In 1999 I attended a Tom Hopkins Sales Bootcamp in Arizona. One of the most powerful things I took away from the Bootcamp was to learn scripts by heart. I now know introduction scripts, telephone scripts, and objection and closing scripts (all on my CD series). The power of knowing these are that I know exactly what to say and I can inject my own enthusiasm and tone. People are conditioned by words, so we need to have the right words in every script. This month we will be looking at one phoning script, take a look at it and decide if it would suit you and your business. Then learn it by heart! The only time people will know you are working from a script is when you don't know it and end up reading it. People like to buy from 'specialists', so think about your business and how you can help your clients, try this:

Hello, is this Mr Jones, My name is Pete White from XYZ. How are you today? (and SMILE) The reason I'm calling is that I specialise in helping retirees to: Have great vacations in exotic locations.. The reason I'm calling is that I specialise in helping families to Plan their financial affairs.. The reason I'm calling is that I specialise in helping surgeons to Source the best and most reliable equipment for their practice.. The reason I'm calling is that I specialise in helping small businesses with the right software solutions for all their accounting needs.. (Fill in your own benefit for your client base and business) And I thought I'd give you a call to see if you'd be interested in chatting about the various options available. Is sourcing the best and most reliable equipment for your practice, something which you've given much thought to?

Whatever they answer, you set up the appointment. If they say yes, you're in!! If they say 'no', then now is the time to see you as they have to give it some thought and take a look at the opportunities. Next month there will be another valuable telephone script that could benefit you and your business.

For more information on finding new business, why not invest in our great triple CD pack, 'Finding New Business and Clients'. If you don't find some valuable ideas that could increase business immediately, we'll give you a full refund.

A number of years ago a saw a presentation that took my breath away. It had me laughing, crying and unbelievably motivated to reach my goals despite any setbacks. The speaker was W Mitchell and the talk entitled 'It's not what happens to you, but what you do about it'. It had an incredible impact on me and over the years I have been proud to become a good friend of his.

Mitchell's story is one of endurance, determination and the will to win despite his circumstances. In July 1971, Mitchell, a former marine was riding on his new 750 Honda motorcycle when he hit a laundry truck. The petrol tank exploded and Mitchell suffered horrific burns. With his will to win he pulled through despite having to live with disabilities and rebuild his life. In 1975, Mitchell (who is also a pilot) was flying three of his friends to San Francisco. Ice on the wings caused the engines to stall and the aircraft slammed onto the runway and burst into flame. This resulted in a crushed spine and he was paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. With unbelievable courage & determination he overcame his problems and despite his disabilities still manages to live a full life. He says simply: "Before I was paralyzed, there were 10,000 things I could do. Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I lost, or focus on the 9,000 I have left."

Today he is a successful businessman and one of the best keynote speakers in the World. His inspiring message is It's Not What Happens To You, It's What You Do About It Take a listen to my interview with W.Mitchell and please allow a couple of minutes for the audio download as it is a fairly long interview.

In your business, how do you tackle setbacks? Everyone faces rejection and failure, successful people learn how to control and handle the rejection. Take a listen to the interview with W. Mitchell and then review your goals and dare to dream BIG.

Most of us have to make PowerPoint presentations from time to time, whether during a sales presentation, seminar, convention keynote or while training. The biggest mistake to avoid is having a 'data dump' where the entire presentation is almost read from PowerPoint. Remember, you are the star of the show and your audience wants to see and hear you, not read endless bullet points.

There are some basic things we always need to consider. Disable and switch off all screen savers, as this could mean disaster. I remember watching a serious technical presentation a number of years ago and the presenter spoke for some time with the same slide open on the screen. As he was at the most serious part of his presentation, the screen saver came on showing a scantily clad beauty of the opposite sex. As you can imagine, the audience couldn't stop laughing. He had to finish his presentation early as every time he started speaking, everyone shouted, 'let's rather watch the screen saver'.

Another thing we need to do is focus the attention on ourselves by blanking the PowerPoint slide after we cover the relevant points. The easiest way to do this is to hit the letter 'B' to blank the slide. An even better way is to have a remote mouse for advancing your slides which can also blank the presentation whenever you want. I have used a number of these devices over the years and have now found one that is so good, I have become a distributor.

It is a combination remote presenter, cordless mouse and keyboard and I use it not only when I'm presenting, but also at the office. It is so user friendly and all powered by a small USB plug. I now have a full keyboard with plenty of shortcut buttons and my presentations are so much more professional. Take a look at the specifications and benefits and order one right now to add pizzazz and professionalism to your presentations.

Normal price £120 & VAT. Order in the next seven days for the special promotion price of £110 & VAT & Postage. Phone your order through today on +44 (0) 870 240 6505 or fax on +44 (0)1923 254105 or email orders@frankfurness.com

Whenever you browse the books in a bookstore, what is it that attracts you to certain books? Probably, most of the time it is the title of the book. If it is intriguing or interesting there is a good chance that you will take it from the rack and page through it. The same applies for the title of your speech! Just imagine that you are speaking at a big convention and there are a number of speakers with different titles to their talks. People scan the programme and are drawn to talks that have an interesting title. How often have we seen the boring title 'Effective Customer Service'? Ron Kaufman has titled his great talk on customer service 'Up your Service' which is now the title of his keynote speech, seminar and book. The title has become the brand.

The keynote that I do more than any other is an entertaining, inspirational and educational talk based on research I carried out with over 500 of the world's top salespeople a few years ago. I could have called it 'Secrets of top salespeople' or 'How the best make their sales', but both of these titles are boring. Instead I called it 'Walking with Tigers' and this alone has brought me more speaking engagements than you could imagine.

Think about the bureaus and potential clients that could book you. They are receiving loads of requests and information packs from speakers, will the title of your talk catch their eye and encourage them to read further or will they bin it with the others. How will your title look on their programme? Everything is about marketing you and your talks and the title is the 'packaging' that will attract potential buyers. Once you have a dynamite title, have it trademarked/registered and immediately register that title on the internet. All the titles of my talks are registered as websites i.e. www.walkingwithtigers.com as this could be the title of your next book and potential clients could have heard about the talk and do an internet search for that title.