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Get Customers for Life by Giving Them Exactly What They Want Most

January 25, 2010 in Business Success with 0 Comments

Seth Godin wrote about the ubiquitous nature of competition today.  There is always going to be competition around you, whether you’re in advertising, marketing, finance, banking, non-profits, teaching, you name it, you’ve got competition.  Where there’s a profit to be made, there’s going to be competition for your customer’s dollars.  Your potential customer has a lot of choices these days and thanks to the internet, they can find out exactly how the competition stacks up.

In Seth’s post he talks about one competitor standing out from the rest of the pack on the key differentiating factors that matter to customers.  What are the key differentiating factors for your customers?  What do they most want and need?  Are you providing the best in class service and over-delivering value to them against this key need?

If the answer is no, you’re dead.  Maybe not right away, but you could be facing a long, drawn-out death because companies who do not provide outstanding value, will lose out to the competition.

“You don’t have to like competition in order to understand that it exists. Your fair share isn’t going to be yours unless you give the public a reason to pick you.” – Seth Godin

The great news is that you don’t have to do everything well in order to succeed in life and in business.  You just have to be great, no make that outstanding and remarkable, at the things customers notice and want most out of your product’s category. 

Do this and you’ll never have to worry about the competition ever again.  They’ll be busy trying to mimic you and you’ll be more concerned with building long-term relationships with your customers than trying to fight off the me-too products of your competition.

So go ahead and call up a few customers and find out what they want most from your product’s category and ask them what they hate most about your product and the buying process.  Give them more of their first answer and fix what’s annoying the crap out of them.  That’s how you start to build a competitive advantage, one insight at a time.

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Using Your Down Time Wisely

January 22, 2010 in Success with 0 Comments

Thanks to the internet we’re connected 24/7.  If you have a mobile device that’s connected to the internet, chances are you’re surfing the web, checking out your friends on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter.

There’s a lot to do in such a limited space we call our down time.  You might as well use it the best way possible, besides taking a nap (one of my favorite uses of free time by the way).

If you’re looking to get ahead of your competition and shine at work, you might re-think what you’re doing during these precious few minutes/hours.

I cannot remember what book I read it in, so I had to look it up, but Earl Nightingale talked about how anyone could become an expert in any field of endeavor by reading in their spare time.

Brian Tracy has summarized what Earl Said about how to become an expert in your field.  It’s one of the easiest call to action:

“Earl Nightingale said many years ago that one hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years, you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.

If you read one hour per day in your field, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week translates into about 50 books per year, and 50 books per year will translate into about 500 books over the next 10 years.

If you read only one book per month, that will put you into the top 1 percent of income earners in our society. But if you read one book per week — 50 books per year — that will make you one of the best educated, smartest, most capable and highest-paid people in your field. Regular reading will transform your life completely.”

Just one hour a day can make all the difference in your life.  Cut out a boring sitcom or needless web surfing and dedicate it to reading every night.  If you’re not the reading type, find free audio interviews on the web or buy them from iTunes and listen and grow rich.

It takes just an hour a day for 3 years to become an expert in your field.  That’s not a huge investment of time or effort and the payoff is more than a college education or master’s degree could ever provide.  And thanks to your local library and free MP3s available on the internet, you can do it for FREE.

Now that’s what I call a no-brainer.  Get started today by picking a book from your bookshelf or listening to great audios online and start investing in yourself during your downtime.

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Would You Hang Out with You?

January 21, 2010 in Success with 0 Comments

What kind of vibe do you give off?  Are you someone who hangs out in tiny little cliques at work or are you the “embrace everyone” type of person?

The way you dress, the way you talk, the people you choose to associate with says something about you.  Actually, it says a lot more than you can imagine.

If your best friend at work is a slacker, chances are a handful of people (or more) think of you as a slacker too.

If you whine about the long hours and the low pay, chances are more people know it outside of the people within earshot of where you sit.

The world is small and an office place is even smaller.  Rumors get started, half-truths are spread and your reputation hangs in the balance.  How you treat your co-workers can matter more for your career than the job you do.

Don’t think that’s true?

All you have to do is look for the “hidden” networks at your office to see the influencers at work.  Who’s a friend with who, who worked with each other a few year’s back under the same boss, who now is a VP who asks them who the up and coming stars are and they tell her exactly what they think.  The especially nosey guy who’s always eavesdropping on conversation or asking you “have you heard about…” followed by some juicy bit about the person 3 cubes down from you.

Most of the time it’s gossip, but a lot of the time you’ll find more than a grain of truth in the comments.  I’m not saying you have to live your life sucking up to your co-workers, but I am saying that you have to be mindful of the way you’re presenting yourself to other people. 

The old saying goes “it’s not what you know it’s who you know” might have stood the test of time, but I think it needs to be changed to add “…and what they think about you” that matters.

Just something to keep in mind when you’re goofing off or complaining about your job.  Someone might be watching.  There’s always someone watching and at some point, someone is going to ask them what they think about you.  If the only thing they can think about is how moody you are most of the time or how  you jet out of the office at 5pm, it’s not a good sign if you want to get promoted.

Aim to be the kind of person people want to get to know and the person that can be depended upon to take on the tough assignments and get the job done. 

Be the person who is there to lend a helping hand and offer up new ideas when they’re most needed.  These are the people I would want to hang out with.  Who would you want to hang out with?  If in an honest assessment of yourself you’d reckon you wouldn’t hang out with yourself, it’s time for a change.  A dramatic one.

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Fail Faster to Succeed Sooner

January 19, 2010 in Success with 0 Comments

I was cut from my high school team. I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career, I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot…and I missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan knew the secret of success – Failure.  Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  But it’s not.  You need to fail more in life to ever have any chance of being successful.

Tom Fishburne’s latest post over at Brand Camp brings this to life visually, as only he can do.

Too many organizations, fueled by too many people starving for the next EUREKA moment in their lives, are looking for that next Great Big Idea. 

What would have happened to Apple if they stopped working on tablets and similar devices after the failure of the Newton?  The loss of a few billion dollars in revenue and many times that in market capitalization.  There are many more examples like this one and beyond the common Post-It example from 3M’s failure to create a super adhesive.

But enough about corporations…what about you and your personal life? 

Are you trying to write a book or find love or start a home business?  Where are you with those goals?

If you haven’t failed yet to do either of these things, then you might not be trying hard enough.

Stop trying to plan every little thing you may or many not encounter.  Start with “Good Enough” and get that new product or idea launched.  There’s a famous saying in Silicon Valley among engineers – Always in Beta.

Beta is the test phase and for smart entrepreneurs, they launch their products in beta and never stop tweaking their products and ideas.

Why not adopt the same mentality and start doing stuff instead of thinking about doing stuff?

The universe rewards doers, not thinkers.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill

And one last quote that hits home for me on this whole topic…

“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.” – Anthony Robbins

So enough talking.  What are you going to start doing right now?  Starting is a lot easier once you’re not so afraid of failing.  Get going…

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