The Army of Mary cast out by Vatican

Calling it a "very grave situation," the Vatican has excommunicated members of a controversial Quebec Catholic movement, the Army of Mary, for their heretical beliefs that derive from the writings of Marie-Paule Giguère, an 86-year-old mystic who claims to be a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.

In a judgment delivered to the group on Monday, and announced yesterday, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the ordinations of six priests in the Army of Mary this past June were illegitimate, because they were performed by a priest rather than a bishop. As a result, at least one recent marriage, performed by one of these new priests, is now regarded by the Vatican as null.

Further, the ruling says that anyone who participates in the Army of Mary, which has centres in Quebec City and Lac-Etchemin, Que., is in schism with the Catholic Church, and therefore automatically excommunicated.

The group has been in conflict with the Vatican for at least 20 years - its members claim to be fully Catholic, but with extra beliefs - and so it received the ruling with equanimity, calling it the "will of God."

"In 1958, our foundress received from above, heard from above that she would be crucified by priests and bishops. It's only the realization today of such a message," said Father Eric Roy, Superior General of the Sons of Mary and a leading figure in the group. "We cannot go against our conscience."

Founded as a prayer group in 1971, and recognized by the Archbishop of Quebec four years later, the Army of Mary has been a headache for Canadian Catholic bishops ever since.

In her writings, Mme. Giguère described visions and messages she received from God, explaining that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is fully divine, and also that, as her modern incarnation, so is Mme. Giguère. Rather than the traditional Catholic Trinity - in which God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are each fully divine and part of a three-part deity - the Army of Mary now speaks of a "quinternity," including Mary and Mme. Giguère.

This reverence of the charismatic Mme. Giguère, and the inevitable comparisons to Joan of Arc and Teresa of Avila, helped it to spread beyond Quebec, with missions across Canada and in France, the United States, Austria, Jamaica and Italy. At one time it claimed 20,000 members, but that number is now far lower, although Fr. Roy would not estimate.

"There was always this suspicion that was around them, that they were doing something on the side, you know, teaching other things. It was always hard to tie them down, and I just tried to get them to come out and admit things," said Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa, who was appointed in 2003 by Pope John Paul II to be a mediator in the dispute.

"They would say that they would not subscribe to some of the limitations that we would put on the creed.

"They would say we hold everything that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, and then some things that the Church is not yet ready for," he said.

Yesterday, he criticized the belief that God has somehow willed their excommunication, which he called "victim theology."

"It's one of those ironies that they have been waiting for this and hoping for it. And probably their foundress has predicted it [but] I would have to find out after the fact, because that's usually when we find out that she's predicted something," he said. After 9/11, for example, she claimed to have envisioned the falling towers several years previously.

"The Church has been very patient with them. I've been very patient with them," Archbishop Prendergast said. "It's a kind of cult. I think they are very much under the sway of the foundress. Whatever she says counts for more important than what the Pope says."

Archbishop Prendergast's predecessor, Bishop Gilles Cazabon, had tried for five years to resolve the schism and made little progress.

In fact, until this week, things stood pretty much as they were 20 years ago, when in 1987 the late Cardinal Louis-Albert Vachon revoked the Army of Mary's status as a Catholic organization, which was meant as a warning of future excommunication. In 1999, Bishop Cazabon was appointed as Pontifical Commissioner, a sort of Papal envoy, but things remained stalled until 2001, when the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a doctrinal note in 2001 stating that the Army of Mary is not a "Catholic association."

Since then, Archbishop Prendergast said, the group's status has fallen among mainstream Catholics, and so the trend among Army of Mary devotees outside of Quebec has been to either recant their heretical beliefs and become fully Catholic, or to return to Quebec.

Things came to a crisis this June, however, when a leading Army of Mary priest called Father Jean-Pierre Mastropietro ordained six new priests, including a father and son. Under canon law, only a bishop can ordain priests.

"He simply accepted Marie-Paule Giguère's idea that you are now appointed to be Father John of the Church of John," Archbishop Prendergast said. "He calls the Church of Rome the 'Church of Peter' [Peter was the first pope and one of Jesus' 12 apostles]. And the Church of Peter, which is the Church of Authority I guess, is being 'transmutated' - that's the term they use - into the Church of John, the Church of Love. And that's where, of course, the Catholic Church can't agree."
He said he regrets the failure of the efforts at reconciliation, because most of the Army of Mary's priests - there are 39 at the Lac-Etchemin centre, for example, in addition to brothers and sisters of the order - are legitimately ordained, one even by the late Pope John Paul II.

But now that Fr. Mastropietro is wearing a Byzantine crown and "acting like a pope" himself, the final line has been crossed.

"I did my very best with these men," Archbishop Prendergast said.

"I like them. I would like them to be Catholic priests. We need Catholic priests, but we have to have Catholic priests who obey what the bishops say ... [But] once you decide Heaven can tell you what to do, it can tell you all kinds of things that go beyond the boundaries."

[via - canada.com]

Hands-on with the Palm Centro

Shortly after Ed Colligan himself talked up Palm's latest Palm OS-based handset, we had the opportunity to check it out. It's small, it's bright red (or black, if that's your thing), and it's got a speedy EV-DO connection -- but is it the best Palm OS device ever?
Check it out!

[via - ENGadget]

Mom births her 12th baby — 17-pound Nadia

Siberian woman unaware of newborn’s weight until Caesarean section

BARNAUL, Russia - A Siberian woman who gave birth to her 12th child — doing more than her fair share to stem Russia’s population decline — was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 17 pounds, 1 ounce.

Nadia was delivered by Caesarean section in the local maternity hospital in the Altai region on September 17, joining eight sisters and three brothers, a local reporter said.

“We were all simply in shock,” said Nadia’s mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43. “What did the father say? He couldn’t say a thing — he just stood there blinking.”

“I ate everything, we don’t have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes,” she told the reporter, adding that all her previous babies had weighed more than 11 pounds.

The Guinness World Records lists a 22 pound, 4 ounce baby boy born in Italy in 1955, and a 23 pound, 8 ounce baby boy who was born in the United States in 1879 but died 11 hours later.

The average weight for most healthy newborn babies is around 7 pounds, 6 ounces, according to World Health Organization figures.

[via - msnbc]

Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques

Want to convince your readers to do something or agree with your point of view?

OK, that was a silly question. Of course you do.

Persuasion is generally an exercise in creating a win-win situation. You present a case that others find beneficial to agree with. You make them an offer they can’t refuse, but not in the manipulative Godfather sense.

It’s simply a good deal or a position that makes sense to that particular person.

But there are techniques that can make your job easier and your case more compelling. While this list is in no way comprehensive, these 10 strategies are used quite a bit because they work.

Repetition

Talk to anyone well versed in learning psychology, and they’ll tell you repetition is crucial. It’s also critical in persuasive writing, since a person can’t agree with you if they don’t truly get what you’re saying.

Of course, there’s good repetition and bad. To stay on the good side, make your point in several different ways, such as directly, using an example, in a story, via a quote from a famous person, and once more in your summary.
Reasons Why

Remember the power of the word because. Psychological studies have shown that people are more likely to comply with a request if you simply give them a reason why… even if that reason makes no sense.

The strategy itself does make sense if you think about it. We don’t like to be told things or asked to take action without a reasonable explanation. When you need people to be receptive to your line of thinking, always give reasons why.
Consistency

It’s been called the “hobgoblin of little minds,” but consistency in our thoughts and actions is a valued social trait. We don’t want to appear inconsistent, since, whether fair or not, that characteristic is associated with instability and flightiness, while consistency is associated with integrity and rational behavior.

Use this in your writing by getting the reader to agree with something up front that most people would have a hard time disagreeing with. Then rigorously make your case, with plenty of supporting evidence, all while relating your ultimate point back to the opening scenario that’s already been accepted.

Social Proof

Looking for guidance from others as to what to do and what to accept is one of the most powerful psychological forces in our lives. It can determine whether we deliver aid to a person in need, and it can determine whether we muster the courage to kill ourselves.

Obvious examples of social proof can be found in testimonials and outside referrals, and it’s the driving force behind social media. But you can also casually integrate elements of social proof in your writing, ranging from skillful alignment with outside authorities to blatant name dropping.
Comparisons

Metaphors, similes and analogies are the persuasive writer’s best friends. When you can relate your scenario to something that the reader already accepts as true, you’re well on your way to convincing someone to see things your way.

But comparisons work in other ways too. Sometimes you can be more persuasive by comparing apples to oranges (to use a tired but effective metaphor). Don’t compare the price of your home study course to the price of a similar course—compare it to the price of a live seminar or your hourly consulting rate.

Agitate and Solve

This is a persuasion theme that works as an overall approach to making your case. First, you identify the problem and qualify your audience. Then you agitate the reader’s pain before offering your solution as the answer that will make it all better.

The agitation phase is not about being sadistic; it’s about empathy. You want the reader to know unequivocally that you understand his problem because you’ve dealt with it and/or are experienced at eliminating it. The credibility of your solution goes way up if you demonstrate that you truly feel the prospect’s pain.
Prognosticate

Another persuasion theme involves providing your readers with a glimpse into the future. If you can convincingly present an extrapolation of current events into likely future outcomes, you may as well have a license to print money.

This entire strategy is built on credibility. If you have no idea what you’re talking about, you’ll end up looking foolish. But if you can back up your claims with your credentials or your obvious grasp of the subject matter, this is an extremely persuasive technique.

Go Tribal

Despite our attempts to be sophisticated, evolved beings, we humans are exclusionary by nature. Give someone a chance to be a part of a group that they want to be in—whether that be wealthy, or hip, or green, or even contrarian—and they’ll hop on board whatever train you’re driving.

This is the technique used in the greatest sales letter ever written. Find out what group people want to be in, and offer them an invitation to join while seemingly excluding others.
Address Objections

If you present your case and someone is left thinking “yeah, but…”, well, you’ve lost. This is why direct marketers use long copy—it’s not that they want you to read it all, it’s that they want you to read enough until you buy.

Addressing all the potential objections of at least the majority of your readers can be tough, but if you really know your subject the arguments against you should be fairly obvious. If you think there are no reasonable objections to your position, you’re in for a shock if you have comments enabled.

Storytelling

Storytelling is really a catch-all technique—you can and should use it in combination with any and all of the previous nine strategies. But the reason why storytelling works so well lies at the heart of what persuasion really is.

Stories allow people to persuade themselves, and that’s what it’s really all about. You might say that we never convince anyone of anything—we simply help others independently decide that we’re right. Do everything you can to tell better stories, and you’ll find that you are a terribly persuasive person.

As I mentioned, this is in no way a complete list. What other persuasive writing strategies work for you?

[via - copyblogger]

Why You Should Not Be Ashamed Of Being Home Based

LYNNE KILLEY followed the advice books when she opened a spa and started producing a line of natural skin care products out of her home in Pagosa Springs, Colo.: she tried to make her one-woman operation look bigger.

“I referred to the company in the third person,” she said. “I made a logo, Stella, and sometimes billed things out under Stella’s name.”

Then, last summer, Ms. Killey’s publicist organized a trip to New York so she could meet with magazine editors. In describing her business, Queen Bee Skin Care, Ms. Killey revealed that she made her products in her own kitchen. Even as she spoke, she said, she realized that perhaps her home-based model was a selling point and not something to hide.

“Here I was sitting in front of people that I needed to impress, and they just loved that I was making the stuff in my kitchen,” she said. Right about then, she rethought her strategy.

With about 50 percent of businesses in the United States based out of the home, this kind of transparency is likely to become more common. “Place honestly doesn’t matter anymore,” said Maggie Jackson, author of “What’s Happening to Home” (Sorin Books 2002).

“It is no longer a faux pas to have a life at the other end of the telephone line.” Ms. Jackson said. “It can make you feel like you’re dealing with a holistic person. And it is just another sign that we are moving away from the industrial age in that we no longer have two totally separate spheres called work and home.”

Just as customers, vendors and other outsiders are getting a chance to peek behind the curtain into home offices, home-based entrepreneurs are also getting more opportunities to interact with each other. StartupNation, an online hub for small businesses, is running a contest, the Home-Based 100, that will rank home-based businesses according to various criteria, including “the top financial performers,” “the greenest,” “the wackiest” and “boomers back in business.”

“Home-based businesses are out of the hiding part, but when we talk about business, we still talk about the Fortune 500, but not the half-trillion dollar economy of home-based businesses,” said Richard Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation. “This new community will also allow home-based businesses to connect with each other, get inspired and share best practices.”

Chris Elam, the founder and choreographer of Misnomer Dance Theater, runs the company out of his Brooklyn apartment, and he is a big proponent of transparency. His company videotapes rehearsals and even office meetings for posting on its video blog, which allows audiences to get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a dance company.

“Dance audiences traditionally interact with a dance company for only two hours a year and maybe get a couple of postcards,” Mr. Elam said. “But so much happens outside the performance, and we are trying to find ways of making the whole function of the company more open-source.”

Margot J. Tohn is another home-based business owner who thinks there is no point in hiding. Her decision to start a publishing business came after a disastrous evening of trying to find parking in the theater district in Manhattan. She thought she would write a book about finding parking in New York, and since she was staying in her childhood home in Larchmont, N.Y., it made sense to start her business there to keep her start-up costs low. She could also store books in the garage.

The book, “Park It! NYC”, is now in its second edition. She also works as a consultant for small financial advisers serving affluent families.

Around the same time she started her business, Ms. Tohn, 43, and her two sisters bought the house from their parents, who had moved to Florida for their retirement. Even with this rather unusual housing arrangement, Ms. Tohn says she has found that being candid often worked to her advantage.

“If the local bookstore runs out of my book, I can easily run some over,” she said. “My consulting clients know that I am unusually accessible. It isn’t uncommon for a client to call at 8 or 9 in the evening. It used to happen at 7 in the morning, but we put a stop to that.”

Clients also know that she often leaves the office midday to play tennis or tend to her garden, and leaves the cellphone behind. “When you start work 10 minutes after waking up, it’s healthy to take real breaks.”

Still, Ms. Tohn does not want to confuse her openness with a lack of professionalism. When she brings in a team of interns to help with a project, she sets them up in dining room where everyone can spread out around the table. “It’s all about creating a separate area from where I live,” she said.

She is also a stickler about noise. “I’ve learned from watching my two sisters keep home offices while raising their children,” she said. “When the door is shut to the office, it is shut, and they can’t be interrupted unless it’s blood or death.”

Debra M. Cohen, 40, by contrast, says she designed her business, a contractor referral service for homeowners, around the idea that she might be on the phone for business and her children might be making a ruckus in the background. Her company, Home Remedies of New York, has become so successful, she says, that she now offers consulting services to others who want to copy her business model in their communities. Ms. Cohen says she has home referral operators running her programs in nearly every state and Canada.

When exploring ideas for a business, she ran every idea through the “can it be done from home with kids underfoot” test, she said.

Working from home may allow for certain informalities, but it does not necessarily signal the size of an entrepreneur’s vision. Ms. Cohen’s business passed the million-dollar revenue mark four years after its founding. Bradley Rhine, 46, who works out of his home in San Jose, Calif., is a chief executive of Cogentes, a virtual consulting firm specializing in the information technology industry. Cogentes plans to hire 100 to 200 employees over the next several years.

The company has nine employees, in Atlanta, San Jose and Boston, and as it expands it does not consider where a person lives. “Our ongoing proposition as to find the best people wherever they are,” Mr. Rhine said.

He said his firm’s business model makes sense because it is now possible to outsource many aspects of a business’s operations. The company uses outside firms for payroll, benefits, human resources, recruiting and marketing.

No one commutes, and everyone can live where they want, he said. “It is just a ridiculous waste of time and resources. It is both wasteful and stressful,” he added. “Plus, it is bad for the environment.”

[via - NY Times]

Joe Sugarman's Triggers - Turning Money Poop into Shinola

Just as it is important to show your dirty laundry early for your prospect to see, it is equally important to clean it as well. The examples in the preceding chapter all involved first determining the negative features or the objections to the sale and then bringing them up right away.

But then comes the hard part. You’ve got to resolve the objections. For example, if I were selling a thermostat (as I mentioned in the previous example) and the prospect was required to install it, I would bring up the installation issue right away, at the beginning of the ad. I know from my experience with other sales that consumers do not relate to installation of an electrical product where live voltages and wires are involved.

By bringing up the possible objection and then resolving it, I’ve removed a major obstacle blocking the sale. In the installation example, I brought it up and then explained that the thermostat wires were only 24-volt—not enough to hurt anybody. I mentioned that the wires were all color-coded, making it easy to install.

In contrast, I’ve seen many of my competitors avoid bringing up an objection, and never resolving it either. I’ve watched their ads fail, too.

Here’s a very important point: You can’t just resolve an objection without first raising it. Let me give you an example of this from my own observations.

I was piloting my own private plane and was about 50 miles from Palwaukee airport in Wheeling, Illinois, where I was scheduled to land. The weather was perfect for flying. It was a bright, clear day—one of those rare days when you could see for miles. But the air traffic controllers were unusually quiet as I approached Palwaukee.

As I got closer to Palwaukee, I could see, off in the distance, a big fire near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. I landed my plane, parked, and walked into the airport flight office where I learned from a television broadcast that American Airlines flight 191 had just crashed on takeoff from O’Hare and that all its passengers had died.

That was May 25, 1979, and it was one of those memories that remain indelibly etched in my mind. The plane that crashed was a DC-10—one of McDonnell Douglas’s largest and most popular aircrafts. Immediately after the crash, it was determined that there was a hydraulic problem that, under certain circumstances, could cause loss of control and consequently a crash. McDonnell Douglas quickly corrected the problem, but for a while all DC-10s were grounded.

As if that wasn’t enough, the DC-10 was involved in two more crashes within a relatively short period of time. The last two were not related to any fault of the airplane, but the stigma of the American Airlines crash was still on the minds of the public. McDonnell Douglas realized that it had to do something to offset the negative publicity.

They picked Pete Conrad, a former astronaut, to write an advertisement and address the public concern. But instead of raising the issue of the plane crashes (as you would an objection) and then resolving it, the objection was totally ignored. The resulting ad was hollow. It talked about how safe the DC-10 was and how it was built to exacting standards and how 18 million engineering man-hours had been invested in the plane’s development. It went on and on. What was missing was the simple sentences, “No doubt you’ve heard of the recent series of DC-10 crashes. Well, there’s a few things you should know.”

I would then have brought out a number of things. First, that an unusual circumstance involving the hydraulic system caused the crash. Second, I would have explained what had been done to fix it and then gone on to reestablish trust in the plane’s safety by explaining the inspections and recently installed fail-safe systems.

In short, I would bring up the objections—thoughts that would come up in consumers’ minds—and then resolve them through the proactive measures that were already being taken.

Then I would say the things Pete Conrad said in his ad. Instead, the entire ad was focused on resolving perceived objections about the quality of construction of the plane, when that wasn’t what was on the minds of readers. Although Conrad resolved the issue of quality construction of the DC-10, he missed a major opportunity.

You are wasting your time resolving any objection unless you raise it first. And if you don’t raise the real objections that your prospects have in their minds, then you’re totally wasting your time.

The ad agency that created the DC-10 ad and the company who approved it may have had a different purpose in running their ad—more from a legal angle than from a marketing sense. But the ad nevertheless clearly failed to accomplish its intended purpose.

In the selling process, it is important to bring out an objection very early in the sales
presentation. It is equally, if not more, important to figure out a strategy for resolving the objection. By so doing, you solidly anticipate the resistance to your sales pitch and quickly resolve that resistance while getting respect from your prospect.
No matter what the problem is with your product or service, no matter how bad it may seem and no matter how badly you want to hide it, you must bring it to the surface early in the sales presentation and then resolve it. So the real question here is basically, “How can I take this problem and turn it into an opportunity?”

Very often, within a problem lies an opportunity so big it dwarfs the problem. Your job is to find the opportunity. Let me give you a few examples.

I was selling an ion generator. This product produced negative ions, which attached
themselves to micron-sized pollution particles and then precipitated the particles out of the air. The unit I was selling was sleek—a black, shiny cylinder with a slanted top that normally would look like a great art piece. But stuck on the very top of the unit, right in the middle of its slanted top, was this piece of metal that looked like steel wool. It was plain ugly and an eyesore. The problem was the eyesore—it did not make the unit look like it was an advanced space-age product.

The resolution was simply to title the ad, “Miracle Fuzz” and call attention to the piece of steel wool (or “fuzz” as I called it) as being the miraculous secret in the entire process. After all, it was the emitter for the ions and played a critical role in the product’s performance. The perception of the ugly fuzz was immediately transformed in the mind of the consumer from being a funny piece of steel wool into a miracle and the basis of this new appliance’s effectiveness. The ad ran for years and was one of our most popular ads.

Whenever I have come up with something I can call a problem, it triggers a reaction in my mind that says, “Where’s the opportunity?” One of the most satisfying things my customers used to tell me about my advertising was that it was totally disarming. They appreciated my raising problems with products that nobody else would consider raising and then resolving them in a completely satisfying way that transformed the problem into a major benefit.

You can do that easily in the selling process. Just list on one side of a sheet of paper the objections your prospect might have about your product. Then, on the other side, list ways you can resolve those objections and turn them into opportunities. But be careful. Here is where common sense comes into play. If you raise an objection that really isn’t much of an objection in the mind of your prospect, you are raising a red flag that doesn’t need to be raised, let alone resolved. The objections should be the serious concerns that your prospect typically will raise. It could be about competition, pricing, delivery—whatever the objection, raise it early in the sales presentation and then resolve it with a creative and proactive solution.

If your prospect raises an objection you totally didn’t expect or even realize could be a problem, you have the opportunity in the personal selling situation to resolve it right on the spot. Then, the next time you sell the same product to a new prospect, you’ll have a resolution ready for that objection if it is mentioned again. It won’t be a shock.

In my mail order ads, I had to anticipate all the objections my prospects might have, or I would not make the sale. But in personal selling you have the tremendous advantage of knowing precisely what the objection is, if indeed the prospect brings it up.

What happens when something unexpectedly bad happens during a product presentation?

The bad thing that happens then automatically assumes the role of the objection in the mind of the customer. You now have to creatively resolve it.

A good example of this happened to me in August, 1998, while I was appearing on QVC in London—an affiliate of QVC in the U.S. I was selling BluBlocker sunglasses to an English audience when my show host, Rob, decided to show how strong BluBlocker sunglasses are.

In the past, he would throw the sunglasses on the floor and then step on them with his large foot. Nothing would happen to the BluBlockers, proving how durable and strong the sunglasses really were.

On this day, something totally unexpected happened. Rob threw the BluBlockers on the floor, stepped on them with his big foot and broke a pair right at the hinge. Right there and then, as the broken pair of sunglasses lay on the floor, the objection in the minds of consumers was raised big time. But if you recall, I mentioned earlier that each problem has an opportunity and each opportunity is often much more powerful than the problem. Here’s what happened.

While Rob was literally speechless, I laughed and then said, “Rob, I’m glad you broke that pair. I really am. Lots of people watching might think that many of the demonstrations we put on here on QVC are rigged and not really truthful and here we have one that shows that indeed this is live television and that these tests aren’t rigged. Furthermore, notice where the sunglasses broke. Right at the hinge, which I’ve been saying for a long time is the weakest link in the entire pair.”

I then picked up the two pieces of BluBlockers and said, “You see the broken hinge area and how it is reinforced? Despite the reinforced hinge area, the sunglasses still broke, but this is about the only part of a pair of BluBlockers that can break and if it does, then you simply return it to the BluBlocker company and we will send you a replacement pair during our one-year warranty. Even if it is your fault.”

I used this dramatic moment to resolve several objections that were raised in the minds of consumers and maybe a few that weren’t even there but appeared as a result of a demonstration gone bad. And I resolved them promptly and quickly, proving that we were human, that we indeed were on live television, and that we back our product no matter what happens to it. We even had the opportunity to dramatically show how much reinforcement we put in the hinge area.

The broken sunglass demonstration was the talk of many of the other hosts at QVC that day, but most of the commentary was how I got out of it in a positive way.

Keep this very important story in mind when the worst thing happens in a presentation and something goes wrong. Remember that what went wrong just raised an objection and it is now time to creatively resolve it. If you do, the prospect will have much more respect for you than he or she had without the episode happening, as was my experience at QVC. In fact, sales of that particular pair of BluBlockers were greater than normal, which we directly related to the demonstration that went bad.

Resolving an objection does more than build confidence, inspire respect, and reflect your integrity. It resolves a conflict in the mind of the consumer that must be resolved to consummate a sale.
Trigger 5: Objection Resolution

[via - Triggers]

New Niche - Helping Seniors Relocate

Seniors are among those most likely to move, as they downsize or head off to sunny retirement digs. Yet moves can be especially hard on them, with heavy lifting and countless details to deal with, from emptying an attic to reconnecting an entertainment system. Adrienne Simpson, founder of Smooth Mooove, has staked her claim in what could become an attractive new industry.

Like so many entrepreneurs, she recognized a business opportunity after personally discovering a need. While moving her parents from Georgia to Michigan, she searched without success for a specialized company that would be able to help. Thanks to Simpson’s hard-knocks lessons, Smooth Mooove’s clients can now choose from a lengthy menu of services within three basic moving plans.

Services range from cleaning up vacated homes once all household items have been loaded on a truck, to hanging drapes and shopping for new items for a client’s new home. Although any move is costly, Simpson says Smooth Mooove can actually save time and money. Since family members often have to take time from work to help a parent move, the company isn’t just marketing its program to seniors, but also to corporate clients, as an employee benefit for children of aging boomers.

Smooth Mooove, based in Stone Mountain, Georgia, joins a growing list of concierge-like services focused on seniors, including other moving companies that are starting to serve this market. As populations age throughout the industrialized world, the need for similar services will expand, creating plenty of room for new competitors to differentiate themselves through innovative services or by segmenting the senior market in any number of ways.

Plush retirement communities, for example, might contract with a moving service as an added inducement to buyers. In the end, the success or failure of moving companies for seniors—as with any high-touch service enterprise—will hinge on how well they manage the details. And, equally important, on the respect, consideration and care given to their clients in the process.

[via - Springwise]