This is a new quote which serves to remind us humour is a good tonic in troubled times.

The reason for the humour?

Simple, she was referring to her sister Phyllis who was born 1909, and is still alive and going strong, (Or as strong as one can be at age 102.)

As they say “the old ones are the best.”

Both Gertrude and Phyllis are my aunts, one of which has sadly passed away recently.

C

Jack Dempsey won the title in 1919 beating Jess Willard who towered over him.

This was the answer he gave to when asked what his advice was to the then youth of his day.

Simple, sound, direct; and like his punches hits home hard!

Invention + Marketing = Business.”

James Leslie
1900 -1953

Andrew Carnegie

I declined the offer. Why? Well, it wasn’t anything to do with my friend at all, but rather I wanted to strike out entirely on my own, and not get involved with anyone else.

After that time I lost track and touch with my friend. Really I suppose he was a business acquaintance more than a big and close buddy. We worked in parallel businesses. We shared a few drinks and the odd business lunch together.

I occasionally wondered what had happened to him, for the place where he worked closed down and no trace was left of the business he ran when I knew him.

It was then many years later, and I was living overseas and had just bought a newspaper from home to keep up to date. I was casually flicking through the pages without paying much attention and glanced an article in the business pages about a wealthy tycoon who had got into some difficulty with a big loan involving several hundreds of millions of bank money.

The money was borrowed from a big international bank and the underlying business for some reason had turned sour. This no doubt was causing both parties some grief. Just before I turned the page, I looked above the article and saw a photograph of the tycoon and his name below it. The name looked vaguely familiar, but I did not recognise the face in the picture.

I then looked at the name again, and remembered way back to my old acquaintance. He had exactly the same name! Then I took a good look at the photograph. I thought at first no way - it couldn’t be possible.

Could it? Could it be the friend from all those year’s ago? I reread the article again, then the name. I then scrutinised the face. It very slowly dawned on me it was indeed the businessman whom years ago had proposed the joint venture with me. So what? Well, I later looked him up on Google and was shocked to discover this very same man was just a few positions down from Richard Branson in the Sunday Times Rich List and was very wealthy indeed. In fact his net worth (depending what report you take it from, and what is to be believed), was around the level of Donald Trump.

So what is the point of all this name dropping? Well, it certainly isn’t to show off in any way. No.

It is this: I remember clearly the last time I met this individual. It was in a bar in Mayfair in London one summer evening. He was to all intents and purposes just another drinking partner I was sharing a break with after work. When I remembered this, I then thought of all the ideas, work, negotiations and business dealings that must have gone on and into his life from that time until the time I read the article. What choices had he made? What sacrifices had he given to be where he got to in his life, to have achieved so much financial success that most business owners aspire to, and work to achieve?

Recently I saw a quotation from a film “The Renaissance Man” in which Danny De Vito says this:

“The choices we make dictate the lives we lead.”

Obvious yes perhaps, but it made me think and look back on what I had achieved and how I had grown from that time in that bar when the man worked from just one small office with no windows. I remembered when he showed me the desk he said I could use to work beside him.

It struck me that he, on the surface was just someone who did not appear to have harboured extreme ambition and the ability to realise lofty goals. Not obvious yet he had both in spades.

We all have the capacity to be far greater than we are, and it comes down to those choices we all make each and every minute we draw breath.

My friend clearly had used his time far more effectively and accurately than yours truly. It has been a very timely reminder to me that we must not waste a second of precious time to do our utmost to grow to the biggest and best we can, in all our endeavours into our futures.

I am sure, in fact I know, he has not enjoyed a completely smooth ride in his life, but I salute his undoubted business acumen and fulfilment of his massive ambition nonetheless. here’s to greater achievement into the future. Cheers!

Now what do you think about that?

Dumb or what?

So what? Big deal. What’s it got to do with me and my life. Well, I absolutely agree with you.

But wait a minute. Just ask yourself. Did you know the answer to the question what living creature has the biggest eye in the world? Be honest here. Unless you’re some weird nut who studies this sort of stuff for a thesis you didn’t.

Looking further though, just suppose there was some information you did not know about, that was to do with something you’re passionate about? Aha! Got you didn’t I?!

Here’s the thing. Take any topic, subject, or issue, you really are interested in, and apply the same thought process. I bet you’d walk over broken glass to find that key information to do with your pet hobby, work etc. as if your life depended on it.

This has everything to do with marketing and growing your business. If you’re not passionate about growing your business then you should not be here, so you can leave now. I’ll not be offended. I know things about marketing you don’t. I’ve spent the time and money to dig up and find out about tips, techniques, strategies few in business really know about. I’ve done this so I can bring you key stuff that works to make a big difference to your bottom line profits.

If this is the sort of information you desperately want to grab hold of, then you know what to do. Just call Tel: 01372 459955 now and tell me want you want to achieve. You may find you can get there quicker than you thought.

C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Unique_selling_proposition

EVP a new 21st Century revision for USP

In marketing terms the acronym “USP” is of great importance to any business. A new revision may bring this valued service to business up to date. It is “Exclusive Vending Proposal”* or “EVP”. This is not simply a recapitulation for no good reason.

Firstly “unique” is a hard task master and few businesses can attain it in the marketplace today. Yet all businesses must aspire to uniqueness. “Exclusive” is an easier level of achievement to gain, yet it does not diminish its value in the marketplace. Indeed “unique” has connotations of being totally singular whereas “exclusive” has a plural position, but one where the boundaries are set to avoid commonality. This has the effect of increasing the value (perceived or real) of a business offering.

The word “selling” has negative connotations in the ears of a prospective buyer because no one wants to be sold something. Therefore all reference to sales, sell, sold, or selling are less desirable words to be used. “Vending” has no such negative associations and hence from a business viewpoint will create a less vexed position of association in all business personnel involved in business growth.

This brings us to the last word “proposition”. It is well known the oldest profession gains its business by this method but a “proposal” is that which goes before marriage and is more celebrated and positive. After all who likes to be “propositioned”?

This new expression “Exclusive Vending Proposal” was first coined in July 2009 by Christopher Doran in United Kingdom.

Just last night my youngest daughter came to get me to look at a website she was looking at. At first I have to admit I wasn’t bothered to make a move to just see a web page but after a lot of encouraging I moved myself to see what all the fuss was about. Just as an aside here if you need to find the best sales people look no further than children. They simply are the best closers on the planet.

Anyway I got to the computer and she clicked on a video link that went straight through to a video on You Tube. What I saw was staggering but not for the immediately obvious reason.

Here was a short video clip of a baby. No big deal, so far. Cute yes, loved by its parents I’m sure but nothing extraordinary in the video. It was a baby boy sitting in his high chair in a room.

What was he doing?

Well firstly before we get to that, let me explain there was an odd noise on the video presumably his Dad making sounds Dad’s do all over the planet to their babies to get a reaction from them. This Dad was making a number of weird sounds intermittently. You couldn’t see the Dad as he was either behind the camera taking the shots or just out of view.

So what was the baby doing?

Well, he was simply laughing. Just that. Every time his laughter started to wane a bit, his Dad started another noise that started him laughing again. Now this went on. And then continued. I guess I was waiting for something else to happen. The thing is nothing did. It was just a clip about two minutes long of this one shot of this little baby laughing. The boy did not stop he just kept on laughing prompted by his father in the background making silly noises. In fact he wasn’t just laughing he was gurgling out a really deep resonant chuckle and it just went on and on.

So what on earth is the big deal here, and what the devil has it to do with marketing my business your business or anyone’s business?

Good question. I completely agree with you.

Here is what is incredible.

Do you know that this clip has been watch by over one hundred million viewers! Sure maybe some of them have watched the clip again or even a few times, but 100,000,000 views of this simple short one screen shot clip is unbelievable!

No wonder this boy was laughing so much. He had found out the key ingredient to driving a ton of traffic to his web site - in this case his very own video production.

Now you will probably say he wasn’t selling anything. Wasn’t he though!? He was selling what every business needs to think very carefully indeed about - what is really important to the everyone on the planet: feeling good. If you can take the essence of what this baby boy was offering and take it into what you are marketing and selling you will transform your business overnight.

The challenge is to work out a way in which to do just that. If a baby under the age of two can do it, why can’t you?!

He connected with a population twice the size of Britain and he didn’t have a clue he was doing it! Just imagine if you could go back in time, and grab hold of the essence of what you had in those days, and bring in forward into your adult life? We unlearn so much from our early life we don’t realise how important key parts of it are, that hold the answer to so much achievement in our later careers and of course businesses.

Just also imagine the scene when this boy becomes adult and sees just how much raw power he held in his hands all those years ago and stands in awe of his junior self! Then imagine what he would think such traffic could do for his business if he could get a fraction of it? Then feel his frustration when he struggles to do just that - work out how to indeed get the hits to his web site he maybe promoting.

Isn’t this the key to the problem all business owners face? How do they get more business enquiries to look at what they have to offer? Because without new leads coming through the door there is no business.

If you would like to unlock new business for your organisation please get in touch.

Christopher

As with most things in life, it isn’t the words themselves of course that make the difference. It is the understanding of them, then the interpretation in respect of your business, and lastly the implementation.

“So big deal what are these oh so special words?”

Before I give them to you let me frame them, because you won’t appreciate them out of context.

Just before Christmas I presented to a board of directors. It was a long brain storm session to get to the bottom of why they were in business and why their customer’s bought off them.

On the face of it that would appear obvious:

“Because we do a good job.”

I agreed that was undoubtedly true. What wasn’t true was they knew really in depth, why their customers bought. (Just as an aside, in my favourite quotations on this site, there is one about ‘…reality being something else’ - it was certainly true here.)

This session of discovery lasted over three hours. We put on the table anything and everything, that could conceivably be the reason why their customers bought.

Half way through the meeting, I wrote up on the board two words and said this is blatantly why your customers are buying from you - it is contained in two words, and you are showing them through your actions and service, some expression of the meaning of these two words.

“What are they then?… ”

I wrote up in big letters in the very little space available at this time, because the board was full up…. I said this is why they are buying:

LOVE

&

CARE

In some shape or form by their actions, they were showing these essential ingredients in their business relationship with their customers.

The thing is - i.e. the big deal - they didn’t really understand that - IN WORDS. They reckoned they did a pretty good job that was totally true. What they didn’t know or really understand that they were showing - maybe in just a weak and diluted way right now - was the expression of what these words really mean.

What they mean in business is the difference between okay or mediocre, and profits beyond your comprehension.

Taking this forward is of course my goal for them. We now work in detail together to really get the fullest productivity out of these two words in relation to building customers into clients. To do that, various specific key actions are put into place inside a strategy. In my mind there is zero question this company will increase their sales and profits very substantially and immediately, based on actions I help them take. The root of these actions will be deeply embedded in the real meaning of these two essential words.

Hope this helps.

Christopher