New Business Development – Page 61

COVID And Your Customers’ Abilities

I was lurking
on a social media thread
last night.
The discussion
was focused on
gyms and the classes
they’re offering.

Many of the gyms
have cancelled
their high impact cardio workouts.
There is little interest
in them.

They have focused
their efforts
on the much more popular
low impact workouts.

And they’ve noted
the age groups
interested in those
less intense workouts
are much younger.

They are changing
the music selection
to make those patrons
happy.

You and I
both know
WHY there has been
this shift
in workout preferences.

COVID
has decimated lung capacities
and energy levels.

Our prospects, our customers,
ALL of them
are different people
than they were
3 years ago.

Have you noticed more talk
about places
being wheelchair accessible?

That’s because,
due to COVID,
there are more people
in wheelchairs.

If we want to be successful
going forward,
we have to factor
our customers’/prospects’
decreased mobility
and energy levels
into our businesses.

Not Everyone Will Do The Work

I recently participated
in a VERY exclusive promotion.

Buy in for the promotion
was costly
(for a writer-targeted promotion).

Only 20 writers
were accepted for the promotion.

Spreading the word
about the promotion
was mandatory.

But the organizers
made that super easy to do.
With one click,
the message could be shared
on social media.

There was a spreadsheet
tracking the writers’ participation.

According to that spreadsheet,
6 out of the 20 writers
didn’t share the promotion
at all.

30% of participants did absolutely nothing.
They couldn’t be bothered
to click on a button.

This is disappointing
but not surprising.

30% non-participation
is the standard rate
for projects.

Almost a third
of the people involved
will do nothing.

Expect that.
Plan for it.

Expectations

I gave away
more beefsteak tomatoes
than heirloom tomatoes
this summer.

The heirloom tomatoes
are tastier
than the beefsteak tomatoes.
I also had more of them.

But I gave away
more beefsteak tomatoes
because…

They look like
the tomatoes we buy
in the grocery stores.

They aren’t unique
or ‘deformed’
as one loved one called
the heirloom tomatoes.

Beefsteak tomatoes
are round
with no wrinkles
and no varied coloring.

They are the tomatoes
the average person expects
to see.

I receive fewer complaints
when I give someone
a beefsteak tomato.
And I can keep
the tastier heirloom tomatoes
for myself.

When the decision doesn’t matter
to you,
give people
what they expect.

COVID And Our Brains

I had a first bout
of COVID
in August.

Research relays
COVID changes our brains.

I can attest
that’s true.
My brain is different now.
I see the changes
in my writing.

My writing hasn’t deteriorated
(I think).
My voice, my pacing, my thought processes
have merely changed.

My editor had COVID
in January.
Before COVID,
she excelled at catching
continuity errors.
Now,
she doesn’t notice them
unless she puts in extra effort.

A loved one
had COVID in August also.
Before COVID,
he was emotionally tightly wound.
Now,
he is extremely mellow.

I’ve compensated
for my brain changes
by adding an extra review
for my books.

My editor compensates
by reading over works
one more time.

My more mellow loved one
has adjusted his schedule
to include more down time.

If you’ve had COVID,
your brain is different,
whether you’ve noticed that difference
or not.

Change your processes
to compensate for that.

Contacting Tech Support

I won’t bullsh*t you.

Contacting tech support
of another company
when you’re a female business builder
is as likely to cause you
more problems
than it will solve.

Recently, as one of MANY examples,
I asked tech support
at the newsletter provider I use
how best to do something.

He took a look at my account
– a detailed look
and he found a cuss word.
No. Not even a cuss word.
A self-censored cuss word.
I used ‘d@mn’ in a sentence.

He determined
that broke their profanity rule
and he suspended my account.

And no, he didn’t ever answer
my question.

(My account will likely be reinstated
but it will cost me time and hassle
and sales
and THAT is exactly his goal.)

IT remains, unfortunately,
a space renown for female-hating
or female-resenting males.
Tech support falls into IT.

Google answers to your questions.
Ask anonymously on a forum.

Do anything you can do
to avoid contacting tech support.

Literally Stop And Smell The Roses

We will soon
be encountering
many ‘lasts’
– the last Monarch butterfly,
the last snowfall,
the last Autumn leaves,
the last bite of
a banana.

The issue is…
we won’t know
it will be our last.
Not until the moment
has passed.

So stop
and relish each one.

Look at that ladybug
on the leaf.

Smell the roses.

Take an extra minute
while walking from the office
to our cars
to gaze up at the night sky,
feel the cool breeze on your skin.

I know.
I know.
We’re all super busy
building our businesses,
changing the world
in our own special ways.

But a minute or two
out of our day
doing this
won’t make a huge difference
to our business building
and it is a good investment
in our happiness today
and our happiness in the future.

Our souls
need us to do this.
We need to savor
these things
while we have them.

Stop and smell the roses.
Literally.

Meetings Outside Business Hours

A loved one’s official hours
are 8 to 5.

His new boss
has been scheduling
regular update meetings
at 7 pm every night.

The boss’ reason
for this?

Everyone in his group
is free then.

They are NOT free then.

They are eating dinners
with their family.

They are watching
their daughters play baseball.

They are,
most likely,
completing work tasks
they couldn’t complete
during business hours
because they were fully booked
with meetings.

The loved one
and many of
the extremely skilled people
in his group
are looking for new jobs,
jobs that don’t require them
to attend meetings outside
of core work hours.

Don’t schedule meetings
outside of core work hours
unless it is an absolute emergency
OR
you’re paying people extra
to attend those meetings.

No one is truly ‘free’
at 7 pm.

Assume Everything Has Been Tracked

I had horrible results
with one of the
large book promotional sites.

So I told them that.

I wasn’t accepted
for another promotion with them
for over two years.

They were always
‘booked’
but just for my queries.

I always give 5 stars
to the representatives
at a certain large bookseller.

I’ve never had an issue
with getting issues
resolved there.

While other writers have
a b*tch of a time
with them.

I don’t think
these are coincidences.

EVERYTHING is being tracked
– our complaints, our kudos,
our attitudes, everything.

And, I suspect,
much of that information
is accessible
by the next employee
who deals with us.

Assume they know
how you treated
the last employee
and expect that information
to impact
how they treat you.

Revelations About People

We’ve learned quite a bit
about the people in our lives
over the last few years.

We learned, for example,
some people
won’t wear a bit of cloth over their faces
to save our lives.

We also learned
some people
WILL take that action.
They will do as much as possible
to keep others safe.

We learned some people
will believe anything
they read or hear.

We also learned
that some people
do extensive research
before making a decision.

We learned some people
are terrible judges
of other people.

We also learned some people
are terrific judges
of other people.
They knew a certain former world leader
was a grifter
as soon as he appeared before them.

All these revelations
can help us tremendously
in our businesses
and our lives
going forward.

We know better
who the people around us
truly are.

Use that knowledge
to make your world better.

Know The Odds

I recently took a cruise
with a loved one.
We masked in public
when not eating
and asked
for socially distanced tables
during meal times.

Why did we take these precautions?

Because I researched
and laid out the odds
of events happening
before we embarked.

The odds of COVID
being on board
were 100%.

The odds of being exposed
to COVID on board
were also 100%.

The odds of deriving long COVID
if we were infected
were 1 in 8.

If we looked at the odds,
we would be dumb a$$es
not to mask.

We masked.
COVID, as predicted,
raged through the ship.
People around us became sick.
We didn’t get COVID.

(And yes,
I know luck was also
a big factor in that.)

Know the odds
of events happening
before you make decisions.

It might not change
your decision
but, at the very least,
you can prepare
for high probability events
to happen.