April 2010 – client k

Goal Check

2010 is a third done.
How are you doing on your goals?

I look at my goals more often
than 3 times a year.
I tend to check in
on my goals daily.
There are so many wonderful opps
and interesting projects out there,
I become distracted otherwise.

I look at what my goals are.
Do they still apply?
(As I know I become distracted by new ideas,
I purposefully make changing my goals
more difficult)
Am I spending adequate time
achieving each goal?
Are all my projects aligned with my goals?

If you find yourself drifting,
it is time to focus back
on your goals.
Make 2010 your best year ever!

Building A Legacy

Once my cash flow was large enough
to cover my basic expenses
(and my basic expenses are less
than most people’s),
I stopped working
and building
for money.

Money became a scorecard
of progress,
not my purpose.
My purpose is to make a difference.

As Michael Lee-Chin,
one of Canada’s richest men
puts it
“At the end of the day,
all of us are seeking to build a legacy
that society can be proud of.
And you certainly won’t build a legacy
that society can be proud of
by doing what everyone else is doing.
If you have principles,
and if you’re thinking long term
and if you really believe
your principles are right,
wealth is secondary.”

What will you be remembered for?

No Canned Closes

When I did a stint at telemarketing,
I was given a script.
It had an opening,
a pitch,
answers to objections
and a standard close.

What I noticed though
was that the top earners in the room
didn’t use scripts.
The information imparted may have been the same
but the words were personalized
for each prospect.

As Margot Bartsch explains
“People want to be treated as individuals
and will turn off in a heartbeat
if they feel they are being treated otherwise.
We have basic information
to deliver to the customer
that should be pitched
in a different manner
based on somebody’s personality,
age, occupation and energy.”

Personalize your pitches.
Leaved the canned closes
on the shelf.

The Third Option

My manager likes to be in charge.
She likes to make the decisions.
She likes to come up
with the big ideas.

I, of course, prefer
these decisions jive with mine.

What do I do?

I present two solutions.
If I want the solution to be gray.
I present black
and I present white.
I talk about how neither is ideal.

Then I wait.

I’m batting 100% with my current boss.
She always suggests gray
(maybe not at first,
I’ll nudge her a little).

The downside to this ploy
is I have to be happy
with black or white
if these solutions end up chosen.

But it still beats the random solutions
this type of decision-maker
will toss at you.

There is a way to sell
to everyone.

Reduced Hours

One of the temps
at my current company
was recently put on reduced hours.

This is part of contracting life.
You cost the company money
with every hour you work
so they try to save money
by cutting your hours.

You have a couple of options
when faced with reduced hours, reduced pay.
You can find a new contract gig
and replace your employer.

Or better still,
you can use those reduced hours
to work on your own business.
I use mine to write.

However, I ALWAYS push back
so the reduced hours are in one chunk of time.
If they want me to move
from 40 hours to 35 hours,
I’ll maintain 8 hours a day
Monday-Thursday
and put in a half day on Friday.
It is a more effective use of my time.

Reduced hours is not a bad thing,
especially if you plan
for the downtime.

The Formula For A Winning Movie Sequel

A study of 101 movie sequels
released in North American theaters
between 1998 and 2006
has put numbers behind
sequel success.

It is all about star power.
“If you had to choose one thing
to be consistent on,
it’s the star power,
keeping those same stars,”
says Mark Houston,
Professor of Marketing
with Texas Christian University.

That must be why
more and more studios
are locking stars into film series
(an example is the Twilight cast).

It makes sense branding-wise also
as movies are so tightly co-branded
with the stars appearing in them.

If you’re producing a sequel,
spend money to obtain
the same stars.

Welcoming Back Former Employees

I worked for a major beverage company
whose executives would boast
of past employees’ successes
even if these successes
were at other companies.

It drove us to achieve
and actually created more loyalty,
rather than less.
Employees knew the door was always open.
We could come back if we wanted to.
We also knew that would be awkward
if we went to work
for the competition.

Another company I worked for
had a
‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out’
policy.
Once you were gone,
you were considered dead to the company.

Many former employees
ended up at the competition.
If they tried another industry
and didn’t like it,
they had no other option.

If you want to weaken your competition,
make returning to your company easy.

First Things First

A small publisher operated
for years
with the premise
that they published in eBook first
and if sales were good,
the stories were published in print.

This did a number of things.

It gave authors an incentive
to promote
the more profitable eBooks.

Best of all,
it forced authors to focus
their marketing.
During the first couple of months,
they focused on selling eBooks.
THEN they switched
to selling print books.

It is very difficult
for a single person
to market both formats
at the same time.

Now, because of the ease
of publishing in print format,
this publisher decided to offer both
at the same time.
Overall sales have decreased
with this change.

Just because you CAN offer
all options at once,
doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

Confidence Transfers

Victoria’s Secret is known
in the modeling world
for their models
going onto business success.

One of the reasons for this
is because
you can use confidence in one area
to give you confidence in others.

As Chief Marketing Officer Edward Razek states
“They have a certain level of confidence
that bodes well for
whatever they want to do
going forth.”

Model turned entrepreneur
Josie Maran
didn’t hesitate
to walk into major retailers
and pitch her product line.
“I was ignorant about business,
but I totally believed in myself.”
As a result,
she got sales
other entrepreneurs wouldn’t have the balls
to even pitch.

I’m not a model
(by any stretch of the imagination)
but I do draw from my successes
in other areas
to give me confidence.
I’ll remember a big win
before pitching a business plan
or asking for a sale.

It doesn’t really matter
where you get your confidence,
as long as you have it.

The Mobile Executive

Right now I’m in India,
half a world away
from my home.
Yet I’m conducting business.

The world is mobile.
You can be also.

Jordan Zimmerman
of Zimmerman Advertising
maxes out mobility.

“I use 10,000 to 12,000
cell-phone minutes every month.
All my client calls are cell to cell.
I also carry my cell around the building,
and my employees do as well:
It’s how we communicate.
The office is 85,000 square feet
on several floors,
and my executives are located
with their functions,
so it’s inefficient to chase after people.
And if they’re out of their offices,
I don’t want to wait
until they get back.”

If you have a mobile employee base,
consider moving to cell phones.