Price vrs Value in the Small Business Sector

I’ve always been the type of person that makes buying decisions based on value proposition – not just the price. And for years, what I sold didn’t have a direct cost to the decision maker, so it was a value-based sale. IMO, the internet affords people/companies the ability to promote a value proposition that may not exist just to look like they have a full suite of services-at amazingly low prices – and clients buy it; literally. If it seems to good to be true, it typically is – the golden rule I’ve always used. And admittedly I’ve tried a few here and there and was taken too. It’s like those $@$#@ spam email messages you get on a daily basis about an abandoned bank account in Russia that is going to be liquidated, and all you need to do is send them some $1700 to cover all the processing and you will get the $1.7M in the account – barring any unforeseen legal issues. If people are really falling for that one – we’ve got to send our country back to school.

Open conversations (or close them)

A great post from Seth Godin…

A guy walks into a shop that sells ties. He’s opened the conversation by walking in.

Salesman says, “can I help you?”

The conversation is now closed. The prospect can politely say, “no thanks, just looking.”

Consider the alternative: “That’s a [insert adjective here] tie you’re wearing, sir. Where did you buy it?”

Conversation is now open. Attention has been paid, a rapport can be built. They can talk about ties. And good taste.

Or consider a patron at a fancy restaurant. He was served an old piece of fish, something hardly worth the place’s reputation. On the way out, he says to the chef,

“It must be hard to get great fish on Mondays. I’m afraid the filet I was served had turned.”

If the chef says, “I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your meal…” then the conversation is over. The patron has been rebuffed, the feedback considered merely whining and a matter of personal perspective.

What if the chef said instead, “what kind of fish was it?” What if the chef invited the patron back into the kitchen to take a look at the process and was asked for feedback?

Open conversations generate loyalty, sales and most of all, learning… for both sides.

Seth Godin

The Power of Sarcasm!

Why is sarcasm the lowest form of wit?

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit since its aim is to belittle or hurt someone, and to laugh at their expense; we associate the word “cutting” with it. On the other hand, true wit associates with the word “levity”, and boosts everyone’s spirits, being aimed at an action, a happening or an attitude.
Mary Purnell, Revesby

Because intellectuals said so, and when were they ever wrong?
Norm Neill, Leichhardt

It’s not. Perhaps you are as deliberately confused as the great Frank Muir on an old BBC episode of My Word, who wound up a typically long-winded anecdote with the phrase “the bun is the lowest form of wheat”. Geddit?
John Amy, Blakehurst

I tend to think that wit is the highest form of sarcasm.
Daniel Pericart, Cooranbong

Sarcasm has never been and cannot be a form of wit. Punning is the lowest form of wit and always will be.
John Currie, St. Ives

Sarcasm is said to be a low form of humour as its intent is generally to get laughs at someone else’s expense. The pointed humour may not be funny to the victim but its funny to those who understand the barb as it feeds their intellectual egos. This is because sarcasm is a form of humour that is known to require the highest functions of our brains. Areas of the brain that decipher sarcasm and irony also process language, recognise emotions and help understand social cues. Sarcasm is related to our ability to understand other people’s mental state so it’s not just a linguistic form, it’s also related to social cognition.
David Buley, Seaforth

Because it is only marginally better than being witless.
Vikram Karekatte, North Sydney

Because it is the form commonly employed by politicians.
Hugo Stiegl, Dora Creek

Sarcasm is scornful, contemptuous and taunting, hence it is rightfully the lowest form of wit.
Premila Singh, Strathfield

You’d have to be a bloody genius to know that!
Linda Forbes, Collaroy Plateau

Because it requires very little brain power to be sarcastic? puns or other ‘true’ jokes for example, actually need some sort of a sense of humour, intelligence and/or wit.
Karina L., Kingsgrove

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit only to those who have never mastered the art, and those who always fall victim to it.
Adam Pemberton, Sylvania

If you have to ask,you wouldn’t understand!
Karlheinz Kunkel, Oatley

The lowest form of wit is reputedly the pun – or as some wag said, “The bun is the lowest form of wheat”.
Gary Whale, Yamba

Sarcasm is generally negative, and tends to hurt, which places it on the lowest rung of the humour ladder. For example, “He thinks he’s a wit, but he’s only half right.”
Sandy Parkinson, Hilton WA

Recent research at the University of Haifa claims that sarcasm is a complex high order skill needing an ability to understand other peoples state of mind and emotions. Its low because it targets chiefly the sensitive, inarticulate, unsophisticated and powerless.
Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie

Great question! I’ve wondered the same myself, because you need to be bordering on genius to be able to apply it in just about any given situation.
Luke O’Dwyer, Banksia

“Why is sarcasm the lowest form of wit?” Like you’d get anything more sophistricated…
Madeline Palmer, Kualal Lumpur

Because it is only marginally better than being witless.
Vikram Karekatte, North Sydney

Becoming A Leader!

Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.
– Warren Bennis, Ph.D. “On Becoming a Leader”

Leadership is the desire and ability to inspire individual achievement, while a leader is just a guy at the top of the heap worried about his own
– Keith Mullen

The best example of leadership, is leadership by example.
– Jerry McClain of Seattle, WA

If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.
– Admiral Grace Hopper

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.
– Andre Maurois

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
– Eleanor Roosevelt

Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.
– Hubert H. Humphrey

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.
– John Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. economist, “The Age of Uncertainty”

The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way.
– Henry Miller

It’s amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone.
– Coco Chanel

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation’s leaders wouldn’t know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return.
– Lewis H. Lapham

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.
– Lewis H. Lapham

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.
– Bishop Desmond Tutu

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
– Maya Angelou

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
– Theodore Roosevelt

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. . . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
– Walter Lippmann

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant.
– Liu Shao-ch’i

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and we’re all precious in God’s sight.
– Jesse Jackson (b. 1941), U.S. clergyman, civil rights leader. Speech, 16 July 1984.

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
– Katharine Hepburn

 

Is it Facebook or your content & strategy that sucks?

When you’re telling everyone how wonderful your products and services are on FB and Twitter, don’t forget to send your webmaster an email blowing smoking up his .ASP about how great your site is too, because that’s about as much attention as you will get boasting about your biz on social media.

Simon Sinek hits the nail on the head:

“There’s not a single product or service available in the market today that you can’t buy from somebody else for about the same price; about the same quality; about the same level of service with about the same features.

And yet, if you ask most any business why their customer is their customer they will tell you Service; Superior Quality; More Features…

In other words, most companies have no clue.

If you don’t know why your customers are your customers how do you know what to do or how to act in order to attract more of them? (How do you) Know what to do and how to act to keep the loyal ones, loyal?”

Most SMEs are in denial about social media. They know they need to do something, but the don’t know what. So they setup their FB site, and start spraying unsolicited, untargeted content and no one listens. And when you consult with them about their social media strategy, their eyes glaze-over like you’ve introduce a new word into their vocabulary.

There’s a reason many small and medium size businesses stay small, and it’s not by choice; we’ll it sort of is. They choose to believe they can do it all (and be good at it).

Some do. Most don’t. And those who think they do, know just enough to talk the talk, but lack results. If that’s you, and you may not know it’s you, wake the hell up!

There is a plethora of highly trained, skilled and successful professionals eager to earn your business because they also want to see you succeed. It’s what they/we do. If you don’t get that in your initial conversation with them, yes – move on and interview the next one.

SMM is “social.” It’s a conversation, a dialogue. It is not a magazine, newspaper, or direct mail advertisement. Instead of spraying your keyword rich spittle at everyone, Engage your audience.

If you need help figuring out how to build a longterm reciprocal relationship with your prospects and customers – I’m easy to find.

Who Mentor’s You?

Mentors are like blessings. We sometimes don’t know how or why, but good things happen and we benefit as a result and there’s no one there waiting to collect a fee. This is where you can be fortunate in your career; finding, or allowing yourself to be found, by those few people willing to be mentors.

Who’s mentoring you? You may not know it, but someone could be mentoring you now. What’s sets you apart from the others in your competitive environment? If it doesn’t standout, start a new journey to define it and seek a mentor.

We all achieve more when we work together. And you’ll get to where you want to be faster and with less effort, and you’ll go farther by aligning yourself with someone who’s been down the same road that can steer you past the obstacles, and get you well on your way to paving your own road to success.

The Beginning of The END for Unions?

–The Wisconsin Assembly has passed a GOP bill that would take away key union rights, CNN confirms.”

It probably should have happened about the same time as desegregation in the late 1950’s, or at least the summer of 1957.

While I”ve been exposed to unionization only in third-person, I can see how it was a necessity at one time. I do think however that time has long past.

What do you think?

…the fierce urgency of now…

 Not everyone can speak as eloquently as Martin Luther King. But we can all think, act and grow.

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.”

The Value of a Name

Our names are the cornerstone of our personality. From creative spellings to family tributes, our names say a lot about us, and it helps us become who we are. So what about you-what does your name mean, and what does it say about you? The purpose of a name is the same as the purpose of calling an object by a designated name. Simply put it is a way to identify you, at least in part, distinct from another.

How do you value your name?

Is the Business Side of Social Media BS?

I keep meeting business leaders that appear to be in a fog about social media and how it pertains to their business. And surprisingly, many of them brush the topic aside as if they’ve created the concept, tried it and determined it wasn’t worth their time.

via Is the Business Side of Social Media BS?.