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November 18, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Keep Your Eyes Open

One thing I never learned as an English major or as a seminary student was to keep my eyes open for opportunities.

You’d think I’d pick this skill up while studying to be a pastor, but I have a hard head.

Nope. It’s taken five years of pounding my brain with a steady stream of sales, leadership, and, yes, personal growth content to help me realize two things about keeping my eyes open.

  1. There are opportunities everywhere.
  2. There are people who could use a hand everywhere.

Usually, the two go hand in hand.

Since I’m currently (through March 1), working through what I’ve called the Dan Miller Challenge, I’ve had to be even more observant… on the lookout for opportunities to act on what I’m reading and listening to which, in turn, keeps me on the lookout for problems to solve, people to serve, and potential to stretch.

If the quality of our life depends on our ability, willingness, and availability to create value for others, then keeping eyes open for opportunities is nearly identical with giving people a hand (and being willing to accept some value in return in the form of money – since we’re talking business and sales).

Opportunities that popped up today

I’m currently in the middle of attending a conference, so I went with the goal of finding new opportunities.

Here are a few that I stumbled upon. Most of the opportunities were seed-planting opportunities, but I wouldn’t have noticed them 6 months ago.

  • I met a vendor at the conference whom I thought could benefit from one of my prospect’s products (a software to help mental health professionals who specialize in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I’d met with this prospect just yesterday, so I approached the vendor and mentioned my prospective client’s software. She immediately recognized the creator’s name and let me in on a secret. My prospect, apparently, is a groundbreaker in the field of behavioral therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders.  I never would have known.
  • Many of the vendors at the conference are national child-serving organizations. I’ve normally considered those who work solely within my state as potential clients. This time through, I’m considering the possibility of serving these national organizations. Why not?
  • I had the opportunity to help encourage a colleague in her sales efforts, uncovering niche opportunities and focuses (at least I was giving it a shot).

Those three items might not seem like a huge deal. But the biggest takeaway for me is the fact that I was being much more intentional than I’ve been in the past.

If I want to 10X my business or if I want to exceed expectations or double revenue in just over 4 months from now, then I must learn how to help and serve more people.

I must be a value creator.

The same goes for you, incidentally. I know this sounds more like a journal entry than a blog post, but you do know that I’m just guinea pigging myself, right?

You, too, should keep your eyes open. Look for opportunities. They’re there. You might not make bags of cash each time, but you’ll be exercising the right muscles.

Let me know what opportunities your ran into today. Leave a note in the comments.

Until tomorrow….

——————————–

Reading and Listening Today

 48 Days Podcast: October 17-Nov 7, 2014 

Much of the content above comes from an overflow of power-listening to Dan Miller’s stellar podcast. It’s a special experience listening to 4 or 5 in one day (I had a long commute today).  The concepts and Dan’s creative way of viewing opportunities and shedding our self-imposed limitations make for some powerful car time.

Networking Is Not Working: Stop Collecting Business Cards and Start Making Meaningful Connections – Derek Coburn

My approach at this conference is being informed by Coburn’s book.  His is a wonderfully fresh approach to networking.  

See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar

I’m still making my way through Zig’s book. Today, I got into the chapter around marriage, that if you’re marriage is rough, then everything else will follow suit. My wife thanks you, Mr. Ziglar.

Filed Under: Networking Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: 48 days, 48 days podcast, derek coburn, networking, see you at the top, the dan miller challenge, zig ziglar

September 16, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

One Thing Every Dang Day

One Thing Every Dang Day

It seems like a wimpy way to do things: Pick a goal and select one action to take that will move you toward that goal. And then actually do that one action item.

It’s not ‘massive action’. It’s not ‘leaving out all out on the field’. It’s one thing. Every day.

But one thing a day, compounded over the year, might be 2 to 3 times more ‘things’ than you’d do otherwise.

The Habit of One Thing a Day

I’ve heard this suggestion before. Darren Hardy talks about it at length in his book The Compound Effect. Paul Castain discusses it in his Podcast (the one I listened to this morning), admonishing his listeners to learn to take action.

What I love about this suggestion to select one, maybe two, things a day is that it helps me move forward with much less frustration. As Castain points out in this episode of his Sales Playbook podcast, we all have families and jobs and clients and a variety of responsibilities. We can’t simply start taking 5-10 new actions a day without majorly upsetting the balance in our lives.

Therefore, one specific, targeted action a day is a healthy way to move toward a well-defined goal or personal self-improvement initiative.

That’s what I’ve been attempting to do through this challenge that I affectionately call the 6 Month Dan Miller Challenge.

Today’s Action: Request Castain’s “Qualities of a Rock Star Sales Person” list, rate myself on a scale of 1-10 for all 75 qualities, and identify particular weaknesses.

See for yourself where the weaknesses fall out. Now I have to decide if I’m going to focus on the weaknesses or pull out my ’10s’ and leverage my strengths. Decisions.

Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged
Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged – I hope nobody I know disagrees with my 9s and 10s

Today’s Second Action: Reach out to a new networking contact.

I love the little self-tests and ‘in the privacy of my own office’ projects, but if part of the goal here is to create value to receive value, then I need to find folks for whom to create value. If my main action item doesn’t involve engaging another human person, I must add at least one attempt to reach out.

My three pronged marketing plan to find places to teach, find bloggers and journalists to get to know, and engage experts in one-on-one interviews is vital to my mission.

I also will need to add more direct sales prospecting methods. But I’m sure I’ll be running into those action items soon.

Today’s Listening

I did read more of The Dip by Seth Godin, but not a whole lot more.

My main listening was The Sales Playbook Podcast (I had a lot of phone calls during my rush hour drive times today):

Episode 106 Getting Back To School With Your Selling Skills Part 3 September 11, 2014 – Paul Castain. My exercise for today came from this podcast.

Filed Under: Networking Experiments, Productivity Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: consistency, dan miller, darren hardy, habits, paul castain, productivity, sales, sales skills, sales test, the compound effect, your sales playbook

September 11, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Finding Blogging and Journalist Influencers

Networking is a great way to meet influencers and spread the word about your business. This method is by no means new, but networking has taken on a slightly different look in the advent of digital media and social networking sites.

Over the last few posts, I’ve been challenged to network for speaking opportunities, network to find influencers to interview, and today, network to develop relationships with journalists and bloggers.

Taken together, these three networking streams form a robust marketing plan.

Today’s Reading and Listening:

Blogger Outreach: How to Build Relationships With Bloggers, Social Media Marketing Podcast from 6/20/14. Host Michael Stelzner and guest Scott Monty.

“Missionary Weapons” – September 11th entry, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. The main point: We can’t wait for big opportunities as moments to exhibit stellar character and ministry chops. It’s in the using of a towel to wash feet. “The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.” In other words, our character in the mundane will be even more on display when the chips are down.

Today’s Challenge: Reach Out to Print Influencers, i.e. Bloggers and Journalists

This challenge cannot be done in 15 minutes. I need to peel back my challenges and set aside one full Pomodoro to engage the challenge. This weekend will require some catch-up, I believe.

Here’s my plan (most of this comes directly from the Scott Monty podcast referenced above):

  1. Mindmap potential sources for influencers: Local papers, individual bloggers, online/print trade publications.
  2. Identify their preferred contact method
  3. Develop a pitch or value proposition for each online source: Why in the world do I need to contact them or why would they care for me to talk to them? Do I have a message that is important to them?
  4. Reach out to 5 influencers with a no-strings-attached offer either to feature them or be available as a source if ever needed.
  5. Become a fan: Read their blogs, follow their Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Discover what is important to them and use their information to benefit my current and future clients.
  6. Seek opportunities to connect these influencers with their target audience.

I realize that the whole purpose of this challenge is to put ideas to action, not just to create plans.

In my next post, I owe you a reprieve on a new action. Instead, I’m going back to each of these three networking streams and reach out. 

Until tomorrow….

Filed Under: Networking Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: influencers, marketing, networking

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Hello!

Brett the sales experimenter and the challenge accepter Brett - Sales and Marketing Experimenter. I'm a reluctant sales professional. I didn't start out my career in sales and marketing, but I've grown to enjoy it. Here I discuss marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset experiments that will hopefully yield greater results and a more deeply satisfying sales career.

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