Good habits die hard
Over a year ago, friend of the list and daily emailer Jonathan Stark launched his e365 workshop: how to write for a year, daily. Now, you’ll think… But what if I run our of things to say? Won’t people unsubscribe / stop reading me? Do I have something worth saying? Will I be able to keep at it at this high frequency? Will anybody actually want to read what I have to say? Etc. etc. etc. Thing is, that’s of second order. What writing and publishing daily does is it helps you think: better and…
Loyalty doesn’t exist
Brand loyalty. Customer loyalty. They’re a nice couple of terms, but they don’t actually exist. Are your customers loyal to your brand? If they find a choice that works better, do they stay with you? If they find a choice that is cheaper, do they stay with you? If they find a choice that improves their lives, do they stay with you? The harsh answer is no. And that’s ok. Loyalty goes both ways. If your customers are not profitable anymore, do you stay with them? If your customers aren’t a…
Fits & Misfits
If you qualify your customers and prospects, you’re looking for the right Fits, so that you can help them thrive, and by extension, make your business thrive. If you’re looking to stand out in your market, you’ll be a Misfit. You’ll think, do and see things different —all to help your customers rise. You’ll be fine in not being what you’re expected to be: standard. And Misfits are also the ones who appreciate how you can make things better for them in new ways. After all, how can you stand…
Outperforming the competition
It won’t make your brand the leader. It even won’t guarantee you higher sales. And if you’ve heard that “strategy is a set of choices to outperform the competition”, don’t follow that advice. It’s bullshit. Strategy is not about “outperforming”, as many say —especially on LinkedIn. If it was about performance, why would a business be preferred over others when they underperform? Take Apple, and even their other side in Samsung. Can you find companies that perform better? Yes. Do they get…
What does it take to stand out?
Ask yourself these questions How the hell do I get to better serve my customers? What questions do I answer? What questions do I make? Don’t (over)think them. Just write them down as they come. Don’t filter them. Once you got them, take some tea —or coffee, or your drink of choice— and explain each of those. Again, don’t look for the right words. It’s about a feeling first. You’ll have time for wordsmithing. Once you have those 3 questions answered, take a day to not look at them. And after…
Reversing
Yesterday’s message was an example of what a set of assumptions —in this case, the industry I’m in— looks like. The next step about this is going all the way to the opposite. To reverse the norms, the expectations, the standard. Not to say exactly what it’d look like in reality, but to push boundaries and for you to go crazy. To go all in. Without fear of consequences. Because this is the part of the exercise that can show you glimpses of how far you could go. How you could make yourself (or…
An example of assumptions
If you find hard to come up with what assumptions look like, I’ll play guineapig for you. 🙂 Brand and Marketing consultants Focus on choosing brand or marketing as strategic OR tactical. It’s all about storytelling. Focus on experiences —selling experiences. It’s about convincing people. Look for product-market fit. Try to create their “own” category Will help you build your “category of one” Will build you a monopoly of one. Bill by the hour. Take price, cost and rate as the same thing….
A set of assumptions
What are the assumptions in your industry / niche / specialization / market? How does your market show up? What are the common expectations of your market? What are the common misconceptions your market has? What do they expect from you and your competitors? Etc. I’d love to hear about what you face everyday. And tomorrow get to ask you the second part to this question. 🙂
An approach on filtering your prospects
We talk (ok ok, “I” ????) about sales, the process and how all of this things work around. How to approach the sale, how to filter if prospects are good fits, how to identify early signs for us to walk away, how to talk money, etc. But have you really found something that sums it all? Or that at least gives you some guidance around that process? I know I’ve had to look and collect from different places to make one coherent thing. Would you be interested into having some sort of anti-guide/no-bs…
Working on the sale —as a process
Have you got your own sales process/checklist? This week I ran into a RFP template process checklist. It gave great insights on how to see certain things when preparing / training Sales for improving numbers and reaching your goals easier. However, in this whole checklist, they talked about: customer fit costs competitor analysis differentiators potential objections roadmaps prep proof of competence and case studies make it look good make it sound and read compelling Yet, there was never,…
