Are You Certain of What Will Happen?

holes-in-bucket

A few years ago I learned a technique that has drastically changed my approach and effectiveness with my sales.

Imagine yourself as a sales manager running a sales team.

At some point in the sales process a sales person is going to place a proposal in front of a perspective client. It’s at this time that the sales manager should hold the sales person accountable by having the sales person do the following.

The Salesperson must be able to exactly describe to management what will happen if we put this proposal on the table.

Now from a sales manager’s perspective this is a critical concern in managing a sales organization or an independent salesperson.

What a sales manager wants to hear is what is going to happen, not what they feel will happen, but what will happen. That’s the goal. read more →

 

Why You Should Make Sure Others Steal Your Ideas

steal ideasYou should strive to have your ideas stolen.

Over the last few days a few of my friends on Facebook have spoken out about how their ideas or strategies have been adopted (stolen). Now these are ideas/strategies they haven’t readily shared but other marketers did what all market participants do, they watch their market and adapted.

While this might seem like a problem to some it’s actually what you should strive for.

If you notice your ideas are starting to get picked up it shows you’re having an impact on the market. It should also cause you some level of discomfort but not for the reason you might think.

This should be an early warning that your idea or strategy is about to lose effectiveness. The more saturated an idea or concept becomes typically the harder it is to stand out and grab the attention of your market. read more →

 

Slow Down, Stop, Read this Post

stop-signSeriously, why did you click to come here?

What was your desired outcome?

What did you expect to gain? Some insight or some knowledge you didn’t already have?

If you’re reading this right now you have traded the most important thing you have—your time.

I highly appreciate that but let me ask you one simple question.

Is there anything that you desire in your life or business that you have yet to accomplish?

If so then I would suggest that you stop reading this post now, close your browser, turn off your phone and take one immediate action that’s going to get you closer to that goal.

See you in the next post.

P.S. I bet what ever that thing is that came to your mind you can take an immediate action (that you haven’t or didn’t have planned) today.

 

Choosing When You Have Too Many Options

choosing-when-you-have-many-options

In the past few weeks I’ve had quite a few conversations with people and business owners where they feel completely overwhelmed. The overriding feeling is they have so many ideas or directions they could or should be going but they aren’t quite sure what to do.

So they end up doing one of two things. Either they try to do them all, barely achieving anything or they do nothing failing to act due to indecision.

I’ve also fell prey to this as well, oftentimes over committing my time and efforts when I should focus on fewer items.

First, if you feel this way realize you’re not alone. Also realize there is no magical zen moment in the future where it all becomes clear.

I do not know one high achiever that has a lack of options or has reduced the decisions they have to make on a consistent basis. Actually as you obtain more success your options grow exponentially. Typically this is because you have more access to quality people and resources such as capital. That’s not all though, it’s the new perspectives gained along the way that allows more options to be discovered.

When these conversations come up here is where I try to lead people: read more →

 

TL;DR 2012

No real reason for this pic other than it’s a great shot of old Kiev from Valerii9116

Now that  you’re officially back from vacation (I know some of us showed up last week but now your mind has caught up, right?). In case you didn’t religiously check our site every day here’s some of our most popular stuff from the last year with distilled down to the essence of each post (what is TL:DR?): read more →

 

Lessons We Learned in 2013

lessons-2014Wow, 2013 went by in a blink, it seems like just last week it was 2012.

So here’s what we learned in 2013:

  • People are still talking about social media like it’s this new shiny thing but ultimately it’s become a feature
  • We proved again that direct mail still works (spurred on by our good friend at Dempsey Marketing), although it’s a mix of direct with new media elements.
  • This last year belonged to the people who shipped great stuff
  • We found effective ways to convert in with the new norm… the dual screen consumption environment.
  • Responsive designs made its way into every major web property on the planet
  • Email was still one of the most effective permission marketing channels
  • The best Tweet of the year came early.
  • SEO did not die, the true practitioners figured out how to build and at times mimic the footprint of a trusted brand. T he industry did take a big left turn with some people turning right and ending up in the desert.
  • Content marketing did well and has a good future as we look ahead in 2014
  • Curation also did good as well (with a little help of our newly updated platform Curation Traffic)
  • Wow, did Facebook innovate the social ad space
  • Google Live Hangouts actually was a pretty good strategy for awareness
  • The basics still ruled… have an offer that’s irresistible for a target market and get that target market to see your offer

Can’t wait for what 2014 will bring!

 

Are You Comfortable? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Be.

comfort-stationRight now as you read this how comfortable are you?

I don’t mean the “I’ve got on my favorite sweater, my coffee cup is full and I’ve had a good night of sleep” kind of comfortable. I mean how much of your daily activities are within your comfort zone?

More specifically how much of what you have planned for today, tomorrow and this week makes you a little uneasy?

Or how much of what you have planned makes you feel like you’re standing on the edge of a 50ft rocky cliff about to jump in the water below?

Let’s get a little mathematical up in here. On a percentage basis how comfortable do you feel right now? Meaning are you 90% comfortable with your next seven days, or maybe 80%, or 50%.

I hope that status bar on your forehead is right around 20%… read more →

 

8 Universal Motivations

8-universal-motivations[1]

Whenever I sit down to write sales copy, create a sales script, or figure out how to reach a target market I start with the basics. In essence I try to imagine a single person in the target market and what their thoughts and concerns are… I then use the 8 universal motivations found below to spur specific ideas and insight.

These ultimate motivations are what people “really” want. Your product or service is the vehicle that will help them achieve one or some of these deep held motivations. They important part is to align your messaging with as many of these motivations as you can, while still staying true to the ultimate benefit your product or service provides.

read more →

 

Books That Could Change Your Life

books that could change your lifeCould a book really change your life? Sure, if a book immediately changes your way of thinking or opens up a whole new world to you that you didn’t know existed. I think what happens for most of us though is good books give us tiny nudges in certain directions. Some of those nudges are like a full force hit from a linebacker and some are like a sign that points us in the right direction. We’ve listed some books below that have had a huge impact for us both professionally and personally. Although we probably will add more books like 1984 the majority of these books do have some kind of business implication. Also you can add to our list on books that change your life below: read more →

 

Taking Advantage of the Spotlight Effect

Spotlight Effect – do people really care about you as much as you do.

This might shock you and I’m not sure how to tell you this but you are not the center of the universe. At least not in the eyes of others around you. Quite a few studies have shown that people assume their features and behaviors are more salient to others than what they generally are.

This has a name, the Spotlight effect, and is the tendency to believe that other people are paying closer attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are.

read more →