Archive for September, 2008
The Value of Creativity
Researchers at 3M are allowed and encouraged to spend 15% of their time pursuing any idea that interests them. This policy of 15% of time for creativity has dramatically boosted 3M’s profits many times with breakthrough new products.
Henry Ford once hired an efficiency expert to go through his plant to identify non-productive people. The expert found only one, a man who was always just sitting at his desk with his feet propped up each time the expert passed his office. The expert recommended to Ford that this employee should be fired. Ford responded, “I can’t fire him. I pay him to do nothing but think.”
Creativity is the spark that ignites fires at your business or organization.
At times like these, when economic stability is volatile, when consumers are Read more »
Wants, Needs and Salesmanship
Junior Achievement has a program in its elementary curriculum that presents children with a series of things for which they must decide if having them is a want or a need. To watch seven-year-olds, whose ideas are mostly black and white, battle with a decision about whether a TV is a want or a need, is a very enlightening look into the sales process.
The humorist Will Rogers said, “Advertising is convincing people to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need.” Take that one step further in the process and you’ll find that salesmanship is convincing people that they need the things they want. It is the convergence of wants and needs that provides the buyer with emotional fulfillment.
Making the sale is not the sole responsibility of the person who is expected to make the close. It happens through Read more »
Creating Buzz
It happens to every business. Your product becomes mature. Consumers have heard about it for years. The marketplace has maxed out. Unless you do something to change your product you have nothing new and exciting to communicate.
Which, of course, is why venerable brands are constantly coming out with line extensions, new improved versions of the original, and products that now have something they didn’t offer before. Because when you have something new to talk about, you create fresh excitement for your brand.
A few weeks ago I suggested that business owners should watch the political advertising this season and look at how you can apply what works in political campaigns to your business. If you watched, you’ve seen one of the best Read more »
Stilettos, Image, and Building a Brand
Last week in Australia, 265 women raced for 100 yards wearing stiletto heels and made it into the Guinness book of world records. The fastest runner was awarded $5,000 (and some band aids.) Many of the women never actually completed the 100 yards due to falling in their 3″ spikes.
The loyalty women have to their stilettos is almost mystifying. They are painful to wear, difficult to walk in (let alone run), and legions of medical articles have been printed touting the long-term foot, ankle and leg problems they cause. Yet the style thrives in brands like Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik that sell easily for hundreds of dollars a pair because legs look much more shapely in a high heel.
When reduced to their essence, brands are Read more »
Trust, Suspicion, and Making the Sale
When considering the five reasons consumers don’t buy, the reason that carries the most weight is “no trust.”
Nowhere is this truer than in selling services and ideas. Without a tangible product to hold or look at, there are no proverbial tires to kick when selling a service or idea. It always comes down to trust. As our economy becomes more and more based on services and ideas, what will happen to sales if we don’t build trust?
Here is the most perplexing reality in selling services and ideas: the person Read more »
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