Why People Lose Money In The Stock Market?
If you??™ve never purchased stocks before, doing so for the first time can be a frightening thing. Tales of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, the tumultuous up and down nature of the market, and stories of people who lost their life savings investing in companies that went belly-up soon after are enough to whiten the hair of a first time investor and turn the bravest of the brave into an incontinent, drooling mess.
A common mistake that many people make when investing in stocks is one of simple ignorance and a demonstration of lemming-like herd mentality. When a particular stock starts to show a rising trend, many people start buying it, assuming that the stock will continue to rise and they will ???get rich quick.??? The laws of supply and demand dictate the prices in the stock market, so when many people are buying, the price does, in fact, go up. This causes many of the early birds to sell. They make some money, but the sudden change in climate from buying to selling makes people panic and they too sell, fearful that the bottom will drop out and they??™ll be left with worthless stock. These people often wind up selling in desperation for less than what they paid. The ???buy low, sell high??? mantra has gone out the window for them and they lose money.
Let it Ride
Part of the problem is that too many people look at the stock market as a short term investment. While it??™s true that if you??™re lucky enough to get in at the beginning of a Microsoft, a Yahoo, an Ebay, or a Coca-Cola, you can make a great deal of money very quickly. You stand as good a chance of hitting a progressive jackpot in Las Vegas. Instead, when choosing a stock to invest in, consider it a long term investment. Listen to the advice of your broker and select a company that isn??™t likely to bottom out anytime soon. Pay attention to what your stock is doing, but don??™t suffer heart palpitations every time it drops in price. If there are severe signs of danger, your broker will let you know. Then, if the stock does suddenly jump considerably in price, you can consider selling at a nice profit and investing elsewhere. If not, you??™ve got a solid investment in your future.
Prospecting Is Usually Frustrating..Take The Responsibility Out Of The Hands Of Your Sales Professionals
Prospecting in a highly valued activity for any companies but a majority of these companies get this wrong, Most of them spend numerous amount of cycles making their sales professionals prospect.
The irony is most sales professionals are not good at generating leads; in fact many hate the word prospecting.
Inherently sales people are focused on their quotas; meeting their revenue goals and making their commissions.? They are compensated on performance and are measured against hard numbers. Prospecting involves activities that may or many not result in any tangiable outcome afterall.
Lead generation is a marketing function. Take the responsibility out of the hands of your sales professionals ? and create efficient marketing processes that are primarily focused on lead generation and? lead qualification.
Once you have captured the lead, pre-qualify the lead to a reasonable extent and then involve your Account Managers to further qualify a bit more. ? The goal is to have your sales team effectively engage in the preparation process which could be a combination of demonstrations, proof of concept, objection handling to eventually realizing the sale.
Let your sales team focus on the closure; instead of spending valuable time prospecting cold leads. Help your sales professionals with as much as collateral as possible equip them with ? all the know how on what they have to do to reduce the sales cycle.
Sales people dislike Prospecting as it takes away a lot of their personal ? time. So develop good marketing processes that generate quality leads. Leverage your partners.? ?
Come up with ? creative ? marketing strategies ? that will combine the internet, your business partners and ? direct mail and any other kind of channels that are available to you.
Happy Hunting!
Taking Advantage of Offered Opportunities
Recently I was speaking with a friend of mine who had just started working for American Express.? Having known others who worked for the company in the past, I was somewhat familiar with the impressive benefits package they offer their employees.
???They have a really good 401k program, don??™t they???? I asked him.? I was surprised by his response.
???Yeah it seems pretty good.? I??™m not going to use it though.???
His reasoning for not taking advantage of the opportunity was that he was in an entry level job and didn??™t see how he could afford to have a percentage of his income yanked out of each paycheck and socked into a program that he wouldn??™t be able to benefit from for some time.? The fact that the company was willing to match, dollar for dollar, the amount he invested up to a certain percentage didn??™t sway his decision at all.
His attitude, unfortunate as it is, is not uncommon.? According to Hewitt Associates Incorporated??™s 2004 benchmarking report How Well are Employees Saving and Investing in 401k, just over 70% of eligible American workers were participating in their companies??™ 401k plans.? This number represents an increase over previous years, but there is no conceivable reason that it is not in the 90-100% range.
Refusing to participate in an employer??™s offered 401k program is like turning down free money.? If your employer offered to give you an extra fifty dollars every week, just for showing up, you??™d take it.? When employers match workers??™ 401k contributions, even by just a percentage; that is essentially what they??™re doing.
If you have the opportunity to invest a percentage of your salary in a 401k or similar retirement plan through your employer, take it.? Even if you??™re not going to be at the job for an extended period of time, there are programs, which allow you to transfer those funds to the plan offered by your next employer.
If you have your own company? explore the possibility of starting a single employee 401K plan, if that is not possible try a SEP IRA plan. 401k plans, stock options, and profit sharing programs offered by companies to their employees can only help you establish a savings and investment plan for your retirement, your children??™s education, and your general future.? By failing to participate you??™re denying yourself the opportunity of a more secure future and, essentially free moneyNot even Bill Gates or Donald Trump is so wealthy that they??™d turn down free money.? Are you that wealthy?