Some years ago, I sold robots.

For 99.9999% of the people in the world, the robot was a cool, neat and impressive piece of machinery but was not valuable to most people.

Why? They could not do anything with the information, except be impressed by it. They could not afford it nor use it to do anything with what I was offering.

Now on the other hand, if they:

• Served as senior engineer for a manufacturing facility
• had a funded project
• could authorize the purchase
• could provide internal support, and
• could justify the project with ROI

Then, and only then, would we begin the conversation about my product or service being valuable.

SIDE NOTE: Shhh… ROI is still important (if you are in business). There is an ROI associated with time and effort. Don’t forget that money is foldable time. If you are not paying attention to this then you might be wasting alot of time for nothing.

Do you see how specifically this offer is matched?

This is such an important lesson. The key is exposing your offer to the right people who care about your offer. To say that “everybody needs what you have” means you have not taken the time to think about your ideal customer.

New Media Application: The World Is Your Oyster (Sort of…)

Social media gives you access to a bunch of people. But you still have to target your communcation to the people who want, need and can afford your offer. Technology has allowed us access to just about any one in the world, but…

• After you get access, then what?
• What is your valuable offer?
• What can you do for the person after you get to them?

Your offer needs to be thought out, understood and planned… before you start attracting the market. By the way, people still like to talk to people. The internet has made us lazy with the craft of communication. Everything is not good content. Some of it sucks and has no value whatsoever.

• Old Adage: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
• New Social Media Adage: If you can’t say/share something valuable, don’t share it at all.

Now follow me as I apply this to social media. I was told yesterday that I don’t use social media very well because I don’t have a huge following on Facebook.

I thought about it for a moment, and replied, “Because you can’t see what I am doing, does not mean that I am not doing something.”

The same thinking that I used for moving in the marketplace selling robots is the same thinking that I use as move in the “social media” marketplace.

Well-placed effort and communication is valuable for all parties involved.

The idea of just Tweeting, Facebooking and Blogging for the sake of Tweeting, Facebooking and Blogging is of no value and creates no value in the marketplace. What it is creating is noise.

When you don’t know:

• who your customer is
• where they are
• where will come from

you will use a shotgun approach and hope that your prospects will find you. That is called shotgun marketing. It is expensive and ineffective offline. And now this thinking has moved online.

When you know:

• who your client is
• what your offer is
• where they are
• how to attract them to you
• what is important to them

That is called valuable offer positioning. It makes business life a lot easier. Keeps costs down. This is well-leveraged effort.

For a business owners and independent salespeople, creating a valuable positioned leveraged offer is critical to your success.

The first key to creating a valuable positioned offer is knowing who you can be valuable to and designing the offer so that it can be:

• exposed
• consumed
• understood and acted upon.

We’ll talk about this in the series of calls that I am doing.

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www1.gotomeeting.com/register/640505905
Webinar, Monday March 29 – "Creating Your Offer"
8PM EST– 9PM EST / 7 – 8 PM Central US
Go there now and register, as we have limited number of spaces available.

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Til next time,

David Bullock

Is social media really changing? Nope…

Are you really using social media to further your knowledge and reach in the marketplace? Or, are you just following the masses online to follow those who already have an (offline) following?