Archive for October, 2006

Getting To Yes

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

If there is a single book that has helped my business (and my personal life) it’s Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton. This short and easy to read book introduces you to a negotiating approach in which great emphasis is placed on the shared potential benefit of any negotiation. This makes for friendlier, more harmonious relationships with you and your clients and therefore lays the foundation for the long, successful client relationships that every business seeks.

Although may excellent guides to the world of negotiation have been written, Getting To Yes boils it all down to a pocket-sized book and takes a refreshingly positive spin on business negotiations in general. Those of you who use the dog-eat-dog mentality in your business affairs may be disappointed as this book isn′t going to teach you how to ‘crush the competition′, ‘get everything you possibly can′, or ‘win′ your next business negotiation. What it will teach you is the pillars of good deals, a series of tactics to keep negotiations moving nicely and avoid bitter conflict, and most importantly how to really focus on what your needs are so that your true objectives are realized.

Original post by Dave Hecker

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A Simply Great List Management Service

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

E-mail marketing is tough enough to manage without worrying about getting your server blacklisted for spam complaints or angering your hosting facility with a massive promotional blast. So, when Sagewing began searching for an e-mail marketing system to promote our newest line of products and services, we evaluated a series of hosted and installed services. After balancing a variety of criteria, we’ve decided to go with iContact.

iContact offers a full variety of features and is price competitive with Aweber, Constant Contact, and other similar hosted services. Where iContact really shines is it’s intuitive interface and strong support, not to mention their extremely high delivery rate when you actually send your emails. All users are automatically entered into their partner program (the usual affiliate system) and they allow you to add your affiliate link to the ’sent by’ footer that they include in the interface. So, as you build your list and send newsletters, etc. you’re also generating affiliate income which, hopefully, can pay your iContact bill and even turn a profit.

Like most of email marketing providers, iContact offers a free package to help you get started and have a look at the system. For reliability and ease of use, we recommend (and use!) iContact for your newsletters and autoresponder needs!

Original post by Dave Hecker

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Promotopia Launches OSCommerce-based Retail Website

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

Promotopia, a leading manufacturer and importer of unique retail products since 1996, announces the launch of www.islice.com. Based on the popular open source OSCommerce platform, the website will offer the iSlice and Envelopener products to the public while seamlessly integrating with existing fulfillment and marketing systems at Promotopia.

{mosimage}By leveraging Sagewing’s offshore development teams and domestic project managers, Promotopia was able to outsource the end-to-end development of the store, including design and back-end integration, to single source. “Sagewing delivered a quality product at a great price, and they provided the project management and client service we needed.”, said TJ Scimone of Promotopia, “and they worked hard to meet our aggressive marketing deadlines.”

 Using a customized version of OSCommerce, Sagewing adapted the interface to match the print and television marketing campaigns while maintaining usability and SEO functionality. Through a combination of existing contributions and custom development, the checkout and shipping systems were modified to best support Promotopia′s unique product line and consumer habits. “With the level of back-end customization needed to support this product, OSCommerce was a natural choice due to the availability of 3rd party contributions and the flexibility of the codebase.” Sagewing’s offshore development teams substantial experience with OSCommerce, and we are very pleased to add www.islice.com to our list of e-commerce success stories.

Original post by Dave Hecker

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