Musings…

If you read today’s business books and blogs you might get the wrong impression about how easy it is to throw something together, some product or idea, and THE INTERNET will take you to financial heaven.   You might even sit in on meetings where the major topic is  basically HOW DO WE GET THE INTERNET and the social media to do all the really hard work for us?

I am thinking that this “internet” discussion is really about how do we get the 256 people who talk to one another about good it can be, to acknowledge our product.  Somehow we think that these 256 people have a magical influence on zillions of others.  Nope, they don’t.  They are just better at Twitter and blogging.  Want proof?  Four words:  Danny Bonaduce, Ashton Kutcher.  Until you can show me where Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs are dedicating THEIR time to it, I am not holding my breath here for easy sales the Ashton way.

Some examples.  Soon I am going to be helping advise a class of university students on doing startups. ( Hey I wrote a book on it, why not?)  The U offers a class that is very popular where the students come up  with new company ideas.  Then they vote and pick the best two, split the class up into two teams, and each team assigns roles–You be CEO, You be Head of Marketing, etc—and then spend the rest of the term, developing the business idea and marketing it.  The U even funds it to a degree.  The idea, of course, is to let the students learn about starting their own business, and the U  will even let them ‘buy’ the business after the terms ends.

I was selected to help out for next term  because the head guy…THE professor, but a guy with true start up experience himself (unusual, I know)…thought they needed someone for next term with some in depth sales experience.  I guess that be me.  Anyway, I got to observe the final presentation of this term’s class.

The winning team had a terrific idea, especially for Minnesotans.  They came up with an idea that solves a big problem for hockey players and their families.  They invented an odor-eating hockey and big gym bag!  With magical carbon inserts (they even got a USA exclusive on this carbon!), the foul smelling bags will smell all sweet and pretty like your prom date.  They did a lot of work, got a website together, attended hockey games and tournaments, exhibited at the state tournament, had all kinds of positive testamonials and on and on.  They wrote about it, tweeted it even.  The bags were priced right, just slightly more costly than any normal bag.  And, they would even customize with the team’s logo.  So guess how many they sold?

47.

So,next time you think something is going to sell ezy-pezy, remember this story.  These were exceptionally bright, modern kids.  Selling anything is hard work, and nothing can take the place of a good sales effort and program.  Too often, those in leadership positions forget about sales, thinking sales will just happen, somehow.  Yeah, right.  The kids in this class now have a better appreciation for sales.

What should you do instead?  Is there an easy way to get your product noticed and bought.  Ummm, no.

Take LinkUp.com for example.  LinkUp is by far, the best job search engine out there.  Career experts like Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, JT O’Donnell, and Nick Corcodilos say so.  Alison Doyle who writes about job searching for ABOUT, says it is one of her most favorite recommendations.  Job seekers love it and why shouldn’t they, we have about 450,000 jobs up right now, nearly 70% of them are never advertised elsewhere.  The jobs are open, current, and it is all free.  Anyway, we are growing and growing, each month we have more site visitors than the month before.  We are proud of the work our team has done to make it the best possible place to look for a job.  And it is not only industry insiders that recommend us.  US News and World Report wrote about us in their May 10 JOBS issue.  Everyone in the industry knows about it.  I am trumpeting it every place I can.  Which makes it especially frustrating when a RELATIVE of mine, who recently lost her job, asked me what “our job site was again?”  If a relative cannot remember….grrrrrrrr.  Which should simply point out the fact that it is not her fault, nor mine even.  It is just hard to get the word out about a new thing, no matter how good it is or helpful.

So for you and  your new company, or product, or service, what does this mean for you?

It means that contrary to what you read, there are no easy shortcuts, even with the internets, the IPads, the know-it-all gurus out there, shouting information and ideas to every twitter follower on the planet, like some carnival barker.  Just because the medium is sexier, doesn’t mean it works in every case.

Nothing works better than staying focused on serving a real customer need or problem.  And just get better at doing that, a little more and a little better each day.  Incremental improvements will win the day.  If you think you are pushing a rock up the hill some days, with your nose, just realize this is the way that most of us work.  You can read about the others, and their easy ways, but don’t change your own work habits.  At the end of the day, the persistently focused performers will win.

Time to re-read Peter Drucker.

“Find their pain,” he’d tell me, “then rescue them with our chemicals.” What he was saying was that great salesmen understand how to find and talk about the pain that prospects are having because they don’t have your product.

The word pain is important and far better than needs, because people can manage around their needs, but will do almost anything to avoid further pain. When the prospect is experiencing pain, the great solution provider (the sales rep), rides in on his white horse and rescues him. Most good sales training is some version of this.

I was thinking about the Pain and Rescue idea this morning re: to the new stimulus bill being signed today by President Obama.

Everyone has been pummeling us with the pain of the economy downturn. We get it. All the bad news has us all confused, a bit angry, somewhat depressed, and searching for good news. We need to hear more about the rescue, how it is happening and coming to our business and town.

I have known for some time that positive actions, attitudes, and words are more uplifting and growth oriented than negative energy and thinking. And it is nearly axiomatic that good things happen first to positive people.

Do you agree? Don’t you think the constant barrage of negativity needs to be throttled back? Let’s do what we can to make this new stimulus plan work.

Over at US NEWS today, I explain how each one of us can start doing just that.  For one thing, if I were KING, I would make each media outlet that trumpets a job layoff, go to www.linkup.com and showcase a company in the town who is now hiring.

Do you agree?

It is surprisingly simple, jump off here.

Oh, and please don’t email me about your candidate.

Update: 8.13.08: It wasn’t as simple or straight-forward as I thought,  70 people have made comments over at US NEWS.  Most are negative.

I was supposed to give some advice on what people can do when they love their job, but hate their boss.
Limited to 250 words, I don’t think I did the subject justice. As a subject, it was not all easy-peezy. You can jump over there to read it, here, to see how I did. Frequently wrong, never in doubt; frequently wrong, never in doubt.

First, I don’t want to minimize how many bad bosses there are out there. There must be lots since ‘bad boss’ is the most common reason why people quit their jobs. For now, I assume that you have a boss, and that you sometimes go home and tell Hilda how he frustrates you, ignores you and generally mismanages you.

Please understand that most of us get to be ‘boss’ with little training. Even if we went to business school, that was two years spent, long-long ago. Most of what we learned about management we picked up from either our bosses along the way, some random seminar, or trial and error in real life management issues, maybe reading about it and hopefully, thinking about it. So, it’s no wonder so many of us suck at it or that the rest of us love our work, but hate our bosses. Our jobs are more predictable, consistent and even understandable. Being human, and untrained, bosses aren’t.

Are there more ideas for you if you truly do love your job, but hate your boss?

There is one big one: In dealings with your boss, assume goodwill.

There is no question that having a good boss can make all the difference in your worklife balance and attitude. Truthfully, you may have to get a second job, which is to figure out how to work with your boss so that this negative emotion, attitude and energy goes away. It is an important new job for you, one that is worth far more than a new job or even a second job that actually pays.

The first step in that entire process is to assume goodwill. Only by starting off that way will you have a chance to improve the situation.

What to do later will be the subject of future posts.
But if you have any ideas now, please drop them here. You will helping a lot of people.