Lately, in an effort to simplify and cut down on the “noise,” I’ve been culling down my list of people I’m learning from. The list still falls well into the three digits, but I’ve started focusing my attention on a “shortlist” of very cool, very interesting people and companies who have a lot to say about entrepreneurship and small business today. Today I’ve decided to share five of my favorites from my shortlist and tell you why I think they’re so important:
1) Dixie “Dynamite” Gillaspie (@dixiedynamite) Dixie “Dynamite” Gillaspie is the secret weapon behind several of my favorite mentors and recently became my own coach. Dixie is a coach, a consultant, a muse, an adviser, a friend, and she has earned her nickname, “Dixie Dynamite,” at least a thousand times over. She has helped me find myself and is helping me re-design Business in Blue Jeans around the vision that’s most near and dear to my heart. Her blog alone contains so much inspiring insight, but I highly recommend signing up for her e-mail newsletter. Dixie is, in a word, extraordinary.
This one should come as no surprise to any of you, if you’ve been following me for awhile. I make no secret of the fact that I “puffy heart love” Bob Burg and that he’s been one of my absolute favorite mentors for years. John David Mann is Bob’s co-author on books like The Go-Giver, Go-Givers Sell More, and their latest, It’s Not About You. John is “the quiet one” because he’s usually writing, but let me tell you, John, who I met recently, is a fount of wisdom that you must not miss. Both Bob and John are extraordinary human beings who have delivered to us a really beautiful way of approaching business, sales, leadership, and, dare I say, life. If you haven’t read their books, you must. The Go-Giver series really ought to be a part of your success library.
3) Scott Ginsberg (@nametagscott)
Scott Ginsberg, who I also met recently, is a seriously brilliant dude. Fortunately for us, he’s also a prolific writer. Go to Scott’s web site (aptly titled “Hello, my name is Scott“) and you’ll find an insane number of blog posts and articles about all manner of topics, but in particular, Scott’s unique forte, approachability. I have to confess that when I first met Scott, I had heard of him, but didn’t yet know who he was and inadvertently stumbled into asking him silly, inane questions about his nametags (Scott wears a nametag 24/7). What’s cool about Scott and his web site and books is that somehow, he manages to continuously come up with a fresh take on things, even though he’s written more than one can absorb in, I don’t know, like a month of solid reading. (also, Scott’s giving away his new book, The Nametag Principle for free. I’ve been reading it and it’s excellent. For details, visit http://bit.ly/rVJe71)
4) John Michael Morgan (@johnmorgan)
John Michael Morgan is a branding superstar. I bumped into John on Twitter recently when we discovered that we have a ridiculous number of friends and acquaintances in common. So I invited John to hang out on the phone with me last week so I could get to know him, and the guy is insane with knowledge. John lives and breathes branding and marketing- and since I do, too, I can tell you it’s rare to find someone who loves this stuff and thinks about it as much as (if not more than) I do. John’s first book, Brand Against the Machine, just came out and it’s also fantastic.
5) HubSpot (@Hubspot)
Hubspot is a new favorite of mine. Hubspot has been putting out a crazy amount of really solid learning content on inbound marketing. They have a bunch of e-books, articles, and webinars on their site, and so far, everything I’ve read is superb and on-the-mark. From what I can tell, HubSpot is actually a full-service web hosting platform that takes all the web site and blogging tools and combines them with a bunch of marketing tools. I’m not too sure about the platform itself, as I haven’t really explored it enough yet to make an assessment, but I don’t think I’d be surprised if their software is great, considering how as good their content is. Whether you’re looking for a tool like Hubspot offers or not, though, if you want to learn about inbound marketing, these are the people to follow.
In coming weeks, I’ll share more from my list of Awesome Entrepreneurial Superstars. Stay tuned!
Welcome to March, the month that comes in like a lion!
For every month in 2010, I’m focusing on a theme that’s critical to small business success and talking about that theme in my e-zine, No Suits Allowed!, here in my blog, and with my experts in The Experts Series. In January, we talked about planning your year and your small business. In February we focused on finding meaning and purpose and gaining authenticity, and I interviewed Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author of The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More in The Experts Series (if you missed that call and want the recording, you can still download it for free here).
This month my attention will turn exclusively to Branding and Positioning. As such, you’ll see articles all month long on branding and positioning your small business, throughout this blog and my No Suits Allowed! e-zine.
I’m also interviewing Jack Trout, author of over thirteen bestsellers about branding, positioning, and marketing. He’s the author of several of my official small business reference books, including Differentiate or Die and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and I consider Jack to be the father of modern branding and positioning.
When I was interviewing Bob Burg and mentioned my upcoming interview with Jack Trout, Bob said,
“Jack Trout is one of the seminal masters when it comes to positioning, branding, marketing. This is a guy who is so big and has been for so long, for you to have gotten him to appear on your call says a ton about you. And I hope everybody listening will be on that call next month. This guy is a master and just please, make the time to listen to him.”
I’d like to also announce the launch of my updated six-week teleseminar class, 7-Figure Branding Secrets, where I’ll take you through the exact process that I use with my one-on-one clients to create memorable brands with serious moneymaking potential. I’ll include a Q&A during every single class so I can walk you through your own branding process. More details, including dates and specifics, to come later this week!
In preparation for my recent interview with Bob Burg (if you missed it, download the recording here), I invited subscribers to share with me their top business challenges. I wasn’t surprised by the answers:
“sales,” “communicating with potential customers,” “sales,” “the telephone,” “sales,” “how do I increase my lead pipeline?” “how to market my business,” “where will I find my next client?” “growing my business,” “sales,”
90% of the questions I got were about sales and marketing, and the reason is that folks believe that sales and marketing are where you actually make the money. Well…you’re wrong.
If your top small business concerns are sales and marketing, you’re focusing on the wrong stuff.
“But…but how can that be true, when there’s an entire industry just build around sales and marketing???”
Ah, there’s the rub. Well, I’m not saying sales and marketing aren’t important. I’m saying that sales and marketing shouldn’t actually be your biggest “challenges.” And yes, I’m prepared to back that up. Here goes:
1) You should know your target market inside-out.
I’ll bet if you’re struggling with sales and marketing in your small business, you don’t know your target market well enough. If you did, you’d know everything from what their likely objections are to where to find them to what kind of marketing they’ll respond to. And when you know that, you really don’t have to wonder if your branding appeals to them or if you’re meeting their needs. You’ll know.
How do you get to know them? Well, first, you have to choose them. Narrow down the people you serve into a clear, definable subset of the population. It’s okay to do this, I promise. It doesn’t mean that you can’t work with people outside your target market. My target market is primarily female entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s, but I work with women and men, and I have clients in their 60s. Your target market is who you work best with, who you understand the most, and who you like working with, combined with who wants what you have to offer.
Second, once you’ve narrowed down who your target market is, if you want to get to know them, ask them. Survey your list and if you don’t have a big list yet, look for places to find your peeps and invite them to take your survey. It’s not rocket science, but I do have a few recommendations: 1) Offer a high-quality freebie as a gift for taking the survey, 2) Limit your survey to 20-25 questions and only about 25% of those questions should be open-ended, 3) Ask them what you need to know as well as what you want to know. Get basic demographics, but also ask what keeps them up at night.
When your survey is over and you tabulate you responses, you should know a lot more about your target market, where to find them, and what they need and want. Everything else flows from there.
2) Once you know your target market inside out, you can focus on meeting their needs and providing value.
The people you serve are people. I’ve been saying that for a long time. They’re real people with real worries and real fears that keep them up at night. How can you serve them? How can you help address those worries and fears so that they can rest easy and get some sleep? If you’re addressing those needs and bringing enough value, not just in your products and services, but in how you’re showing up in the world, sales won’t really be a challenge anymore.
And remember, bringing value comes in many forms, too. This isn’t necessarily about giving your services away for free (although there may be times when that makes sense). As Bob and John talk about in Go-Givers Sell More, you can bring value in several ways. Bob and John mention five key ways to bring value that I really love: excellence, consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation. And sometimes, just listening brings value. Who knew?
3) If you focus on bringing real value to people’s lives, sales will follow as a natural consequence.
One of the great things I picked up in my interview with Bob is that the top 10% of successful people in the world understand that giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. They’re a part of the same thing – as Bob put it, they’re like inhaling and exhaling.
So many of us think that “it’s better to give than to receive,” but actually, being a “go-giver” means you’re focused on giving value, but you’re open to receiving. And as such, if you’re focused on the other person and bringing real value, the natural consequence is that you’ll be rewarded. One of my favorite lines from Go-Givers Sell More is, “The task here is not to create value in order to create a sale or in order to anything. It’s to create value, period…Right now, your total job is to focus on one thing and one thing only: providing value to other people. If you do that well, sales—and money—will find you.”
The bottom line is that sales isn’t about sales. It isn’t even about the thing you sell. And marketing isn’t about the thing you sell, either. They’re both all about value. What value do you bring to the lives of other people? That should be your biggest challenge. Once you master that, sales and marketing shouldn’t be an issue.
I’ve spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable and uneasy with the sales process. When I have a call with someone who’s expressed interest in working with me, I often worry that I won’t know how to “close” the sale or when to ask for the sale…and I have to admit that my sales have suffered as a result. If you’ve experienced anything like this, I’d like to invite you to join me this Wednesday evening for a frank and in-depth interview with my friend, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author of The Go-Giver and his brand-new best-seller, Go-Givers Sell More.
Bob and I will be talking about authenticity and how to bring more value to your clients and frankly, everyone around you. We’ll discuss how to make the sales process feel less smarmy and more genuine, and then I’ll open up the lines so you can ask Bob your own questions about sales and networking.
My interview with Bob is this Wednesday evening (2/24) at 8 PM Eastern. And on Thursday evening (2/25), at 8 PM Eastern, I’ll be hosting a follow-up Q&A call. I’ll do a brief review of the interview with Bob, and then I’ll open up the lines and answer your small business questions live. We’ll be recording, so if you can’t make it, sign up anyway, and I’ll make sure you get the recording. Both calls are free, and you’ll receive MP3 recordings for both calls.
This is actually the first call in The Experts Series, my yearlong “interview-and-integrate” teleseminar series, where each month, I’m interviewing a different small business expert and helping you integrate their ideas into your own small business.
My theme for February is all about finding your true purpose and being authentic.
Finding your purpose can be challenging. You have to give yourself permission to dream and engage in constructive soul-searching. What speaks most to your soul and what lifts your spirit? What are you meant to do and what are your unique gifts? Once you find the answer to these questions, concentrate on discovering your unique voice, that which makes you you. And then you’ll really have something. But know this: the answer isn’t out there. It’s in you. Search long enough and you’ll find it.
Authenticity in your business is about honesty. Trust. Integrity. Doesn’t it seem ironic, then, that people use “authenticity” as a marketing gimmick? For the service professional, authenticity is about getting to the heart of who you are, and communicating that to your audience. It’s about providing a real service or a real product, something of true value, and offering it at a fair and appropriate price. And believe me, when you get authentic, you see such a huge return in your business.
This month, you’ll find a fantastic interview call with Bob Burg, author of The Go-Giver in my teleseminar series, The Experts Series. After that call, I’ll also be doing a Q&A call of my own, so we can talk about building authenticity and “Go-Giver principles” into your own business.
My theme for February is all about finding your true purpose and being authentic.