Personal Branding: Three Ways to Become Slightly Famous

By Jeff Beals

In our hyperactive, warp-speed world, it’s growing more and more difficult to catch the attention of prospective employers and would-be clients. It’s hard to cut through the clutter and get people to notice you.  That’s why you need to establish a widely recognized and highly respected personal brand.  Your business life gets easier when you’re slightly famous.

But how do you do that in an effective way that won’t take too much time or bust your budget?

Seek to become famous in your own “sphere of interest” by tapping into the group of people who in any way can help you reach your goals- clients, prospective clients, anybody who could refer clients to you or anybody who could hire you. Each professional has potentially thousands of people in his or her sphere of interest. Some have millions, but whoever you are and whatever your goals may be, you want to become a celebrity among those people who can have an impact on your success.

When someone needs the talents you have or the products you sell, you want your name and face to pop into that person’s head. That’s what personal branding is all about-being recognized as the go-to source, the safe option, the obvious choice.

How do you become a celebrity in your own sphere of interest?

For starters, be excellent in your work. Never stop preparing and planning.  Be disciplined and work hard.

Unfortunately, however, excellence is far from enough. In this competitive world, your talent and hard work are simply expected. Performance is merely foundational. Assume your competition is working just as hard as you and is even more talented than you. In such an environment, your personal brand is one of the few things that sets you apart.

You as an Entity

See yourself as an entity, not just as a human being. You are a man or a woman, but you are also a brand, a business, a business of one, a business unto yourself. Every business worth its salt jealously guards the integrity of its brand while zealously promoting it. So must you. You need to approach your personal brand promotion with the same intensity as your company promotes its brand.

The Mini Politician

Next, think like a politician. That’s not to say you should adopt the nefarious and tawdry behavior of too many politicians, rather it means you understand you are in a lifelong series of “campaigns” seeking to be “elected” to whatever it is that matters to you. A politician works hard to build a core group of people who would “run through a brick wall” for him or her. That core is built and strengthened by networking-going out and deliberately meeting and building relationships with as many people as possible.

Unfortunately, politicians never meet most of the voters in their spheres of interest. For everyone outside the core, politicians at least want people to recognize their names and have a positive feeling associated with them. To reach these people, politicians use mass media, social media and word of mouth.

All sorts of analogies exist between political campaigning and the personal branding game. Like a politician, you need to build your core relentlessly and never stop building it no matter how big and strong it becomes. You can then use social media and word of mouth to project your personal brand to your “voters,” the people in your sphere of interest.

An External Focus

“Celebrities in their spheres of interest” deliberately lead active lives and focus externally. They are involved, energetic and engaged in their communities. At the same time, they are focused on meeting new people and building relationships. Great salespersons are never satisfied with their current number of personal contacts. They’re never satisfied with the current status of relationships. They realize that if those things don’t continually grow, they might actually be declining.

We need to get out of the office and show up at networking events. We need to reach out and engage the world around us. Strike up conversations with people around you. Reach out to people and get to know those who might refer an opportunity to you some day.  The majority of jobs are never advertised, because they are part of the vast, hidden job market. Being connected gives you access. The majority of prestigious, big-time clients in the typical industry can only be reached through relationships.  They do not commonly walk into your office asking to be your customer. They aren’t amenable to cold calls, and they won’t respond to your direct mail piece no matter how pretty it is. “Big elephant” clients know they are important, and they expect to be wined and dined, so to speak. They are big deals and expect to be treated like a big deal.

Get out there and meet everyone you can. Ask questions. Be like a detective turning over every stone, looking for any shred of evidence that can help you make the sale. Good personal branders are seemingly “everywhere.” They live their lives so actively that other people feel as if they see them everywhere. If someone ever says to you, “I see you everywhere,” you know you’re doing something right.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Communication That Satisfies Your Buyer’s Eight Key Concerns

By Jeff Beals

Handwritten notes.  Phone calls.  Mass-media advertising.  Colorful, glossy brochures sent through the mail.

There are an infinite number of tactics you can use to communicate with prospective clients, but all those options can sometimes clutter a marketer’s/seller’s mind. An abundance of choices sometimes leads to poor decision-making. By having so many communication choices, some companies or organizations decide to take the shotgun approach. They blast their message to everyone using every imaginable communication vehicle. That usually ends up being a waste of time and money.

In order for your messages to be effective, you must have a communication plan.

Communication itself is tactical but it grows out of your organization’s strategic plan. One of the things you determine when creating your strategic plan is your message – what information you will convey to your target audience. When you have thoroughly established your message, you design the communication plan, a list of tactics you will use to deliver the message to your constituencies.

Not only must communication be informative, it should paint a picture of how wonderful your product or service is in such a way that prospects can clearly envision themselves benefiting from it. Your communication must be persuasive in that you are building a case as to how it provides value and solves the prospective client’s problems.

Powerfully effective sales communication must clearly addresses eight key concerns buyers have about products and services:

1. saves money;

2. makes money;

3. reduces stress;

4. saves time;

5. is easy to use;

6. provides security;

7. boosts ego;

8. makes them feel good about themselves.

Regardless of industry and regardless of a prospect’s background, all buyers care about these eight items and expect all or most of them to be satisfied before making a given purchase.

The communication process stretches through the entire marketing and sales process. Therefore, communication is a major tactic that salespersons use to establish rapport with prospective clients and then develop a relationship that leads to trust and ultimately a signed deal.

When designing a communication plan and while implementing it, keep your end goal in mind. You are using words to convey a message ultimately designed to lead people to an agreement with your or your company.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Spring Cleaning For Your Personal Brand

By Jeff Beals

This is the time of year when people traditionally vacuum under the furniture, start home improvement projects and purge some of those unwanted items that tend to accumulate in attics and basements.

The concept of “spring cleaning” is actually quite old, going back thousands of years.  The ancient Greeks and Persians were big believers in an annual top-to-bottom scrubbing of the home each spring. Jews would traditionally cleanse their houses before the start of Passover each year. In the cold climes of modern Europe and North America, people like to “air out” their homes during the first warm weekend following the long, cold winter.

Spring cleaning is an annual ritual. It’s healthy.  It’s liberating; after uncluttering your home or office, you feel like you have a fresh start in your life.

Just as your home needs a good spring cleaning each year so too does your personal brand.  Spring is a great time to assess how you are doing in your efforts to build and maintain a widely recognized and highly respected reputation.  Here are a few tips to freshen up your personal brand and become a celebrity in your own sphere of interest:

Live actively and focus externally - Be active and involved outside your home or office. Show up at networking events. Go out of your way to talk to people when you are in public venues. Remember that nearly 75% of all jobs are never advertised and a similar percentage of big clients only come from relationship-building.

Determine what is most interesting - You need an “area of self-marketing expertise,” something about your business or career that is fascinating to people outside your profession. Feature this when you are networking or using social media.

Focus on results when networking - When you go to networking events, go with a goal in mind. Sure, you should try to enjoy your conversations, but make it your mission to meet new people, find a good lead and learn about a golden opportunity.

Google Yourself - If you haven’t done a search on your name lately, see what’s out there.  I guarantee that people are Googling you on a regular basis. A prospective client will probably Google you to know who he or she is dealing with before meeting with you. That’s why a Google trail is so important. If nothing or very little pops up when someone Googles you, there’s a problem – they’ll assume you don’t have much going on. Therefore, Google your own name on a regular basis. If you’re not very visible on line, deliberately get your name out there to build an Internet presence.

Exploit social media - Make sure you post material on the social media that is interesting and not just inane trivial stuff. Use social media to strengthen your reputation by building on your area of self-marketing expertise.  It’s not enough to just have a directory listing on social media.  Interact with people, post updates, ask questions, endorse people, connect people with each other and participate in discussion groups.

Go Beyond the Big Three - LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are great, but don’t stop there.  The more social media outlets you use, the better.  Google+ is growing in importance.  You can even use Pinterest to build a personal brand.  Some professionals have received great benefit from placing short videos on YouTube.

Use Your Real Name – In order to build your celebrity status, use your real name when reviewing products on websites, making comments at the end of newspaper/magazine articles and posting comments on discussion forums.  Just make sure the things you write help your personal brand as opposed to harming it.

Engage the Media - Volunteer your expertise to media outlets in your industry as well as your local market.  Make a point to meet members of your local and industry media and build friendly relationships with them.  In addition to traditional media, you can get a lot of mileage from doing blogs and podcasts.

Refresh your elevator speech - Does your 20-second intro speech need updating? You need to be able to say what you do quickly, clearly and in a way that captures a person’s interest.  A useful elevator speech also conveys how a person could benefit from what you do.

Never let up - When things are good, don’t let complacency stop you from perpetually marketing yourself. When things are going poorly, don’t let discouragement be an excuse for apathy.

By giving your personal brand a good spring cleaning, you set yourself up for a prosperous and profitable summer.  But remember this – spring cleanings only last so long.  Your house only stays clean if you stay on top of things. The same thing applies to your personal branding efforts.  If you neglect them, they’ll become a mess.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Your Real Business; Your Real Job

By Jeff Beals

Nordstrom is a chain of upscale department stores based in downtown Seattle, the chic and sophisticated hub of the Northwest.

Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest discount retailer and is based in Bentonville, a town of 36,000 people tucked away in northwest Arkansas.

At first glance, you might think these two businesses could not be more different, but a closer look reveals they are very much alike.  Both enjoy huge, rabidly loyal followings.  Their customers love them and go back again and again.  Millions of families live almost exclusively on affordable products purchased from Wal-Mart.  Nordstrom customers are known to travel hundreds of miles to visit their favorite department store.

These two similar-but-different retailers have been successful over many years, because they know their real business.  They know what they really do as opposed to what it appears they do.

Wal-Mart is not in the grocery-and-general merchandise business. Instead, it’s in the “saving-people-money-so-they-can-live-better” business.  Nordstrom isn’t in the garment retailing business.  It’s in the “make-you-look-and-feel-special” business.  The experiences and feelings Nordstrom provide are, to many customers, even more valuable than the apparel and accessories themselves.

The key word for both companies’ success is “value.”

No matter what you do for a living, success ultimately comes down to your ability to deliver great value for the money your clients invest.

But how do you define value?

You don’t.

Value is determined by the client. Value exists in the client’s head. By making your clients feel truly special, you make it easier for them to see the great value you can provide.

The greatest leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers and sales professionals understand that value is critical.

The most successful real estate agents are in the “help-you-get-your-dream-house” business. Insurance brokers are in the “keep- you-safe-and-secure” business. Financial advisors are in the “make-you-wealthy” business. Professional consultants are in the “keep-your-company-solvent” business. Risk managers are in the “keep-your-butt-out-of-court” business.

Clients feel most special when their service providers prove that it’s all about client. The successful person is the one who is in business to make someone else’s dreams come true.

As the legendary Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart once said, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody, by spending his money somewhere else.”

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques.  As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide.   You can learn more and follow his “Beals Motivation Blog” at www.JeffBeals.com.

Selling Sawdust to a Lumber Mill – How to Be Persuasive

By Jeff Beals

We all know that certain kind of person who is so persuasive, he could sell sawdust to a lumber mill, charm wallpaper off a wall or convince a starving lion to embrace a vegan lifestyle.

Some people are so persuasive they can seemingly talk anybody into anything.  How do they do that?  It helps to possess good looks and charisma, but persuasive people tend to employ certain techniques, things we can all use to make our personal and professional lives more successful.

Back in the 1930s, Professor Alan Monroe of Purdue University married the art of presentation with the psychology of persuasion.

The result of his scholarly work became known as Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, a concept that is still pertinent for today’s professionals. The concept was originally intended to help orators structure persuasive speeches, but it’s equally applicable for a variety of other purposes – making a sales presentation, pitching a proposal or trying to talk your boss into making a certain decision.

Whether you’re addressing a large group or an audience of a single decision maker, keep Monroe in mind as you plot your sales presentations. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence advises presenters to build their case using five distinct steps completed in exact order.

First comes the attention-getter in which you introduce a problem by jolting the audience with something bold and unexpected—a story, quote, disturbing statistic or a big “bet-you-didn’t-know” statement.

Step two is need. This is where you prove the problem is significant and worthy of the listener’s attention. You also want to cast the need as something that won’t be solved without the right approach by the right person or organization.

Monroe’s third step is known as satisfaction. Here you prove that you have the solution to the previously mentioned problem.

In step four, visualization, you paint a picture of how wonderful life will look in the future if they accept and implement your solution. You also portray how terrible things will be if they ignore your recommendations.

Finally, in step five, you tell the audience what action they should take. This is the big finish, where you powerfully and motivationally tell them to go do it!

Think about the presentations, pitches and proposals you make.  Ask yourself how they fit into Monroe’s outline. Are you skipping a step or two?  Many salespersons start with step three, the solution, without making the case strongly enough that a solution is necessary in the first place. Structure your persuasive pitch in such a way that makes the targeted listener more acquiescent to what you are pitching. Make them yearn for your solution intensely before you tell them about it.

Your pitches and sales presentations must follow a logical format that feels right to the listener and syncs with their sense of order. The approach needs to build a persuasive case efficiently and effectively. Persuasive presentations must conform to human nature, which has remained static for ages. If you use human nature in your favor, the presentation is more likely to be successful. If you fight human nature, you’re engaging in futility.

As the late Zig Ziglar once said, “People do things for their reasons, not yours.” Focus on what the listener values during the presentation and take time to draw them in by asking clarifying questions and tying things back to what they told you during earlier communications.

In the end, being persuasive really isn’t a matter of “selling ice to an Eskimo” or “talking a bird out of a tree,” rather it’s about finding what people value and then using the right techniques to convince them that you’re capable of delivering that value.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation)  to anyone else who might benefit from it.

You Better Get to Know “Spot!” How to Climb the Relationship Depth Chart

By Jeff Beals

The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.”

The novelist Ernest Hemingway once said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

Trust.  It can be difficult to achieve, but it is essential for long-term success in today’s fast-paced, ultra-competitive world.

Trust facilitates decision making. Trust makes your work easier and more fulfilling. When trust exists, deal-making is simply more fun, because participants endure far less stress and tension. In his 2008 book Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey shows us that even the most complicated business transactions can move quickly and freely if trust is present. Huge purchases are still sometimes made verbally and sealed with a handshake when both parties trust each other without reservation.

Legendary football coach Hayden Fry is best known for his work at the University of Iowa, where he led the Hawkeyes to three Big 10 Championships. He retired in 1998 after amassing 232 wins and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.  When he coached at Southern Methodist University back in the mid-1960s, Fry recruited Jerry LeVias, the first African-American player to receive a scholarship in the history of the Southwest Conference. LeVias had other scholarship offers, so it was quite a coup to attract him to a school that had such an entrenched culture of racial exclusion.

So how did Hayden Fry convince Jerry LeVias to join a school in a conference that never before had signed black players? The answer is simple: Trust.

“I never even mentioned football to Jerry,” Fry said. “We talked about his educational objectives. What he would become after graduation. We talked about personal things. It was obvious he was a great football player, so there was no need to talk about football.”

Fry signed LeVias because he built a trusting relationship with him.

When trust exists, you don’t have to “sell” anything; you don’t have to talk people into doing things.  When you are a trusted provider who keeps the best interests of others in mind, you get the benefit of the doubt.  You get opportunities that other people never know about.

In order to build trust, you must climb the “relationship depth chart.” At the bottom of the chart, is rapport, which leads to the second level-a relationship. After that, trust blossoms, ultimately leading to an agreement, a deal or an opportunity. With each person you meet, start at the bottom of the relationship depth chart and work your way up.

When Hayden Fry was recruiting players for his football team, he climbed the relationship depth chart by listening to prospective players, empathizing with them and getting to know the important people in their lives.

“I instructed my coaching staff that if the young man they were recruiting had a dog named Spot, then you better get to know Spot,” Fry said. “In other words, you needed to know the family, their background, their goals in life, religious beliefs.”

The relationship depth chart is sequential and therefore must be followed in exact order. First, seek to establish rapport. This simply means that after acquaintance is made, mutual affection exists between two people-I like you, and you like me. We have found some commonality and our personalities jibe. Once rapport is in place, you can proceed to a relationship, which is a deeper commonality that implies a longer-term friendship, mutual respect, empathy and loyalty. When two people have a healthy interpersonal relationship between them, they tend to enjoy reciprocating-that is, giving each other items of value and doing nice deeds for one another.

Once the relationship is firmly in place, trust springs forth naturally. The stronger that trust, and the longer it has been in place, the more likely the two parties-buyer and seller, convincer and convincee, recruiter and recruit – can come to a deal. Strong levels of trust lead to enduring professional relationships, which can be almost impossible for an outsider to break.

Constantly climb the relationship depth chart with everyone you encounter. Wherever you are with any given person at any given time on the depth chart, the focus is only on advancing to the next highest rung. Your goal is to move every prospect to the top of the chart, but focus on one step at a time. In other words, you’re unlikely to have trust if you skip the relationship part. You’re unlikely to sign a deal when you haven’t passed the rapport stage.

Trust is a two-way street. Not only does it make your work easier, it frankly makes it worthwhile.  Put a premium on people around you.  Elite professionals are in business to serve others. Ordinary ones serve themselves.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques.  As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide.   You can learn more and follow his “Beals Motivation Blog” at www.JeffBeals.com.

Winning Tradition: Building a Brand People Want to Buy

By Jeff Beals

“Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are going wrong, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.”

These words were made famous in the 1940 Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All American, starring Ronald Reagan among others. The movie tells the story of the legendary Knute Rockne, who coached Notre Dame from 1918 to 1930 during which time he became the most successful coach in history in terms of winning percentage. Reagan played George “the Gipper” Gipp, a player on one of Rockne’s teams who ended up dying from an infection while he was an otherwise healthy young man in 1920. Gipp struggled to utter those words to Rockne while he was lying on his death bed.

In 1928, Rockne’s Fighting Irish team was not playing up to his usual standards. After posting a 4-2 record in the first six games, Notre Dame prepared to take on undefeated Army. Finding his team trailing at halftime, Rockne delivered his “Win One for the Gipper” speech in the locker room. Those eminently motivational words inspired the team to go back out on the field and play their hearts out, upsetting Army 12-6.

Not only did the film give the future U.S. president his lifelong nickname, it immortalized Rockne and further cemented Notre Dame’s widely respected and nationally recognized “brand.” Sure, Notre Dame enjoyed tremendous success and a big following before the 1940 film, but after millions of moviegoers saw the Notre Dame mystique on the silver screen, the brand was bolstered. Just think of the iconic images and words that are now universally known to be associated with Notre Dame – “Four Horsemen,” “Golden Dome,” “Wake up the echoes.”

For years after that film, Notre Dame enjoyed top-of-mind brand status. That made it easier for the Irish to sign blue-chip players. In fact, during Coach Frank Leahy’s tenure, 1941 to 1953, Notre Dame won four Associated Press national championships and registered six undefeated seasons. Since Leahy, Notre Dame has won national championships under Ara Parseghian (1966, 1973), Dan Devine (1977) and Lou Holtz (1988).

Notre Dame is enjoying a great deal of success so far this year, but even when the Irish suffer through a lackluster season, games are still broadcast nationally on NBC. Notre Dame Stadium is still full on Saturdays, and the team generally puts together highly rated recruiting classes each year on National Signing Day.

The reason Notre Dame continues selling itself successfully each year is simple: it has a phenomenal brand. When you have a great brand that many people covet and desire, you sell more of whatever you’re trying to sell. An organization that has achieved great brand status has convinced a significant portion of its target audience that it is the ONLY brand worthy of attention. Loyal customers believe in the brand so strongly, that no other provider measures up.

What’s your organization’s brand? People have a deep desire to associate with organizations and people, who have highly respected and widely recognized brands. Take advantage of your unique selling points, both internal and external, and build a brand people want to buy.  

***

If you like this story, you can read hundreds more like it in Jeff’s brand-new book, Selling Saturdays: Blue Chip Sales Tips from College Football.  Order copies at www.SellingSaturdays.com.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation)  to anyone else who might benefit from it.

 

So Much More than Free Booze & Appetizers

By Jeff Beals

Most professionals know they must network in order to achieve long-term business success. It’s critically important to participate in the public arena and interact with the people who could become your clients, provide you with valuable information or help you further your causes and beliefs.

While they understand the importance of networking, many professionals do a lousy job of it. It’s easy to show up at an event, grab a drink, eat some free hors d’oeuvres, say “hi” to a couple people, then go home and pat yourself on the back for being involved in the community.

Unfortunately, that’s not networking. It’s merely socializing.

There’s nothing wrong with socializing. In fact, it’s generally a good thing, but it’s not efficient. In order to convert socializing into networking, you need to have a three-tiered goal planted in your mind before you even enter the venue where networking will take place.

I call it “goal-based networking,” and here’s how it works:

Goal #1

“I will get a direct opportunity”

This could be a new client, an invitation to join a prestigious organization, a job offer, a promise to donate money to your pet cause. While Goal #1 is ideal, it unfortunately doesn’t happen at most networking events.

Goal #2

“I will get a solid lead on a direct opportunity”

This is almost as good as the first goal, because it moves you closer to what you really want. Goal #2 should happen at the vast majority of networking events you attend. If it doesn’t, you’re not meeting enough people or not asking the right questions.

Goal #3

“I will meet new people and learn valuable information”

This is the bare-bones minimum goal that you should achieve at every single networking event you attend.

Make a commitment to network more and remember to think about these three goals before walking into your next networking event. Setting these goals consistently over a long period of time will maximize the return from your investments in networking. That means you increase your public profile, connect with the right people and become that person who always seems to know about business happenings long before your colleagues do.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation)  to anyone else who might benefit from it.

I See You Everywhere

By Jeff Beals

The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said, “I went to the woods, because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to love deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” I love that passage, and while I’m not hiding out on Walden Pond, I try to follow that philosophy.

As professionals we need “to suck out the marrow” of our business lives. We have to lead active, deliberate careers that are at least somewhat externally focused. That means you turn off the laptop, step out of your cubical and get involved outside the office.

As long as you don’t over-commit yourself – burning the candle at both ends, so to speak – being involved actually makes you better at your core work.

People who join professional associations, who get involved in their place of worship, or who engage in community service learn more and meet more prospective clients. Many of the people you meet during involvement opportunities are members of your personal target audience.

In any given office, there is at least one person who is active in the community and seemingly knows everyone. It is no coincidence that such a person brings in a lot of business, finds great publicity opportunities for the organization and, in turn, gets a lot of job promotions.

Simply put, involvement leads to success. Personal brandng is a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year obligation. It does not end until your career ends. You must be out there seeing and being seen. You have to do it perpetually, so that your personal target audience remembers you.

An acquaintance of mine called me one afternoon and said, “I just have to tell you – you are everywhere!” She was impressed with how I was building name recognition within my profession. I told her it was just part of my job. By the way, I wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know, because she too did a great job being “everywhere.”

Use your time wisely. If you have family or other commitments in the evening, use your lunch hour for networking and other self marketing activities. Ambitious professionals should not eat lunch by themselves more than once or twice a week; it’s simply too important of a networking opportunity to waste.

The fact is, in order to stand out, you need to be everywhere. As much as you may desire to go home and watch television after work, you need to spend a little more time working, showing up at events. While you don’t have to drink until your liver gives out, you do need to be a man or woman about town. Sometimes you have to stay out late at a cocktail party where important prospects have gathered. Sometimes you need to get up early and meet a member of your personal target audience for coffee before you both start work.

It’s not easy, and it comes with a price, but successful professionals are seemingly “everywhere.”

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

You are welcome to forward this article (with author citation) to anyone else who might benefit from it.

Who Cares?!!? It’s All about Them

By Jeff Beals

When Pam Lontos was a 15-year-old growing up in Texas, she took a one-hundred-percent commission job selling shoes at a local department store. In her early twenties, after a stint she describes as “a depressed, overweight housewife,” she took a job selling health club memberships. In both positions, she excelled, surprising the bosses with her tremendous performance and production.

That success led to a long career in sales, marketing and coaching others to be successful.

Lontos went on to work in radio sales, breaking sales records despite her station’s tiny Arbitron ratings. The ownership eventually promoted her to a management role, and she promptly increased sales 500 percent even though the station’s ratings never improved. That led to a national job as vice president of sales for Disney’s Shamrock Broadcasting where she similarly boosted sales 500 percent.

After being invited to speak in front of thousands of broadcasting professionals, she wound up becoming a motivational speaker and author, so she could share her abilities with others. She recently sold a publicity firm she founded and now coaches professional speakers and authors on how to do more business.

So what’s her secret? Why has Lontos been so successful in her sales and marketing work?

Admittedly, some of her success can be attributed to an engaging personality, but most of it is due to proper technique: Build rapport. Ask questions. Gear your presentation to their wants. Don’t give your credentials until they tell you what they want. Think to yourself, “Who cares?!!?”

“All people care about is what’s in it for them,” Lontos said.

Professionals who market or sell products and services must constantly ask themselves, “Who cares?!!?” When Lontos led sales training seminars, she would have an audience member stand up and say one attribute of his company or product. She would then have the rest of the audience shout, “Who cares?!!?”

“Our product outsells the competition two-to-one.”  “Who cares?!!?”

“We doubled our company’s revenue growth last year.”  “Who cares?!!?”

“We offer cutting-edge financial management solutions.”  “Who cares?!!?”

Too many marketers and sales professionals focus on features and benefits instead of discovering what the prospective buyer really wants and then customizing what they offer to satisfy what prospects truly value.

Lontos realized the importance of focusing on customer values early in her job selling fitness club memberships.

“Let’s say someone comes into the club, because they just found out they’re going on a corporate trip with colleagues to Acapulco later that summer,” Lontos said. “They put on their bikini, look in the mirror and realize they have four months to get rid of those flabby thighs.” Some salespersons could hear that story and totally ignore it, instead focusing on the rehearsed script, saying something like, “You’ll want to work out three times per week. This will improve your cardio-vascular fitness, so you’ll avoid a heart attack.”

Such a response would be an absolute failure if you’re trying to sell the woman worrying about the upcoming business junket.

“At that point in time, she’s not thinking about heart attacks,” Lontos said. “She doesn’t care about heart attacks. She’s worried about flabby thighs. You sell her by saying, ‘Your co-workers will say you look fantastic in that bikini.’ Right now, that’s all she cares about.”

Don’t talk about your features and benefits until you know exactly what the prospect cares about, what matters to them. People make monetary decisions based on personal and often self-serving emotions. No offense, but prospective customers ultimately don’t care about you or what you’re selling. They care about how it satisfies their needs and wants (especially the “wants”).

Now, Lontos is not alone in preaching the “Who cares?!!” doctrine. Many sales experts recommend a similar approach. Given that, why do so many professionals try to sell, market or convince people using an approach that turns people off?

“Because they think they’re so knowledgeable,” Lontos said. “People gravitate to something they like to sell. They gravitate to jobs that interest them, but just because you’re enthralled with something doesn’t mean others are.”

In other words, professionals can easily get so wrapped up in their profession that they fail to see it from an outsider’s perspective. Frankly, the more talented, educated and experienced you are in your profession, the more vulnerable you are to making assumptions about clients. Even if you are the most brilliant and seasoned person in your organization, remember, it’s about them. Chances are they don’t care about the things you care about.

By the way, Lontos is author of the book, I See Your Name Everywhere: Leverage the Power of the Media to Grow your Fame, Wealth and Success available on Amazon.com. You can contact Lontos and learn more about her at PamLontos.com.

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. To discuss booking a presentation, go to JeffBeals.com or call (402) 637-9300.

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