The Cold Turnkey

The B&B ”Orti di Trastevere" is found near to the famous Porta Portese market, in a ´900 old noble house on the fourth floor.

The centre location (in the historical Trastevere area) alloweds in a few minutes to get to a lot of demanding sights of Rome, even on foot.

Moreover near there is the Rail-way station of Trastevere and the main tramstops and busstops that will allow easily to get to the Fiumicino airport, the Terministation and all of the other zones in Rome.

The B&B “Orti di Trastevere” has available three comfortable inviting doublerooms, provided with television and wi-fi internet connection and with external private or shared bathrooms.

The enviroment is made more pleasant by ancient pieces of forniture and soft colors in every room of the B&B. The varius and plentiful breakfast may be comfortably served in the room or in a bright and nicely furnished common sittingroom, from where there is a charming sight on Aventino hill.

From the airport Leonardo da Vinci in Fiumicino:
You have to take the metrotrain FM1 to the rail station in Trastevere and from there there is the tram number 3 or 8 (3 stops) that will stop infront of Piazza Bernardino da Feltre.

From the airport G.B Pastine in Rome Ciampino:
It’s available a bus service to the rail station in Ciampino, from where start every 15 minutes trains to the Central Termini rail station.

From the Terministation (Piazza dei Cinquecento):
The faster way is to take the bus “H” and there are six bus stops until you get to the Ministry of Education, from there continue on foot about hundred meters until you get to the Piazza Bernardino da Feltre.

Quality at a cheap price in Rome? Book online and save your money: browse our list of Rome cheap hotels, or compare price for cheap Rome hotels, or make a reservation for a tour in Rome by Bike

Many families are now purchasing digital pianos to learn on. And why not? They’re relatively inexpensive, take up very little space, and produce high quality grand piano sound. But there are certain drawbacks to owning one.

For example, it’s a good idea to play an acoustic instrument before trying a digital one. Why? Because no matter how well the piano sound is sampled, it will never match the pure acoustic sound and richness of a “live” piano. This factor is very important to some because they want to experience that organic sensibility only a true acoustic can give them.

When a key is struck on an acoustic instrument, it produces overtones that reverberate around the room creating a sound that no digital instrument can accurately capture. I don’t know why this is but I’ve played on the best digital pianos and have never experienced that “woody” feel an acoustic gives out.

If this doesn’t concern you, then you’ve passed the litmus test for owing a digital piano because while they can’t give you the exact feel of an acoustic, they come pretty darn close to giving you the deep, rich, full sound of a grand piano! For most people, this is all that matters and I for one agree!

Today’s’ digital pianos are so good that most listeners can not tell the difference between a “live” piano and a digital one. Add to that the fact that they are the most affordable of the kinds of pianos you can buy and you’ve got an instrument that’s hard to beat.

It really all depends on what your needs are. Do you need to experience a cacophony of overtones? If so, don’t go digital, But if you want that full grand piano sound without paying $50,000 for it, digital is the way to go!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

I’m a huge fan of SpamAssassin. I have many websites and all of my servers use it. It cuts out about 80% of the crap heading to my inbox. And while I do lose a few newsletters, it’s worth it.

The problem is too many indie businesses just don’t get it. They think flashy is the way to go, but more and more people realize as spam becomes ever more rampant that if you want to contact your fans, you need to make your newsletters accessbile first, flashy second.

How do you do that?

Start by doing away with HTML in emails.

That’s right. Ditch it. It’s useless. I know one music biz website that actually sends out HTML messages with graphics and all. And every edition gets SpamAssassinated. HTML emails are marketing heaven. A marketer can track which emails are opened and which not. They include javascript and cookies, and of course, HTML is easy to slip a virus into.

So stop using HTML newsletters. Remember the point of fan newsletters is communication. If you don’t effectively communicate with your fan base, then you’re wasting your time.

How do you know if your newsletter is being Spam Assassinated?

For the past year or so I’ve been using SiteBuildIt to optimize my websites for the search engines. SiteBuildIt is program designed to help you build a webpage that Effectively sells your product while helping you to top the search engines.

Warning: It’s expensive. We’re talking $299 a year. And yes, it’s worth every penny. SiteBuildIt offers some incredible services, but I DON’T suggest you head over there and purchase the program.

Instead, join their affiliate program. You will find out about ALL the great services they offer, like their SpamChecker, and find out IF it’s right for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Open a new email and send it to bard-spamcheck@sitesell.net
2. Insert your newsletter into the body of the email. Email it and wait.

3. The SpamChecker will send you an email that will tell you how likely your zine will be SpamAssassinated and how to fix problems BEFORE they happen.

Now that’s a great service! And one of many SiteBuildIt offers. Find out more about SiteBuildIt here.

If you’re looking for some web hosts offering SpamAssassin, check out my web hosting reviews.

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

From the Telecaster to the Flying V to the Iceman to the Warlock, some guitar designs are forever branded on our consciousness, and now there’s a new one: the Minarik Inferno X-treme. The body shape erupts in furious fingers of flame. If ever there was a guitar design destined to ignite the imagination of young players, especially boys and girls who want to rawk, this is it.

Not that the Inferno X-treme lacks subtlety. With scientifically placed tone chambers, this instrument can sing sweetly if that’s what you desire. Or, it can live up to its appearance and enable you to carve sonic craters in the parking lot.

Although this guitar has a look that will inspire thousands of preteen statements along the lines of “Mom, that’s the one I want,” I suspect that tons of established players will find it useful in the studio or on the road because of its delicate balance, sleek feel, and stunning versatility. (And besides, the cunningly crafted guitar is also available in a more traditional body shape.)

“So, what’s the story on Minarik Guitars?” I can hear you ask. As the designer of the B.C. Rich Goddess Warlock and several other noteworthy models, Marc Minarik already has a legacy in the business. Now heading up his own company, Minarik has the goal of fusing quality workmanship with visually exciting design concepts.

Actually, his plan is much more complex than “make it attractive and build it right.” Marc Minarik is as eager to talk about the playability of his guitars as about their construction and appearance. And if you inquire about the light weight and the chambered body, he is just as pleased to demonstrate the superior nature of his firm’s products.

The flame-shaped body isn’t just flashy; the size and curve of the flames have been carefully calculated to positively affect the tone and balance of the instrument. The flame design is eye-candy, but it’s the application of the physics of sound that makes the Minarik Inferno X-treme really hot.

With a wonderful combination of form and function, the Minarik guitar line may have some interesting side effects, like bringing vitality to retail sales, launching a new generation of guitar players, and saving music from passive pop.

Not bad for a guy with a dream about a flaming guitar.

Minarik Contact:
www.minarikguitars.com
818-383-1254
minarikguitars@aol.com

# # #

Scott G (The G-Man) proudly plays a Minarik Inferno. He creates radio commercials and composes music for songs and spots at G-Man Music & Radical Radio. A member of the National Association of Record Industry Professionals (http://www.narip.com) and The Recording Academy (http://www.grammy.com), he also writes about music for the Immedia Wire Service. He is on the Web at iTunes, http://www.delvianrecords.com, http://www.myspace.com/thegman, and http://www.gmanmusic.com

As a Tabla player for more than eight years and as of a few years now, a player of several other drums stemming from Africa to Asia, South America to Australia, I feel that the label “multi-percussionist” has been used on me by many, rather than just a “Tabla player” and so I want to explore more and find out exactly what percussion is to me.

Percussion is a huge, unwieldy topic; looking at every type of drumming in every culture on Earth at once is an impossible undertaking. However, the wonderful thing about our chosen instrument family is, everything rhythmic is relevant to what we do.

The world of percussion is truly amazing. Drum kit players can learn from congueros, Bodhran enthusiasts from Dumbek dance accompanists, rudimental drummers from the rhythms of African tribes. It can go on and on. Just take the amount of dances we can learn with our fingers on the Tabla and the variety of beats that come through.

Today we have an unprecedented opportunity to explore the instruments, rhythms and concepts of a variety of cultures and incorporate those ideas into our own playing, regardless of genre. As an Asian multi-percussionist, I believe in learning from all the generations of drummers who applied stick, hand, or other implements to skin, stone, wood, metal or plastic before me.

Personally, it has been the Tabla that has driven all my other percussions. Learning both classical and folk Tabla and consistently listening to music all the time, has allowed me to master dozens of beats and rhythms from all around the world mentally before getting out the drums and experimenting on them for the purest sounds.

The real secret to being a great drummer, and something I’ve learnt and have been working on for a long while is essentially really simple. And, I’m not going to say PRACTICE, because that’s pretty obvious anyway. The secret is to listen to music. Listen to all genres of music, be it heavy metal, rock, soft sounds, pan pipes, R&B, hip hop, jazz, soul, funk, folk, classical, etc. By doing this, you develop a rhythmical ear that can adjust to all music and pick up on anything.

Let me share with you a recent example. Back in July 2005, I was recording as a percussionist in the studios for a Latin band called Puro Mambo. I took all the percussion instruments I had; both big and small, however they seemed to only want the Latin instruments. I disagreed and took out my Tabla. Although they first seemed rather sceptical, the final output with the bouncing sounds I produced from the Tabla were much more sweeter and jelled perfectly.

This for me proves that the Tabla is my king of the percussion. I think here I pay tribute to the most important legend that has made music the most important thing in my life and that is Pandit Sharda Sahai, my guru-jee. From the Tabla, I went to other teachers of different instruments and mastered other drums. All other drums have simple beats and rhythms, but with the skills I have from the Tabla, I am able to improvise drastically on simple drums to create juxtaposing sounds.

For those who learn the Tabla, I wish you well and urge you to continue with that before touching upon any other instruments. For those who want to learn the Tabla, I urge you to make your decision quick and advice not to think about other instruments yet. The Tabla will be your guidance into other instruments. Master the Tabla and you can play any instrument just by picking it up. It really is true.

Coming to a close, I’d like to share a great, quick exercise. Find a quiet room, sit quietly and relaxed, and just listen. Listen out for your heartbeat. Place a hand on your chest and feel the rhythm. The heartbeat is the mega-rhythm that connects us all, yet no two heartbeats are exactly alike. Live in that rhythm for a minute or two, and then play it on your knee. Play it, and then play variations on it. Use both hands. Feel the music of your body.

Exciting, isn’t it? A constantly playing percussion instrument right inside you, accessible any time you can be quiet and concentrate on it. Add in the rhythms of your circulatory and respiratory systems, and you have a percussion ensemble playing to the tempo of your life.

Until next time, focus on the rhythms in your body and all around you - traffic, machinery, other people, the sounds of nature. Rhythms are everywhere, and everything is informed by rhythm. Tap into that, and your playing will benefit.

© Kavit Haria, The Musicians’ Coach

Kavit Haria is The Musicians’ Coach. Kavit is the director of
InnerRhythm, a company that prides on providing success solutions for
musicians worldwide. Kavit sends out a musician development newsletter to
over 2000 musicians in 16 countries every fortnight to help them achieve
their desired results. Sign up now and experience the huge benefits from
www.innerrhythm.org

From border to border and coast-to-coast, sales pros line up to confess, “After I hear enough objections, I feel like a whipped puppy and want to limp off into the sunset with my tail between my legs.” Then with a hint of hopeful expectation in their eyes, they ask, “What can I do to keep my attitude up?”

Staying upbeat in the face of rejection is not as hard as you may think. In fact, it isn’t difficult at all, however, it does require that you be in control of you.

You must make a choice to turn your thoughts and words from the negative to the positive. You must decide you will not allow anyone’s negativity to suck the life out of you. If you’re willing to give it a go, you’ll be glad to know that, yes, there are ways to stay pumped up, yes, even in the face of rejection.

Not long ago, a group of executives and sales professionals attending a strategic planning workshop in Las Vegas wrestled with this very issue. The question on the table was this, “What tips, tools, and techniques could they pass on to their sales force that would help them stay up in the face of objections that seemingly always lead to defeat?”

Toward finding an answer to that question, I asked them, “What is the first word that should come out of the mouths of you and your sales pros when greeted with an objection?” … “Great!”

As I looked into their deer-caught-in-headlights stares, I yelled out, “GREAT!”

Those folks looked at me as if thinking, “Is she serious?”

I responded to their disbelief with examples.

“If your busy prospect says, ‘We have contracts with all of your competitors and have no room left for you.’ What do you imagine will happen if sales pros retort with a big smile and an exclamation, ‘Great!’”

“If your prospect is pressed for time and says, ‘I don’t have time to talk; call me in a year.’ How will they react when sales people look ‘em in the eye, smile and say, “Great!’”

“If your prospect says, ‘How was your week?’ Say, “I’m not sure I recall, but you can bet it was ‘Great!’”

Do you know what happened? The whole audience of top-notch sales professionals and sales executives laughedloudly.

Here’s why … they immediately recognized these simple truths … we’re each responsible for our own attitudes and when you greet every objection with a totally unexpected, positive exclamation, you maintain control of the tone of the conversation.

A positive response in the face of a potentially negative objection pleasantly surprises prospects and serves to keep the attitude of the sales person upbeat. A light heart and an upbeat attitude increase the odds of your ability to get mentally unstuck and overturn any and all objections to scheduling a sales appointment.

The camera man who was filming one of my workshops in Kansas City returned from a break saying he had tried immediate application of greeting each objection with “Great!”

Of course I was tickled to hear he was paying attention and glad to hear he took the matter seriously and had such quick results to report.

The camera man went on to tell his story, “During the break I approached a woman in the lounge and our conversation went something like, …

“Do you want to go out with me?”

“You’re not interested? Great!’”

That was not exactly the application I anticipated hearing, but it brought a smile and reinforcement for the learning.

Here’s the bottom line for you. There is no need for you suffer from the pain of rejection. There is no need for you to give up your cheerful countenance to a prospect who tries to take your sales presentation into a downward spiral. You can turn that downward spiral into a tightly wound spring and bounce back with enthusiasm.

Your words determine the direction of a sales presentation. Follow the prospect’s lead and the call will spiral downward. Inject your own upbeat response into the conversation and watch that downward spiral turn into a tightly wound spring that’ll bounce the tone of the call upward toward your goal.

Expect “Great!” things when you plan your positive responses and be creative in where you apply them. They will come in handy when you need to slay a giant.

Forward this article to a friendthey’ll thank you for it!

For your FREE mini-course “Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit http://www.ColdCallingExecutives.com! Or call Your Sales Coach for Extreme Profitability, author/speaker Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread) at (816) 554-3674 9-3 CST (that’s Kansas City/Chicago Time).

Incoming telemarketing sales are very important to every business and each and every phone call that comes in is a potential customer. Customers will often call to ask questions and or compare prices. It is essential to treat these customers with respect and answer questions fully to their satisfaction.

Every company should train there front line staff and anybody who may potentially be answering the phone how to handle incoming telephone inquiries. Often customers will not ask the correct question and it is important to make sure they get the right answer so therefore it is important to ask customer questions and in doing so you can figure out exactly what they’re trying to get at and what they’re trying to get done.

If the customer asks the wrong question and you answer the wrong question with the correct answer then the customer is not well served. Instead the customer has got the right answer to the wrong question and still does not know what is going on. Customer education and when they ask question you must insure proper explanation of the products and services they are inquiring about.

It is essential to every business that each customer call is handled as they are potential customers, unless of course your competitor shopping you. Nevertheless it is essential that you answer the questions correctly and have full understanding of what your business does. New employees answering the phone can be problematic because they look stupid and cannot answer adequately the questions from the customer. I hope you’ll consider all these items in each and every one of the employees you train and your entire staff to answer the phone into incoming telemarketing sales. Please think of us in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A few months ago I spent time training some telephone sales
agents who were new to selling. They’d mainly been involved
with handling incoming calls but now their company needed
them to do some out bound sales calls. I spent two days
running a sales workshop for them and another three days
coaching them on the job.

The biggest challenge I had was trying to stop them selling.
Or at least their idea of what selling is all about.

Many people who are new to sales and also some experienced
sales people want to keep talking about their product or
service. They open the conversation with one or two general
questions which are often irrelevant to the customer and
then launch into their sales spiel.

What then happens is that the customer thinks “Oh no, I’m
being sold to” and immediately disengages the brain and
stops listening. The sales person then has limited success
as far as getting a sale is concerned.

My job with these people was to try to get them to stop
selling as they knew it. The most important thing in any
sales call is to find out what the customer’s needs are. The
customer won’t readily tell you what his or her real needs
are so the sales person needs to do some careful probing.
Questions need to be asked that are relevant to the
customer’s needs and relevant to your product or service.

It is often useful to open an outbound sales call with the
question “Mr Customer I’m not sure whether we can help you
or not, however I would like to ask one or two questions
which will establish whether our product would meet your
needs and benefit your business, is that OK?”

This statement is perfectly true because, you don’t know if
your product or service will benefit the customer until you
ask him or her some questions about their business. It will
also have the effect of relaxing the customer if they feel
they’re not being sold to and that someone is interested and
cares about their situation. If the customer believes this
then closing the sale becomes so much easier.

Discover how you can generate more business without having
to cold call!
Alan Fairweather is the author of “How to get More Sales
without Selling” This book is packed with practical things
that you can do to - get customers to come to you.

Click here now:
http://www.howtogetmoresales.com
http://www.alanfairweather.com

You know what qualified sales leads are, but if you asked your sales account managers and corporate executives, would they have the same definition of a qualified lead? Probably not.

If qualified lead generation in a business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management must share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, the marketing team stands a better chance of generating leads that will be valuable to its sales managers and associates.

It’s important to confirm the qualified-leads definition, in writing, with all parties. This definition is different for each company, so you must do some work to define the meaning of qualified sales leads at your company.

Step 1: Know the characteristics of a qualified sales lead
General questions that need to be answered in order to determine if a lead is qualified include the following:

• Does the prospect have a need or an application for your product or service?
• What is the prospect’s role in the decision-making process?
• What is the prospect’s timing for purchase or implementation?
• What is the status of the prospect’s budget?
• What is the size of the opportunity?

However, additional or more detailed criteria may be needed to define qualified leads at some companies. This starts with a company contact, who admits to a business problem (either latently or directly) that could be solved by a product and/or service you are selling. Here are a couple of examples of problems/solutions to use in qualified lead generation.

Problem: The company’s current disparate computer systems require employees to perform redundant data entry, which wastes their time and reduces efficiency.
Solution: Your software product would enable single data entry.

Problem: The company’s managers suspect it is paying too much for unused software licenses, but they don’t know for sure.
Solution: Your license management software tracks all software on a network so companies can determine what software is licensed and being used or not

In addition to having a business problem that your company’s products or services can solve, truly qualified leads must meet four other conditions:

• They must have an established project in play.
• They already have or believe they can find the money to buy a solution to the problem, or they are in the process of developing a budget.
• They plan to purchase within a reasonable amount of time.
• They have the power to get you in front of the appropriate final decision maker(s) when the time is right.

Step 2: Create a sales lead glossary

In addition to defining a qualified lead, consider creating a glossary of standard terms defining what your company considers to be a “suspect,” a “prospect,” an “inquiry,” a “response,” a “qualified sales lead,” a “qualified suspect,” a “qualified prospect” and so forth.

Again, sales, marketing and management need to agree on the definition of each term, as this will help you avoid confusion later during qualified lead generation.
Step 3: Use a lead scoring approach
As you develop your lead qualification criteria, keep in mind that lead scoring can be an effective method of determining which leads are qualified and ready for sales follow up.

To score a lead, assign points based on how well the prospect meets each of your lead-qualification criteria. Consider the following example:

• Funding, ready to go: 5 points
• Budget in formulation: 3 points
• No budget for project: 0 points
• Is the decision maker: 5 points
• Is the recommender: 3 points
• Is an influencer: 1 point
• Has a clear need for product: 5 points
• Plans to buy within six months: 5 points
• Plans to buy in one year or later: 1 point
• Plans to buy $50,000 of product: 5 points
• Plans to buy less than $100 of product: 0 points

To score the lead, add up all the points. Then, for example, those with 20 or more points are determined to be qualified sales leads; you should send them to your sales force.

Step 4: Drive sales opportunities with teamwork,

Meet with your peers in marketing, your company’s sales executives and your senior managers to learn about their definition of qualified sales leads. Use the lead-qualification criteria and scoring examples mentioned earlier in this article as discussion starters. Distill what you learn into a draft definition and run it by all the participants for further discussion and approval. If there is still disagreement, let your company’s senior sales management make the final decision.

With marketing, sales and management all speaking the same qualified sales leads language, your company can pull together to target and nurture the most promising leads. And boost sales and revenue as the result.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is one of America’s leading B2B marketing and sales consultants and an expert on sales leads. Put Mac to work for you as a marketing speaker or for business-to-business marketing consulting. SIGN UP NOW FOR A FREE: Business Marketing Newsletter

Chamonix France is a one of a kind holiday destination with the famous Mont Blanc and tumbling glaciers. All of us enjoy going paragliding or sometimes wandering around. I sometimes travel from Boston and stay at a Chamonix luxury catered chalet during my break.

I previously went to Comfort Inn Pigeon Forge unfortunately it rarely met the standards of its its advert: The Comfort Inn offers accommodations in Pigeon Forge, TN, approximately 45 miles from McGhee Tyson Airport and about four miles from Gatlinburg. The property’s amenities include a free continental breakfast and coffee, outdoor pool, indoor pool, whirlpool, restaurant, guest laundry facilities, interior corridors, ice machine, free local calls, and free parking. Standard room amenities include air-conditioning, an alarm clock radio, cable TV, dataports, iron, ironing board, microwave, and telephone.

In comparison in Chamonix Haute Savoie France the luxury catered chalet is nearly always fine. Furthermore dining in my families’ favorite bar, Angel’s Choice Barbecue & Steaks, scoffing apple rum buns is a pleasure. Chamonix France is a large enough destination to insure that there is plenty for the visitor to do. Amongst other things it includes a beauty salon and a shopping arcade of designer boutiques, Chamonix offers a combination of climbing, French alpine charm and tourist attractions which barely any resorts can hope to rival.