Monday, September 24, 2012

Crash Diets and Good Habits


"Successful people (and businesses) are simply those with successful habits."
- Brian Tracy

 
From Seth Godin's Blog:

Crash diets don't work.

They don't work for losing weight, they don't work for making sales quota and they don't work for getting and keeping a job.
 
The reason they don't work has nothing to do with what's on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don't work is that they don't change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.

If you want to get in shape, don't sign up for fancy diet this or that the other thing. No, the way to get in shape is to go to the gym every single day, change your clothes and take a shower. If you can do that every single day for a month, pretty soon you'll start doing something while you're there...

If you want to make sales quota, get in the habit of making more sales calls, learning more about your market and generally showing up. If you show up, with right intent, you'll start making sales. The secret isn't a great new pitch or a new pair of shoes. The secret is showing up. (and Serving others)

Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We're proud of you for having them. But it's possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that's really frightening you--the shift in daily habits that would mean a re-invention of how you see yourself.
 
Organizations can always benefit from better habits. Every day. Do that first.

Rick Editorial: It is all about Habits, you cannot break bad habits you can only replace them with new and better ones.

Do You Have A People Strategy?


"Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers."
- Tony Robbins  

 

From Seth Godin:

Hard to imagine a consultant or investor asking the CMO, "So, what's your telephone strategy?"

We don't have a telephone strategy. The telephone is a tool, a simple medium, and it's only purpose is to connect us to interested human beings.

And then the internet comes along and it's mysterious and suddenly we need an email strategy and a social media strategy and a web strategy and a mobile strategy.

No, we don't.

It's still people. We still have one and only one thing that matters, and it's people.

All of these media are conduits, they are tools that human beings use to waste time or communicate or calculate or engage or learn. Behind each of the tools is a person. Do you have a story to tell that person? An engagement or a benefit to offer them?

(Rick Editorial: I would add, do you know your Ideal Customer? Their pains and fears? Are you offering unique solutions to these pains and fears? Are you talking about them and not you?)

Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler.

All the best,
Rick Wallace 

The Power of Serving In Your Marketing

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." 
- Napoleon Hill, author

The power of information marketing is growing every day. I constantly suggest to my clients that Serving is better than selling. Understand your Ideal Customer/Prospect and build a message or Value Proposition that first speaks about them and their pain, then about what you do and why you are different or the best at doing it.

The power of this approach was demonstrated to me yesterday while listening to the radio on the way to a client meeting. There is a company called Buffalo Hardwood which sells and installs wood flooring here in town. The owner came on and said (I paraphrase here):

"It seems like every day I talk to someone who says they can't have wood floors in their home because they have a dog. They fear the dogs nails will scratch and ruin the flooring so they put tile or some other floor covering in their homes. With the new hardwoods and new finishes we have now you can absolutely have wood floors and own a dog. American cherry and several other woods are too soft to work but we have a wide selection of other woods and finishes that will never scratch, etc. Then he talked about his company and why they were the best solution and different from the rest."
 
If he would have done the usual commercial "telling me all about him and his company, how long they have been in business, how great they are, that they are the best, etc." I would not have heard a word of it. But he talked about a pain I have, something I could relate to, so I tuned in.  

My wife and I have talked about replacing our foyer with wood flooring but had always ruled it out because of our dog. When I got home I went straight to my wife and told her we could have wood floors with our dog. Now we plan to go to the store and see what they have.  

Find the pain and then create TIPS like the one above that solves your Ideal Customer's pain and fears. Serve them by sharing information and then get it in front of them with email, Facebook, radio, direct mail, however you get your messaging out. Serve don't sell.  

All the best,
Rick Wallace 

Serve and Your Success Will Come

"Go out and mow a lawn."
- Michael McNeil 
(What? Listen to the 4 minute audio below)

A few years ago I traveled to the west coast to attend coaching school with Steve Chandler. He remains my coach and mentor, and in the class was a guy named Michael McNeil who was a well-known coach in his own right. Steve always talked about the fact you cannot "sell" coaching. People have to want it and be fully committed to it for it to pay dividends and work.

Of course as an old marketing/sales guy that threw me for a loop. Then how was I going to get any clients?

He said be a coach and serve people. In fact, he convinced me that that is the way every business should operate. Don't sell, don't please, simply serve and you will become successful. You know, it works. It has worked for me and it works for my clients.

Every time I have proposed to a client that they have to find a way to serve their prospects I get push back like, "I can't afford to do that" or "I can't give my ideas and solutions out to everyone, then they won't need me", etc.

You will be much more successful serving (i.e. demonstrating what you can do for them) than spending all your time and money trying to sell them on what you do. Think of it as a cost of marketing. That time you spend serving can then be weighed against the return in sales and leads. It will be the best ROI you have ever had.

What could you offer prospects for FREE that would demonstrate the value your product or service and how it solves the pains of your Ideal Customers?

Listen to this  4 minute audio from Michael on this - mowing lawns.

All the best,
Rick Wallace