Take your foot off the brake!

Have you ever driven your car on an icy road?
What happens when you jam-on the brakes?
That’s right, you slide off the road and maybe end-up in a ditch or worse.

That is exactly what is happening to many people today. They are spending entirely too much time watching, reading, listening and talking about how BAD things are in this economy. They are focusing on blaming Bush or Obama or the Fortune 100 CEOS or whoever. As a result, they can’t help but react with fear by jamming-on the brakes.

To read more about why maintaining your marketing efforts is important even in a down economy, please read my latest article.

Rule #5- Strategic Rejection Makes Us More Attractive

This is the fifth of 15 short video lessons I’m making available that cover the topics discussed in my upcoming book, The Rules of Attraction. I hope you find it valuable.

Just Say No!

Rule #5: Strategic Rejection Creates Attraction

There is one word that business leaders are always frightened to say to a potential customer:
NO!

The word no can become the most strategic word in your lexicon. The more people you reject, the more attractive you become to the discrete market you have identified.

As right as it feels sometimes, when you continue on the mission to add more business at any cost, regardless of how these new prospects match your target profile, you risk devaluing your market position and reducing your competitive worth.

I have seen many occasions where management, in pursuit of meeting ever-increasing costs, will do whatever it takes to land a new customer, any new customer. Fast forward into the future; if this behavior continues, that company will end up with a large number of new customers and a support nightmare. Too many different versions of a product mean support, development, and customer services are impossible to maintain. As precious resources are sucked away, the next release of a product or service is constantly delayed. Furthermore, the company may develop a number of features that the market does not want, and the company ceases to be exclusively important to anyone. A “jack-of-all-trades” is important to no one.

Finally, the profitability for each customer goes down significantly as new features are added only to close deals. In the end, businesses die from one of two reasons: (1) having too few customers or (2) having too many of the wrong kind. The more experienced and disciplined strategy is to identify the gap in the marketplace and then develop a solution that fits this need so perfectly that a customer would feel ridiculous to consider any other inferior solution.

Check out the video below for more details.

To pre-order the book at Amazon.com, click on the image below.

Rule #3- Create an Exclusive Community of Superusers

The Fender Stratocaster is the most popular electric guitar ever made. From Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton to Buddy Holly, guitarists have used it to change the world of music. The “Strat” as it is known, is an icon for an exclusive community of musicians who have become superusers. I know, I’m one of them.

Fender has kept this tradition alive with their many Stratocaster user groups. The entrepreneurial lesson learned is that we can create our own community of superusers by building “specialty” into our products and services. We can make them so valuable to a SMALLER market that they are initially shunned by the masses. Our superusers will evangelize our products and services for us just by using them!

Apple has done it with the Mac and iPhone. Mel Gibson did it with the Passion of the Christ. Even new Harry Potter editions need to be delivered in armored cars because they are so magnetic to their target audience that the rest of the world now clamors for them as well. We can do the same. Check out the video below for more details, or click here to watch it in high defintion.

To pre-order the book at Amazon.com, click on the image below.

Rule 2: The Problem is More Important than the Solution

This is the second of 15 short video lessons I’m making available that cover the topics discussed in my upcoming book, The Rules of Attraction. I hope you find it valuable.

To pre-order the book at Amazon.com, click on the image below.

Rule 1: Become a Bigger Fish in a Smaller Pond

This is the first of 15 short video lessons I’m making available that cover the topics discussed in my upcoming book, The Rules of Attraction. I hope you find it valuable.

To pre-order the book at Amazon.com, click on the image below.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

The success of Barack Obama in winning the presidency on November 4, 2008 owes much to his message like the promise to pass Democratic policies by rallying a “coalition for change.” But watching Obamamania take hold during his campaigning it became rather apparent that something more subtle was at work. It was not so much the message or the man or how his speeches swayed voters but rather the way the campaign unfolded with a compelling brand and a smooth, systemic viral marketing effort. All this was reinforced with a coherent, comprehensive program of fonts, logos, slogans, web design and strategically placed advertisements and announcements. Obama was the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand.

Mr. Obama clearly won the presidency with a well-crafted attraction-based marketing campaign wrapped around one word… CHANGE.

And no one can deny that change is upon us. Not only are we experiencing more change— environmentally, technologically, politically, socially, economically and even interpersonally—today than ever before in history, but the rate at which change is occurring is accelerating as well. Scientific knowledge doubles every fifteen years, and the reservoir of print knowledge doubles every eight. The average young adult today must manage more relationships in one year than their grandparents had to manage during their entire lives. Obviously, a business owner must not wonder if he or she will face major change in the coming months. The more important question is: “How will I deal with it?”

If we approach change from the standpoint of attraction, then we won’t simply struggle to adapt to uncontrollable change; instead, we can lead revolutionary change! With the right knowledge, mindset, and discipline, we can actually attract positive, desirable change, rather than being swept away by forces outside of our control.

Causing Your Own Economic Crisis

As the media touts the failing economy more and more vociferously, business owners seem to be pulling in their horns more and more. This means lay-offs, staff cuts and belt-tightening. That translates into owners and managers getting more involved in the day-to-day operations. Often times the result of this is that leaders take their eye off the big picture in favor of micro-managing the details. My conclusion is that the results of this action can be much more devastating than any so-called economic slow-down. We spend end up spending so much time working IN our business that we fail to work ON the business and cause our own personal economic crisis. Peter Drucker said that on the average one hour spent planning is worth 5 hours of execution. Are you spending enough time planning? Do you need to take a step back and look at the big picture and identify some contingencies? Read my recent article on No Time to Plan.

The Media is WRONG again, as usual!

Have you seen the news? It must be KILLING the media-moguls to be reporting something positive. I’ll bet they’re getting physically ill just hearing about it themselves. Instead of seeing our first quarter of negative growth which would be sign of an impending recession, what do we see? POSITIVE GROWTH!! That’s right, the Commerce Department today (Wednesday April 30, 2008) reported that gross domestic product or GDP expanded at a 0.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, matching the fourth quarter’s advance and handily topping a forecast for 0.2 percent growth in an advance poll of economists by Reuters. Not only that but personal consumption expenditures rose at a 2.2 percent rate after increasing 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. This indicates that people are still buying stuff and are confident about the economy. Awe too bad predictors of doom, the economy isn’t collapsing. My plea to entrepreneurs, who literally DRIVE this economy – STOP watching the news, STOP reading the paper, STOP exposing yourself to all the negative propaganda. START educating yourself, START believing in a promising outcome, and CONTINUE taking constructive action. This will have a positive impact on your personal economy and the entire economic structure.

Fuel for the New Economy

I remember my 1966 Mustang. I sold it for $600 in 1976 before going to grad school and I’m still kicking myself over that! Everyone loved Ford in those days. But it’s not easy to believe in Ford these days. The auto giant has lost over $15 billion, closed factories, shed tens of thousands of jobs, sold-off Jaguar, Land Rover and given-up the No. 2 position in sales to Toyota!

Their new Chief Marketing Officer, James Farley, formerly with Toyota was rehearsing for his speech to dealers, stockholders and company leaders. As the lights dimmed, Mr. Farley didn’t calmly announce his future plans or quote statistics. Instead, he spoke from the heart, revealing a depth of passion for Ford that turned the room dead silent. He became swept up in the emotional power of the moment. “I believe, in many ways, the future of Ford is the future of our country,” he said. “The work here is simply more important than the work I was doing at Toyota.” When he finished, the dealers rose for a standing ovation that left Mr. Farley momentarily stunned. After the applause died down, he savored the reaction. They were waiting for someone to believe in.

Computers, automation and mobile connectedness has had a strange impact on people today. It has caused a desensitization of emotional response. We want to quantify and analyze everything. It is draining the passion and heart from all that we do. I would like to encourage business leaders today to let their true emotions show. Cry real tears, quake with true laughter and shake with anger if you must. Don’t downplay the power of REAL EMOTION. Your team is depending on your genuine emotional display to motivate them. It is the fuel for their continued belief and a precursor to talking action!

Turning the Economy Around

This is an interesting time. The recent layoff of 80,000 American workers has resulted in all of the financial gurus spouting their drivel about the global economic crisis we are facing. I have even heard some say we are entering another depression. Just a few days ago I appeared on FOX TV and discussed this with business expert Neil Cavuto. He asked me how I thought this was affecting small business owners and what they could do about it. My comments were that maybe we should put some of these gurus on the firing line of small businesses and see how they do. Their demise would be quick and final. Because as I told Mr. Cavuto, the most important asset that entrepreneurs have today is their attitude. Without a positive attitude we are doomed regardless of how well or how poorly the economy is doing. Many of us perhaps have heard the Serenity Prayer – “We must accept the things we cannot change, have the courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Surely we cannot individually change the economy but collectively it is certainly possible. We can do this by focusing on the critical business issues at hand like, delivering a higher level of customer satisfaction, creative product development and line extensions, smart financial management, getting longer terms on payables, building customer loyalty programs and penetrating new markets. We do have the ability to turn this economy around but we must first look in the mirror and begin the change within. Do you have the courage to take that challenge? I sure hope so. All of our jobs might depend on it.