Do you find yourself typing in the same familiar email to your prospects and clients again and again? Whether it’s boiler-plates, generic thank you messages or directions to your business, there is a tool in Microsoft Outlook 2000/2003 – AutoText – that can help you automatically insert text into an email with minimal effort.

Whether you need to automate a paragraph or a three page email, I will show you how you can use AutoText to help save time so you can spend more time selling.

There are four easy steps to create an “AutoText” Entry

1. Type your email into the email body area.

2. Highlight the text you want for your AutoText Entry.

3. Once the text is highlighted… click – Insert > AutoText > New… Or you can simple hit Alt+F3 (Function Key – Not F then 3)

4. Name the AutoText and click OK

Using your AutoText Entries:

1. In a new email start typing the name you gave the AutoText name

2. When the yellow box appears as you type (above), simply hit the “Enter” key. Your AutoText will then automatically be placed into the email body text.

Option Two: If you can’t remember what you named one of your AutoText entries, you can use the Insert AutoText Option.

1. Click – Insert > AutoText

2. Find the name of your AutoText
1) Click the name of the AutoText
2) Click “Insert”
3) Click OK

You can download this in a quick reference guide by clicking here

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In my first post on “How To Subscribe To A Blog” using Yahoo’s reader I gave step-by-step instruction for using Yahoo’s reader. In this post I’m going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe to a blog using Google’s Reader.

If you already have a Google account it’s really easy. If the blog you are reading has a Google Button, simply click the button, and the blog to your iGoogle homepage, or just to the Google Reader. If you don’t already have an account with Google, here are 6 easy to follow steps to start using Google’s reader.

Step 1: Go to http://www.google.com/reader

Step 2: Click on the link entitled “Create an account now” located at the bottom of the login box. [Image 1]

[Image 1]

Step 3: Login to Google reader

Step 4: Add a subscription. To add a new subscription to your reader, click the “Add subscription” link located on the left side of your screen. [Image 2]

[Image 2]

Step 5: Copy the feed URL into the add subscription box and click the “Add” button [Image 3]. The URL for our blog is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/salesevolution

You can also do a search for something you’re interested in and click the add button. [Image 4]

[Image 3]

[Image 4]


Step 6: Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, click the “Subscribe” button to add the feed to your reader. [Image 5]

[Image 5]

Your feed has now been added to Google reader. Simply click on the link to begin reading your new feed. Now every time you come back to Google’s reader, if there is a new post, you will see a number by the link informing you there are new posts on the blog. [Image 6]

[Image 6]

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I recently attended a one-day technology conference held here in Greensboro, NC. I sat through 10 different presentations, all of which used PowerPoint or Keynote. The presentations were very interesting and well designed. There was, however, one common theme in each presentation… a stop-and-go flow. What do I mean by that? Well, each time the presenter needed to advance the slide, they would have to run back to the computer and advance it manually. The flow of their presentation was interrupted each time they advanced the slide, especially if they were 10 feet or more away from their computer.

Our salespeople have been using two easy-to-use presentation tools for about 5 years now. They are very simple to use, small enough to fit in your computer bag, and extremely durable. Our salespeople use them for everything from a large keynote with more than 300 people to a small sales presentation with 3 people.

We are not endorsing these products - we just want to arm you with tools that give you the edge over your competition. Here are the two different tools we use:

The first is the Power Presenter from Honeywell.

It’s small and easily connects to your computer using the provided USB cable. The remote has only three functions (less is more!); forward, back, and a laser pointer. There are no power cords to fight with, and the remote is a radio frequency remote, which means you don’t have to have line-of-site to your computer to advance a slide. In fact, you can have the remote in your pocket and still advance the slides. It also will work up to 150 feet away from the computer.

Pros: Easy to use, no software required, long range, small remote, carrying case
Cons: It has three pieces (usb cord, receiver, and remote), easy to lose

The second is the Logitech 2.4 GHz Cordless Presenter:

There are a couple salespeople that use this one, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. It is smaller than the Power Presenter and has a few more bells and whistles. It has a LCD timer built in - if you have timed your presentation - forward and backwards, black screen and volume control buttons, and a laser pointer. The remote is also on a radio frequency that you can use from up to 50 feet away, and the receiver stores in the back of the controller for easy one item carrying.

Pros: Easy to use, no software required, small, compacts to one unit, carrying case, no wires
Cons: Larger remote than the Power Presenter, more buttons (could be confusing to some salespeople)

If you have any questions about these two presentation tools, please leave me a comment by clicking on the link located at the bottom right of this post.

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Have you ever considered subscribing to a blog? Well, a RSS or “Really Simple Syndication” subscription is just what you need to begin. An RSS feed is comparable to that friend who will contact you every time he has something new to share. That is how blogs work. Once you’ve subscribed to a blog, and there is something new “Posted”, you will be notified every time there is a new post.

Whatever your interests are - cars, technology, sales, arts & entertainment, politics, science, sports, cats, etc. - you’ll find a blog to match. I personally subscribe to over 20 blogs and also have my own personal blog. I’ve really benefited from every blog I subscribe to, so I thought I would post some easy-to-follow instructions on how to subscribe to a blog.

Whether you want to subscribe to 1 or 100 blogs, the steps are the same. There are hundreds of different options, but I am only going to show you 4 of them. We’ll start in this post with Yahoo.

Yahoo’s RSS reader is integrated into My Yahoo. It is very easy to use, and almost every blog has an easy-to-use link to add their blog to your reader.

Step 1: You’ll need an account with my.yahoo.com. If you already have an email address with Yahoo, you will use that same account information. If you don’t have an account, go to:

https://login.yahoo.com/

When you reach the “Sign Up” under login screen, click. “Don’t have a Yahoo! ID?”

Step 2: Once you’ve setup your account, you can start adding pages two different ways. Your first option is to do a search in your preferred search engine for a topic you’re interested in. For example, you can go to Google and search for “sales blog”. Then you can scroll down and click on “Sales Blog: Sales Evolution” - then click on the button to add to your “My Yahoo” reader.

Step 2 - Part Two:
The second way to add a feed is to add a page to your My Yahoo page. You can do this by clicking on the “Add Page” link:

Then Click “Add RSS Feed…”


Then search for a topic you’re interested in:

Find the blog you want, and then click the “Add” button:

Congratulations on your first blog subscription! Now you’re well on your way to navigating the blogosphere.

Be sure to catch the next post for subscribing to a blog using Google’s Reader

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