December 2009 | Choosing the Truth

You Can Accomplish Whatever You Believe You Can

Written on December 22, 2009 by Jerry in attitude, focus

Over the course of 2009, my friend and business partner Joel D. Canfield and I had some fun creating a series of videos for YouTube. We were the Business Heretics, and we called the series our Burning Business Tips. I was going through the videos tonight, and I came across one that I think has some relevance as we head into the new year. The video below was recorded in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing:

I think it’s important that we all give this some thought as we look ahead to what we’re planning to accomplish in 2010. I know that, for many of us, 2009 was a year we’d rather forget. I also know that many of us are still carrying around some of the bruises and scars that we received during the past year, and that those scars are affecting the way we’re thinking about the future. They’re even having an impact on the goals we’re setting for the new year.

As the video states, though, we can truly accomplish anything, as individuals or businesses, if we start with the firm belief that we can. I know this to be true, and so do you, though you may have forgotten it. And it’s time to take our power back now. No more wallowing in the misery of 2009. It’s time to plan for a much better 2010, a task which can only be accomplished if you believe that you can do it. After all, who sets a goal that he doesn’t truly believe he can achieve?

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Are We Having Fun Yet?

Written on December 17, 2009 by Jerry in customer service, social media

I wanted to talk a little more about the topic of customer engagement. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, in light of the changes that business is facing. Social media, web 2.0 and a shrinking world are putting tremendous pressure on businesses to adapt to the new expectations of their clients.

Traditional companies, especially those who are looking for their customers among Generations X and Y, have a new challenge to rise to. That challenge can be summed up in one question: Is it fun to do business with you?

There’s no denying it. Baby Boomers have for years decried the fact that “kids these days” need to be constantly entertained. And they’re right, of course. Just look at phones: modern phones are not made for placing calls, they’re made for entertaining. So if you’re selling a product or service to this group who need to be entertained, what are you doing to entertain them? Again, are you making doing business with you fun? If you’re not, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not going to survive.

Tomorrow’s customer isn’t going to base their buying decisions primarily on things like features and benefits or price. Their expectation is that every company will offer great features, benefits and prices. After all, this is a generation of buyers who knows how to research, and if you’re not in line with the market, you don’t stand a chance. No, tomorrow’s net-savvy consumer is going to decide whether or not to buy from you based on the entertainment value you provide.

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Taking My Own Advice

Written on December 16, 2009 by Jerry in General Interest, social media

While I was driving around yesterday and thinking about some things I wanted to do with this blog to make it better for you, the readers, it occurred to me that I needed to take a bit of my own advice from Monday’s post about the new rules for business, the 3 Cs: content, connection and conversation.

I realized that while the content I’m writing seems to be striking a chord with readers (thank you again for all your support!), and while I’m conversing with you all when you leave comments, I haven’t yet provided a place where we can all connect. I realized I needed to remedy that as quickly as possible.

Now, call me lazy if you like, but I’m not inclined to take on the responsibility of creating and managing a Ning site right at the moment. So, I opted to create a Facebook fan page for the blog instead. A couple of clicks later, it was all done, and I’d like to invite you all to join in the connections and conversations over at the Motivation 101 Blog fan page.

Here’s what I’d like to see on this page: your ideas, suggestions, links, tips and tricks for getting and staying motivated to press forward in your businesses, careers and lives. I’d like for this to be a place where you can come and ask questions and get advice on how to be a better salesperson for your business. I’d like to see everyone helping each other in the true spirit of community.

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The New Rules of Business

Written on December 15, 2009 by Jerry in customer service, social media

The old rules of business were pretty simple. In fact, William Dillard once summed them up in three words: Location, location, location. The idea was that any business could be successful, so long as it was located on the right street corner in the right part of town. Well, things aren’t that simple any more.

With the rise of the internet and e-commerce, the physical location of your business is less important than it was in the past, especially when your business is service-related or when you sell intangibles or products (like software or web design) that can be delivered online. Even traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are feeling the effects of this revolution, many of them adding an online store to augment their retail sales and shipping their products around the world.

If location is no longer of primary concern, what, then, are the new rules of business? I call them the three Cs: content, connection and conversation.

Let’s start by saying that if your business hasn’t joined the online community and started participating in social media, you’re missing the boat in a big way. It’s time to get on the bus. That said, you need to pay attention to how you are conducting business online.

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Understanding the Root of Motivation

Written on December 13, 2009 by Jerry in attitude, mindset, Motivation

When it comes to creating and maintaining forward momentum in your career or in your business, there is one factor that rises above all the others: your why, your reason for doing things, the motivation behind your motivation. It’s been said that you can accomplish any what, so long as you have a big enough why. I’m a firm believer in the truth of that statement.

Have a look around, and you’ll see that those who get what they want out of life are driven to succeed by their why for doing it. In other words, their reason for succeeding is bigger than any defeat they may experience along the way. These may sound like empty platitudes, but look a little deeper and you’ll see what I mean.

Think of a time when you were close to achieving some particular goal but stopped just short of getting there because of some obstacle that came up. Most likely, like the fox in Aesop’s fable, you made a declaration of “sour grapes”, justifying to yourself that not attaining the goal was probably for the best anyways. Dig beneath the surface, though, and I’ll bet you’ll realize that, no matter how important attaining that goal may have seemed to you at the time, somewhere along the way you lost your zeal for it: you no longer had a big enough why.

Now think of a time when you did achieve some goal you’d set for yourself, in spite of any roadblocks that may have come up. No matter what the setback, you got up, dusted yourself off, and kept right on going, pushing ahead until you got what you wanted. What kept you going in this case? Examine your motivation, and I’m sure you’ll find that in this case, you had a really significant reason for achieving that particular goal. In this case, your why was big enough to accomplish the what.

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Want to Succeed In Sales and Business? Better Learn to Be Sociable!

Written on December 11, 2009 by Jerry in great books, social media

I wanted to take a minute to give a tip of the hat and a hearty congratulations to Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger on the upcoming release of their new book, Sociable!

As you probably gathered from the title, this is a how-to guide for using social media and Web 2.0 tools to create communities and be more profitable. In their own words, Sociable! is about “using social media to create real relationships that impact you, your business and your community in a positive fashion.”

I had the chance to read an advance copy of Sociable!, and I was really impressed with the quality of the information it provides about the impact social media is having on business. I’d highly recommend you jump over to the book’s website and download Chapter 1, which includes a Foreword written by none other than Kyle MacDonald, the blogger who, through a series of trades carried out over the course of a year, exchanged a red paper clip for a house (if you’ve never read Kyle’s story, you have to check out OneRedPaperClip.com…it’s a hoot!).

I’m glad to see these two social media thought leaders tackling the subject head on and providing valuable guidance for those of us who sometimes feel like we’re making this up as we go along. Sociable! is a great reminder that no sales technique in the world can substitute for building and maintaining great relationships with your prospects and clients, whether on or offline.

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Are You a Rotten Apple?

Written on December 10, 2009 by Jerry in attitude, mindset

Early last month, my friend Tibor Shanto shared an experience he’d had with the Apple store in Toronto. The story reminded me of something out a bad retail dream: disrespectful technicians, a rude store manager and a genuine lack of regard for the customer. Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming all too familiar, and the time has come for a little wake up call.

When is the last time you genuinely thanked a customer? I mean really, truly thanked them from the bottom of your heart? A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about the importance of gratitude. Well, here’s a good place to start: how about a little gratitude for your customers? After all, if it weren’t for your customers, where would you be?

I’ll always remember hearing Jeffrey Gitomer talk about saying thank you to your customers. He said we should get in the habit of saying something like “Thanks for dinner!” when a customer places an order, since that will always help us remember that without the customer, we don’t eat. Is that how you see your customers? If not, it might be time for an attitude adjustment.

In a world where consumers have nearly unlimited choices for almost everything they buy, why would you give them any excuse to buy from someone else? Why not give them the best possible experience each and every time they choose to do business with you?

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When All Else Fails, Sue the Competition

Written on December 9, 2009 by Jerry in attitude, mindset

I’m not often struck speechless, but that’s exactly the effect this article in the New York Times had on me. In fact, even though I knew I was going to write a blog post about it the minute I read it, it’s taken me the better part of a week to figure out what to say.

The article basically says that, while large companies used to be content to battle it out in the marketplace, they are now taking their battles to a different venue: the nations courtrooms. Many have resorted to suing competitors over allegedly false claims made in ads, asking judges to remove the ads from the airwaves in an effort to regain marketshare. Here’s a quote from the article:

“The increase in these actions may be a reflection of the dismal economy: in recessions, when overall spending lags, advertisers must fight harder for customers.”

Oh, if only that were true. Rather than “fight harder for customers”, these companies are choosing a different battle. They’re choosing to slug it out with competitors rather than do the one thing that could really help them regain marketshare: focus on their relationships with their customers, a technique my friend Skip Anderson calls customer engagement.

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It’s All About the Conversations

Written on December 8, 2009 by Jerry in activity, social media

After reading an insightful article about social media by my friend Jim Keenan, I started thinking about the way a lot of businesses and individuals are using social media. Is it just me, or do the majority of users seem to think that social media sites are just free advertising space? I see it every day, and I’m sure you do, too: the thinly veiled ads, the blatant pitches, the sales copy in “Free Report” clothing. It’s got to the point where my Twitter stream is so clogged up by spammers, I’m having trouble staying one step ahead of them. I wonder how the folks with 20,000+ followers do it!

So here’s the thing: I want to challenge everyone involved in using social media in their business to remember the key word (and no, it’s not media…guess again). This is supposed to be social. In other words, it should be about conversations. Instead of worrying about how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have, you should be thinking about how many of them you’re interacting with. This was brought to light recently at one of the companies I work with.

The company has two teams of of people in charge of using social media sites to connect with potential customers. Team #1 took a “scorched earth” approach and started slamming their pre-packaged message out to as many people as they could and directing them back to the company’s website, relying on the site to make the sale. Team #2 took a more deliberate approach of engaging prospects in conversations and walking them through the buying process.

Can you guess what the results were? I probably don’t need to tell you that, after on week, Team #1 had contacted 500 prospects with zero conversions and Team #2 made far fewer contacts (about 60) with a 10% conversion, and the results are still trickling in from Team #2′s activity as they follow-up on their initial contacts.

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Change Your Thinking, Change Your Results

Written on December 7, 2009 by Jerry in attitude, focus, mindset

I make no secret of the fact that this blog is only indirectly about business and sales. While you’ll see the occasional post about a particular sales skill or business task, what you’ll usually find is something about how to think differently: about yourself, about your life, about your business. My primary purpose is to get you thinking about your thinking.

Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the challenges that so many are facing in their lives and in their businesses, and wondering if there isn’t something more we can all do about improving the situation. Of course, being an optimist, I always believed that there is, and I got what I was looking for: gratitude.

For so many of us, gratitude is the missing link in our happiness, and a lack of gratitude for the good in our lives makes a bad situation seem even worse. And while I know and understand completely that many people are facing challenging, sometimes overwhelming, circumstances in their lives, there are still things, a lot of things, to be grateful for. Like what, you ask? Well, it’s going to be different for each of us. I know what I’m grateful for, but it’s up to you to decide what you’re grateful for.

And yes, you read that right: I said you have to decide what to be grateful for. Gratitude, like any other feeling, is something we have to choose. Especially if you’re experiencing difficulty in your life, it can be a difficult choice to make; after all, it’s so much easier just to see the bad and to wallow in it. Finding something to be grateful for in a bad situation takes a lot of effort, but it gets easier with practice. Here’s a shortcut: write down five things you’re grateful for on a 3 x 5 card and carry it around in your pocket. That way, when a challenge comes up, you can pull out your card, read it, and get right back on track.

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Monthly Archives: December 2009