New things added all the time!

Hi, folks! By now everyone is probably involved in wrapping up their last bits of work to be done before the approaching Holiday weekend and are planting some lead seeds for next week.

We are very excited about the potential of the fresh new year for this organization, and made a point of doing everything in our power to dress this blog well for 2007. Today we came up with a couple of ideas that will help us to succeed:

• We have added some code to the blogs to track the traffic to all our sites so we can provide our members and contributors with market response to our combined effort to make this organization a GREAT PLACE for sales and marketing people and the public in general to HANG OUT!
• A new button was placed on the upper left corner of the main page with free offer. Google Pack is a software bundle that will help our visitors to make their PCs more useful. Right now, Google Pack is only available for Windows XP. As usual, we expect to attract more traffic to the site if we offer this nice and useful gift to all visitors.

Please, submit suggestions for additions via e-mail. We have received some suggestions from our contributing members on content that would be likely to improve the value of JTL Blog Network even more. We are now looking at different options to provide Information Archive Access to everyone. Keep in touch with the pages of our blogs, for new stuff coming up.

Happy Holidays,

JTL Admin.

Resource page and objectives.

Hey guys,

Leroy again, I was just wondering if we could somehow make a link to our services.
for eg: There could be a link to a resource page for consumers. Topics could include, Steps to
building your home, or for business how to recoup money lost, finance, home ownership
etc. This could be an informative page that visitors can read andif they would then call one
of us to get started.

We can refer our customers to this resource page for information.
This would be one way we can achieve our objective of promoting each other's services.

Tx.
Leroy

Last two meetings: 12/13/2006 & 12/20/12 @ Schooner II

The two last meetings were very productive generating a few hard leads to some of us, and creating the momentum we need to take this org off the ground: in 2007 we will fly!

But, without a doubt, the last few posted messages tell us how great the potential impact that Just Trade Leads Network will have in generating new business for all of us.

As Jim put it so well, "... I was told the key ingredient was numbers. This meant you make X cold calls a week; from this effort X prospects are defined; and with a couple more steps, a certain amount turn into actual sales, yielding your "closing ratio". I now believe this process to be obsolete and the concept of this blog and people to people meetings can generate real, qualified prospects at a greater rate."

Rick, who just became officially part of JTL (way to go Rick!!), posted that "...I believe just like Leroy that this has a huge upside. I also believe that once we get more participation in the group it will grow beyond our imagination." It is exactly what we expect will happen with leads trading through JTL.

Leroy's posting today was not less enthusiastic when he projects our success for 2007 and anticipates another positive impact for us as we meet and interact: "...I will be inviting 2 new people to come to the next meeting. The more momentum we can muster the better. Let's think of ideas to help the group grow, prosper and benefit from our meetings and interactions and we can still have fun."

All this enthusiasm that we see mushroom in only few weeks is just the tip of the huge iceberg that will emerge from the deep sea of leads and information JTL will help to generate!

We anticipate that another aspect that is going to expose our businesses to an ever increasing number of people, buyers or sellers, is the production of important content and free advice: as Jim put it also in his posting last week, "...Unfortunately, the process today for purchase of many building products is selection by ... cost as a selection factor, the homeowner is taken out of the picture. It would be my desire to educate the homeowner, so that he or she can make an intelligent trade off between cost and quality." That tells us clearly that with messages such as this, JTL will attract people looking for KNOWLEDGE AND SOLUTION PROVIDERS who genuinely see business from the customer's perspective and will "spread the word" to the four winds.

Happy Holidays and a spiritually and materially fulfilling 2007!

JTL Admin

PS.: JTL is built over Google technology and so far it has been sitting over a "Beta" version platform. A regular first version has been released, and we should be upgrading in the next few weeks. Hopefully, we will be able to accomplish that with no interruptions. I will keep everyone posted.

great blog

I really do look foward to seeing how far we can take this new networking group. I believe just like Leroy that this has a huge upside. I also believe that once we get more participation in the group it will grow beyond our imagination.. By the way if you or someone you know is interested in refinancing your current home loan or in the market to purchase a home send me an Email and I can get you started in the process with a quick and painless pre-approval. There are no up front costs and you are not obligated to anything, just give me a call at 616-848-3130 x227 and I'll show you what true customer service is supposed to be like.
If you think that you are not credit worthy or you have no credit, I can show you how to fix your credit and get you on your way to home ownership. Just another free service offered by me to help you achieve the great american dream of homeownership.
Happy Holidays to all!!!!
Rick

leroy

Hey boys,
At the last meeting, (12-20-06), we decided not to meet on the Wednesday after Christmas.
The next meeting will be on the first Wednesday after the New Year. I beleive that this
coming year will be a good one for all of us as we work together to acheive our goals.

This might come as a surprise to you but we have had a slow housing market this year.
OK, this is somewhat of an inside joke, but seriously; In any slow market I believe we
cans till prosper as long as we work hard and diligently. By the way my profession is
in Real Estate, I specialize mainly in residential but every once in a while I do dabble in
commercial.

I will be inviting 2 new people to come to the next meeting. The more momentum we can
muster the better. Let's think of ideas to help the group grow, prosper and benefit from
our meetings and interactions and we cans till have fun. In the meantime, please enjoy the Holidays!

Thanks,
Leroy

First impresssions

After a three weeks and a couple meeting (missed on), I feel this group can be a win win situation. A million years ago when first in sales, I was told the key ingredient was numbers. This meant you make X cold calls a week; from this effort X prospects are defined; and with a couple more steps, a certain amount turn into actual sales, yielding your "closing ratio". I now believe this process to be obsolete and the concept of this blog and people to people meetings can generate real, qualified prospects at a greater rate.

I am looking forward to continued meetings and sharing with the other members any advice, funny stories or actual prospects I come across. My suggestion at the last meeting was to create a "profile" of each member. Creating my Google profile to join this blog this morning was along those lines, but reminded me more of a site geared towards dating.

If possible to incorporate a link or short list for each member which displays on the blog first page, I think that would be more effective. With that process not in place, let me share with you what I believe my ideal prospect would be:

The first criteria is the person be a homeowner or a prospective homeowner or directly involved in construction or remodeling for a homeowner. While I can provide any building product, my focus is on windows. This means a homeowner contemplating window replacement would be a person of interest to me. Certainly, an individual looking to have a home built from scratch is a particular good prospect.

Unfortunately, the process today for purchase of many building products is selection by the lowest cost. Often this choice is made by a contractor, with an eye to providing to lowest cost remodel or construction of a new home. With cost as a selection factor, the homeowner is taken out of the picture. It would be my desire to educate the homeowner, so that he or she can make an intelligent trade off between cost and quality. That doesn't mean that all contractors select products solely on price, but the depressed housing market and economy has put significant pressure on price. Contractors building custom homes do exist and they often make product selection based on quality and reliability. A referral to a custom home builder would be an extremely attractive prospect to me.

On another note, if someone knows of a simple piece of software, allowing tracking of prospects and existing customers I would be interested. The main function would be to capture basic information for an entry and track events and information about the prospect in ongoing selling process. This hopefully, would yield action items or a "to do" list for follow up on each prospect.

That's all for today's blog.

Tomorrow's meeting @ Schooner II confirmed!

It is going to be cool. I just talked to LeRoy and we are going to talk about JST as a Blogs Network and show people the great potentials of this technology for leads trading in this tech age. We will show also a few things you can do with it and how to use it once you visit the web address.

It is important that you fill out your profile when you become a member, for that is the basis of networking through this medium. When people visit JTS blogs they will see who are the member/contributors and they will be able to click on your name too, and find out what you do.

See you all there!

JTS Admin

New Features Added ...

Hi folks! Now you will find two new features in the blogs of the Just Trade Leads organization. In all JTL blogs, you will find the Cool and Useful Links block with interesting links. In the Main Blog, you will find the Regional Blogs block, containing links to all our current RC blogs. In the Regional Chapter blogs instead of the Regional Blogs block, you will find the Main Blog block with a link to our main site. Are you confused? Try it out, and you will see it is not that difficult to use. Enjoy and, please, post your comments. There is a special feature in all blogs that allows member viewers to post comments for a specific posting.

JTS Admin.

success

Hey Luis,
Sorry I missed the meeting the other day, it is a long story I will explain at our next meeting.
Any way, the more this grows the better it will be. My intent of this group is for all of us to be
successful and be able to do the things how, when and where we want to do them. The like minded people we get the better. We will talk more about increasing membership at our next
meeting.
Gracias Leroy

Interesting Quotes for Leaders:

How many times do you give positive feedback to your team each week? How many times do you think you should?

“Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free - and worth a fortune.”
--
Sam Walton (1918-1992)
founder of Wal-Mart

Dec 06, 2006 Meeting at Schooner Restaurant

Hi, folks!

Those of you who didn't have a chance to be at the meeting were missed and missed a great discussion about the use of blog technology to shape our lead trading group. Myself of Transworld Systems Inc. (luiz.costa@transworldsystems.com) and Mauro (Rick) of Treadstone Mortgage (rick@treadstonemortgage.com) discussed my proposal of developing a weblog (blog) network of lead traders named after this blog, Just Trade Leads, where users in general will find cool material about sales and marketing, vendors, solution providers, and other related topics. The networkers would trade leads (off course!) among themselves, using their blogs ONLY as communication hubs.

I am proposing to develop and run the infrastructure that would primarely subsist out of advertisement revenue streams from ads placed on all Justs Trade Leads member organization blogs. Part of the revenue from each blog would suport that particular group. Rick and I discussed the use of some ad space to promote members business activities, which is a cool way of defraying the organization's cost, so we establish a very competitive membership fee structure. A low membership will be huge in attracting members all over the US, and who knows, in other countries.

I will continue to investigate the potential of Google Blogger as the underlying technology, along with my current search for our own blog infrastructure (our own server). If anybody has any idea in this regard, please, let me know. I'll keep you posted.

In the mean time, as members of the Just Trade Leads of Holland you are encouraged to contribute with your posts and consider that we might shape this blog to be accessible by the public. That is going to be essential for exposure to other regions and advertising revenue. So, If you want to trade a specific lead with another member(s), it is safer to do it through e-mail, until we think about something else, like a private forum to exchange hard leads among ourselves. Please, also use your networking abilities to invite more people to participate of our weekly meetings. If anybody knows of people in general who would be interested in writing cool things to be published here, let me know. Cartoons, stories, anything related to sales and marketing would be welcome, don't you folks think so?

Best regards,

Luiz Costa
Just Trade Leads

Hey Luiz,

This thing is really cool.

Welcome to Just Trade Leads!

This is a preliminary welcome message, just to get started. At the next meeting on Wednesday Dec. 6, 2006, 9am, I plan to pursuade those present to draft a Mission Statement for this blog and/or even for Just Trade Leads in general. Then, I plan to get the approval of the group to post the best review of the MS, and post a Grand Opening Welcome to everyone. Just to start right away with something on it!

Please, be prepared to post your own contributions! I will send invitations to those who have attended the first meetings. For now, I am restricting the contributions to invited persons only. In the future, as we learn about this media and our objectives, we may open to others.

Greetings,

Luiz Costa
Just Trade Leads!