No business owner ever has enough time or information to make the right decision. Too many things can change that are outside of your control.

Technology is changing. The customers are changing. The market demand is changing. And yet we are hopeful that we make the right choices on a day-to-day basis.

What I have found in the last few years is that it is not the correctness of the decision that has been my saving grace. It has been the ability to change from the decisions that I have made to something different, quickly and without reservation.

When the world is changing around you, your best position is that of flexibility. Don’t get stuck and fixed in the idea that this is the way that it is going to be. As soon as you dig in you will find that the market has yet again changed around you.  You are left standing there and wondering, “What happened to my glorious sure-fire plan?”

Learning how to make good decisions is one thing.  Learning how to make good decisions on the fly is becoming a required skill for the business owner who is working in ever-changing market situations.

Think better. Think faster. 

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

As I viewed this video in the wee hours of the morning, I was struck by the collaboration and combination that the embrace of technology has spawned within the arts community. Because of the internet and social media technologies, dance moves from one part of the world are easily shared elsewhere. Thus an acceleration of the evolution of dance as we know it.

Moving the art form to levels that we have not seen before. This is spectacular to watch.

This is the true use of technology as it used to create new movement and expression. This is the highest and best use of media.

In this short video I saw:

• value exchange
• emotional response
• years of dedicated practice
• self discipline to perfect a craft

Manipulation of space, time and energy are within the realm of quantum physics but are part of the vocabulary of dance. Amazing and intriguing.

What I also observed was dance styles that are from the 70’s still being practiced and refined and taken to new levels of control and perfection.

Alot of implications here…

Like when was the last time, you got up from your computer and really interacted with people?

Hmmm….

Enjoy.

This is an interesting video that is still valid. How can you position yourself and your business based on trend thinking?

How strong is your social network?  How many people can you pick up the phone right now and call right now?  How many would answer?

If you are networking online, are you translating to your activity offline?

Transactions are made out here, in the real world, with real people.

• Meetings
• Conference Calls
• Presentations

I tell my students all the time:

• Get offline.
• Talk to people.
• Develop a relationship.
• Add value to the marketplace.
• Be helpful.
• Befriend people with skills that you don’t have.

More on Using Social Media For Real World Networking

Let’s look at a fundamental truth right from the dictionary. This is the textbook definition. Starting at the beginning.

mar·ket·ing (mär'ki-ting) n.

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

Taking a page from politics, marketing is getting an idea into the marketplace and getting people to change their minds and behavior.

Let’s examine a pragmatic definition you can use today:

Marketing is the practice of getting your idea not only into the marketplace but also into the minds of those who are ready, willing and able to take action to consume your product.

As a business, the first thing that your business has to do is promote the idea that it can produce a consumable product. But more importantly, getting the idea to the right people is critical. Traffic is crucial. Actional (conversional) traffic is even more important.

For politics, the consumable product that you market is leadership.

As a business owner, you too are promoting leadership in your chosen market.

So how does this pertain to social media strategy?

Social media for most is a place for chatter. Making that idle chatter actionable is your goal.

So…

More on Social Media Strategy for Marketing (Some Thinking)

Obama 2.0 is in all the headlines today. A friend of mine just send this to me via Twitter (thanks @JillKoenig).  What does this mean?

The question that comes to my mind is how can a business, the backbone of the economy, learn from these political campaigns?

There are true nuggets of marketing, positioning and execution gold that can be found here.

More on Obama 2.0: The Business of Politics