Why it’s always about you?

If people do a lot of things for others and it makes them feel good about themselves, are they doing it for selfish reasons?

Customers will only ever buy from you because they care about how the product or services will make themselves feel. For example, if Princess Mary is wearing XIII and you wear XIII, you are not wearing XIII because you like Princess Mary. You are wearing XIII because you think you’ll look better in the eyes of your friends and family because you are wearing something that Princess Mary is wearing. It’s for you that you are doing it, it’s not because of Princess Mary, it’s your narrative.
For more about XIII, see www.xiii.dk

You can't have one without the others

There are two things that you have to do in order to grow your business:

  1. You have to have a really good strategy based on your understanding of the market and competition, future technology, and anything else that is happening in your landscape.

  2. Execution and implementation. I think executing your strategic plan is as important, or even more important, than your strategy itself. Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into action in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals.   

 

Strategy, implementation, and execution are synonymous and we need all three if you are to succeed as an organisation or business entity. One is about the plan and the others are about how to get the plan done, I don’t think you can have one without the others.

To serve as a leader

c/o Dallas Cowboys archive

A leadership vision statement is a declaration of a leader's values, beliefs and purpose, as it defines how they lead and who they are. I think a powerful leadership vision can help motivate employees' performance. According to the legendary coach, Tom Landry, an heroic leader is someone… “who tells you what you don't want to hear, who has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”

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Success is a skill

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One way that racism consistently shows up for me as a black man is in constantly being underestimated, and there’s something exciting about being underestimated. I know that success is a skill and the traits that led you to be successful where you are will lead you to be successful wherever you go. This is because the traits always include how to intellectually evaluate opportunities and figure out what forces to bring to bear on them. If you have succeeded before in whatever field, take a moment to evaluate and see what happened. I think that your evaluation process will always end up at some combination of observation, planning and execution. And in all these combinations, there is a thread of flexibility, intelligence and sticking to your values.

NB: Today is the first anniversary of my mother’s death and this blog is dedicated to her. It doesn't mark the end of grief, but it does mark a transition in my mourning process. See it > Say it > Write it ❤️

It’s a symptom not a tactic

Many years ago, I heard Seth Godin say, “You should always start with the minimum viable audience, and the minimum viable audience (MVA) is the smallest group of people who we can imagine serving. Once the MVA have been identified, then we can be specific and if we can be specific, we will create something worthwhile and when we create something worthwhile, it’s easy to sell because it’s worthwhile.”

 

Social media isn’t the way you become popular, it’s after you are doing something important that people talk about you on social media. I’m a big fan of “word of mouth marketing”, I know it’s old school, but nothing beats the process of actively influencing and encouraging organic word of mouth discussion about a brand, organisation, or event. So, I think that if we can change the lives of 50 people then they will tell their friends and family. Imagine being a specific, unique entity that connects with people at a really deep level, just start by being really special and then the word will spread, and you will add more people.

Pleasure is a treasure

I started my presentation with “Generosity is scarce and generosity scales!” I think that generosity does not mean you give away things for free, it means you showed up with emotional labour to make things better and this can be expressed in many ways. For example:

1) Act like a caring person and not like a company. Show up with your version of the truth by being consistent and personal about what you believe.

2) Be generously persistent meaning when there is a way to make things better, continuously show up with it.

3) Earn permission, own the privilege position of being able to communicate with your audience. Don’t give away your power to Facebook and Instagram, own the connection with the people you seek to serve.

We have to be really clear

As a former sportsman I think strategy is about winning, not just about competing. Winning the game is about creating a measurable margin of difference in the value that we offer customers that gives them a compelling reason to choose us.

“A differentiation strategy is a way to stand out from the noise and give people a reason to choose your business over others. ”
— Burrellism

There are two ways of being unique:
1) By doing something that nobody else is doing, or
2) By doing what everyone else is trying to do but doing it materially better in the eyes of the customer.

No negotiation required

At the front of the curve are the early adopters, these are the people who are playing with new ideas in the culture, they are not people who are trying to preserve old ideas. If you are selling, get the value proposition identified and sell to the value. Sell to the customers problem, solve the problem, and then ask for the money, no negotiation required. Now if you are buying then it’s the other side of the coin. As a buyer you have to work out how much you want to spend, what the value to you is and then tell the supplier how much you want to spend, no negotiation required.

Guiding entrepreneurs

Sometimes being an entrepreneur can be really lonely. Mentors can help to open hives of thought that an entrepreneur may not have considered. Mentoring is an age-old practice of transferring knowledge and experience through personal relationships. The benefits of having a business mentor is often overlooked by eager entrepreneurs who want that instant gratification. A mentor can help entrepreneurs learn how to navigate many of the challenges typically faced by social entrepreneurs.

Mentors have been present in all walks of life and all disciplines for thousands of years and a good mentor will teach you how to think, not what to think. Contact me via e-mail if you are looking for a business professional with the experience to provide personalised support, sound business advice and encouragement to help you develop your own abilities and insights.

Design your process

As salespersons when we are in front of clients if we don’t have a process, I mean a system of doing things via repetition or preparation, then we will stumble. Remember that your process does not have to be rigid. Have you ever left a meeting and then 10 minutes later you say to yourself, “Why didn’t I say this or that?” This is because when you have had time to relax and you are not under pressure, you can evaluate and reflect on what has been said – and boom, you had a better answer.

 

There is a huge difference between preparation and repair. Sales is a preparation or prevention profession, and for some reason we are all sitting around trying to repair stuff. Preparation takes a little bit of work, work which we don’t know for sure whether it will pay off or not, so we are really on a loose limb. Alternatively, we can put in a little bit of work and prevent falling into the trap. There is no doubt that you are going to succeed because you already have because you are reading this blog. Contact me via e-mail for an appointment when you are ready to design your process.

The customer always has the last word

As a marketer your job is to tell stories that are true and will change people, this all depends on what brand message you are trying to convey, and how you intend to drive revenue. I think the message is: “We are building a brand that stands for something, and when we think about where this brand is going then it’s about building a brand that is going to drive revenue for a long time and is worth something.”

 

If you don’t provide an experience, then you won’t have any customers. The question is whether you will choose to matter because that is the path that you really signed up for and if you do that work, everything else will take care of itself.

Just respond

We often react without thinking as it’s a gut reaction, often based on fear and insecurities, and it’s not the most rational or appropriate way to act. Responding, on the other hand, is taking the situation in, and deciding the best course of action based on values such as reason, compassion, cooperation, etc. I care enough to show up and say, “I notice this, I think it’s this and we should do that.” We have to listen and then respond, not react, just respond.

“Always doing things in a calm and confident way.”
— Burrellism

Big picture before details

In my experience it’s important to make an emotional connection with people and you have to share what you are passionate about. The first question you have to ask yourself when you are creating your brand, product or service is, “What is it that I am truly passionate about?” I think that you have to appeal to the heart before the brain as our brains crave meaning before details. Back in the days when we were running around in the Savannah, if we saw a sabre tooth tiger, we never thought about how many teeth it had. Our first response would be, should I run, or will it eat me? Our brains are hardwired to process information this way and that’s why we need the big picture before the details.

A gift on Monday

The sole purpose of marketing is to make a change, this is a big statement. Marketing is what we do when we want to change culture and behaviour, when we want things to be different. I think marketing is the work of telling a story that’s true to someone specific to help them see the world differently and take a different action, and if this change doesn’t happen then there is no marketing. Marketing is the generous act of leading people to get them to make things better.

To begin the marketing journey we have to be specific and ask ourselves two questions:

  • Who is it for? (Target audience)

  • What are the changes we seek to make? (How would they like to receive this content?)

The right competencies

I recently advised one of my clients that digital marketing is an excellent way to reach a large audience. And I also told them that using Google Ads - especially if they can use specific keywords - will help reach the right people and it’s easy to budget because you only pay for results.

 

What about influencers?
An influencer is someone who has a large following on social media and can influence what people buy or where they go. When a brand partners with an influencer, they usually get free products and services from the brand in return for posting about their experiences favourably. I think that linking up with influencers that align with your brand is a relatively simple way of boosting your social media marketing strategy, and it’s a great way to gain exposure on platforms you may not have a huge following on.

Everyone needs a little help

via Getty Images

Managers need to find ways to empower their teams so that they can work out for themselves the most effective ways of achieving the results expected of them. Managers must increasingly provide individualised support and offer flexibility for each team member. It’s not about splitting the role between “leaders of work” and “leaders of people.” I think that when leaders support managers in the right way, they will have the confidence and experience to support their teams in the right way too, which means everyone benefits.

Productive meetings

One to one meeting’s are an excellent way to develop leadership and improve performance, but are these meetings productive? This is a good question as I have many years’ experiences from consulting and coaching organisations of every size, from start-ups to multi-nationals. I think one should focus on your attitude, efforts, and actions, and I do this by guiding you through a process which will improve communication between you and your team. I look at 3 phases:

1.     What’s the problem and what are the outcomes we can achieve by solving these problems? And this has got nothing to do with the product or service, it’s all about understanding what’s the most important thing for the client.

2.     How are we going to solve the problem and achieve the outcomes we want?

3.     Who are we going to do this with?

Do your best

I think in a remote working environment, autonomy, mastery and purpose helps to replace managerial control with empowered self-control. Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills. As a leader, it is your duty to offer your employees the opportunity to master new skills. Overcoming challenges and acquiring mastery is a satisfying part of the human experience, whether it’s related to your work or not. Everyone wants more money; in my experience salary is rarely the main motivator for excellent performance.