The talent of applying for grant programs is called grantsmanship, and you can be certain that it’s no easy task. Grant applications take a lot of skill and a lot of work on your behalf. They may also cost you money and time.

Here are a few of the main points you should consider when applying for a grant:

* Give back to your community.

That is the purpose of grants after all. Bear this in mind even before you approach that agency and apply for a grant. Be sure that your project is something that is going to help them improve the community. Your grant application should be in harmony with the overall goal of your prospective funding source.

* Understand the specific goals of your funding source.

The overall goal of your grant is to make a positive difference in your community, but you should really understand the particulars of your grant application. Speak with staff members at the grant agency. They will be eager to share details with you.

Ask if the grant agency provides funding in your area. Some of these agencies provide grants to entrepreneurs who operate in a particular area. If you are one of these entrepreneurs, you may have a better chance of getting a local grant than a national one.

Agencies may also tell you which institutions are granted funds. This information can be very helpful in your grant application.

* Know who will evaluate your proposal.

Does the person providing application approval understand your particular field? Has he or she acquired any experience or background information? If the evaluator is not experienced with your field, avoid including too much technical information that they may not understand. Your grant application should be written in layman’s terms, keeping their level of understanding in mind. Technical terms and definitions may be used if the evaluator is familiar with your field. Write clearly, and only use jargon with necessary.

* Be familiar with your fund source.

It will help you to know how to frame the information in your proposal. Always confirm your statements with facts and a clear understanding of the need for the funding.

* Prepare a budget that is easy to understand and clear on what it is you want to do.

Make your proposed as thorough as possible. Explain all of the projects that require funding, and include any match funding you may receive from other organizations. This will give the funding agency a clear picture of exactly what your proposal entails.

No matter what, do not throw together a proposal and hope for the best. This tactic won’t work and the agency will see through the sloppiness right away. Remember that the proposal counts as half your grant application, and it is the half over which you have complete control. Don’t mess it up.

* Don’t invest a lot of money on an elaborate presentation.

Your expensive, overblown presentation will rarely impress grant funding agencies. What’s really important is the content of your proposal. In this case, style is not everything. Invest your time and money on your project plan, rather than on the presentation.

Author Ardis Myles is a freelancer for several popular Internet magazines, on computer home business and computer drivers subjects.

The language pattern is a powerful technique for getting what you want. The ‘temporal pattern loop’ is especially potent in persuasion.

Loops create an opening in the mind of your prospect or client which will leave them wanting more.

There are three really powerful things you need to know in order to understand how to use loops: Number one, people need to have closure. They can’t stand to have balls up in the air. They need to have the balls land. They need closure, a yes or a no.

An example in sales of the prospect keeping an open loop with the sales person is that dreaded phrase, “I’ll need to think it over.” You want to either end it or don’t end it. Either say yes, or say no, but don’t tell me you want to think it over.

The second thing you need to know about open loops is that when your prospect doesn’t get that closure, their potential to respond increases.

So now you know all there is to know about open loops.

Hold on a second. . . didn’t I say there were three things you needed to know about loops? I sure did. Frustrating, isn’t it?

People need closure. And when they don’t get it, their response potential is increased.

Are you still wondering what the third thing is? How much do you want to know?

Well, there isn’t a third thing, there are actually only two things you need to know.

Leaving an open loop will pique your prospect’s interest.

If you consider a topic that you are really well versed in. . .say it’s the Civil War and there isn’t anything you don’t know about the Civil War, you’ve learned all there is to know.

What if someone was teaching a class about the Civil War and there was some new information? Well, how could there be? You know everything. All your loops regarding the Civil War are closed.

When you leave an open loop people want to sit forward and figure out what they’re missing. What didn’t you tell them? When I mentioned ‘three powerful things about open loop patterns’ and only told you two of them, many people reading this were anxious as heck wanting to know the third.

Maybe you weren’t paying too much attention. If not, the open loop didn’t have that sort of effect on your conscious mind. Even so, it did have an effect on your other than conscious mind.

When you open loops without closing them, people begin to believe that they don’t know all there is to know about the subject because if people know all there is to know, they go away and they don’t come back. After all, there’s no apparent reason for them to stay.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs unique public and private seminars and offers home study courses, audio/visual learning tools, and coaching programs in persuasion techniques

I will make this quick. I know you are busy.
We are a very impatient nation. It’s a nation that gets antsy after 20 seconds on hold on the telephone and 3 minutes max in a line. A nation that wants everything so fast we purchase our meals at drive through restaurants. Do our banking and buy our prescription drugs out of the car window. We don’t even get out of the car to have our oil changed or wash the car.

If you ask your customers, “Do you feel more time-poor or money-poor,” the answer almost always is time-poor.

Your customers walk in the door, call you on the telephone or answer your call with the clock ticking.
And if they perceive you are not efficient, thinking it will take more time than they mentally allowed the clock ticks even faster.

What you say is what they expect to happen:
I was patiently waiting my turn to talk to a salesperson in a local Sun Com store, shopping for a new cell phone provider, when another customer came in. One of the salespeople did the right thing, immediately acknowledging the presence of the new customer by excusing herself from her customers and quickly saying, “Welcome to Sun Com. There will be someone with you in a few minutes.” The customers immediately responded, “How long is a few minutes?” “Five,” replied the sales woman. The customer glanced at his watch and the clock started ticking.
I positioned myself next to the waiting, impatient customer, and at exactly five minutes from the sales woman’s statement, he looked at me and said, “Her five minutes are up.” And then he walked out of the store.

Two customers to service at once. What do you do?
First: You do not promise, and what ever you say is a promise, what you cannot deliver.

Second: Give them something to do
In our stores when we had two customers at once we always give the customer we could not give our direct attention to something of interest to do. Something relating to the product they wanted to exchange their money for. It could be:
a. Information about the product to read
b. A video of the product to watch
c. A list of discounts we were offering
d. Information about a new product we were selling

We also always had refreshments at hand for the waiting customers. Many a time a soft drink kept the customer in the store while I closed another sale.

The Telephone rings while you are selling a customer:
How to use your voice mail to gain customers: Not chase them to the competition.
You see it happen all the time. It happens to you. You are standing at the counter making a purchase and the business telephone rings. Immediately you are forgotten in the salespersons mad dash to answer the phone.
Or, you are talking on the phone with a salesperson and they put you on hold to answer another line.

Some businesses make it the policy to leave you standing and answer the telephone. Their thinking is, we got you as a customer, we do not want to lose the one calling.

Our policy: The customer in front of you, the one you are talking with deserves all of your attention. Always have someone else available to answer the telephone. If that is not possible, have a strong 100% Customer-Centered voice mail message that gains the caller’s interest and compels them to leave you a message and wait for your return call.

A strong 100% Customer-Centered voice mail message is one that gives the customer an overwhelming reason to wait for your call back. One loaded with the Benefits they will receive from you. One loaded with proof that they are not wasting their time waiting for your call back.

It is estimated that 50% of the callers who receive a voice mail message, do not leave their name. They hang up and call your competition.

Most voice mail messages sound like this, “I am sorry I cannot take your call. I am either on another line or away from my desk.” That message will chase the customer to your competition. They will hang up and call the next supplier of your products and services.

7 Steps to a 100% Customer-Centered Message

1.Proper greeting (tells the caller they have the correct telephone number)
Always give your name and business.
Hello, this is Bob Janet, Sales Growth Now

2.Inform the caller that you are not able to answer the phone. “I am sorry I am unable to take your call.”

3.Give them a 100% Customer-Centered reason why you cannot take their call. Make the reason about the customer, not about you.
“As I am helping a client increase sales and profits, the same way I will help you increase sales and profits.”

4.Ask them to give their contract information and a message. Asking for a message gives them the feeling you care about their problem.
“if you will please leave your name, number and a message”

5.Assure them you will call them back. “I will return your call.”

6.Give them the time increment in which you will return their call (if possible)…. “Within the hour”

7.Thank them. “Thank you.”

Example: “Hello, this is Bob Janet, Sales Growth Now. I am sorry I cannot answer your call as I am assisting a client to increase their sales and profits. The same assistance I will give you if you will please leave your name, number and a message I will return your call within an hour. Thank you.”

When recording your message, remember to “Smile” while you are talking. Remember, when greeting prospects face-to-face your voice accounts for only 33% of your effectiveness. In a telephone greeting your voice accounts for 84% of your effectiveness. By simply smiling, your vocal quality, pitch, tone, and inflections are more pleasant and convey the feeling of care and concern to the prospect.

When the Clock Starts Ticking, make sure it is not a ticking bomb that will clock out your sale.

Bob Janet uses 40 plus years of face-to-face selling and marketing experiences, combined with his unique fun-entertaining presentation audience involved style to help sellers gain and retain their most profitable customers for a lifetime of selling.

http://www.BobJanet.com