Your dog may not buy a thing from you, but your dog will at least listen to the price without wincing – and may even wag their tail to give you some encouragement that your services are NOT ridiculously overpriced and you DO deserve to live!
It sounds funny, but most of us do brace ourselves for rejection before stating our fee or the price of something we’re selling.
Don’t worry – Marcia Yudkin reminds us of a great way to cure the hesitancy that plagues our marketing. Her ezine is free, but I hear her dog charges alot to listen to strangers.
One town over from mine, schoolchildren can sign up to read to a dog.No kidding! The trained dog listens attentively, and its non-judgmental attitude improves young readers’ confidence as they sound out words and narrate the story on the page.
This suggests some great variations on practice methods I have advocated for marketers.
* Stating your fee. Many people noticeably stumble or hold back when asked what something will cost. Tell your dog how much you charge, again and again, until both you and the dog believe it.
* Practicing speeches. Got a keynote coming up? Delivering it to your dog may prepare you better than practicing to the mirror or an empty room. Ditto for your 30-second networking self-introduction.
* Putting life into your voice. Curing a monotone requires conscious and even crazy vocal contortions before settling into a naturally livelier speaking pattern. Entertain a dog – or an infant – with your voice exercises.
* Preparing cold calls. Have fun telling the dog what you’ll say when that stranger answers the telephone. The playful spirit can energize your pitch when you make it for real.
GET MORE IDEAS: If you like these suggestions, get dozens of other fun and fanciful yet experience-tested methods of increasing your originality, insightfulness and productivity in my 183-page creativity handbook. Publisher Nick Usborne named it “Top E-book Find of 2005.”
Details:
http://www.yudkin.com/pinspired.htm
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