“Use the approach in this book and you will not only sell more, you will also live a rich and joyful life” Spencer Johnson, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Moved My Cheese? and coauthor of The One Minute $alesperson on Go-Givers Sells More
Bob Burg's new book will be available online and in stores February 18.
The ultimate salesperson’s dream is to sell more, have more fun doing it, and feeling really good about having done it. That’s exactly what you’ll discover if you buy into and apply the principles Bob Burg presents in his new book co-authored with John David Mann Go-Givers Sells More. It’ll be released February 18, 2010, but we’ll get to talk with him live this Tuesday, February 9, from 11:30am to 12:00pm ET.
Bob Burg and his business partner Thom Scott are the ones who asked me to be on the program Zig Ziglar is keynoting. (Speaking on the same program with Zig is one of those “impossible dreams” for me.) All three men share the same worldview, a worldview that’s essential for enduring success—you can have anything you want in life if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.
Please tune in to the Social Media Professor online this Tuesday for a mind-expanding, career enhancing, net worth building time talking about successful sales.
“Why did you do that?!” How many times did YOUR mother ask you that one?
Getting to the “why” is a fascinating journey. What drives human behavior? is a question every marketing pro contemplates. It’s a practical AND philosophical question. Philosophy is cool. This year I’m reading a couple of mind stretching philosophers from a long, long time ago (David Hume, the Scottish Skeptic, and Immanuel Kant, the transcendental idealist).
A couple of not-so-long-ago philosopher’s have popped up on my computer screen this year. These two are probably more accessible to the modern thinker than Hume and Kant. You might know them as entertainers—they are that AND much, much more.
MODERN PHILOSOPHER #1: Will Smith (yep, THAT Will Smith)
MODERN PHILOSOPHYER #2: Jay Smooth
Having trouble getting stuff done? Got 25 browser windows open and calling it work? Here’s some “self talk” to get you going.
Both of our modern philosophers cut through the clutter, the psychobabble and flush out essential truth: “If you’re not making somebody’s life better, you’re wasting your time,” from Will Smith, and the “traps” one’s “little hater” sets up to prevent true accomplishment from Jay Smooth give us plenty to ponder regarding others and ourselves.
Ponder a while, and then come back to social media: How are you using social media to make somebody’s life better; how are you dealing with your own “little hater” standing in the way of living out your passion?
Update: Jay Smooth’s video is worth the watch if you’re a creative or entrepreneur. He reminded me once again how our own internal voice, the “little hater,” is often our only obstacle to success. Sometimes that harsh-self-judging voice paralyzes us and keeps us from just doing that something we know we really need to do. Yes, sometimes people ARE going to laugh, judge, criticize, but that’s okay. Let the passion out to kill perfectionism and procrastination and, as Nike says, “Just do it!”
Michelle brings a fresh perspective to video. She also raises the bar for DIY produced video content! If you’ll watch her videos, I think you’ll catch a glimpse of the spunky spirit of social media—fun, unabashed-ness, openness, expression, personality.
Thank you to the thirty-one folks who took the time to complete the Twitter Tools Survey. The biggest single takeaway from the survey is, I’m quite the newbie when it comes to survey tools. (The other big takeaway is, there are some incredibly kind people online who do things like complete friends’ surveys and encourage them to keep learning.)
“There is that which is too much” Arthur, in the probably never-to-be-released script So That’s Life by Trey Pennington
You know I love social media, especially Twitter. The speed, volume, intensity, breadth…so many cool people, incredible ideas, fantastic expressions of passion, creativity, ingenuity, compassion. Sometimes, I suppose, it can be too much.
“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (MacBeth, Act V, Scene V).
Amidst the fury to embrace “new media” there’s a silent opportunity to reconnect with some very old media—the Shakespearian play, (quite possibly the ultimate social media?). Shakespeare captured the intensity of the human condition and crafted it into a drama actors and observers could live together. The modern tweeter, blogger, marketer, and even leader can learn much from Shakespeare.
In an age of instant-gurus, it’s reassuring to turn to a reliable source with a little age in the marketing world: AdAge. Their Power150 system objectively measures and assess blogs to create a reliable, public ranking for marketing bloggers.
The top five AdAge Top 5 marketing blogs combine unique perspectives and experiences into solid counsel for business leaders. Here are five lessons from these blogs, along with action steps for putting the lessons into practice to grow your business.
Released late in 2009, it’s already a best seller. Its author is a well-known psychiatrist, consultant, business coach. He also wrote Get Out of Your Own Way and Get Out of Your Own Way at Work. He writes a leadership column for FastCompany and is a syndicated columnist, including columns for The Huffington Postand Psychology Today. Three times named one of America’s top psychiatrists by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, he is frequently quoted or featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek and others. You may catch him on CNN, NPR, Fox News, or on BBC-TV.
You probably felt that way about information overload BEFORE you added social media to your daily routine. Now you, me and everyone else are drowning in a swirling sea of data, appeals, ads, options, opt-ins, opt-outs and so many pop-up screens we’re all pooped-out. The problem is, as business owners and leaders, we still have to communicate and connect.
On my radio show, Social Media Professor, I spoke with someone who can help: Sam Horn. Sam is someone who knows how to make product names, taglines and headlines POP! She assures us we “don’t have to have an MBA or a multimillion-dollar budget to create one-of-a-kind ideas, products, and messages. All you need is the POP! Process: a fun, fascinating, and strategic approach for making your message purposeful, original, and pithy—to generate instant intrigue and word-of-mouth buzz.”
Just ran across John Moore’s manifesto from 2007. He takes up the challenge published by Howard Shultz, the founder of Starbucks. Leading up to 2007, Shultz seriously considered where the company was headed, and didn’t like what he saw. He challenged the company to get back to being a coffee store.
Me at Starbucks in southern Georgia in 2008
John Moore became a recognized marketing genius as he went from being a barista to THE marketing guy at Starbucks. When he read the Shultz Challenge, he put together a manifesto: What Must Starbucks Do? In it, he outlines a beautiful case for how the pursuit profit and the approval of Wall Street are diluting the Starbucks brand.
“Differentiate or Die!” Great title for a book. Sound objective in practice, too. Here’s the big question: what’s your referent? What exactly do you want to be different from and where are you looking for your benchmark?
On purpose, I ask small business owners this specific question, “How are you different?” I say, on purpose, because I purposely keep the question short, leaving it wide open for their own interpretation. You probably already know how every single answer begins. (Want me to give you a minute to think about it? Okay…ready?)
Twitter’s hot. It’s been around long enough for a whole host of tools to crop up to support your experience of Twitter. Would you please take a few moments to complete a survey about the tools you’re using? I’ll do a follow up post giving you the results, along with links to all of the tools.
“What do I tweet about?”pops up often during the Q&A session of my presentations. Social media consultant Keith Burtis gives good counsel in response, “no one cares about your products…tap into their passions.”
What would you talk about here? The product or the person? What would HE want to talk about?
The first step in creating something valuable for your audience is to think and feel what your audience is feeling. Tom Asacker in A Little Less Conversation, p. 61
Empathy: getting really close to folks so you can almost see it from their eyes and feel it as they do
There’s never been a better time for small businesses and independents to leverage technology and excel! Asacker says you’ll need to “go deep” in your relationship with your marketplace. Deep enough, in fact, to
With services like BlogTalkRadio.com every business, no matter its size, can have its own radio talk show!
Here’s what’s on-deck for the Social Media Professor radio show program. The show airs most Tuesdays from 11:30am to 12:00pm Eastern Time, USA. You can listen and call into the show through Blog Talk Radio or call in to 01-646-716-4404.
