Looking Beyond the Sale

I try to deliver real value to everyone reading my blog. There are many sources of great information out there, and I want to share those with you too. So before I start this one, let me recommend that you check out the people over at www.copyblogger.com. There doing some great stuff over there and delivering some AWESOME content.

Ok, now, let’s get right to it.

One of the problems I see almost every day with our Dynamic Web Solutions clients is business short-sightedness. I went to the optometrist this week and I must say, without my contacts or glasses, I’m blind as a bat. I can’t read a book more than 7 inches from my face. Yeah, I know, it’s pretty sad. But what it reminds me of, is the way business owners often look at their business.

They get so caught up in the day to day activities, and so caught up on making the sale that they become extremely short-sighted. Just as I can only see objects that are really close to my face without my contacts, these business owners stop seeing the big picture because they are so focused on the immediate future. They are focused on the goal of the sale, because the sale is what generates revenue to do the other things that they hope to do later.

Here’s what happens though, by trying so hard to get the sale, you may very well lose the sale. People eager to sell often oversell, or seem desperate to sell. This does not resonate well with potential buyers. It’s also an almost instant rapport killer.

Take a step back, look beyond the immediate.

Remember that to be successful, you have to keep you long term goals in mind. Build rapport and trust early with all of your clients and keep feeding that. The old, worn out cliche, “people buy from people they trust” is still applicable. Continue creating attainable long term goals and tackle projects that have long term payoffs (these normally pay way bigger dividends anyway). Take time to write down what you want beyond the sale. Define it. Literally write down what you want to happen. Is your goal to have this client or customer refer 10 others? Could you share contacts with this person that could stimulate future business.

What are your goals beyond this one sale? How will you generate 20 more sales like this one in a specific amount of time? Define your plan, and if you’re saying, “yeah, yeah, I already did THAT…” then take out that list, dust it off, and look at it again. Where are you on actually getting it done? Maybe your existing plan needs a little tweaking.

The key is to focus on a combination of long term goals and short time goals so that you are always moving forward. Plans will change and will need reevaluating, but you can continue moving ahead as long as you are able to see the forest, and the trees.

-Brian

Limitation, What Limitations?

I had the pleasure of meeting Nelson Marquina, PhD today. He is doing some amazingly innovative things with lasers in the health care field.  Dr. Marquina is a physicist who once worked with NASA and has now turned his passion for the laser into a life mission.  He actually created a laser (this is what physicists do for fun) that is unlike any other laser on the planet.  He is using this “pulse laser” (which pulses at up to 80,000 pulses per second!) to treat every type of ailment imaginable at the mitochondrial (cellular) level.   These ailments include everything from muscle, joint and tendon injuries, to liver and kidney diseases, to hair loss.  He has even successfully treated patients in Peru with life threatening heart conditions which some of his peers found unbelievable.  This is truly ground breaking stuff.

Now what does this have to do with you?  Everything.  You see, Dr. Marquina has been fighting against all odds for most of his career.  He is constantly being told that he cannot achieve what he is setting out to do, even when his data conclusively proves it!  The FDA and other regulatory agencies won’t even let him preform clinical trials in the U.S., so he travels to Peru where his work is literally saving lives.

The point is, there are no limitations.  The only limitations to human achievement are those that you allow yourself to believe.  The human mind, along with willpower, imagination, determination and hard work- can achieve anything.

Think about it, before the Wright brothers flew their first airplane, everyone said it couldn’t be done.  Even close friends and relatives of the Wright brothers said they were crazy.

It used to be, if you lost a limb, you were confined to a wheel chair for the rest of your life.  But that wasn’t good enough, and now there are artificial limbs that allow amputees to run marathons and participate in competitive sporting events.  Unbelievable, the human spirit.

We’ve gone from thatch huts to skyscrapers, wooden canoes to jet boats capable of 200mph+, not flying at all to landing on the moon, the candle to light bulbs that last 5 years and up, stone tables to teraflops of information available in a matter of seconds.

There are no limitations to what you can achieve, if you put your mind to it.  Don’t have all the pieces?  Don’t be discouraged.  Build from what you have and search out other resources to help you fill in the gaps.  The important thing is to keep pushing forward.  Dr. Marquina may discover a way to fight cancer, heal muscle, joint, tendon, and ligament injuries, even fix previously irreversible spinal injuries.  But if he had given up when the powers that be told him he couldn’t do that, all of that would be lost.  The key is to persevere in the face of adversity.  See a setback as an opportunity for advancement.  Study failures to glean information about how to improve results in the future.

Be passionate about what you do, no matter what you do, and you will see that there are no limitations to what you can achieve.

-Brian Forrester

Keeping Up With It All (Information Overload)

Info Overload?  Feeling like there is no way to keep up with everything going on around you?  This is the age of speed and the average Joe (and Jane) have been empowered through blogging and social media to deliver news even faster than many mainstream media like radio and T.V.  That means that news and other very valuable information is now available from thousands of sources which update all day, every day.  Keeping track of blogs you read, news, Twitter, Facebook, forums… yeah, it can be difficult.

So what can you do about it?

First, realize that you can’t keep up with all of it.  There is no way to process that much information.  The sooner you come to this conclusion, the better you will sleep.

Second, organize.    I subscribe to 50 or so feeds (which is probably a relatively small number compared to many of my friends) so one day of not checking my RSS Reader and I’ve suddenly got hundreds of possible articles to read.  The cool thing about the Google Reader I use (and there are many others, like Feed Burner) is that you can organize your info so that it comes to you in a form you can digest.   I’ll skim headlines until I see something I like.  If I notice I’m not reading a particular feed ever, I may just cancel the feed.  Get a RSS reader if you don’t already have one, it will change your life.  Basically think of it as a newspaper where you pick the content.  Pretty sweet!

Third, prioritize.  I’ve got a list of at least 30 books I want to read, I’ve got my RSS feeds, Twitter account (@rbrianforrester), Facebook, Foursquare and I’ve got my educational research…all of this is constantly happening.  So prioritization is key.  Make a list of how what you want to get done, and factor in your reading time throughout the day. Find your favorite blogs that deliver the best content, and put those higher on the list. The key is to make sure you absorb the information that is most important to you, without worrying about missing out on something. Just accept that you will inadvertently miss out on something- it’s O.K.

Get a system for organization.  Preferably one that works across platforms and projects.  I’ve been recommended a little service called Evernote which has been working out great for me.  It syncs with my phone, my desktop and online so I can access my lists and ideas from basically anywhere.

Got any tools that you use to stay organized in the ever-clutter digital world?  Feel free to share them with me.