Vision Of Success

As marketers, our job is to sell our products and services (or the products and services of our customers.) How do we do that? By setting up a problem, and offering us as the solution.

But any time you have a problem, you have unhappiness. Something in your life isn’t right, or isn’t the best it could be, so you’re out searching for a way to make it better.

The more products and services available, the more unhappiness there must be, right?

As I was blogging today, I came across a great post by Seth Godin on happiness. He stated something that got me thinking.

“What you have doesn’t make you unhappy. What you want does.

And want is created by us, the marketers.”

One of the reasons I quit watching the news is because of all the negativity. I can get the news I need on world events through various sites online - why should I sit through a half hour of negativity?

So maybe the same holds true with marketing. What if we could change it around and sell not from the “want” but from the “growth” factor? Instead of selling to you because something’s missing in your life, what if something could help you grow?

hmmmm…

We don’t watch much tv in our house. In fact other than a few movies, it hasn’t been on at all the past three months.

But Friday night we turned it on to watch the Olympics, and we’ve watched each night over the weekend. There’s just something about watching people that put all they have into a four year training period (since the last Olympics, even though I know training is much longer than that) just to enter a race - and have the chance to win gold.

Watching Michael Phelps was truly breathtaking. We were all cheering and literally holding our breath as he won his first two gold medals. Not only is he relying on his own skill to capture gold, but also relying on those of his team mates in last night’s relay.

Ultimately it comes down to action. They’ve practiced, trained, raced and practiced some more.  They’ve devoted their lives to being the best they can be. But if they don’t take action in the end, they will lose the race and never make the history books.

The Olympics show us truly what is possible. Setting goals is mandatory: world record times, capturing 8 gold medals, etc. They see their goal, and imagine the goal is within reach. And for some it is.

And they stop at nothing to achieve it.

It’s much the same for us as entrepreneurs. We’ve made the break from a traditional “job” lifestyle. We’ve plunged in to taking our lifestyle and businesses to a place where most people will never go. Even most entrepreneurs never reach beyond a “job” - they never achieve what they truly could because they don’t reach beyond their comfort zone.

Push a little harder. Make a bigger goal. Step out of your comfort zone, and reach for the stars.

You may be truly amazed at what you achieve.

photo by IndianSumm

I was reading my June 2008 copy of Internet Retailer over the weekend. One of their articles was on reaching out and connecting with consumers in many different ways. The opportunities I’m sure will continue to grow. But even now, it’s time to think about who your customer is and how they prefer to reach out to you - not the other way around.

Their results showed that:

38 percent of businesses surveyed would be interested in using sites where consumers have the ability to tell manufacturers what they want

30 percent would be interested in having online shopping communities to combine buying power

22 percent are interested in having mobile phones to place orders and arrange deliveries

14 percent are interested in using social networks where shoppers share trends

The interesting thing that was also raised is while U.S. consumers show interest in these areas, China and Spain lead the way with wanting to use technology to its greatest advantage.

Many of the businesses profiled in this particular trade publication are multi-million dollar enterprises. They have a lot of resources to try many different things. Yet as a small business, you can follow in their footsteps.

What are you doing to reach out to your customers? If you only think of your clients on a local level, how can you start using different technologies to increase your market share?

It’s writing day for me today. As a part of writing day, I usually spend an hour or so surfing my favorite blogs and sites just to see what other people are saying.

I ran across a great blog post by The Wealthy Blogger that asked the question, “Paper or Electronic Planners?”

I’ve been using a Palm for years, and Andrew and I use it to sync our calendars together so one of us is always around for our daughter (to play chauffeur.) But this article opened up my eyes to realize how manual I still am.

On my desk I have a binder that’s filled with pages for me to track my daily and weekly tasks. I also have a section for long term goals and strategies, and have it all in order with dividers.

I also have a stack of sticky notes, and I use a ton of them each week. Some ideas are quick things I check into and toss. Others I stick to my planner pages, depending on their relevance.

I used to use the Franklin system, and loved having everything in one place. It was nice to carry around all of my information, and have it be in one place. I knew right where everything was, and was actually very to-the-point with the way I wrote.

Hmmm… this post made me think. Maybe I’ll have to reconsider the way I organize my information. As an Internet marketer people expect you to be on the top of technology. But isn’t the real purpose just to be on the top of organization?

photo source QualityC

We’re in a recession - there’s no way you grow your business by selling high end products to consumers, right?

Last night my daughter and I went to Michaels craft store. We always enjoy looking through the different departments and finding interesting crafts to do for a very low cost. But something was different this time.

Instead of their normal dollar bins in the front section, they were replacing them with shelves of Martha Stewart Crafts. If you’ve ever priced Martha Stewart Crafts, you know they are anything but inexpensive (relative to other craft supplies).

So in this time of cutting back, why is Michaels investing in such a high end craft product?

Even in times of cutting back, savings, or recession, people still like high quality products. And instead of investing in vacations or high priced ticket items, many are choosing to remain close to home, and having fun with things in their area.

So why not spend some money and create a high quality scrapbook of last years vacation?

Keep these 3 things in mind through the rest of 2008:

1. You don’t have to lower your prices to sell more. Sometimes you may even benefit from raising your prices - and finding the perfect niche to sell to.

2. How can you work with other complementary businesses to sell more products? Martha Stewart does this well, and is always connecting up with great companies to market her products through.

3. Don’t look at the market as a whole and concentrate on what your peers are saying. Focus on what you know best, and develop your own customer base that loves what you do. There’s always someone in every spectrum of the market - do what you do best and your target market will follow.

Ask any business person what the hardest thing to do online is and chances are you’ll hear “drive traffic” and “create an email list” at the top of the list.

A website does you know good if you don’t use it to convert people into prospects and clients.

But what do you do when you have a list - a large list - and you’re at the forefront of your industry to build such a list?

That’s what Obama and the Democratic party is now asking.

Obama is running an amazing campaign in the online world, gathering millions of supporters on a variety of social sites. One million people have joined his Facebook account. Near one million accounts have been registered at my.barackobama.com And the lists continue to grow.

But how can you utilize this new technology and have it help you down the road?

“They solved the first challenge, which is: How do you get these people corralled on a list and activated?” Ruffini said of Obama’s campaign. “The question is: What are the action items if he takes the presidency? Is it just to spam Congress, or is it something deeper than that? But it will definitely be a formidable list, no matter how you slice it.”

Read the full article here.

Like so many things about this election, I love following it because of the uncharted territory we’re crossing. And because of my business background, these new issues of what to do with a large email list is even more interesting.

Ok I’ll admit it. I’m a fan of Sex In The City. What woman isn’t? The clothes. The steamy moments. And of course the shoes.

So last night my sister and I had a night out on the town, and headed over to the newest theater in our area to check it out.

This theater just opened in December. We’ve been there a few times since it opened, and I have to admit I love it. You spend a couple extra dollars on the ticket, but the seats are comfy and leather, there’s free popcorn and sodas - and you can buy wine (by the bottle if you care to) and other snacks in their front cafe.

This isn’t a place where teens run wild. In fact the few times I’ve been there, I’ve never seen a teen. Maybe it’s because of the expense. Plus they don’t run the typical teen-attraction movies.

For a 7 pm movie on a Thursday night, the movie sold out by 6:30. And you should have seen the groups of women coming in. Most were dressed in their favorite outfits, and of course shoes that would make Carrie proud. The theater was packed - every seat, top to bottom. And I counted a big “2″ men in the theater (brave souls).

The women didn’t just have popcorn and soda. I saw wine by the bottles. There was cheering. There was clapping. And there were sighs… ahhhh

Marketing to women? You bet.

1. This movie gets you excited to spend money. You have to have shoes, bags and the clothes, right? (Time to go shopping this afternoon.)

2. This theater promoted it perfect. Half their theaters were filled with this movie. A new show started every hour on the hour. And yes, they were sold out as of last night.

3. Where else can you go with a group of friends, share a great flick AND have a bottle of wine? Other theaters, take note.

4. You can’t please everyone all the time. Define your target market well, and promote, promote, promote.

5. Women talk, share and build relationships well. They share ideas, and talk about everything (good and bad). Give a woman a great experience, and she brings her friends in droves.

I attended a 4 hour event on Saturday with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop. It was at the Young American’s Bank, and it was on starting up your own business.

We started by going over the profile of an entrepreneur - what it takes to be successful at running your own business. Each girl had to fill out a profile to find out if they had what it takes to run their own business. There were dozens of questions like:

• I enjoy making presentations and know how to give a professional presentation
• I like selling an idea or product to people I don’t know
• I regularly meet the goals I set for myself
• I manage my time well
• I have a high energy level
• I want to be able to determine when and where I work

They also gave us a number of chances to brainstorm ideas for businesses, how to build a brand and a logo for these businesses, and even a four page fill-in-the-blank business plan to help them get their business ideas in place.

They made it so easy that even 12-14 year old girls had no trouble putting together some pretty amazing ideas.

I also realized during these four hours that the key to everything they were talking about is planning and goal setting. In four hours, they taught exactly how to plan for success. The problem with most small business owners is they never plan for success. You have to spend the time to write down what you hope to achieve and how you will achieve it.

Make your plan today. Start with these ideas:

• Make a list of 3 to 5 services/products you could sell
• Define your potential customers
• Why do people need to buy your product?
• What price will people be willing to pay for your products/services?
• How much will it cost to produce your products/services?
• How much profit do you choose to make?
• Do you need employees?
• How will you gain customers?
• Where will you get funding to get this idea started?
• Who is your competition?
• How much time do you anticipate running your business at the beginning?

You’ll soon be on the road to success.

Every year for as long as I can remember I have celebrated Mother’s Day by bringing my Mom to our local nursery, and buying her a plant for her outside patio. This year it’s no exception - except we went a week early. So Saturday afternoon, my mom, my sister, my daughter and I spent a couple of hours going up and down the rows and rows of flowers, picking out just the right one’s (yes, we had a couple of carts full because you just can’t leave without buying a bunch for yourself too.)

Mom was happy, as she picked out 2 beautiful baskets - one for each corner of her patio. My sister and I were happy as our Mother’s Day shopping is now complete.

Gardening (at least in Colorado) is very seasonal. I would imagine most of their sales come between April and July. And there is a lot of competition with the greenhouses, especially since the big hardware stores like Home Depot have created large nursery areas as well.

So instead of competing on price, our favorite nursery competes on value. The flowers are amazing - you just don’t find that kind of quality anywhere else. They have bands, demonstrations on gardening, free popcorn, and the people are always around offering growing advice.

As a marketer, I always find tips in how successful companies market their business. So, here’s my 3 tips from Tagawa, my local nursery store:

1. Be the best. Don’t sell anything unless it meets a certain standard.

2. Keep in touch. I get quarterly newsletter in my mail. I get an email every couple of weeks. I know when Tagawa is having a sale - and when they are offering things I want.

3. Have enough customer service staff to truly help the customers. Make sure they can answer any question, or have a way of gaining the answer quickly.

And on Mother’s Day, they have their annual buy one get one event on all of their hanging baskets. You know where I’ll be on Sunday…

For those of you that follow Twitter.com, I found a fun new application that allows you to watch live twitts as they are posted from around the world. TwittEarth Thought it was a fun way to celebrate Earth Day today.

If you’ve never been to Twitter before, you can check out my profile:

Twitter LoriOsterberg

And  you can also follow Andrew

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