I visited an office (in home sales) of a friend and he asked me how to improve his business. I asked some questions & found out almost all his sales were financed (very common with in-home sales). He told me that he paid a FEE of 7% plus an 8% reserve, that he likely would never see again.

I said " If I could show you how to add 50% to your net profits without any addirional sales, would you like to know about it?"  Him- "Sure!"
Me- "Stop paying that 15%!"
Him- "We've always paid it. it's just a cost of doing business."
Me- " I'll be back in an hour"

I went to the nearest Finance Company & got set up with my own financing at 0% reserve or fees. I went back to my friend, and said "Here. Now you can have a 50% increase in profits."

He said "How in the world did you get that?"
Me- "I asked. You never asked."

Then I jumped on my white horse & rode off into the sunset.

We also (at my office) had a rule that we wouldn't do demonstrations (in-home) for single guys. Claude "The Genius" Whitacre had known for years that "single men didn't buy". Our office had a 42% closing average.

One day we accidently sent a rep to a single man's home. After the sale, I thought "Oh, SURE. One in a million" so I booked another "Single guy" appointment to prove to my people that the sale was a fluke.

Another sale.

After 3 months, I tallied the results. Yup, 41% closing with single guys. People in the next room could hear my teeth gritting.....Grrrr!

I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars THAT little mistake cost me?

The question is : How many closely held beliefs about your business are holding you Prisoner?

A large percentage of retailers I know spend $1,000 - $5,000 a month or more on Yellow Pages Ads. I show them how to save that entire amount every month, and still get the same results.