Securities Market Line

Before we get started, do you know who discovered the mere exposure effect? It was Robert Zanjonc, a social psychologist, who advocated the effect of a stimuli on a person that he was repeatedly exposed to. He said that when someone was exposed to a stimuli, with every exposure, the person was liable to become more familiar with the stimuli and fear it less than before, until a point is reached when the person does not react negatively on being exposed to the stimuli. It may also be said that the subject starts exhibiting positive reactions to the stimuli. This theory was applied more universally, than being specific to the effects of advertising, and pointed towards the cognition and affect relationship between the subject and stimuli. An experiment conducted by Professor Charles Goetzinger, in 1968, at the Oregon State University affirmed this theory. The experiment showed how human psychology works and reacts when an external stimuli is introduced in the environment. It starts with hostility and soon turns to inquisitiveness, eventually encouraging the subjects to adopt a more positive attitude towards it, following repeated exposure. When you have more face time with a product, prompted through advertising, you become familiar with it even before you have bought it. Constant exposure through television advertisements, print advertisements in journals and magazines, billboard advertising and even online ads create the effect that advertising is aiming for.

One of the best examples of the mere exposure effect is, as a matter of fact, advertising. However, take the example of online advertising itself, when you are surfing through a website and stop by at a particular web page, there is a high probability that there is at least one ad on it. It may be a flashy banner or a simple text ad of a few words. However, you cannot negate the fact that you are aware of what that ad is advertising. You cannot ignore an ad when it suddenly pops between the text that you are reading. In fact, the more attractive the online ad is, the more you are likely to get distracted by it and spend time viewing it. Over time, as a person repeatedly views the ad, he will expectedly show more inclination to the product that was advertised as compared to other products that he may not be familiar with at all. However, the mere exposure effect in advertising is not all that rosy. It comes with its cons. Although, advertising may successfully expose the product or service to more prospective buyers, it brings with it more associations which may or may not always be favorable. You ultimately end up buying what you really liked about the product, based on your perception of its advertisement, your need for the product and/or reviews from other sources. This is not totally contradictory to the previous statements. Advertising can indeed only entice you to make a purchase and in the end, it is up to the consumer’s buying decision to take that step. Read the rest of this entry »

Initially, cold callers simply took an allotted list of consumers from a directory and started calling them. It did work when mobile phones had just started being extensively used. But it did not work well after everyone had a mobile phone and people spent hours on it. Most of the consumers disparaged cold calls as a desperate, disturbing and irritating effort to sell products. Cold calling did pace down because of its decreasing productivity, along with the negative impression generated about the company represented. Cold calling is not a job that just anyone can do, but it is a skill that has to be learned and adapted. Most of the cold callers don’t know how to manage and continue a cold call keeping the consumer intrigued and interested. Most of the callers end up turning off the customers, compelling them to hang up.

Also, because of recession the sales ratio of various companies had fallen down considerably. This has led to lowering the revenue trends. On top of this, the cost efficiency in making cold calls was also seeing a downfall. The cost involved in employing cold callers, paying for the telephone charges and maintaining a consumer report was increasing, compared to the productivity associated with it. This could be because, cold calling as a source of providing information about a product to a consumer has been replaced with Ads on websites, via emails, on social networking websites.

Current Trends Adapted
Cold calling has now adopted a new outlook. Cold callers no longer pick up a random calling list, and start calling. The calling list is now more sorted and more specific. First, data of the potential consumers is collected by the means of surveys, client inquiry, leads from other sources, etc. From this, a lot of information of the clients is extracted, like annual income, occupation type, number of family members, etc. As per the information collected, consumer’s financial status and needs are estimated and calls are then processed. If sufficient information about a consumer is not available, then calls are made, not just to inform the customer about a product but to take his details like an email address, or home address. Once these details are attained, another team works on sending emails or/and free samples to their residences. Marketing strategy of sending an email or free samples is a better option than just cold calling. This is because, in this method a customer gets to learn about the schemes at his own comfort. This way he also remains in the right state of mind to express his interest, and the company saves itself from attaining a negative impression. Read the rest of this entry »

Inform the Franchisor
The first person you need to inform about your decision to sell the franchise is the franchisor. Keeping the franchisor in the loop can also help getting in contact with prospective buyers in the area. Franchisors have a strong network and often have information about potential franchise buyers. Taking their help can get you a good deal and reduce your effort substantially. Secondly, as the franchisor will already be aware of the buyer’s details, it will result in a win-win situation for you as well as the franchisor.

Study the Market
It is very important to study the market before listing your business for sale. Market research will help you to identify the current market scenario and the kind of buyers you can expect for the business. It also helps in understanding whether the market is booming or is slowing down, which will help you to decide the selling price. A high selling price can be quoted if the market is good and vice-versa. A realistic selling price will attract potential buyers and increase the chances of settling the sales deal.

Decide the Sales Package
A sales package has to be prepared to inform the buyer about all the things that he will get the charge of like assets, employees, equipment, materials, etc., that are a part of the business. The package must also include the price of the franchise that is fixed after thorough market study. It is the duty of the owner to inform employees about the decision of selling the business.

Advertise the Franchise
Advertising is extremely necessary to attract potential buyers for the franchise. If efforts are not made to inform the buyers, there are very less chances of someone approaching you to buy the business even though, it may be one of the best business opportunities. To list the franchise in the market, you can place advertisements on business websites, local newspapers or contact franchise consultants who can get you in touch with potential buyers.

Prepare Sales Pitch
A perfect sales pitch is the key to strike the deal. Therefore, practice your sales pitch several times before actually facing potential buyers, as it will help you to prepare answers for questions that are most likely to be asked. Keeping yourself well-informed of the current market trends, profit history and future prospects of the business will help in instilling confidence within the buyer.

Expert witnesses are generally experts in their field of work and many of them possess higher qualifications like a PhD degree. Though a doctorate is not a mandatory qualification required, experience and sound knowledge of their concerned field are factors that are important. The more education a person has, the more he/she will be trusted by the court to be an expert witness. The qualifications of the expert witness are generally verified by the concerned court authorities and so you should neatly document and present your skills. Many experts, to popularize and advertise their services, use websites through which they can also convey their availability to be a witness. There are schools that provide training to the potential candidates and help them obtain the important experience of the work. The work of the expert witness generally involves producing and preparing documents after studying the evidence cases.

What are the Required Skills to Become an Expert Witness?
Becoming an expert witness is quite a challenging task. Apart from holding the right qualification, the expert witness should also possess many other skills, some of them being communication and writing skills. He should have writing skills because it is the work of the expert witness to document all the evidence for the scrutiny of the court authorities. He also has to take care that the written format is well documented and easy to understand for the people involved.

How Much Can an Expert Witness Expect to be Paid?
Considering the challenge and responsibility involved with the job, expert witnesses are quite substantially paid. There are as such no perfect salary figures and the pay varies from one case to another. An expert who has experience of giving testimony to the court would demand a higher amount and would be well paid than the experts who have no court experience. The pay of expert witnesses is quite similar to the pay scale of lawyers. In special cases, the expert witnesses can cut down on their fees, like in cases where the people involved with the case cannot pay the required fees. This entirely depends on the experts and the lawyers involved with the case.

Mentioned above were the details to become an expert witness, a job that comes with high responsibility. Expert witnesses, to avoid controversy, should be impartial and not let pressure affect them to modify the truth and authenticity of their opinion. This is because their findings have a very high say on deciding the fate of the case and deciding the judgment. If you are interested in becoming an expert witness, you should have a sound background knowledge of your area of work and the ability to justify your points.