Proofs, formulas, and wild-eyed theories
for greater profits
April 26, 2011
-----------------------------------------------------
You're receiving this because you are one of Bob's
clients, customers or prospects who have subscribed
to one of his lists. We never send email to anyone
unsolicited. If you'd prefer not to receive any further
e-mails (what - and miss all this useful information??),
just click the link at the bottom of this message to
unsubscribe.
-----------------------------------------------------
Can you hear your inner voice?
We all have an inner voice that can help keep us on
track when making difficult decisions. But it isn't
always as easy to hear it as you might think. Often,
because of the filters we all have, what you hear is
a distorted version of your inner voice speaking to
you - like playing the game "telephone" where the
message becomes more and more jumbled each
time it's passed along.
I know this all too well myself, from difficult experience.
Being highly creative, I'm constantly coming up with
new ideas for products, services and even entire
businesses. Many of these could be very successful
- which makes them all the more enticing - but they
don't really fit my vision of how I want my business
and life to be. And that's where the trouble begins.
You see, if something appears to have enough
upside and I've gone through multiple steps to
determine that, each of those steps can act as
a filter that distorts my inner voice. For example,
I've actually started two companies based on
excellent research that predicted success, but
neither of those companies fit my own vision
of what I really want to do.
Both companies turned out to be successful.
But at the same time, I was miserable for a
most of the time they were in operation and
extremely happy when one company was
acquired and my partners and I mutually
decided to shut down the second company.
===============================
How to stay connected to your true
inner voice
===============================
I've found that two tools help me stay connected
to my inner voice and overcome being seduced
by the filtered versions I'm prone to creating.
Tool #1 - Your Core Values Statement
If you don't have a company-wide statement
of what your business stands for, you should
create one right away. This is one of the main
tools that has made Zappos.com a billion dollar
per year company.
However, in addition to the 10 or so core values
that state what your business is, how you treat
your employees, how you treat your customers
and more, I've added a second category of
"what my business is not". Stating what your
business should be is a great first step. But I've
found that unless you state what your business
should NOT be as well, it's easy to fall prey to
temptations when a great opportunity pops up
that isn't necessarily in your sweet spot.
For example, a couple of "what my company is
not" values for my business are:
1. My company is not a big business. I never
want my staff to exceed 5 people.
Now, that's just my own preference - I'm not
in any way suggesting it should be yours. But
I've realized that I'm happiest spending my
time being creative rather than managing a large
staff and if I don't stay true to that, I feel
miserable and my business suffers.
2. I won't travel more than two times per year
for business.
Now, you might think that would be a business
killer. But it isn't. Sure, there's the occasional
client who I have to pass on because they want
to meet face-to-face monthly and that just isn't
my style. But with so many businesses being
comfortable communicating online, by phone,
by skype and email, I have no trouble keeping
my client roster full and avoiding spending time
in airports.
Tool #2 - Your Ideal Customer Persona
An ICP is a vivid "painting" of what your best
customers or clients look, act and feel like.
Sometimes you'll need to develop a different
persona for each of your products.
You should give your persona a name - like
"Christine Smith" - and make the profile as accurate
as you can, drilling down to a deep level of detail.
What are her goals, both within the company and in
her personal life? What hours does she typically work?
What do the customers she works with look like?
What's her age range? Income level? Relationship
and family status?
This type of Persona helps you understand your
market and home in on your ideal customers.
But at the same time, you can use a Persona as
a decision making tool to help you filter out the
types of customers or clients you should not be
working with. And I've found that this second
aspect has helped me avoid getting distracted,
or worse, getting involved in starting yet another
company that looks appealing, but doesn't
let me work with the type of clients I prefer
to work with.
So if you're having difficulty staying tuned in
to your true inner voice, try my two recommended
tools. I know you'll find them as beneficial as
I have.
Yours for more traffic... more sales... more often,
Bob Serling
=====================================
A quick commercial...
=====================================
Need more traffic for your business? Click here to
discover an "evergreen" way to keep a steady stream
of highly qualified traffic flowing to your web site:
www.ProfitAlchemy.com/ptraffic
2039 Bruceala Court, Cardiff, CA 92007, USA
To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit:
http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?HEwMbExMtCxMHGzsHJwMtEa0nOwMjKxMDA==
No comments:
Post a Comment