Mountains or Molehills

If you want to make Impressive sales, take your clients’ mountains and make them molehills.  People like to talk.  All you have to do is give people a good reason to talk about what you did for them.  People are going to talk about you, and what you did, whether it was good or bad, you just need to give them the road map to a positive conversation.

If you have read my blogs, you have seen this before.  If you do a beneficial job for someone, your client is going to tell a few people. If you do a poor job, they will tell everyone.  The only question that you have control over is what you want people saying about you. 

If you give your clients a poor deliverable, you just put a mountain in the way of where you want to go with your business.  If you provide an advantageous product, the worst you may have is a few molehills along the way. Think about everyone and everything you are taking on your journey to the future.  There will be enough high hills as you make your business journey, do you really want to get all that over a mountain if you do not have to?

Work with your clients.  Learn what they do and what they need. Understand how your work can help them to do their jobs better, and explain the benefits to them. You may need to modify your wares a little, just as a tailor tucks and hems for a suit or dress to fit perfectly.  In making this available to the client, you are doing two great deeds, one for your client, and one for you.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again soon.

Build Your Work to Your Customers Needs

Do you have the best product ever invented?  Did you design it from scratch? Is this the best of its kind product, high quality, low cost, and stuffed with extras?  There could be only one problem you failed to consider. Does it meet your client’s needs?

You can design, build, and market great inventions; however, if you do not meet the needs of your customers, your sales will probably come from a discount store, if even there.  You must give your customers what they know they require.  If you have a product that is so revolutionary the average client does not understand the concept or its capabilities, then you know what your first marketing has to be. Teach everyone.

Start your patents and copyrights to protect your ownership. Copyrights could be as easy as putting a copy of your work and records into an envelope, mailing it to yourself, and then saving the packet unopened.  This is your proof as to when you came up with ideas or wrote things.  The fact that the envelope was postmarked and unopened is proof in most courts as to when you did the work.

Now, not many customers? Not sure who they are? Not hard.  Figure out who would use your product and go to where they gather. How hard is that? Not very. Most cities have a chamber of commerce, a Better Business Bureau or some other group of business people.  There is usually some after-hours meeting where, on occasion everyone gets together to say hi and talk with everyone else.  Everyone exchanges business cards and although this is not the place for a presentation, it is an excellent place to get leads that you can call or visit later and talk more in-depth.

The most significant part of starting a new product is getting it out in front of the right people and showing them how this new tool will make their life easier.  Doing this also makes your life easier because you are getting the word out to the right people. 

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Give More Than the Client Expects

I remember once when I worked in an office where I had to occasionally change out the toner in our copier system. Every time I would open the new box of toner, there was a piece of candy inside along with a note reminding me to put the old toner cartridge in the box and send it back. I always thought it was pretty neat when they gave me a piece of candy for doing it. As a worker, I appreciated the thought.

A piece of penny candy is a little thing. Yet knowing that a reward is in the box when you’re going to do the task anyway, breeds a little excitement and joy. And it is absolutely a fantastic marketing ploy which helps people to remember that brand of toner.

When you give more than the client expects, it doesn’t have to be extensive or costly. Quite often it’s the little things that people remember. Especially those actions a business doesn’t need to provide; and yet, goes out of their way to do so. Something to think about might be what you could do over and above for your customers? What might they enjoy? What might help them to remember you a little bit better?

In our internet age, it feels as though there is always somebody trying to take our business. With claims to build a little bit better, a little bit cheaper, or a little bit faster, brand loyalty has to count for something, and what you are really selling is the reason to stay loyal to your brand. Clients will stay because they know you are giving them deliverables that are over and above what is needed.

I have seen people go from one company to another for as low as 25 cents more per hour. Making them more susceptible to new layoffs. They wanted fast money and forgot about brand loyalty. I have known many people to do this and then end up unemployed.

Think of your brand, think of your product, and consider your customer. What could you do to foster better brand loyalty? Nothing that breaks the bank, and nothing that would cause significant upheaval. Just something that allows the customer to think of you and brand loyalty.

Thanks for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Meeting the Customer on Their Ground

Although we live in a remarkable age where we can virtually be anywhere in the world in milliseconds, thanks to the World Wide Web, you may find that you do better in meeting your client face to face. There is a positive human emotion that comes out, and we stop seeing people as objects and start to see them as people. We find ourselves viewing a kindred spirit, rather than looking at a picture on the screen.

Sometimes it is just physically impossible to be there in person. And sometimes, you just have to work around the difficulty of understanding what not being there represents. If you can be there, even if only for a significant action or a start, you will find it makes a world of difference. You have a much closer relationship and a more in-depth understanding of those with whom you have spent even a little time.

If you live in the middle of the United States and are working with people from India or Siberia, it is tough and expensive to get there. However, I know people in Colorado Springs who fly to China to talk with the factory owners who build their products. Being able to speak face-to-face removes a lot of assumptions and gives us a better feeling of what is going on, and how we can help to make things better.

Quite often, in business, we have to send deliverables to other people. To complete those deliverables, we have other manufacturers who have to send the products to us first. I believe this makes us all part of one large shipping chain. And if our customer doesn’t know us personally, they measure us based on the quality of goods and timely delivery.

Even in life coaching and other work which is dependent upon reaching and helping people, our deliverables are often timeliness, understanding, caring, and truthfulness. People will measure us based on our work, no matter what it is, or how it is sent to them. How would you feel if you received a worksheet to accomplish that held even a few grammar and spelling mistakes?

I believe that each time one person interacts with another, either way, they always leave an impact. I have something for you to think about today. What type of impression do you want others to have of you?

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Giving of What You Have

In the days past, if you wanted something done for you, made or constructed, you went into the local village or town where maybe there might be one person who could do so. If there was nobody in the local city and if you were lucky there would be a traveling professional who would come through your Hamlet every now and again, and you could hire them to make you whatever you needed while they were in town.

The good and bad news is that we live in a time when waiting for somebody to show up or having only one source to make something we need is no longer a real problem. Today we can go to the Internet, ask about something and get 100 million responses on our browser in milliseconds. That is great for customers. It does become a little bit harder for those building and developing the product to get noticed. Today it seems it’s more how you market rather than what you actually make.

So, how do you get people to notice you? And this is a fair question. Build it better, cheaper, faster? Most places do this, and those who do it best do get some notoriety from it.  Some preach about waiting and only building something after you’ve talked to the customers. Yet what type of lag time would that actually cause? Read the demands of the crowd and create for what they’re asking? You have to consider how fast you can build it, and how quickly the product will go from a must-have to a discounted has-been?

Even if you are waiting for a customer, you probably already have your niche. And, you should have your professional plan in place. And if you’re watching the crowd, you might be able to anticipate where they’re looking next. There is no guarantee the customers will really go there, yet if you pay attention, you may become well-versed at reading their tides.

You want to ensure that you have deliverables that are viable to the needs of the public. To have less relegates you to the world of discounts and passive sales. You just need to realize that even the best deliverable is often modified to the needs of a particular user. 

You are smart, bright, and you are ready to make a positive mark within your profession. Stretch forth and make your star shine.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Time to Make it Happen

I am sure you are considering whether or not I’ve actually gone off my rocker. Here it is the end of a week, and I’m talking about getting excited and making things happen. I’m sure somebody is trying to find the phone number so they can call Mrs. Balof and ask her to please take my temperature.

I would like to assure everyone that I’m fine, and yes, I do believe it is time to get excited. We have two months left this year, and at the end of each month, there will be parties and revelry. I believe in parties and revelry, they are a positive influence on the soul. However, it gives us little time to do great and beautiful things.

If you have ideas and new items that you want to share with others, now is the time to do it. Today is the first of the month. A brand new calendar for thirty days. For the rest of the year, we only have sixty-one. If we want it, starting now, we have a new way and a new day. Think of all the positive actions you could take with this.

Remember, if your first thought is going back into bed and pulling the covers, once the day is over and you’ve done great things, you can do so. Until you have gotten something underway, it is time to figure out what you’re going to do and how you’re going to complete that mission.

It would be wrong for me to tell you how you had to do something because this is your dream. Look at me as the cheerleader urging you on, encouraging you to find your path and take it. There are plenty of things that could come up and try to deter you from your work, and some of them are important. However, please don’t let the minutia get between you and your victory.

Please do not think that I am pushing you out the door towards a day’s work and then trying to sneak back to the La-Z-Boy lounger myself. I have two books, a new style of fishing lure, and a do-it-yourself planner system I want to have developed and in the field by the end of the month.  Mean old master sergeant? I don’t even cut myself any slack. Please check up on me from time to time and ask me how my work is going.

Thanks for being with me today. I hope to be with you again soon.

All Hallows Eve

This week we have discussed the emotions of fear. Tonight is All Hallows Eve. How All Hallows Eve is celebrated and when varies from country to country.  Some countries celebrate the day of the dead on the 1st of November. Some countries celebrate Halloween the evening before. Where I live we celebrate in the evening, and we call it Halloween.

Halloween is a time we take to change fear into fun.  Our children dress up in various costumes, everything from action heroes to scary costumes, to funny costumes, and go to neighbors’ houses to get candy in what is called trick or treat. Adults also dress in a variety of ensembles.

One of the biggest thrills around Halloween is going to a staged haunted house. This is where actors and scenery scare you even though you know it will be okay. The participants go through the haunted house being scared and then laugh as they come out because they made it through. This is where fear turns into fun, and again endorphins are released into the brain.

These are the traditions we have. Is it a little scary? Not really, but we do like to let our imaginations go wild every once in a while, and this seems a good night to do so. Is it fun? Absolutely. The kids love it because of all the free candy they get. Does it help to add cohesiveness to our communities? You bet. On Halloween, we see more of our neighbors and their kids then I think we do any other time in the year.

Even when it’s cold out, snow or not, people enjoy having the fun this particular holiday brings us. Halloween allows us to dress up and play. It is fun for the kids and even better for the adults. If you’ve never tried at some point dressing up as something else and having fun with your friends, this would be an excellent opportunity to do so.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.