Category: New Business Development

Recently,
at a quick service restaurant show,
the CEO of a major chain
announced that they were investing strongly
in coffee.
This chain dominates their coffee market,
selling 78% of all units sold.

Why would they invest millions of dollars
in an area they’re already #1 in?

Because they want to continue
to be #1.

They know that
their competition is investing in this market.
If this #1 player doesn’t invest,
they’ll lose market share.

They also realize to be the leader,
they have to LEAD.
Leading is active, not passive.
It is pushing forward,
not standing still.

Ensure your strong products
remain strong.
Invest in them.

You achieved your definition of success.
Your work is over, right?

Nope.

When my latest release ranked high
for sales,
I was flooded with
promotional and other opportunities.
Book bloggers, reviewers, writers
who previously wouldn’t return my emails
are contacting me.

These opportunities might not be offered again
so I’m doing my best
to take advantage of
as many of them
as possible.

But I also want to keep
my previous supporters happy.
The new contacts might fade away
if my next release doesn’t sell as well.
My core supporters will remain.

This translates into
even more hard work,
a happy challenge to have
but still a challenge.

Prepare for the hard work
to continue
once you achieve some success.

One of my pen names broke out last week,
nearing New York Times Best Selling List
level of sales.

When this happened,
I did some things right.
I also did some things wrong.
This week, I’ll talk about these lessons
because they can be applied
to every ‘unexpected’ success.

And the first lesson is…
this WAS unexpected.
Yes, I invested in marketing.
Yes, I had a great product.
Yes, the price was right.

But I had that combination
with previous releases
and was unsuccessful.

The bulk of the sales also didn’t happen
when I expected them to happen.
The sales happened many days
after my marketing push.
The team
(because there IS a team
behind every book release)
thought they wouldn’t happen.
Then BAM, the sales went through the roof.

There is an element of luck
with every product release.
You can increase the odds
of being lucky
but you can’t guarantee it.

I often hear from innovators
and product developers
(and especially writers)
that they want their products
to be ‘perfect.’

They delay launching,
attempting to achieve this perfection.
This isn’t possible.

As Smart Time Management Tips
shares

“I believe that
you will never actually reach perfect
even though you can get close.
When you think you have reached perfect,
you have just reached
your boundaries of knowledge,
experience or competencies.

Therefore perfect is subjective
and what seem like 80% to you
might seem like 100% to others.”

My view of the ‘perfect’ story today
is much different
than my view of the ‘perfect’ story
ten years ago
because my knowledge base is bigger
and my expectations are higher.

Your product won’t ever be perfect.

In every business,
every job,
there are tasks we don’t want to do.

It can be challenging to delegate
all of these nasty/mind numbing/awkward tasks.
We have to do them.

So why not make them fun?

For me,
making bad tasks fun
starts with deciding they WILL be fun.

I’m not a morning person.
I post notes over the house
saying
“This will be a GREAT day.”
In the past,
by the time,
I arrived at work,
I believed it would be.
My co-workers thought
I was a morning person.

I also like to ‘keep score.’
If I have to compute my expenses
for the month,
I’ll try to guess the total
or I’ll make it a speed test
or I’ll award myself a point
every time an invoice ends in 9.

I might team up with other writers
in the same situation.
A day might be edits day.
We’ll compete
for how many edit points
we can address.

Life is too short
to do tasks you hate.
Either don’t do these tasks
or figure out a way
to love them.

One of my buddies
has been winning
every writing contest she enters.

She’s gifted.
She works hard.

She never finishes a story.

She has a huge collection
of contest winning stories,
stories editors have asked to see.
None of these stories have an ending.

If she doesn’t finish a story,
it doesn’t matter
how talented she is
or how hard working.
She’ll never be a published writer.

There are NO successful
unfinished projects.

Finish what you’ve started.

Seth Godin
shares

“For me,
the trick is not to represent the client,
or the publisher,
or the merchant.
The trick is to represent the project,
to speak up for the project,
to turn it into what it needs to be.”

I completely agree.
I’d also add that
the key to representing a project
is understanding what the goal of a project
truly is.

The goal of a book launch
appears simple.
It’s to sell a zillion books, right?

That might be the goal.
Or the goal could be
– for the story to be read by the greatest number of people
(many people buy books and don’t read them)
– to make the author money
– to reach a certain group of readers
– to draw attention to a cause
– to sell the author’s consulting fees
– for the book to be on shelf in the author’s favorite bookstore
etc.

Each ‘project’ would have a different plan.

Represent the project
but know what that project’s goal is.

One of the lessons I learned
from the 2014 FIFA World Cup
is that,
yes, superstars matter.
They attract other quality players.
They inspire their teammates.
They push everyone around them
to be better.

But superstars don’t win games
on their own.
They NEED a team of strong players
supporting them.
They can’t play every second
of every game.
They can’t score goals
and defend the net
by themselves.

If you’re a superstar
(and if you’re reading clientk,
I suspect you are),
remember this.
Build a strong team around you.

If you’re managing superstars,
remember to manage
and support the entire team.

Superstars get the media attention
but strong teams win games.

The big 5 publishers
are battling Amazon,
trying to force the book giant
to change their processes.

It won’t work.

Why?
Because Amazon is customer focused
and publishers have very little customer contact.

Writers, however, have constant customer contact
and
Amazon is very good to us
(something Barnes & Noble hasn’t figured out).

Amazon makes it easy to promote our books
(giving us landing pages on their site,
buy buttons for their websites,
even affiliate income)
and because it is easy,
we drive more readers to their site.

Take care of everyone
who touches your customers,
whether they work for you
or work with you.

I prefer to work with people I trust.
I don’t trust anyone blindly.
I certainly don’t hand over the keys to my future
and walk away.
But I want to know that
when my back is turned,
they’re continuing to be professional
and to do what we agreed on.

Bill Murphy Jr.
shares

“If you can’t trust the people
on your team,
then they shouldn’t be on your team.
You need to trust their integrity,
their judgment,
their confidence and their passion
–and you need to ensure that
they understand how much
you depend on them.”

Trust is even more important
to me
than skill or intelligence.
A smart skilled person I don’t trust
can cause complete chaos,
undoing everything I’ve worked
to achieve.

Hire, partner, delegate to people you trust.