In the information age, the ability to copy is convenient and tempting. I have seen an array of imitators who think nothing of taking ideas, content, images and intellectual property to further their own agendas. It’s easy to track them and fun to watch what typically unfolds.
The copycat is always a follower. They do not conceive; they merely scavenge. They don’t pay the price that a true artist does. Thus, they miss the nuance of what makes great art. The nuance comes from understanding.
If you have written thousands of hours of content or set up countless business systems, the nuance comes easy. Amateurs will make the broad strokes and miss the details. It is because there is a lack of understanding. They took the shortcuts and it shows in their output. They lack substance and are shallow in their understanding because they are clouded by greed.
It’s a wonderful time to be doing business. Everyone has opportunity to create art, music, content or whatever pursuit tickles their fancy. It is easy to distribute in today’s information age. However, the core which makes authentic art connect with buyers and fans is that nuance which separates those that pay a real price and those that think they can merely copy. In your own endeavors, keep raising the bar so high that the copycats can only blunder in their stupor.
Have you seen the commercial with the offer that is good only for the first 100 callers in the area? Yes, that one! The one that has been playing for months on end and displays a counter of the calls coming in.
This is what is called product-focused one-way spin. It is intended to interrupt what you are doing with a loud advertisement and spin a one-way message about a product. The idea is simple: to get you to pay attention.
This is one example of advertising that doesn’t work. It has lost its credibility. We don’t believe it; therefore, we ignore it.
Today the playing field is level for those who want to compete. It is done with “new marketing” or better, “permission marketing.” Permission marketing easily wins because it is focused on interaction, information, education, and choice. No longer is it a one-way interruption. Permission marketing is about delivering your message to the right person, at the right time, and with the right message. You get that right, and you win.
Your tools are commodities. Everyone can get access to them today. In fact, everyone does access the tools. The case, more often than not, is that they are underused, misused or irrelevant in most people’s business. The tools are a lot like sports equipment. There is a lot of hype to get someone to buy a workout machine, tennis racquet or bike. Visit the typical person in 6 months, and you find them as artifacts in de facto storage.
We live in an age of abundance. Tools are cheap and ubiquitous. If tools were the answer, then everyone would be wildly successful in their business. Such is not the case. There is typically a giant blind spot which makes success elusive. It has to do with strategy. Strategy is the enabler for making tools part of a system which makes money. Strategy comes from thinkers that can see the opportunities and deliver specific, relevant and timely systems to exploit those opportunities. Strategy comes from talent, not tools.
Putting the pieces together is much more of a challenge in an age of abundance. As tools continue to commoditize and approach in many cases, a zero price point, the real challenge lies in creating the processes which drive business results.
Social media does not make money for most businesses. Strategic lead nurturing does. Adwords is often expensive and wasteful. Relevant campaigns to connect and entice a clicker is what makes the return on investment.
From the outside, successful businesses and people look like they can be mimicked if we acquire the same accessories and tools they use. It is a grave misconception. Under the hood, they have refined an art form into a system. An actress makes her lines look easy. To be like her would mean to start the journey of countless iterations and working on the minutiae which separates mediocre from great performers. So it goes in today’s economy.
The truth is, talented people can take multiple tools to achieve the same result. A tennis pro can use any racquet and still outplay the vast majority of people. A world-class cook can use Wal-Mart cooking utensils and deliver a much more elegant meal than a housewife who has Williams Sonoma class cookware. It’s the player, not the racquet. It’s the cook, not the cookware. So it goes, it’s the talent, not the tools. Perhaps your success is only elusive because you see the gadgets and not the goal. Get the right talent and let them leverage the tools to help you. Focus only on the talent you truly have, which is likely one or two specialties. Strategy always trumps good tools.
Everything in business today is fraught with peril. The opportunities for failure are many. For success, they are much fewer. There are many who are paralyzed by the thought of failure and, therefore, do the best they can to minimize failures in their life. In the end they limit their own success in the process. There are a few who embrace their failures, having the confidence that it is not the end of the world. The obvious difference between the two is a mindset for what success is.
In the movie, Pretty Woman with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, there is a scene where Richard Gere takes his date to a business meeting, a rather unfriendly business meeting. I like this setting because you can feel the emotion in the room when the business negotiations become tense. However, there is a calmness and predictability as to how Richard Gere reacts in the moment, as he positions himself and chooses his words. It’s not only his choice of words, but his style, his appearance, his manners, and his stage. It is a picture of professionalism. Living in the moment. Perfection!
The reality is, it was staged. It is only a movie. But there are some things that we can learn from this movie that can impact our success.
If you are seeking to be regarded as a professional you must treat your work as theatre and your business as a stage. In other words, know your sales and buying processes. How does a person experience you? Is it boring? An amateur will find excuses for not making it perfect – such as: not enough resources, not enough time, not enough budget, etc. The professional will realize that failure is part of perfecting the process. The goal is large enough to make it worthwhile. They find a way to make it happen. They will pay the price that others won’t.
If you are seeking to be regarded as a professional, you must be professional. Do you know your lines? Do you have a “breadcrumb” trail that makes a sale predictable, or are you winging it? Does your business card speak professional or economical? Does your website say wow or ho-hum? Does your appearance need a makeover? What about your business process? When unexpected road bumps or obstacles occur, how do you treat your customer?
If you are seeking to be regarded as a professional, you must elevate your performance. Is your mind occupied with meaningless chatter around the water cooler at work or do you have ideas that people want to hear? What books are you reading? Do you have a Kindle that is readily accessible in a business setting with notes from a particular book that would make a difference for that customer you’re dining with? Do you know two or three books that can help a customer who is interested in opinions on business process or why people buy? Are you sought out for your knowledge or because you’re just a clog in the wheel?
The majority are not thinking about these things. They are just going through the motions with hope as their strategy. The professional, on the other hand, is always working on their trade. Refining their processes, improving their knowledge, growing their influence, and leveraging their failures.
What about you?
Tools come and go. What is popular today will soon become obsolete tomorrow. Despite this fact, most people become obsessed with the tools of the trade rather than the ideas that create the success.
So rather than becoming obsessed with your tools that are likely to change, how about becoming obsessed about the creation of ideas that make you remarkable?
A good example is a company called Little Miss Matched. Their idea was beyond remarkable. They sell 3-socks to a box and none of them match. The goal to have every young girl say to another young girl, “Wanna see my socks?” This is a small company, who in only five years secured $17 million in funding for their idea!
What ideas are you thinking? There is no shortage of tools. However, there is always a demand for those who have great ideas.
Want to get started on idea creation? Let me encourage you to purchase a Moleskine. A Moleskine is a nice pocket size journal. Take this journal and begin writing and sketching ideas. Before you know it, you will refine some ideas that happen to be remarkable.
We are never going back. We would rather download music or stream it than build up our CD collection. We watch movies on demand. We read our newspapers via the net. We have digital devices to serve our instant gratification needs for what is happening. We are fully in the information age. The industrial age is over.
Perhaps this perspective could parallel the changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. Imagine with the onset of machinery and the ability to produce goods at higher capacity that a farmer protested that we still needed to harvest crops the old fashioned way – by hand. Old time advice to till and work and sweat because that was how it had always been done would be outdated advice. It would be nonsense when the world had changed and such challenges had been resolved.
Such an argument exists today with how people believe business should be done. Thinking that we make things cheaper, faster and better is inconsequential in a global economy. Making things on mass scales is a commodity. Thinking we can connect with customers the old ways – direct mail, cold calls, advertising and all the other old school methods – shows a detachment from reality. There are much better ways available based on buyer behaviors.
Because we are fully in the information age, however, does not mean that we need to compromise personal touch. It is not mutually exclusive. It is actually even more important than ever. To connect with your customer, you must stand above all the noise with your value offering, work harder to prove your value and connect personally. Otherwise, you will be ignored. Gimmicks and shortcuts only damage your brand today. The choices and ease of accessibility to your competition levels the playing field fast.
It’s hard for people trapped in industrial-age-thinking to change. They don’t want to; I can understand. After all, what they did previously worked. It’s just not true today. They have changed as buyers. Their buyers work, connect and buy differently as well.
In the information age, having a technology system to connect with your buyer personally is critical. Putting it together in an elegant and precise way takes thinking, commitment and strategy. Technology is not a bad word. Using technology badly is more a problem than technology itself. Thinking in an old school way and expecting different results contributes further to the problem.
If you hope selling can happen without the internet, then your business is already atrophying. The key is not to get bogged down by all the technology. All the technology exists to make you wildly successful. How it is put together strategically to connect personally for a desired result is the heavy lifting that every business has to think through and execute. Two things may be stopping you from success in your business – your perceptions and you. Step back and look at both. If you can see reality and get the help you need to put the right strategy into place, then technology will become an enabler for your business to grow and prosper. It’s only a bad word when there is bad thinking involved.
Do you remember recommending that attorney? Or how about that family doctor? Or that mechanic at Leonard’s in Austin?
Before making your recommendation, did you do a complete evaluation and check with the bar association regarding how many cases the attorney won or lost? How about the doctor, did you do compare treatments versus other physicians. And for that mechanic at Leonard’s that you tell everyone about, did you check them out with other mechanics before making your recommendation?
Is it possible we make our recommendations for reasons other than qualifications?
In business we are always doing two things. We are doing what we would probably say is “what puts food on our table and clothes on the kids” —- we are doing what we trained for, our profession. But there is a second thing totally disconnected from what is produced but certainly related and it is this: we are making the customer feel a certain way about their experience, our company, and even themselves?
Ironically, the second thing often carries more weight than the first. “How did you make me feel?” remembers the customer more than anything.
If you believe that, then why do you spend so much of your time doing the wrong thing?
What if you focused on making it easier and enjoyable for your customer to do business with you? Would your customer “feel” differently about you?
Traditions and festivities help us do what the relentless pace of modern society does not afford. We can reflect. As Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Reflection is critical for achievement and success. It is what helps us to be strategic and not merely reactive in the way we live and do business.
While most of our time is spent in reaction and execution-mode, we must be vigilant about where we are headed and how we got to where we are. As I head into the holiday season with my team, here are the things I reflect on to keep perspective and focus on the big picture:
- Gratitude: One of the biggest reasons people leave companies is because of a lack of recognition. We all want to feel valued. Our customers pay our bills, and our team helps us win. I reflect on these things and am thankful for people. Gratitude is a rare quality in our narcissistic culture. Most people spend time talking and thinking about themselves. They forget that they have not achieved anything without the help of others. We are interdependent. Get concrete and thank the people who got you where you are. Get tangible and do something personal, special and yes, expensive.
- Care: The other disease of narcissism is the lack of care for others. Most businesses manage to convenience – their own. They forget the customer and think about themselves. Ever been in a coffee shop which closes at 8:55 so everyone can get out on time rather than let the buyer finish their experience a few minutes past 9? I guess that time is more important than the loyalty and cash. Go the extra mile in your delivery. Create a better experience for the customer. It can always be better. Show more care. How can you care more?
- Winning: The world is full of people with small dreams. They just want an easy life and a free dinner. How boring. That is not what I dreamed about as a kid, and I will never succumb to such poor vision as an adult. Winning is paying it back. It means you are living into your potential and not just settling for what is easy. Mediocrity is such a vicious disease. It’s everywhere. I focus on winning. It is part of gratitude and caring both for myself and the world which has given good things to me.
- Generosity: Have you done anything wonderful and unexpected for someone lately? Why not? It’s funny how many people think they can get on in business being cheap. Winning fans means creating experiences and helping others get what they want. That requires eyes to see others’ needs or desires. This can be fostered by practicing generosity. In a nutshell, generosity means that you learn the principal of risk and cost. You risk with your time, creativity and money. It costs something personally to you. Take your talent, time and treasure and invest it into people.
Your business grows or dies based on the principals you live into. If it’s about you, we all have a way of knowing that pretty easily. Gratitude in your business triggers what will drive your success. Focus on how much value you can bring and watch the world around you reciprocate.
I am thankful for our team and our clients. We are changing the world and living passionately and purposefully. For me, an examined life makes it all the worthwhile.
“How can I get more traffic?” is the number one question we are most often asked right next to, “How much will that cost?”.
The question at the outset poses a big assumption and problem, the assumption that what you’ve built is worthy of attention and therefore traffic. The question more appropriately asked should be, “How can I earn more traffic?”
Getting traffic is easy, getting attention from the right person requires talent and continually reinventing. This causes every business owner to stay awake at night because what was remarkable yesterday can become boring tomorrow. Status quo is obsolete and never to return. If you are boring it is easier for your customer to move on to the next vendor with as little as a click of a button. So how do you get more traffic? Build something that attracts people to want to see it and never think you’ve arrived.
Your customer is rarely ready now. They may be ready in time if you remain relevant; however, this takes work and care. Work is in the way you communicate and deliver what is valuable with your prospective buyer. Care comes in the way you own the problems your buyer has. It has much less to do with your desire to sell and everything to do with what is important to your customer. There is an old saying, “A carpenter doesn’t buy a drill. They are buying a quarter-inch hole.” That is results-thinking not features and benefits.
Assume that most people you first engage with are not ready to buy. You are out of phase with where they are at today more often than not. There is a setup which has to be addressed to prepare them to buy. This setup fosters trust and increases your value proposition. It is made up of the following:
1. Promotion: The marketplace is a super-highway of choices. There are too many good choices out there, and it is hard to distinguish what is valuable and what is not. Value is continually changing based on what is needed by the buyer. If it is not needed, then there has to be promotion to increase desire. Promotion largely focuses on the quarter-inch hole and driving home the message that you are the best way to make the hole.
2. Profiling: You get the wrong messages all the time. When you are marketed with cat food as a dog lover or junk food as a Whole Foods shopper, the seller missed big. They are selling on hope. They are hoping you are the one they are looking for. There are too many available and appropriate systems to make connecting the right message at the right time with the right person happen. If you invest in these systems and make them work, you are connecting. If you are ok with luck and knowing that 95% of your mailers, emails and impressions won’t work, then keep following the masses and keep wasting your bullets. You may not get a second chance to make a true connection.
3. Pain: This is where sellers make the biggest mistake. They have bad manners and start selling. Who cares what you have to offer if you don’t understand my pain? Did you bother to ask, and have you articulated? You must describe the pain concretely and specifically. This is both for the benefit of the buyer and the seller. The buyer feels you know their situation. You need to know their situation to be of value and service. Amplify the pain and spend 90% of your energy understanding and communicating this to the buyer. It makes selling a formality.
4. Proof: If you are telling the world how great you are, your credibility is low. If someone else is saying it, then you are positioned with a stranger perfectly, especially if it is the same pain story. Package the medium to share the story. Make the story the same as each of your prospective customers. It will go a much longer way investing in the stories made alive than puffing up your image.
Your prospective customer wants to buy. The question is whether it is from you or someone else who establishes trust by dating them and helping them become ready. Too many businesses misstep by how they approach and court the buyer. With so many choices, not doing your homework and setting up a one-to-one buying process only helps to strengthen your competitors’ appeal. Help your customer pick you by making them ready. It is all about buying. Leave the selling to the other guys.
