 1000 to 10,000 depending on the exam. The selected candidates get good jobs in the public sector banks with good salary. Now if you are reading this blog you are probably looking for guidance on cracking these bank exams OR you have way to much free time and you will read anything, in both cases good for you.

Now let me tell you some ground rules regarding this exam - its held in 3 parts, first comes the preliminary, clearing which shall take you to mains and beyond that is the interview. The preliminary is for qualifying purpose only but the mains and interview marks will decide if you are going to be a bank officer or not. The preliminary is of 1 hour duration when you have to answer 100 questions, in the mains you have to answer 200 questions in 135 minutes(rules regarding mains are changing every year though). The cut off marks for each part shall be decided by the IBPS people and it varies every year.

Lets talk about the preliminary examination first. Its a fairly simple process where you will get 30 question of English language, 35 questions of Math and 35 Reasoning. The cutoff generally stays between 40 to 50 so anything above 50 will give you a good edge to clear it, more than half of the total number of people appearing for preliminary will clear it. But time management and accuracy plays a very crucial role here if you are to clear the exam. So if you want to clear the prelims all you need to do is to get a set of model practice papers and solve at-least one each day.

Now comes the turn of the dreaded Mains exam. My first time (2 years ago, when there was no preliminary) i thought i was going to sail through the whole thing, cause i could solve it all, each and everything, start to finish, BUT IN ABOUT 4 HOURS! still I was confident and inevitably I failed. This is the round where most of the applicants are eliminated. About 10% of the people appearing for the mains are selected for interview. If that stat scared you, don’t worry about it, let me tell you how to become a part of the 10%. 

Firstly you should know there are 5 sections in the mains exam. Math (aka aptitude), Reasoning, English, General Awareness and Computer awareness. On completion, there are total cutoffs and sectional cutoffs, meaning you have to score certain marks in individual sections and on a whole. Say for the five sections, sectional cutoffs are 10 for each one, that doesn’t mean that the total cutoff is 50, it could be 60 or 70 or even 100 depending on the level of difficulty. And even if you score more than 100 on total but you scored 9 in one of the sections, you are done for it (happened to me the second time). Now this might seem pretty straight forward but its harder than you think and like i said before, time management is the name of the game. And to tame the time monster all you gotta do is practice and I’ll tell you why. 

Before 2016-17 exam there was a fixed pattern of questions, which enabled people to plan beforehand what they were gonna attempt and what they would leave because if I’ve learnt anything from my attempts is the art of identifying and leaving a potential time guzzler problem. But since the last exam this has been thrown out of the window as they have completely changed the format or pattern whatever you wanna call it. This was such a big shock for everyone that the center i was taking my exam this time, people around me were laughing and making jokes about what a surgical strike this has been onto them while the exam was still going on, a girl even fainted and I’m not make that up, happened in Kolkata’s TCS Gitobitan Saltlake center. Anyway, only way out of a situation like that is keeping your head cool and being able to calculate quickly, and that only comes with practice. Also remember that if its difficult for you, its difficult for everyone.

Strategy for individual sections: Even though the pattern has been changed severely, there are still some basic strategies that you need to remember. For practicing the question, the reasoning and english portion you can practice from the model paper but aptitude, GA and CA has to come from other sources, namely books and internet.

Aptitude: The last thing you want when solving a problem is getting it wrong or leaving it unsolved or taking too much time to solve it, but its inevitable and the question is not if it will happen, rather when its gonna happen and how do you safeguard against it. All you can do is to concentrate on the problems that you can start solving straightaway without spending too much time to understand how to solve them, meaning the approximate value determination, the quadratic equations, the series problems etc. Then you have to concentrate on the data interpretations (graphs) and keep in mind if a certain problem seems like its gonna take too much time to calculate you need to leave that. The more you solve these the faster you become. And when i say practice, i mean from a book that has these problems chapter wise, books like Quantitative Aptitude by R.S. Agarwal. If you only practice from model papers, you will get surprised in the exam and it will be too late to fix it. So solve each chapter from RS Agarwal multiple times and you can check your speed by solving the apti section from model paper (30 minutes time frame) from time to time. In the exam, you need to have more than 20 solved to stay in the race.

Reasoning: There’s no two ways about it, you need to solve as many model papers reasoning sections as you can. You may refer to book or internet if you are having trouble understanding how to solve a particular type of question, but once you know how to do it, you have to revert back to solve model papers to increase speed. Now in reasoning you need to know which questions to leave more than the ones to attempt. The likes of syllogism are something those can be solved very quickly and accurately but there are also the puzzles (for example, sitting arrangements) that are the most treacherous ones. You may have solved hundreds of them and very confident about them but even a very innocent looking puzzle can turn on you and ruin your whole exam. So don’t attempt them in the very beginning, save them for last. Here also anything above 20 solved is safe, but the magic number is 30.

English: This is where you score except may be for the sentence re-arrangement part. You would want to solve the whole paper including the paragraph but if you want to solve the sentence re-arrangement, you need to be absolutely sure about them as they are often very tricky. You read the sentences 2-3 time and you get the sense of the order, you get confident about it, but in most cases that order is wrong, and you would have seen that had you read it 5 more times. It happens to even the best in english and spending that much time is not an option as reading the paragraph will take a long time too. So more often than not it is a choice between the paragraph or the re-arrangement. Choose the paragraph. The reason being paragraph offers more questions (generally 8) and re-arrangement has only 5. Now others may disagree on this but I’m just telling what has worked for me. You don’t need to leave re-arrangement completely though, upon reading it once or twice you will be able to determine clearly which one will be the first sentence in the re-arrangement, so you can get at least one mark out of it. For the rest of the questions, only way is to practice more and more and see where you are making mistakes. Now if you are not good in English, its a big problem, not just in the mains itself but in the interview as well. So find some place or someone who can teach and guide you in English extensively, its the only way.

Computer Awareness: Questions asked here are very basic and if you are from computer background you don’t need worry a bit, but if you are from other background you can buy any book like Computer Awareness by Arihant Publications and study it thoroughly. Total number of questions asked is 20 and you can do more than 15 easily.

General Awareness: This is where you make or break. You need to learn the basics of economy and banking in details as around 10 questions are going to come from that. Then there is the static general knowledge and current affairs. For the static part, you can go to Bankers Adda website or app and check their study material section where you will find Power Capsules (study materials in pdf format) put out before every major exams like IBPS or SBI PO. You can download and print them or read them in the app. That will take care of the static general knowledge. Now for current affairs section, you can get the monthly issue of ‘Banking Chronicle’ magazine where they provide ‘Match Points’ which basically covers all the important events and updates from the previous month in the form of bullet points, you can probably get them online as well. You need 6 months (leading up to the month of mains exam) worth of match points which means 12 pages and you need to memorize them properly. It sounds tedious but its easier than you think. You need to cover all the bases when it comes to the General Awareness section. The more you can score here the better your chances of making it to the final selection list gets as marks from the mains exam are considered along with interview marks while they make their final selection.

 Now if you do all these properly and make it to the interview round, you do have something to be proud of. Soak it all in, be happy about what you have accomplished and then start getting ready for the all important Interview round. Preparing for the interview wont be much different from the General Awareness preparation except you need to learn about banking structure and everything related to general banking and also the fundamentals of Indian economy in much greater detail than the current affairs or the static general knowledge. You also need to prepare the basic questions you are bound to be asked like telling something about yourself (which should only include your direct family, where you did your schooling and graduation from), why did you choose to leave your field and come to banking (in case you have engineering or it background) etc. There is good book called ‘How to crack Bank Interview’ by Gautam Majumdar from Arihant Publication which can prepare you with these basic personal questions asked in interview and more.

On the day of interview you need to be in formal clothing, light colored shirt, black or blue trouser, belt and shoe (preferably same colored). If you want to wear a suit go ahead, whatever make you look good and feel confident. If you don’t want to wear a suit or tie, not a problem at all. The interviewers are only interested in how you present yourself, they don’t care if you are wearing a suit or not. But do not wear t-shirt or jeans or any fancy party wear that you think may pass as formal. Present yourself properly, be confident and honest - you will sit on the other side of the desk in a bank soon. Good luck.

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Tips To Crack The Bank PO Exam

How you can get ready for the examination

With just a couple days remaining for the examination, it might be appropriate that you simply begin clearing up earlier year's papers. You will find most of them on the internet or even publications from any one of the well-known publishers. To get ready for the Verbal section, it is possible to find out a publication that could be somewhat above your own reading standard. Read through this book every day for 1 to 2 several hours and if necessary, take the help out of a dictionary. For the quant part, you ought to undergo almost all the formulae and also exercise Vedic mathematics tricks for faster calculations

 The direction to go on Exam Day

• Do not write the whole thing on the paper

• Do not try things out in the examination hall

• Don’t make solving any specific question a prestige problem

• Last however absolutely not the least, you should not GUESS

 Reasoning Part

This part is your fantastic goose. It is possible to score 100 percent if you happen to know the best way to optimize your time.

 How you can attempt

Should you be proficient at reasoning, it is possible to allocate 20 to 25 minutes for this -- 35 seconds per query to make an attempt almost all the questions.

Concentrate on your own accuracy, mainly because there is certainly a negative taking note of therefore you are going to be throwing away valuable time should you do not prioritize the appropriate questions.

If the main reason is not just one of your own strengths, arrange for it for the conclusion and also allocate no greater than 15 minutes to it.

Your primary concentrate must be too distinct the cutoff.

 Kinds of questions

You have to identify the simple reasoning questions so that you could resolve all of them immediately as well as have higher accuracy.

Simple question types consist of Classification/ Odd pair, Series Completion/ Analogy, Direction based tests/ Direction Sense Test, Number, Ranking and Time Sequence Test and Alphabet test/ Dictionary.

By the time you are carried out with easy questions, you ought to attempt 'medium difficulty' queries.

Your own score depends upon your accuracy, exercise and ease and comfort level.

A few of the 'medium difficulty' inquiries include Syllogisms, Inequalities, Blood Relations, Coding-Decoding and Data Sufficiency.

If main reason section is your own uniqueness, you have to try to make an attempt for complex and time intensive queries.

Examples of this kind are Seating Layout, Complex Puzzle, Floor Puzzle and Input-Output Machine.

Despite the fact that the very first two kinds (easy and medium difficulty) are enough to appear in the section, fixing the complicated types can get you an excellent score within this section.

Verbal/ English Part

How you can make an attempt

When you are good quality with English communication, it will be possible to carry out this part with flying shades in ten to fifteen minutes.

I would suggest that you simply constantly begin your Bank PO Coaching in Panchkula.

A make an attempt of 18 questions with great accurateness is sufficient to very clear the cutoff.

This part probably should not necessitate a lot more than fifteen minutes.

Kinds of questions

For Reading through Comprehension questions, you ought to very first simply have a cursory check out the paragraph, and then while resolving the question, study that specific part of the passage very carefully.

For Cloze Test, when you are puzzled between two-three choices, simply proceed to next question.

By the point you finish the passage, you ought to be capable to discover the appropriate solution.

For 'Fill in the Blanks' kind of questions, the method of elimination is a good method.

For Spot, the error /Sentence Correction, say the sentence in your thoughts, regardless of which sounds appropriate is your answer.

Quantitative Aptitude Section

In case you are weak in Quantitative Aptitude section, you should not worry, you might be not alone.

The majority of candidates possess had a hard time in this part.

How you can attempt

In case of quant is not your strength part, you ought to make an attempt it after the Verbal portion or even in the end and also assign around twenty minutes for this. To get Coaching in top Institute Bank Coaching in Panchkula & SSC Coaching in Panchkula

Your objective must be to clear the cutoff.

Kinds of questions

Mainly because are actually said before, you should begin with simple and also score questions.

It is possible to discover 15-18 questions of the type.

Certain topics which fall within this category are Simplification, Problems on Ages, Percentage, Average, Simple Interest, Profit and Loss, TSD, Ratio & Proportions etc

After that, you will have time-consuming questions.

Make sure you make an attempt these types of questions simply once you have attempted the simple ones.

These types of questions may decrease your accuracy and also consume away your time and effort, however, you will have 12 to 14 questions on this type, which means you have to make an attempt all of them according to your ease and comfort level.

Samples of this kind of questions are Probability, Quadratic Equations, Mixture and allegations, Time and Work, Time Speed and Distance, and Number Series.

Information Interpretation

Make use of approximation whenever possible, particularly if choices are not close.

Accomplish as a lot more mental calculations after that utilizing pen and paper.

Round off the numbers was ever achievable.

Stay clear of doing lengthy calculations, they are able to consume a large amount of your time and effort, without providing very much award.