Alexander and the Gordian Knot!

There is an old story about Alexander the Great and the famous Phrygian Knot at Gordium.  The legend said that whoever could unravel the knot would become ruler of Asia.  When Alexander came through Gordium, of course  he wanted to take a stab at fulfililng the prophecy.  But when he examined the intricate knot he could find no ends.  They had been cleverly hidden within the knot itself.  Always a man of action, Alexander didn’t waste any more time on the knot.  He just pulled out his sword and sliced the knot in two.  Plenty of ends now!  He unraveled the knot and went on to conquer Asia (which he probably would have done anyway.)

A lot of times, Marketing Introverts tend to be more like the knot itself than like Alexander, a man who sliced through problems at a single stroke.  (This is not to say that the trouble he caused all over the civilzed world of his day was necessarily admirable.)  The reluctance we feel toward marketing and getting out into the world to find clients can seem to be a problem without ends to grab, without ways to unravel.  But this is largely an illusion based on unwillingness to grapple with the knot itself, which is not marketing or networking or sales, but finding a way to decrease the sense of fear and reluctance so that our minds can be freed to solve other more relevant business challenges.  Challenges like: Which marketing strategy is going to be the most effective for me?  Where are my target clients and how can I get in front of them. 

Remember that the most important thing is to not keep grappling with the knots in our emotional life, but to get on with conquering our ability to market effectively!

Lingering Symptoms

It has been a long time since the white-knuckle days when I first started public speaking as a marketing strategy.  Now I do public speaking all the time and I really enjoy it.  Its fun to share useful information with people and have potential clients line up for one-on-one complimentary consultations.  Speaking pays off in new clients.

But I will share a secret with you.  Even though I am 98% over my fear of public speaking I still notice lingering symptoms from time to time.  The biggest one is that when I stand up to speak I often find myself “breathless” during the first few sentences.  It is as if I just ran up a set of stairs to get to the podium, or as if I am exhaling all my air as I speak and somehow not taking air in.

I mention this because those of us who are genuine marketing introverts are probably NEVER going to find ourselves being ” total extroverts.”  I’ll share with you what I do in that moment when I suddenly find myself “out of breath” with 55 minutes of a talk left to go!

• I slow down.
• I relax my knees so that I can really ground through my feet.
• I use a little “pause for emphasis” between my sentences.
• I use that pause to take a normal breath and get my breathing back on track

These things are usually enough for me to catch my breath… and off I go!  Within minutes, I am laughing and enjoying myself with my audience.

If this sort of thing happens to you when you are out marketing whether it is a feeling of being ill at ease as you walk into a networking event, or a sense of nervousness as you sit down to talk to a potential client, you can make this “lingering symptom” become only a brief reminder that you an “introvert” and then let it go.  If you don’t panic about it, the feeling will subside, returning you to “normal.”

Give it a try!  It is very important for marketing introverts to remember that WE create our feelings… which means we have the power to create other ones!

Selling “Hot Buttered Toast” – A Marketing Idea for Beating the Recession

There are very few comfort foods on my personal list that come up to the satisfaction level of “Hot Buttered Toast” but, if you think about it, really good Hot Buttered Toast is almost impossible to sell.  Really good toast is buttered and eaten moments after it comes out of the toaster and, as simple a recipe as it is, the higher the quality of the bread and butter you use the better the toast is going to taste.  Nothing, for example, will ever match my grandmother’s homemade bread straight out of the toaster slathered with real home-churned butter!

 

So what does “Hot Buttered Toast” have to do with marketing in a recession?  We have become a nation of cautious spenders, perhaps rightfully so.  For many of us who are small business owners, selling, which is a challenging business anyway, is looming monumental.  I know many small business owners who are struggling hard to stay in business right now all the while smiling at networking events and saying “Oh yes, business is fine.”

 

Sometimes posing zen-koan-like marketing questions can stimulate really creative thinking.  I once asked an extremely busy, brand-new, business owner (with a minimal marketing budget) how she could get the message about her new business to 200 new people a month?  “Two hundred?” she gasped.  At first she was floored but then she rose to the challenge and got extremely creative!  Within six months, her database was full of contacts and her business began to take off.  I brainstorm with sole proprietors over the “200 people a month” question a lot!

 

Recently I have also been asking people “What do you sell that is as good as Hot Buttered Toast?”  (Or if toast doesn’t do it for you, you might ask: “What do you sell that is as potentially compelling to people as the Thin Mints the Girl Scouts sell?”)  Once you locate the aspect of your product or services that has a “comfort food” type appeal, the challenge is to now verbally weave that impression into your marketing message and start getting the word out! 

 

If your business is hurting because of the recession, here’s a small creative exercise to try: identify some aspect of what you sell that is a alluring as “Toast Right Out of the Toaster” and then see how many ways you can get this message out to “200 new people a month.”

 

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Dhyan Atkinson is a Business Skills Trainer and Business Consultant/Coach.  She has just started a gluten-free diet; thus her nostalgia about “toast.”  She specializes in teaching small business owners the Five Essential Skills they need to find clients.  Check out her programs at http://www.TheFiveEssentialSkills.com,  Also see the specific list of offerings for “Marketing Introverts” on this blog site:  https://marketing4introverts.wordpress.com/programs-4-mrktg-introverts/

It Isn’t ALL About What You Want to Market

These days we all have to consider our product carefully and how we are going to successfully bring it to market.

I had an interview with a potential client the other day.  People think they are interviewing me but I am also listening carefully to them, to what they tell me, and what they reveal about their vision.  I want to be sure if I take this person on as a client that I feel I will be able to offer them training and coaching likely to bring results.  This person I talked to the other day wants to manufacture an organic product that people already readily use and buy.  So far… well and good!  But she also wants to sell her product ONLY on the internet through individual sales, doesn’t want to do any mass marketing of her product to stores, doesn’t want to spend very much time doing marketing, has a low budget and says she needs to get some money coming in fairly quickly.  She has selected a price point 4x the regular marketing price but thinks her product will sell because of the quality difference and because there is one additional aspect to her product that makes it different from her competitor’s.  In the end, I sent her to one of my strategic partners because my partner is very good at search engine optimization for websites and could probably help her more than I could.  But in my heart, I don’t think this business is a shoe-in for success.

There are many variables you need to consider beside “I want to do this” when you start your business.  Pre-Bush administration, when the economy was better, a small business person might have gotten away with marketing a designer product for which there was a great deal of competition, at a higher cost, without putting in much effort at marketing.  Maybe.  The key there would have been a budget which would pay for a REALLY good website (one Google and Yahoo LOVED!), internet ads galore, someone to do ongoing website optimization for the business, and the hope of viral marketing.  But these days, a good solid business with a focused business and marketing plan, where the economic and demographics factors of who and where people are willing to spend money on this product have been taken into consideration, will be more likely to move a business forward… even in a bad economy.

Now, if ever, it is the time to be flexible.  Don’t get too fixated on what you ARE willing or are NOT willing to do for your business.  For myself, when I find my business in this situation, I try to rouse my interest in the challenge of doing something I don’t normally like to do. But certainly, the moral of this story is to be really careful these days not to limit your options.  Give your business more of a chance to emerge from the other side of the recession intact and thriving… as well as, perhaps, experiencing the delight of finding yourself on the other side of a challenge a more capable, flexible person than you were before!

Attracting Attention To Your Business

Thank you!

If generating new marketing ideas is difficult for you, here is a way you can learn from and capitalize on the creativity of other business owners.

I am always recommending to my marketing introvert clients that they keep their eyes open to see what other business owners are using as marketing techniques.  The ideas don’t need to DIRECTLY apply to your buiness, the question is “How can I apply this idea to MY business and make it work?”

Here’s an attraction getting tip:  On Pearl Street the stores are small and cheek-by-jowl.  Many are starting to use inexpensive banners and signs to help make their window displays stand out.  What caught my eye on this banner was THANK YOU, BOULDER!  For what, I wondered?  I stepped closer:  “Best Gift Shop 2008!”  the sign said.  My attention was caught by the smaller print and I stepped closer again.  Then you see that they were actually the “Runner Up“ in the competition, not first place!  But by then, you are close enough to see the wonderful things in their window.

So here’s something we can learn from this business owner:  Think about ONE thing you can announce about yourself or your buisness this week and do it!  Use something really attention grabbing in the title and use some smaller print to draw people in.  Now more than ever it is important to keep your name in front of your potential customers and clients!

Quote from “Content Rich”

I bought a new book over Christmas to help me master Search Engine Optimization, called “Content Rich:  Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web” by Jon Wuebben.  Here is his website:  www.contentrichbook.com

I found a section of special interest to Marketing Introverts:

“We could even discuss personality difference between extroverted and introverted people.  If you think about it, the web essentially levels the playing field between them.  As the power of the written word has risen, so too has the effectiveness of the more introverted personality – people can communicate without ever seeing each other. …

“So, why does SEO content work?  Partially because an entire group of people, (20% of us apparently) who previously felt alienated in social business situations, can now “talk” to others in a way that never existed before.  … Before the internet, these people had a difficult time exerting any significant influence or power over business decision making.”

What an interesting observation… and a great reason for all Marketing Introverts to very quickly master Search Engine Optimization for their websites, blogs, social networking profiles, and internet article writing ventures!

New Year for Marketing Introverts!

Dear Friends,

I haven’t posted for awhile.  I’ve been busy putting up a new website on wordpress.org and just finished it last night.  Check it out!  www.TheFiveEssentialSkills.com   There are programs and other offerings suitable for small business owners who are Marketing Introverts and struggle with resistance to marketing and sales!  See especially the new classes that start in February. 

There is a 4 week Business Basics class designed for people who are getting started, need a refresher on business skills, or want a quick overview.  Here is a link to the program description.  http://thefiveessentialskills.com/?page_id=291 

(Catchy link name, yes?  I haven’t learned yet how to use more descriptive names for links on my new website but I’m gonna! )

Secondly, I have a new 4 Month Business Intensive teleclass for small business owners which teaches all the skills you need to get your business jump-started in the new year.  If you click on this link it will describe the program and tell you all the things you will leave the program having mastered!  http://thefiveessentialskills.com/?page_id=315

Strategic Partners

One of the best things a Marketing Introvert can do is to very carefully choose a half dozen good strategic partners.  Because marketing is hard for you, it is a great idea to set up relationships with people who are willing to send clients your way.  Here are three tips for choosing strategic partners:

1. Who do you know who “knows everybody?”  Think about people who are active in the Chamber of Commerce.  Serve as the President of a networking or business organization.  Seem to have a golden rolodex and can hook anyone up with someone else.  These people LOVE to network.  Approach them and ask for 10 minutes of their time to tell you about their business and let you tell them about yours.
2. Think about who has the same target clients that you do but are not in competition with you.  One of the best strategic partnerships I have ever seen was in a leads group where 11 of the members all provided services to home owners:  realtor, mortgage person, carpenter, roofer, carpet installation, handyperson, professional organizer, housecleaner, electrician, plumber and landscaper.  When one of them found a new client they were frequently able to give that person a referral to one of their strategic partners.
3. Check membership directories.  If there is an organization you belong to that puts out a list of its new members every month, be sure to go through with a highlighter and mark the new businesses that might cross your target clients’ path.  Here’s a tip:  new members often get swamped with calls from other businesses welcoming them in.  Wait a month before you call them and stand apart.

Remember, return the referral favor if you can.  If you can’t, be sure you generously thank people who send business your way and/or find other ways to help them and their business.  Start your own “golden rolodex!”

Reason for Hope

It is now three days after our historic election.  Personally, I was absolutely ecstatic about the outcome but I have also reached out to my Republican friends who, I guessed, would be feeling as badly as I did after both of the last two elections.  They were.  One of them told me, “I went to bed Tuesday night with a feeling of dread and fear in my stomach.  I am scared for the future of our country.”  Those are the EXACT same feelings and thoughts I had after both of the last two elections.  Maybe we are not so different after all.

I think it is time that we encourage our candidates to spend more time intelligently discussing the issues during a campaign and less time mud-slinging and trying to create fear in their constituents about the other candidate.  When the “other” person is elected that fear hangs on leaving a deep stain on the unconscious of the country.  It cripples our ability to come together after an election.  How can we hope to solve problems when half the country is scared to death when the other party wins?

I for one am STRONGLY hoping that we can come together, in a bi-partisan way, over these next four years and find solutions TOGETHER for our very real and challenging problems.  We need to listen to one another, find reasonable compromises, and move forward in tandem.  I voted for Barak Obama because I feel he was the best candidate to spearhead this kind of bi-partisan effort.  I intend to keep my candidates informed of my concern that my Republican friends not be left out of the equation as I feel I was during the past administration.

Our economic crisis is real.  The global warming crisis is real.  The fact that we have been in an expensive war that has emptied our coffers and put us billions of dollars in debt while disenfranchising us from the countries that used to be our friends, is real.  The fact that millions of people in this country don’t have adequate healthcare, savings, retirement, and income is real.  The fact that people are losing their homes to foreclosure is real.  We have to do something about these problems as quickly as we can and we won’t be able to do it if half of the country forces an agenda down the throat of the other half (as has happened all through the past 8 years) or that the other half waits impatiently, gathering forces, to vote their side into office at the next election.  We have to do better than this if we want to have a country to pass down to the next generation.

The truth is that nine years ago I was working with small business owners who, with reasonable and even moderate amounts of marketing, were finding business.  This has not been true the past four years.  Many of the small business owners I work with have been struggling hard and those who have given up their dream of being self employed have run smack into the problem of trying to find a job while competing with all the rest of us who lost jobs because of the economy.  People who have employees are struggling to keep them, pay them, provide healthcare and retirement savings options for them.  Where are those employees supposed to go when their employer finally has to release them?  We can’t keep going like this.  All these grassroots people did not need the financial crash in October to tell them our country is in trouble.  They already knew and were already living with the anxiety and fear.

And, of course, this has been a TERRIBLE time for Marketing Introverts whose fear and dread of marketing and sales keeps them from doing as much marketing as they should do anyway.

I would like to end on a note of hope.  I have worked with people for years who have taken a stand and, with the help of others, have climbed out of a hole that threatens to swallow them. I believe that it is not too late for us to solve the problems I listed above.

I have two quotes that I have posted on doors in my house that inspire me every day.  The quote on my office door says  “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”  Author unknown.  Regardless of whether your favorite candidate won or lost, let’s begin TODAY to create a new ending to our problems.  Regardless of who you blame, it is time to put the past as much aside as we can, and focus on creating a better tomorrow for ourselves, our children, and every other person and creature who lives on this planet.

The other quote, the one that hangs on my bedroom door says “To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past.  Your history is not your destiny.”  We have Alan Cohen to thank for this stirring reminder.

And you Marketing Introverts out there – I still tell you it is possible to change from someone who fears marketing to someone who is confident and capable of finding new customers and clients for their business.  Let me help you!

Let us begin now to change our world!  Let’s do it together!

The “B” word

I rarely find myself at a total loss with any of my clients but I got caught off guard by one of them not so long ago!  We were talking about her reluctance to market and she almost whispered, “I just can’t bring myself to use the “B” word about myself.”

“The “B” word?” I thought ( …and I bet your mind and mine jumped to the same first guess!) but the word that first came to my mind seemed particularly inappropriate in the case of this polite, friendly, middle-class woman who wanted to start a professional organizing business of her own.  “Which “B” word?” I asked cautiously.

“Business person,” she replied, as if the words left a bad taste in her mouth.  “I am totally happy seeing myself as a Professional Organizer but I just can’t picture myself as a business person.”

Hearing this admission, I felt myself back on solid ground.  You might be surprised at how many small business owners I come across who are comfortable thinking of themselves as practitioners of a particular profession… but feel totally uncomfortable thinking of themselves as business owners, marketing professionals, or sales persons.    Usually this is because these roles have activities associated with them that my potential clients don’t feel comfortable doing.

Sometimes, however, there is a sense of guilt or shame attached to the concept “business person.”  One of my recent clients came from a family who had all been service professionals for generations… doctors, nurses, lawyers.  She herself was a social worker.  For her, the “M” word, was a hard one… “Money.”  For twenty years, her services to her clients had been paid for by a non-profit organization.  She had never had to think about how much time she spent with her clients.  They got as much of her attention as they needed – she wasn’t paid by the hour.  The idea of asking someone to pay her for her time was appalling to her.

If you are like either of these two business people and have strong feelings of aversion to some aspect of business you cannot “avoid and still stay in business” here are a six tips for addressing the problem:

1. First you have to recognize that your feelings are acquired and not “Reality-with-a-capital R.”  How can you tell?  Because if EVERYONE on the planet felt as you do there would BE no businesses.  Clearly business is happening all around you and by good people!  So the problem is INSIDE you, not outside.  This is very good news because if a problem is “yours” there is a much better chance that you can actually do something about it!
2. This still may not make you feelany better.  The second step is to just give a little thought to where you picked up this belief, attitude or feeling.  Did it come from your family?  Did something happen to you in the past?  Did you pick it up in response to some cultural archetype?  (For example, many people have strong, negative associations for the word “sales person” but don’t think twice about the fact that they meet good, helpful, informative sales people all the time – many more, in fact, than the few “sales alligators” they may come across.)  If you can identify WHERE you picked up this limiting belief, it may help you in starting to unravel it.
3. Here is another eye-opener:  Get a piece of paper and fold it in half lengthwise.  On the left list all the good things that will happen if you change this belief to it’s opposite.  On the right list all the bad things you believe will happen.  Take a really good and careful look at the negative side.  Are all those things really true?  I once had a client who strongly believed that he would lose the respect of all his friends if he really did sales for his business.  As a result he had become so obscure in his efforts to talk about his product that very few people even knew what he was talking about, much less that he was sounding them out to gauge their interest in buying.  Four weeks after our first sessions, with a professional sales dialogue under his belt and new marketing activities up and running, he had changed his mind.  His friends showed a great deal of admiration for his courage at starting his own business and were delighted to hear about his success.  Much to his surprise, they even expressed a little envy!
4. Have the courage to check your belief out with a few trusted business colleagues.  I bet you are going to find other people who felt reluctant at first to do marketing and sales, or had trouble really embracing the fact that they were now business people.  Realizing that you are not the only one who has felt this way can help a lot.  And, in addition, you may come across someone who shares a good tip with you about how to overcome your fear.
5. Try this sentence on for size, “If I have to do xyz (marketing, networking, sales, whatever you dread!) for my business then I am going to find some good way to enjoy doing it, and I’m going to get good at it!”  What comes up for you when you say that aloud?  Do you immediately know what your first steps should be?
6. Finally, (and of course I WOULD mention this being who I am) get some help if you need it.  It can be really hard being a sole-proprietor and working on changing your own unconscious, negative beliefs or work to overcome the things that hold you back in your business. Sometimes a little focused help with a business consultant can move you through this problem more quickly than you can do it on your own.