C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Category: Marketing

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Look – This Is What Containment Is Like In A Negotiation” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Containment can be good, depending on who’s containing whom.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

 

Click to get the book!

 

“Look – This Is What Containment Is Like In A Negotiation”

 

He muttered softly aloud, “I feel restricted. I can’t maneuver nor implement the negotiation strategies that I’d planned to use. He’s keeping me contained within boundaries of which I was unaware.”

Since the time you were in your mother’s womb, you’ve fought containment. And containment continues to occur in many aspects of your life today. Sometimes containment is favorable, and sometimes it can be unfitting. Thus, when it’s in your favor, it provides shelter from harm. But if you’re the one contained in a negotiation, it can be very detrimental to your negotiation position. Nevertheless, you and the other negotiator engage in a constant dance throughout the talks to see who’ll come out on top of the containment battle.

While containment can be useful, it can be constraining in a negotiation. And that may not necessarily help your negotiation efforts. What follows are insights about how containment occurs and why it can be so devastating.

 

Assumptions

You discover your negotiation efforts are restricted. Now, what do you do? Just because it’s occurring doesn’t mean you have to let it continue. That means, be mentally flexible with your thoughts and acceptance of new ideas while attempting to free yourself from containment.

By keeping an open mind, you open the doorway through which new ideas may enter. And if allowed life, you never know where that idea may take you. The end of the path may be freedom from containment. Now, let’s switch perspectives.

Sometimes, the caveat swallows the premise because you’re too affixed to the latter. Say what? That means, never close your mind to a warning because you believe it’s impossible. You may receive intuitive signals that something’s not right, situations closing in, etc. If there’s a probability of that occurring and you’re sensing it, based on the effects it might have on you, prepare to challenge a premise. The point is when negotiating, always be willing to reassess your position and perspective. Life is an ever-changing occurrence, and so it is when you negotiate.

 

Mind Control

Have you ever had your fortune told by a carnival fortune-teller? She looks for signs on your person to detect insights about you. As an example, if she observed that you were poorly dressed, she may have stated that she sensed you were dealing with challenging times. If viewing a faint lightness around your ring finger, she may have said that she sensed that you’d had some recent personal issues with a loved one, etc. After she made a few pronouncements that you agreed were accurate, you became more prone to accepting new assessments she made about your future.

A good negotiator uses some of the same tactics to endear himself to get you to bond with him. He knows, the more you bond with him, the more likely you are to agree and accept his proposals.

There’s another influencing factor at work, too. It’s called consistency. And it plays with your emotions. It does so when you think, well, she’s right about most things discussed so far, I might as well accept this. Don’t do that! Don’t let expectations get ahead of reality. Be aware of what’s moving you to action and where it’s leading. Being unaware can prove to be a trap from which it becomes difficult to extract yourself.

 

Containment

Speaking of mind control, be careful of what you believe. When negotiating, a good negotiator knows it’s easier to move her opposition to her point by getting him to agree with something he already believes. Thus, when she links a thought that he agrees with to her offer, he’s more apt to acknowledge and accept her proposal. And that’s why you should be aware of how someone can turn your beliefs against you.

Once you embrace an assumption as the truth, and one you believe in, you become prone to accepting other similar premises. Psychologists state that’s due to the consistency factor. Everyone wants to maintain consistency in what they’ve said or done in the past. Thus, they find inner conflict when they rebel against what was their current beliefs.

 

Hidden Commands

Have you ever stopped to think about the number of hidden commands you encounter every day? A good negotiator uses hidden or embedded commands frequently in a negotiation. It’s part of his containment strategy.

Look, buy, like, this is, are suggestive psychological words intended to move you to action. I used several of those words in the title of this commentary. And you may not be aware of their effect unless you’re mindful of the impact they’re having on you at the moment. To assure that they don’t manipulate you when you hear them, note when you hear them. Then, be prepared to confront their intent. By doing that, you’ll decrease the probability that you’ll be contained in an unwanted position by your counterpart.

 

Reflection

In every negotiation, seek to give the other negotiator the feeling that she earned the concessions she received. She’ll respect you for that and value what she obtained with her talents versus the perception of a gift you gave her.

Therefore, when she attempts to tie you to her emotionally, understand that it’s another way for her to contain the emotions you have during the negotiation. And, by being mindful of containment throughout the negotiation, you can better dodge the pitfalls that might otherwise occur. That will allow you to be more successful in your negotiation efforts. And everything will be right with the world.

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here https://www.themasternegotiator.com

 

 

 

#containment #csuitenetwork #thoughtcouncil #Bodylanguage #readingbodylanguage #Negotiation #Control #Conversations #NegotiationStrategies #NegotiationProcess #NegotiationSkillsTraining #NegotiationExamples #NegotiationTypes #ReadingBodyLanguage #BodyLanguage #Nonverbal #Negotiate #Business #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #Negotiator #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #BodyLanguageExpert #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #GregWilliams #success #negotiation examples #Negotiation strategies #negotiation process #negotiation skills training #negotiation types #negotiation psychology #Howtowinmore #self-improvement #howtodealwithdifficultpeople #Self-development #Howtocontrolanegotiation #howtobesuccessful #HowToImproveyourself

 

Categories
Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“These Are The Best Hidden Secrets About Shoulder Shrugs” – Negotiation Insight

“The lack of understanding of a shoulder shrug can leave hidden secrets concealed.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

 

 

Click to get the book!

 

“These Are The Best Hidden Secrets About Shoulder Shrugs”

 

“Were you involved with those other people that ransacked Mr. Smith’s store?” No was the answer to the question. “Then why did some of the people that confessed say you were there?” I don’t know, was his response as he shrugged one shoulder. “You’re not telling the truth! Don’t try to hide your secrets. I can tell when you’re lying!” I’m telling you the truth was the statement made as he displayed a double shoulder shrug.

You might wonder why it’s so important to understand the meaning of shoulder shrugs. And the answer is, they unlock secrets into the thoughts occurring in the person emitting them. Because to possess a lack of meaning about shoulder shrugs is to have a lack of insight into the person with whom you’re communicating. In essence, the person is signaling the need to protect himself. From what is the answer you should seek. Thus, the better you become at interpreting nonverbal signals that shrugs offer, the more able you’ll be at understanding the secrets that others attempt to conceal from you, and why they do so.

 

Analysis

To better understand the meaning of a shoulder shrug, you must observe what’s occurring when the action happens. That’s because people emit shrugs based on how they feel at a specific moment. And the gestures occur to secure one’s inner self, their emotional state of mind, or to add additional meaning to what they’re saying.

When displaying a shrug, to add additional meaning to one’s words, the act can become exhibited to convince you of a lie they’re telling, or an attempt to enhance the believability of their truth. And that’s the reason it’s so important to observe when the gesture occurs.

If someone senses that you may be in the process of uncovering their lie, they may become more defensive, which might cause them to shrug both shoulders. The meaning of that act, in that situation, would be an effort to make a smaller target of themselves. That’s something everyone instinctively does when they’re attempting to protect themselves. And that act would be the attempt to conceal the lie flowing from the mouth. Someone’s head might also become tucked to protect the throat better.

You can detect when a lie versus frustration is causing a shrug by the degree that one tucks their chin to protect their throat. As an example, when someone attempts to convince you of their truth, and they emit a shoulder shrug, they may do so with more of their throat exposed. They’re stating through the throat-exposing gesture that they want you to believe their words and accept them as the truth, as they think it to be.

When accessing the meaning of shrugs, keep in mind that the truth is what someone believes it is. Thus, someone may display a signal contrary to what’s above per them telling the truth versus a lie. That means, they may expose the throat to protect a lie because they don’t believe they’re lying. Hence, it can become complicated to discern without a doubt that someone is displaying a gesture per how you perceive it. So, when you’re unsure of a gesture’s meaning, note when it occurs at other times during a conversation.

Single vs. Double Shrugs

  • Single shrug – A single shrug can be a softer form of communication, but you should note what it’s accompanied by when comparing it to a double shrug. As an example, if someone cocks their head to one side while lifting the opposite shoulder, you might assume the person is inwardly confused. Because that gesture is not natural. Try it, and you’ll better understand what I mean. Tilt your head to the right and lift your left shoulder. It feels acquired, doesn’t it? In general, a single shrug can denote the perception of being in a less threatening environment than what a double shrug might indicate.

 

  • Double shrug – A double shrug, in most cases, is a more substantial commitment to what the person said. Which means, he’s most likely in more of a protective state. That could also imply that you’re closer to uncovering secrets that he’s trying to withhold from you.

Remember, shoulder shrugs are a form of protection. They make a smaller target of one’s body. Therefore, when you see a double shrug after you’ve observed multiple single shrugs, take note of it. You’re more than likely getting close to uncovering something that’s hidden.

Validating Shrugs

To validate the meaning of someone’s shrugs, ask questions that gradually irritate them. By ‘turning up the heat,’ you’ll sense how exposed they feel by the line of questions you’re posing. While asking what you believe to be non-threatening questions, observe when, or if, shrugs occur. One point to note is when shrugs arise based on what you expect. Another point is when they don’t ensue when you expect them to happen. The purpose of that observation is to attune your perception of that person’s behavior. In both cases, you’ll gain information to compare someone’s actions later. And that’s the process that you can engage in to validate the meaning that someone gives to their shrugs.

 

Reflection

Shoulder shrugs can send different signals, depending on the sender of the act. But if you establish the meaning someone gives to their shrugs, you’ll gain insight into what the shrug means to them. Once you have that insight, you’ll have the key to understanding when they might be lying, and when they may be telling the truth. And that will give you more understanding into why and what secrets they’re attempting to conceal.

I state that you may have that insight, which implies you may not. That’s because there’s no science to confirm the exactness of someone’s shrug that states that everyone performs the gesture in the same manner in the same situation. Nevertheless, if you employ the guidelines mentioned, you’ll have a higher perspective about the silent shoulder shrug signals people are sending when you’re communicating with them. And everything will be right with the world.

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here https://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

Why CONTENT MARKETING Is The Only Skill You Really Need

The Rise Of Content Marketing

In 1995, journalist Esther Dyson asked an important question about the burgeoning web:

“What new kinds of content-based value can be created on the internet?”

Dyson observed almost 30 years ago that as the internet becomes more populated with all kinds of content, the value of intellectual property will depreciate. “The likely best defense for content providers,” she argued, is “to distribute intellectual property free in order to sell services and build relationships.”

What worked in marketing in the past won’t keep working in the future. And it isn’t, we know it. In a world with unlimited competition for attention, we must find a way to deliver value to our customers before they ever make it to a pitch to sell them something. Because if you don’t, someone else will. The modern era of marketing has been an entire shift from advertising what we do to teaching what we know to help the most people. Businesses today are treating their information as the product to attract people interested in learning about their field to add value and gain the attention of the customers we want.

The Rise of Value-Rich Content

Subject matter experts today are standing out by providing the most useful, easy to find content to create a community around the passion they share for their subject matter. It’s NOT about producing content for the sake of promoting content for our business. It’s about providing beneficial information that informs & delights people who are searching for what you know that can help them.

The term content marketing isn’t new. It was simply adopted by the marketing industry wishing to put a stake in the ground in 2007 to highlight the shift away from annoying traditional interruption advertising to the maturing discipline of differentiated value-oriented content creation. To help people not just sell people. 

78%  of CMOs believe custom content creation is the future of marketing, which isn’t surprising given how it influences 61% of consumer’s buying behavior with a 6x higher conversion rate compared to marketing without a digital content strategy. Businesses today that produce the most relatable content. Win.

The content marketing funnel is the new sales funnel. 75% of people visiting a site are just seeking useful information. 23% are comparing solutions they are looking for, and only 2% are ready to take any immediate action. That means we need far more content to attract and engage people into our funnel. Create episodes, videos, articles that help your customers overcome the conflict stopping them from achieving their goals. Create articles on examples of other people or companies reaching the goals you can help them achieve to get them interested in those results. (The mountain they want to climb).  Then create content that outlines every step they need to obtain what they desire and the tools and resources they need to reach their ultimate goal (be the guide).

Instead of interrupting the content, your potential customer is consuming. Produce the content they want to consume.

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

How to Make Competitors Irrelevant

How can we position our businesses in a way that makes our competitors completely irrelevant? The answer: Avoid the trap of competing like every else.

 

What’s A Blue Ocean and Why Should You Care?

Blue Ocean Strategy was named one of the leading business books of the Century by Financial Times after successfully selling over 4 million copies. The book was based on a study of over 150 of the most significant strategic business moves spanning more than 30 industries over the last 100 years.

The authors of the book sought to answer the question: “Why do some companies succeed in creating new market spaces while others fail?” What they found is that most companies tend to compete in the same overcrowded marketplaces, with identical solutions and value propositions, vying for the same attention and diminishing profits.

What the Blue Ocean Strategy discovered was that the most successful businesses approached their customers in a different way than any of their competitors, and in so doing, made them entirely irrelevant for the marketplaces they serve. The goal of a Blue Ocean Strategy is for organizations to find and develop “blue oceans” (uncontested, growing markets) and avoid “red oceans” (overdeveloped, oversaturated markets).

 

“They’re called red oceans due to the cutthroat competition that results in the blood spilled from rivals fighting over shrinking profit pools.”

A company will have more success, fewer risks, and increased profits in a blue ocean by redefining the way we approach customers.

Change Your Approach to Make The competition Irrelevant:

Taking a Blue Ocean approach means your goal isn’t to outperform the competition, but rather to re-think the old approach everyone else is doing in the marketplace.

We can create new market opportunities by providing a different approach to the industry we serve by becoming the leading platforms of information to the markets we serve.

For example, with the launch of iTunes, Apple unlocked an entirely new market approach in providing access to digital music that has dominated the delivery of music for more than a decade. Apple observed a flood of traffic to file sharing sites that began in the late 1990s, with platforms like Napster, Kazaa, and LimeWire. While everyone else in the music industry fought to stop the cannibalization of physical CD sales, digital music consumption, the consumers preferred continued to grow.

With the democratization of digitally available “free” music, the trend toward digital music was clear. Apple capitalized on the consumer trend with the creation of iTunes in 2003, overcoming the need to purchase an entire CD when consumers only wanted only one or two songs they really wanted.

The value Apple offered attracted customers around the world to adopt iTunes as their preferred platform to consume digital music. iTunes is estimated to account for more than 60 percent of the global digital music download market.

But what does any of this have to do with YOU?

 

Provide More Value to Your Market By Providing More Information

Approach customers the way they consume information. In the information age, how can you produce insights to the customer you want to attract by becoming the go-to source of information in your space?

Instead of creating a website with an about page and a few blog posts, think about publishing the most comprehensive information on how to help most people achieve success in your industry. Most business experts, thought leaders, and influencers are hoarding their information behind paywalls via speeches, books, courses, consulting when 75% of web traffic is consuming free information, 23% are considering solutions. Only 2% of web traffic are active buyers.

Today our websites are designed in the reverse order pitching services to the 2% of buyers and not providing and attracting the other 98% with helpful insights they’re actively seeking.

Up until the digital age, businesses only had to compete on three differentiating factors: Speed, Quality, & Price. But now that’s all changed. Business leaders today also have the added pressure of answering why people should like and follow their content. Today, the most successful business platforms are creating uncontested markets by thinking about themselves as media companies providing the best most comprehensive information on their subject matter they’re passionate about sharing with others. Creating followers who begin to know, like, and trust them.

“You don’t want to interrupt the content that people are trying to consume. Be the content they want to consume. The buyer is in control, but you’re still marketing as if that’s not true.” –Mike Volpe

Once you build an audience, it’s yours. They’re on your channels, your site, and consuming YOUR content. In the past, businesses had to rent attention on other media sites by advertising on them. Today companies have the tools to create our own media sites to attract the customer’s attention.

For more information visit tylerhayzlett.com

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Negotiator – To Be More Amazing Turn The Tables On Negative Emotions “ – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Watch the meanings you give to events. They impact the perception of your actions.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

Click to get the book!

“Negotiator – To Be More Amazing Turn The Tables On Negative Emotions “

If he’d been a cartoon character, steam might have been bursting from his ears. He muttered under his breath, “that S.O.B. will not get away with that.” The S.O.B. that he was referring to was the other negotiator, who had stoked the negative emotions of our steamer. And the steamer swore he’d turn the tables on his adversary.

Have you been in a situation where the opposing negotiator did something that sent your emotions into negative territory? We’ve all been there at one point in a negotiation. But what good did that serve? It only upset you.

If you’d like to discover how to confront emotions better and increase your negotiation outcomes, consider the following before and during your negotiation.

 

Causes of Distress

Most emotions stem from people seeking and not achieving either more sex, money or good health. If you just thought, I know that. My question is, as a negotiator, do you consider the impact that may have on a negotiation?

Depending upon whom you’re negotiating with, one aspect of those variables may be more important than another. Thus, if you’re not aware of what’s essential to your negotiation counterpart, you might experience negative emotions when you can’t acquire what you seek.

The lesson at this point is since there are three points from which negative emotions can stem, know which one is prominent in the mind of those with whom you negotiate. Having that insight going into a session will enhance the foresight of its outcome.

 

In Comparison

Is that the best you can do? Many negotiators have heard that question during a negotiation. Some hagglers become irate at it, especially when they think they’ve made their best offer. Smart negotiators divorce their emotions from the question. They know, no matter how good the offer may appear, if untested, they’d never know if there was a better one. Thus, they’ll test the proposition by asking if it’s the best one the other negotiator has.

So, when someone asks for a better deal, don’t become upset. Possessing uncontrolled emotions won’t serve you. Instead, ask what is meant by ‘a better deal.’ The opposing negotiator may have something in mind that you’d not considered. Thus, if you don’t ask the question about what he’s seeking or what he’s comparing your offer to, you could be negotiating against yourself. Therefore, don’t respond to his question before knowing his intent.

 

Focus

It’s a known fact that what you focus on commands your attention. Thus, to control negative emotions, you should monitor the views, thoughts, and opinions from others that you allow to come into your sphere. As an example, I use to believe I could control things that occurred in my environment. That meant I could control the news I watched, the pros and cons of those possessing opposing opinions, etc. But I came to realize that some of those thoughts crept into my subconscious mind without me realizing they’d done so. Thus, I began to act in ways that didn’t serve some of the goals I’d established. I came to realize that carrying the burden of some thoughts shaded my perspective and jaded my thought process during negotiations.

A peer associate who lives in Australia, Tanja Windegger, a Ph.D. candidate, suggested that I stop watching the news. She implied that it might be causing me unknowing stress. She further stated, “anxiety interferes with the optimal activity of our immune system.” Translation, when your immune system becomes compromised, so does your emotional state of mind and health.

The point is, be aware of what motivates your actions. And to what degree your activities align with the outcomes you seek. Even if you let your guard down for a moment, negative thoughts may sneak attack your mind. And they may do so without you being aware that an invasion has begun.

 

Mixed Messages

How well do you work with mixed messages? When there’s a conflict in messaging (e.g., do this – no, do that), or worse outright lies, it can create a lack of action due to not knowing what to do. The negativity can become amplified when you’re the subordinate and your superior commands you to engage in activities that cross your perspective of what’s right and wrong. That can be demoralizing and debilitating. And the latter can be the gateway that leads to unwanted adventures when you become overwhelmed by mixed messages that reside within your mind. To control your thoughts, control the meaning you assign to the events that occur to you, and be mindful of what comes into your thought process.

 

How You Steward

People may not know how you feel, but they gain insight into what you’re experiencing based on how you act. And of course, you know how you think, which shows in your actions. Thus, another reason you should watch the meanings you give to events. Because they impact the perception of your actions.

 

Reflection

Don’t view the truth as an adversary. Instead, embrace it. The only way to do that is to know what it means to you and the other negotiator. Not until then will you know what you’re dealing with, and from there, how to control your emotions. Everyone can lose their cool and become heated during a negotiation. But the more you’re aware of what triggers your feelings, and those of the other negotiator, the better you can control the negotiation. And everything will be right with the world.

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here https://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

#Emotions #csuitenetwork #thoughtcouncil #Bodylanguage #readingbodylanguage #Negotiation #Control #Conversations #NegotiationStrategies #NegotiationProcess #NegotiationSkillsTraining #NegotiationExamples #NegotiationTypes #ReadingBodyLanguage #BodyLanguage #Nonverbal #Negotiate #Business #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #Negotiator #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #BodyLanguageExpert #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #GregWilliams #success #negotiation examples #Negotiation strategies #negotiation process #negotiation skills training #negotiation types #negotiation psychology #Howtowinmore #self-improvement #howtodealwithdifficultpeople #Self-development #Howtocontrolanegotiation #howtobesuccessful #HowToImproveyourself

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development

Pivot and Flex (for speakers and experts)

Welcome to another day in the crazy, upsidedown land of COVID-19. 

I was just telling my amazing spouse – aka The Hot One® – how the headlines change daily, sometimes hourly if you watch your phone notifications. 

And it’s wild ups and downs like we’ve never seen… 

One day (or hour) it’s “OMG we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet and this is all going to get much worse before it gets better – horrible, horrible, scary, scary”… 

The next day (or hour) the news is “Hey great news – there are signs of this slowing down, we might be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it looks like we’re finally coming out the other side”… 

Only to be followed up with more terrible news and dark predictions the very next day. 

So are we supposed to change our whole business model? 

Are we supposed to wait it out and hope things come back to normal? 

Nope. And nope. 

I just recorded a new masterclass for you on how you can pivot your business model for more virtual and online delivery of your expertise. 

And how you can flex your marketing messages to be COVID-19 hyper-relevant today to gain prospects’ attention when they are obviously distracted, upset, and have more problems than ever. 

And no, things will NEVER come back to the way they were in January of 2020. 

Don’t get me wrong – live events will come back. 

The economy will bounce back. 

But it won’t be in the same way as before. 

It will be back – but different. 

If you want to position yourself to survive now – and thrive later – as a speaker, trainer, coach, consultant, or expert – watch this training right now and you’ll see how to pivot and flex your business. 

And how to build a permanent virtual and remote delivery capability into your business model that will lead to profits now and income protection for the rest of your professional career.

Want to move your business online NOW? Building online and virtual profit centers is smart both short-term (obviously) and for the long run. Imagine if you never had to depend on live events or face-to-face interactions of any kind – unless you wanted to – and still generate multiple six figures of revenue and be of good service to great clients who need and want your help? That’s what this 25-minute laser-focused training is all about. Check it out now.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Marketing Personal Development

The ONLY Number That Counts to Hit Your Goals

We talk a LOT about fees, revenue, goals, and metrics in our mentoring program.

Many experts and speakers overcomplicate this.

Should you have a 17-part fee menu with modular prices for every potential type of engagement?

No.

Should you charge by the size of company, by the length of program, by the number of attendees?

No.

Should you become a master of bargaining up and down with your fees, or be able to squeeze blood from a stone, or wrangle a deal better than an FBI hostage negotiator?

No.

In fact, there’s only one number that you need to focus on if you want to land more and better speaking, coaching, consulting, and training clients for much higher fees.

It’s the number that leaves your lips.

Quote the right fee in the right way at the right time.

No waffling.

No caving.

No negotiating.

No begging.

No convincing.

No persuading.

Understand the value you bring to the table, talk about solving business problems (not speaker problems) and you’ll win every time.

You win when the right clients say “Yes” to your right fee.

And you’ll also win when the wrong clients say “No” to your right fee.

What’s the new number that’s going to leave YOUR lips the next time you’re talking to a prospect who wants you to train, coach, speak, or consult?

I REALLY want to know – will you hit reply and tell me your new number?

Categories
Marketing Personal Development Sales

Now Is Not the Time To Shut Down Your Growth Engine

Now, more than ever, we need to keep our growth engines running. Sales must maintain activity levels. Marketing must keep the digital lights on. This is not the time to slow down or stop.

This past week I’ve talked with many leaders that are facing hard choices. I’ve seen some companies make the first cuts in sales and marketing. I understand there are hard choices to be made in this season. There may be some fat you can trim that should have been done months ago. But overall, I want to challenge business leaders: keep your growth engines running.

Fortunately, it seems like the Small Business Administration is committed to keeping the American economic engine running. Low-interest loans with favorable terms are available for leaders that have the guts to keep moving forward.

We have to keep the growth engines running.

This crisis will pass. When it does, companies that kept their growth engines running will be ready to help. Companies that shut down their engines will scramble to get going again. Many of them will not have the resources to get restarted.

Your Revenue Growth Engine is the sum total of your sales and marketing efforts. Together, these activities drive the lifeblood of your business: revenue.

Three Reasons To Keep Your Growth Engine Running

1. You Don’t Know When The Rebound Will Happen

Have you ever tried to time the stock market? That never works well for anyone. And even if you could time the market and get back in at the bottom, sales doesn’t work like that. In order to be there at the bottom, you have to be there. If you don’t have a sales team, you won’t be there and you’ll miss out on the rebound.

2. It’s Easier To Sustain Momentum Than Start Again From Zero

Your growth engine is more like a freight train than a race car. You can’t just go from a dead stop to 80 miles per hour. Revenue comes from relationships. Relationships are built and sustained over time. If you sideline your sales team, you can’t sustain relationships. If you turn off your digital marketing, you erode trust. Right now, we need to maintain momentum.

You might think you can restart when everyone comes out of their bunkers. The problem is that your revenue engine is like a freight train. It might take more resources to restart from a dead stop than it will to keep the train in motion. If you are able to restart from a dead stop, you might not be able to get in motion as fast as your competitors who kept their engines running.

3. It’s Our Patriotic Duty

Our government leadership has said that they prefer to help businesses keep people employed rather than pay out unemployment. It appears they are willing to help us weather this storm so we can come out strong. Why are they willing to help? If every business shutters their sales team and closed its digital doors, our economy will be in even worse shape, causing even more misery. We need to keep the engine running.

The Mindset of a Farmer

In sales, we talk about hunters and farmers. Hunting is fun because you see immediate results. If you have an opportunity to help someone right now, bag the deal.

Guess what? For the most part, we are farmers in this season.

What do farmers do? They cultivate the soil, plant seeds, and maintain their equipment.

Plant Seeds

Right now we are planting seeds. No farmer would expect a harvest immediately. This comes in time. Any farmer that doesn’t plan seeds right now is living in fantasy land if they think they can harvest a crop in six months. Sales and marketing plant seeds by being present, communicating consistently, and sharing helpful ideas.

Cultivate The Ground

Farmers till the soil. It’s hard, unrewarding work. However, for seeds to grow and bear fruit, this work needs to be done. Sales cultivates relationships by staying in touch with prospects and clients, empathizing, and offering to help. Marketing cultivates the ground by sharing helpful ideas that build trust.

Maintain Your Equipment

Farmers use the winter to maintain their equipment. Tractors are serviced and cleaned. Implements are prepared for the rigors of the next season. Sales need to take this time to sharpen their sales skills. Marketing needs to take this time to maintain an online presence. Harvest will come and the companies that take this season to maintain their equipment will be ready.

What Should We Do?

Here are some ideas to keep your growth engine running.

Sales: Maintain Activity Levels

Sales must remain active. While things were going well, you may have managed yourself or your sales team based on hunting metrics: sales results. During this season of planting and cultivating, you may need to grow, manage, and reward your team based on top-of-funnel activity. You might adjust your comp plan temporarily to reward reps based on calls, social touches, sequences launched, and periodic business reviews.

Train your reps. Invest in your team during the offseason so they can hit the field ready to win.

Marketing: Keep The Digital Lights On

Marketing must keep communicating. When you stop communicating, you cease to engage in the digital world. Right now while we are working from home, we are undeniably in a digital world. For years, marketing experts have been urging us to build and maintain a vibrant online presence because our buyers are digitally-enabled and socially-empowered. How true is this now?

Does your message need to change in the short term? Yes. (Some ideas here: Outcomes Clients Want During a Crisis: How To Shift Your Sales and Marketing Message In the Short Term.) But you must keep communicating and stay digitally engaged.

This season for marketing to plant, cultivate, and maintain the equipment. Keep communicating by sharing ideas on your blog and social media. Take this downtime to improve the website and refresh your sales collateral. Have you put off investment in marketing automation and sales enablement? Now is a good time to get this infrastructure in place.

Keep Your Growth Engine Running

Some companies will stop their engines right now. Salespeople will be laid off. Marketing will come to a grinding halt. This will be done in an attempt to survive and preserve salaries for core employees. Here’s the challenge with this mindset: if you don’t have a growth engine you won’t have a company.

I implore you: find a way to keep your growth engine running. I realize hard choices need to be made in this season. However, the companies that shut down their growth engine will have a really hard time in the aftermath.

Companies that dig in, plant seeds, cultivate the ground, and maintain their equipment will be there to reap the harvest.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development

Writing is Money

Do you like to write?

Do you consider yourself a good writer?

Do you know how to write it so they read it?

More importantly – do you know how to write so people get out their wallets and PAY you money?

Writing is the secret superpower of the thought leader.

If you’re a consultant, you have to write.

If you’re a speaker, you have to write.

If you’re a coach, you have to write.

If you’re a trainer, you have to write.

If you’re an online course creator, you have to write.

If you’re a marketer, you have to write.

If you sell any product, service, program, or idea – people will buy (or buy into) what you have to say or sell based on…

You got it – something you wrote.

Think about all the places writing is money…

Think about all the places where your ability, skill, and will to write can help you get more leads, prospects, subscribers, fans, followers – and best of all – clients and customers…

Your home page copy

Your blog posts and titles

Your articles

Your LinkedIn profile

Your Facebook posts

Your LinkedIn updates

Your tweets

Your “verbal business card”

Your About page

Your speaker introduction

Your services page

Your consulting/coaching packages

Your seminar or training descriptions

Your speech titles and descriptions

Your YouTube video titles and descriptions

Your prospecting emails and subject lines

Your sales letters

Your landing pages

Your webinars and livestreams

Your pay-per-click ads

Your email newsletter

Your book (see above for all the places you can compile your book content from!)

It used to be, “you don’t sell – you don’t eat.”

Today it’s “you don’t write – you don’t eat.”

Wondering why you’re hungry?

You’re not writing enough – or your writing isn’t good enough to truly connect with your leads, prospects, clients, and subscribers.

Categories
Best Practices Investing Leadership Marketing Personal Development

The High-Fee Expert Bill of Rights

Here’s a checklist of attitudes, traits, behaviors, and beliefs that the Top 1% of speakers and experts wrestled with – but then STOPPED so they could become the Top 1%.

How many of these have been problematic for YOU?

It’s time to ASSERT your rights.

Because you DESERVE success.

And you must STOP getting in your own way with these 6 self-limiting, revenue-killing, success-preventing BAD habits.

Ready? Here they are…

  1. Lack of time, focus, and a game plan to build a serious “speaker/ expert” platform that could be generating an additional $10K-$15K per month on speaking fees alone AND helping you reach more high-probability buyers with your impactful programs
  2. Small potatoes thinking and doing: Settling for local chambers, libraries, and business organizations with no overall game plan to target high-fee niche groups on a national level and build a revenue-generating machine for ALL your investable opportunities, including speaking, training, coaching, consulting, and online products.
  3. Generic sounding programs and No target market that is hamstringing the efforts that you ARE making with your limited time. What needs to happen here is a way more effective and efficient approach. (Targeting specific decision-makers with a value prop they’re already seeking.) Transforming your generic-sounding programs into 2-3 well-branded ones in your “integrated product suite” and dropping the Chinese menu approach that is commoditizing you to death!
  4. Gaps in sales process, sales execution, and sales follow-through with little proactive selling – too much distraction and thus, falling back on reactive “catch as catch can” marketing and taking on random low-fee opportunities as they fall in your lap. Replace with a buyer-centric DAILY dose of high-touch, high-relevance outreach.
  5. Lots of good ideas but too little activation and too many “spinning plates” which you can no longer afford. It’s high time you started making more money – in other words, it’s time to STOP paying your dues, and start paying your bills! Even speakers generating $5K – $7K – $10K fees are often OVERDUE in raising their fees because they’ve gotten complacent or wrongly believe that clients won’t or can’t pay more. There’s always a bigger fish – and if you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.
  6. Mindset, self-esteem, self-worth, and the impostor syndrome. Nobody will value your programs, services, and solutions higher than you do. Stop being your own worst enemy and get out of your own way. Sales, significance, and happiness will follow.

Ready to assert these rights?

Ready to BUILD or REBUILD or PIVOT into the high-fee expert business you’ve always wanted?

Ready to start down the path of doing so quickly, with all the steps laid out so that you get a reliable, repeatable process that brings you the clients, the impact, and the freedom you deserve?

Find a time on the calendar that works for you and we’ll schedule your breakthrough session to see how we can help you right now: www.doitmarketing.com/call