I was reading an article by Richard Adams regarding the ‘Pencil Principle,’ In short, what he is saying is that the success of the humble pencil is due to the fact that it does just one thing and does it very well. It makes marks on a piece of paper.

It does not pretend to be anything other than what you can see or feel. There are a number of other ways of making marks on a piece of paper but the pencil is still up there with the best of them.

Can a fountain pen write upside-down? Can you easily wipe out the marks of a ball point pen when you change your mind about something you have written? The pencil will be with us for a long time to come.

Richard quotes both Amazon and eBay as brilliant examples of this principle.. Their success is due entirely to concentrating upon doing just the one thing and doing it extremely well.

How many of us are trying to do too many things at once? How many of us have started to do one thing and been side tracked into trying something else before we have reaped the potential rewards of our first project? It has happened to a lot of us. Myself included.

How many of us have seen what looks like a fantastic venture that had nothing in common with what we are doing at the time and jumped in with two big feet only to find that it was no better than the project that we were working on before? (Be honest, at least with yourself.)

Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked. Concentrate on the one thing. Develop a condition similar to ‘Tunnel Vision.’ Let nothing outside distract you from the purpose in hand. Do just one thing and do it better than anyone else. Be like the pencil.

To be successful in business you don’t need to be different from your competitors. You need to be better than your competitors. Study the project. How does it work? What makes it tick? How popular is it? How long has it been in operation? Could you cope with the work involved? Have you the right qualifications to enable you to succeed? If not, can you realistically gain those qualifications?

How strong is the opposition? Study them. What exactly do they do? How do they do it? Is there another way of doing it? Is there a better way of doing it? Is there a niche within the system that is not being exploited? Concentrating upon a small section of the potential market can often prove more profitable than the wider audience.

What can you offer that the others can’t, or don’t? Can you package it in a different way? Do you offer freebies? Are your freebies more valuable than those of your competitors? What about your guarantee? Most companies offer a guarantee of up to three months. Customers expect that much at least.

Try offering a full twelve months guarantee. That is a lot more than expected and if your product is everything that you say it is, you won’t get any more returns than your opposition.

Is your product easy to use? Would an instruction manual help to increase sales? A half page of information on how to get the best results from their purchase can often tip the balance between buying from you rather from someone else who does not provide this service.

Be honest. Be strictly honest in every aspect of your business dealings. Don’t over hype your product. Tell it as it is. Say exactly what it will do. Explain how much better off your clients will be if they purchase from you. Whatever claims you make, be prepared to prove them to the clients satisfaction.

Don’t try to convince people that if they buy your product it will make them rich. Products don’t make people rich. Using the product to it’s best advantage could possibly make someone rich. It is up to the purchaser as to how much effort he or she puts into using it.

How can they contact you if they have a problem?

They will already have your website address. They will need an e-mail address as well. Make sure that it is printed on every piece of correspondence that you send out. Your office or home phone number is the biggest confidence booster that you can provide.. It proves that you are a real person who is genuinely interested in ensuring customer satisfaction.

Don’t worry about being hounded by phone calls day and night. Just say that they can call you on this number during normal office hours. Or whatever is more convenient. I don’t get more than a dozen phone calls a year, but the fact that they could call me if the need arose is what matters.

Think like a pencil.