Do you know why most small businesses can’t get off the ground? Are you one of them? The challenge is that most businesses don’t know who their customer is! Even those who have done the standard customer avatar roadmap on a business model canvas, few delve into it as deep as they should given it’s importance to any business. You don’t know what you don’t know and the customer is who you need to know!
Jeff Bezos at Amazon obsesses over his customers. He wants to meet their needs and wants and desires. Even beyond that he anticipates what they will need and want and desire and invents it for them.
Steve Jobs said he invents what his customers want next.
As Henry Ford said,
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Bezos says it is not the customer’s job to know what they want, it is his job. He loves it!
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Do you ever wonder why some people seem to get what they want and others don’t? The reason why some people seem to always get their way is because they are very good at the skill of influence and persuasion. The mainstream term people use and most have a bad association with is sales. We are all in sales whether we like the stigma that comes with it or not. People just use different labels for it most of the time. As Peter Thiel, billionaire investor and co founder of Paypal, says in his book “Zero to One”
“….almost everyone whose job involves distribution— whether they’re in sales, marketing, or advertising— has a job title that has nothing to do with those things. People who sell advertising are called “account executives.” People who sell customers work in “business development.” People who sell companies are “investment bankers.” And people who sell themselves are called “politicians.”
and
“Whatever the career, sales ability distinguishes superstars from also-rans. On Wall Street, a new hire starts as an “analyst” wielding technical expertise, but his goal is to become a dealmaker. A lawyer prides himself on professional credentials, but law firms are led by the rainmakers who bring in big clients. Even university professors, who claim authority from scholarly achievement, are envious of the self-promoters who define their fields. Academic ideas about history or English don’t just sell themselves on their intellectual merits. Even the agenda of fundamental physics and the future path of cancer research are results of persuasion. The most fundamental reason that even businesspeople underestimate the importance of sales is the systematic effort to hide it at every level of every field in a world secretly driven by it.”
We are always influencing and persuading. The trick is to become aware of what we are doing so we can achieve our outcomes and the other people we are communicating with.
So here are two questions to make you more heart centered and caring about not just your own outcomes during the interaction.
Will this person’s life be better off?
Will the world be better off by the person taking action?
The reason you want to be more caring about the other person is because sales is about service and meeting the other person’s needs. And in turn you won’t be that pushy aggressive sales person. You will be a person who cares deeply for others and as a result your success will also follow. Life supports more of that which supports life.
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A client asked me the other day, “How do I keep my eye on the prize….physically, mentally, emotionally?” It hit home for me because it was something I had lots of challenges with and I still do once in a while. As you get higher and higher on your climb of your mountain of success the challenges will get harder and harder. Just like in a video game the levels get more and more difficult. The good part is that you also get better and better!
The first step is getting clear on your vision. What do you really want? Not what you think you should do to get approval from others like your family, friends or society. What do you truly want deep down in your heart? The more you ask yourself this question the clearer your answer will be and it will be a continuously evolving process as you grow and start to achieve your goals. The deeper anchor behind what you want is….why? What’s the reason you want it? You want to make sure it’s an empowering and inspiring purpose that is good for you and others and will fuel you to pull through the hard times because they are inevitable. Have you ever heard/watched/read a story that shows the hero/ine rise straight to the top without any pain, struggle and hardship. If you did it was probably really boring.
The reason we have the pain is because that is our workout to get stronger and become a bigger person. And the reason of becoming a bigger person is so you can give back and contribute more to those following in your footsteps. What’s your legacy? Will you be a warning or an example?
What you need to do is set up a life and daily workout program that consists of the specific/consistent actions/rituals you will take every day to create the results you want and more importantly help you become who you need to become. What do you need to do in each area of your life (physical, emotional, relationships, time, financial, mission/career, contribution, spirituality, celebration) every day to create your version of a successful life? It’s not set in stone…if something isn’t working you can change it to something that is working better for you. And it will change inevitably as you grow and become stronger. The key is to test things out and see what works for you. Your rituals will evolve and you will refine and innovate them.
That being said, all this talk needs some action behind it. So….
What are one or two daily rituals in each area of your life you can put in place to get the results you want? What is your formula for your success?
If you found this post valuable share it, like it, comment and let me know what you liked/didn’t like. The feedback helps me grow and refine what I do so I can put out better work for you. If you want a daily performance tracker I use with my clients reach out and let me know!
I struggled a lot in college and my early working years after I graduated with eating healthy. There were two main reasons for this. The first was I didn’t have much money and fast unhealthy food was cheaper and more filling (or so I thought). The second was that healthy food seemed so difficult to make myself at home. These reasons affected me a lot physically of course, but also mentally, emotionally and financially over the long term. It was not a fun cycle and it limited me from taking my life to the next level. How could I live up to my full potential without my physical body operating at optimum levels?
When I finally did some research and learned from people who were eating healthy consistently on a budget I realized I was telling myself stories that weren’t true. I too could live a healthy, energetic and vital lifestyle even though I didn’t have much financial resources!
I always loved red meat and was thrilled to find out I could pick some up at the store for less than $10 and it could be a meal for two days. In the past I would go to a restaurant to treat my cravings and spend $20 or more and it usually wasn’t the healthiest option. As a side note – today I do limit my animal consumption for health, moral and ethical reasons and allow myself to eat animal products based on certain criteria I defined for myself.
The video shows a simple meal I chef up regularly. It costs less than $15 and serves up four meals. It is grass fed meat which is usually the only way I go when I eat meat.
Here are the ingredients:
Grass fed bison
Whole wheat pasta
Scallions
Roasted pepper sauce
Olive oil
Tomato sauce
Salad
Parmesan cheese
My suggestion to you would be to choose a few go to meals you can master that are staples in your diet and you can rotate through for variety.
