The exciting March e-ret@iler contains:

1. The article of the month: Putting Your Best Foot Forward
2. e-ret@iler advisory of the month: AMP Calculator Renewals
3. Sales tip of the month: Just walk on by
4. Web tip of the month: Relationship Selling Skills Card Game Instructions
5. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: Having a blind auction
6. Book of the month: Dealing with the customer from hell!
8. Your e-ret@iler subscription and contacting Profits Plus and Tom Shay

O => Print the March issue of the e-ret@iler so
you can read it at your leisure.

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1. Article of the month: Putting Your Best
Foot Forward

Whether you have or haven't read some of the
great books on the traits of customers shopping
habits, this article will give you some great
ideas about how to get your customers to take
longer first look, and a second look at your
merchandise. How we place merchandise around
our customers can make a difference in whether
or not they make their purchase with your business.

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

O <= After printing the March e-ret@iler, check
here if you plan to read the article of the month.

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2. e-ret@iler advisory of the month: The AMP
Calculator Renewals

We are appreciative of the business that so
many of you have given us in the last couple of
years as you have been subscribers to our AMP
calculator service. We know that many of you
are using this neat tool to help you in managing
your advertising, marketing and promoting.

What you subscribed to was an annual
service for the AMP calculator. Many of you
have asked why we haven't sent you a renewal
notice when your year was completed. And the
answer is this. We have had so many subscribers,
that we just didn't see the need to ask you
to pay a renewal fee.

And now, the AMP calculator is a free download.

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3. Sales tip of the month: Just walk on by

We have been discussing in this year's sales tips,
ideas for changing the way we engage customers as
they do business with us.

Too often, we settle for approaching a customer
when they walk in a business and giving the
usual, "Can I help you?"

Have you ever been in the experience where you
walk into the business and the sales people
begin walking toward you? Do you feel like a
fish just waiting to be caught? If this is
a feeling you don't like being on the receiving
end of, then let's look at ways to change it
for your customers.

When a customer walks into your business, allow
them time alone to get in and look around. Instead
of approaching the customer, carry on with the
task you were doing before the customer arrived.
Then wander through the store, passing near the
customer and giving a casual, "Good Morning", or
"How are you doing?" Do this without stopping
next to the customer so they see this short
conversation as a coincidence.

From our experience, the customer that is in
need of immediate help will quickly get past
the hellos and ask you their important question.
If the customer is just wanting to look, they
will see this short conversation as an
acknowledgement of their presence and not an
intrusion into their privacy.

O <= After printing the March e-ret@iler, check
here if you plan to use this tip.

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4. Web tip of the month: Relationship Selling
Skills Card Game Instructions

Most sales people do not walk in the door having
all the necessary skills to be excellent sales
people. And for those that already do have these
skills, as with every other skill, practicing
these skills is necessary to maintain them.

Visit the link below on our website and you can
download the notes necessary for playing this
interactive sales skill game. As you play the
game with your staff, and there is a question
that you don't know the answer for, you can send
us an e-mail and we will send the answer to you.

Instructions for Relationship Selling Skills game

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5. Our Power Promoting idea of the month: Have
a blind auction

In our Power Promoting book series you see the
idea of helping a local charity as being a
part of many of these promotions. This month
works on that same theme and you can make it
a monthly event.

Select a product (one that hopefully you have
gotten a vendor to donate) and invite your
customers to submit a bid of what they will
pay for that item. On their bid form they also
will put their name, address and e-mail (good
building your contact list).

At the end of the month, you select the highest
bid, collect that amount from the winner as you
give them the product, and then award that
amount of money to a local charity.

The charity gets money, the customer feels good
about their giving, other customers feel good
about your being a business that supports local
charities, and you build your contact list.

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6. Book of the month: Dealing with the customer
from hell! by Shaun Belding

Need we say more? Just reading the title will
cause most everyone to think about the person
(or persons) that best fits the title for them!

Truthfully, burnout in the retail trade happens
way to often. And the most frequent reason for
people leaving this wonderful industry is being
burntout in dealing with problem customers. We
think you will enjoy this book.

If you have already read this book, or are looking
for more books to read, click on this link to
see our book referral list.

Book Referral List

O <= After printing the March e-ret@iler, check here
if you plan to read the book of the month.

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7. Your e-ret@iler subscription and contacting
Profits Plus and Tom Shay

The subscription is free. Just remember if you
are changing your Internet service provider, you
will need to enter your new e-mail address
to keep the e-ret@iler coming.

Contacting us is just as easy:
The phone is 727-823-7205
The fax is 727-898-3179
The mailing address is:
PO Box 128
Dardanelle, AR 72834 USA

Thanks for visiting with us this month. We
appreciate your taking time from your
busy schedule. Our goal is to help you and
your business to become more profitable. We hope
we have done that.

We encourage you to seek out and do business
with other independently owned businesses. If
you are wanting people to do business with you
because you are a locally owned business, then
it stands to reason that we should be doing
what we are asking others to do.

Get your Profits Plus. May God bless you and yours.
We will see you in April 2005.

Tom Shay