MANNY's: BUS. S&M. INSIGHTS + MORE

Introducing PUSH MAGAZINE BY EMMANUEL (MANNY) OMIKUNLE, FOUNDER of FOUNDERS UNDER 40™ (WWW.FOUNDERSUNDER40.COM)

This publication takes the very best, most extraordinary and most invaluable insight by senior management that will impact, CEO, CFO, CIO, CSO of million dollar businesses, business today & the next few years and puts it in a enjoyable package.

CHECK OUT THE FREE No. 1 TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE FOR YOUR NEXT 2 FREE TRIAL.

*Thanks to our partners, contributors, team for all the effort in making this possible.

A world and technology that will reshape the way we purchase & consume common goods. It will make patents even harder to challenge. It will be a world that the music and movie industry are still trying to deal with. 

Digital just challenges everything. One day it will be food, water, air, transportation, money, jobs, etc.

The barrier to enter a lot of manufacturing industry will be as easy as baking a cake. 

Consumers goods manufacturers will now better collaborate with customers to better visualize and exchange ideas. 

What would stop you from creating a 3D model of the intellectual property rights of others, I'm still trying to find out. What stops you from sharing an Alicia Keys song with 5 of your friends. 

Anyone can open a weapons factory in their garage and start making lethal weapons and sell them online. And not be tracked. 

How 3D printing works:

It prints one layer of plastic or other material at a time.  The thickness of the each layer determines the printer's resolution.  

Thinner layers allow for more complicated and intricate output.  Resolution of the printer is also a function of the materials being used to create the output.  

Some opportunities & threats of 3D printing:  

• l Assembly lines or assembly stations can be eliminated.
• l More easier on-demand customization
• l Eliminates the need of making moulds
• l Better inventory management
• l Less warehouse space
• l Fewer labor personnel
• l Less waste of raw material.

Marketers and graphic designers have long known that color plays a major role in the success of any marketing campaign. Specific colors tend to stir certain emotions in customers, thus creating brand relevance and motivating purchases. The following lists 10 colors that increase sales, along with the specific emotions they evoke

1. Red: Red is the color of power. It gets people’s attention and it holds it, which is why it’s the most popular color for marketing. Just don’t overdo it!
2. Blue: When you want to be viewed as trustworthy and cool, blue is the color for you. Mix blue with complimentary colors for best results.
3. Pink: Vying for the attention of a young female demographic? You can’t go wrong with pink. It’s fun, frilly and totally female.
4. Yellow: Yellow is a powerful color, but it is also the most dangerous hue. Use yellow to command your audience’s attention, and let them know you’re confident in your abilities.
5. Green: Green is a versatile color. It is warm and inviting, lending customers a pleasing feeling. Second, it denotes health, environment and goodwill. Finally, green is the color of money, so it creates thoughts of wealth.
6. Purple: Purple is the color of royalty, which makes it perfect for lending a touch of elegance and prestige to your marketing materials.
7. Gold: Gold is likewise elegant and prestigious, but adds an element of power purple can’t match. In combination with purple or green, gold is a powerful color that symbolizes wealth and pedigree.
8. Orange: Orange is energy. It has powerful attention-getting properties, it’s fun and cool, and it makes customers feel as though they’re dealing with a cutting-edge company.
9. Brown: Brown, an earthy tone, is known as a comfort color, lending relaxation to customers.
10. Black: Black is another highly versatile color. It can be modern or traditional, exciting or relaxing. Used as a contrasting color, black most often adds drama to whatever mood you want to cast.

Originally written by Brian M

At a past Sales Leadership Conference, during a private dinner organized for all speakers, we discussed sales relationships. While everyone there agreed that relationships are vital to creating sales, the consensus was that there is no formal body of knowledge that explains how relationships are formed, what makes them grow, what causes them to fizzle, and what leads to the creation of value. One speaker called relationships “the soul of business.” Below is a summary of the excellent ideas – and there was no shortage of them – shared by 18 sales leaders who continually contribute to the selling profession.

1. Good salespeople bring positive energy to a relationship. We can choose to be energy givers or energy takers.

2. Trust hinges on the willingness to deliver on promises. Once trust is lost, relationships cannot survive.

3. A relationship’s value depends on the customer’s perception of value, not on the salesperson’s definition of value.

4. To the customer, the top value drivers are integrity, authenticity, and consistency.

5. Effective relationship builders are willing to listen to better understand customer challenges. They ask questions that lead to consultative conversations, which open doors to greater opportunities.

6. The salesperson’s courage to resolve the difficult situations customers face enhances relationships. One speaker called this “the ability to put oneself in harm’s way.”

7. The quality of the relationship with the customer is determined by the quality of the relationship between the sales manager and salesperson. Sales managers exemplify a company’s corporate culture.

8. Relationships are enhanced by the salesperson’s ability to communicate in compelling and creative ways. One sales leader explained how he uses video email prior to a customer visit and follows up with a video email immediately after the call. Video email is six times more effective than standard email.

9. Relationships demand a long-term investment. Without it, there is no ROI. One of the speakers shared that “there is no return on ignoring [the customer].”

10. There is a difference between a transaction and a relationship. Transactions create one-time value; relationships create long-term value and a stable business foundation.

11. Relationships grow through differentiation and the willingness to contribute beyond what is expected. “There is no traffic jam on the extra mile,” commented another speaker.

12. Good salespeople use smart social-media strategies to enhance customer relationships. They make it their business to stay connected to their customers through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

 

Gerhard Gschwandtner, Selling Power

Introducing PUSH MAGAZINE BY EMMANUEL (MANNY) OMIKUNLE, FOUNDER of FOUNDERS UNDER 40™ (WWW.FOUNDERSUNDER40.COM)
This publication takes the very best, most extraordinary and most invaluable insight by founders that will impact, founders of million dollar businesses, business today, & the next few years and puts it in a enjoyable package.
CHECK OUT THE FREE No. 1 TRIAL
SUBSCRIBE FOR YOUR NEXT 2 FREE TRIAL.
*Thanks to our partners, contributors, team for all the effort in making this possible. Thank You to Founders Under 40™ Group

Why not.

I'm sick and tired of God not sending more aliens to earth so I can finally start selling my cool clothing lines for beautiful aliens from outer space.

No more dealing with bitchy humans with their fragile flesh & blood and their inferior  brains.  Can you believe most don't know 2+2  equals 10. 

If Abercrombie & Fitch's Mike Jeffries can exclude people from his stores systematically I wonder why  the US wealthy 1% don't do the same.  I wonder why you never see Tiger Woods with a girl with the same  skin type. I wonder why companies are likely to hire people that look and act like them in senior roles ?  

Wonder why neighbourhoods don't have concentration of Chinese in an area, or Hispanics in an area.  

Why the f$^$& can't we live in a world where white's eat only hotdogs, blacks eat chicken, Chinese eat shark meat because some business man decided to systematically  prevent others outside his comfort target to eat outside their define food. 

Jeffries doesn't want "larger people" shopping in Abercrombie and Fitch; instead, "he wants thin and beautiful people.". It's no difference when a oversize clothing store only serves oversize people. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he continued. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”

You can please everyone but you end up pleasing no one.  

For a serious moment, be careful when positioning your business around sensitive demographics or profiling.  It’s best to go after aspiration. Nike went exclusive after athletes then went after aspirations, personal growth.

Not all whites are secretive racist, not all blacks drink Mountain Dew, Pepsi.  Not all cool kids are thin and beautiful, Mike. 

All just a Jedi mind trick to sell cloths. Nike sells golf clubs by using Tiger to promote it. And because you want to play like Tiger you buy Nike golf clubs ($$$). 

I want every outer space alien to exclusively wear my fake clothing line. Absolutely no humans.

no sales pitch. Period.

Instead, you introduce yourself and your firm in the natural context of a social conversation. Here's how to do it.

1. Position Your Firm

This is a carefully crafted sentence (that's just one sentence, folks) that describes who you are and what you do for your customers. It's what you say to somebody who asks: "So, what do you do for a living?" Here are some examples:

• "Retail firms use our software and services to train their employees, resulting in an average 10 percent increase in sales."
• "Within a year, our customers typically save 10 times more than they spent to install our employee tracking software."
• "We help companies lower IT procurement costs—typically by 20 percent or more—by negotiating directly with major IT vendors."

Note that all of these responses to "What do you do for a living?" state a quantifiable benefit to your customers that would be relevant to a prospective customer. Also note that all the responses are pithy enough to be socially acceptable.

When you position your company in this way, the person you're talking with will express either disinterest or interest in what you just said. If it's disinterest, the person is not a potential customer–so let the matter drop.

If the other person shows interest–maybe by saying something like, "how do you do that?"–then you proceed to Step 2.

2. Differentiate Your Firm

The person you've just met has shown some interest in your firm, based upon your one-sentence position statement. Your job is now to show why you and your firm are unique and different from your competition. Do this by revealing one or two facts that prove your uniqueness. Examples:

• "We have a unique methodology and supporting software based on some proprietary scientific research that we funded through MIT."
• "We've been able to prove that some customers have gotten that ROI in less than six months."
• "We've got extensive contacts that let us know the biggest discounts that the IT vendors have offered in the past, so we use those as the basis for negotiating your price."

Note that the examples match the positioning statements in Step 1.

3. Open a Conversation

Assuming there are still signs of interest, ask an open-ended question to find out whether or not the person you've just met actually is a potential customer or just being polite. Examples:

• "Just out of curiosity, what priorities might you have in these areas?"
• "You seem intrigued. Of what I just said, what might be of interest?"
• "Hey, enough about me. How does your firm handle that kind of problem?"

No need to get fancy. Be sure the question is open-ended rather than something that can be answered with a simple yes-or-no answer.

4. Ask for a Meeting

If you're following the steps, you've now spent about somewhere around 40 seconds on the conversation–about half of which consisted of the other person speaking, and you listening. If it makes sense to have the conversation continue, it's now time to ask for a meeting to discuss the matter in more detail–so you can drop the business talk and go back to discussing, say, how lovely the bride looked.

There are two basic approaches.

If the prospect seems skeptical or hesitant, ask:

• "If we really could do [insert something of value to the customer here], what would your thoughts be on having an initial conversation with us to hear more?"

If the prospect seems interested or enthusiastic, ask:

• "I would love to have a conversation with you about [insert something of value to the customer here]. What's the best way to get on your calendar?"

It's that simple. No sales pitch, just regular conversation.

Written by different author, Geoffrey J of INC.com

Today, salespeople carry smartphones, tote lightweight tablets, and are dialed into their organization’s network from, well, almost anywhere. No wonder that selling is now, more than ever, less a transactional endeavor and more an exercise in cultivating lasting relationships with customers. But despite the ubiquity of digital sales tools, reps who base their sales effort on a time-tested principle of work/life balance are most often the sales superstars. Here’s a list of some time-tested keys that will give you the best chance for success.

1. Work harder and play better.
Successful people know that nothing worthwhile comes easy. Hard work is important, but it is equally important to have fun. Go to any successful start-up company, and you’ll see employees blowing off steam on ping-pong tables, throwing darts, browsing books on a shelf, or playing trash-can basketball. Frolicking at work isn’t frivolous. Dispensed in small doses, it’s a powerful success medicine. Don’t be a workaholic; be a “workafrolic” instead.

2. Cultivate curiosity.
Successful people are not just curious about their chosen field, they are curious about EVERYTHING. They continually think, explore new ideas, ask dozens of questions, and always try to figure out how things work and how they could be made to work better. Curiosity is the most powerful business-improvement and personal-success engine.

3. Expand your endurance.
Push yourself mentally and physically. Successful people know how to generate and maintain positive energy 24/7. They strive to be physically fit, and at the same time they work on their psychological fitness. 

4. Turn failure into fertilizer.
Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before he found a filament that would glow in a vacuum tube, which lead to his invention of the light bulb. Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, and failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” 

5. Focus.
Successful people begin each day with written goals they want to achieve. They know that the onslaught of incoming emails, calls, and texts will distract them, but each time they get sidetracked, they go back to working on the next item on their list. People who start a new task every three minutes end up doing in an hour 20 small tasks that merely contribute to maintaining the status quo. It is far better to invest your complete mental focus on two or three tasks per hour and create steady forward momentum.

6. Innovate.
Successful people know that having innovative ideas is not enough. What counts is how many new ideas you can implement successfully. What holds people back is not the difficulty of implementing their ideas, but what people say when they start sharing their ideas with others. Oracle founder Larry Ellison said it best: “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you that you’re nuts.” 

7. Manage disappointment.
Successful people realize that reaching success often depends on how they manage the inevitable disappointments that unexpectedly impact their lives. When people get disappointed, they often withdraw, and their anger turns inward. Successful people transform disappointment into a journey of self-discovery, where they reconnect with their inner strengths. Disappointment well managed will become the cradle of ambition.

Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power

When it’s time to raise money for your business, you want to meet enough investors so that you have a choice and some negotiating power.  That means networking.

Networking styles tend to run along a spectrum with two extremes, neither of which works. At one end stands the networker. We all know this person. They're always reaching out and feel too slick. At the other end are those who count themselves above networking, and who disdain the idea of asking someone to buy their product or invest in their company.

Obviously, you need to be somewhere in the middle. But where? Here are seven ways to find your natural--and effective--place on the networking style continuum.

Authenticity The best networkers start by just being themselves. Most of humanity has a built-in meter that detects when someone is putting on an act. We’re hardwired to be skeptical of others when they sell or push too hard, or when they try to be something they aren’t. Start with who you are, and don’t try to mimic anyone else. 

Mechanics I once had a boss who asked me if I sought money, recognition or power. I told him I liked mechanics. I liked to figure things out and get good at them. When you talk about your business, you will convince some investors with your passion, but you will convince more of them with your expertise in your business. When you network, know what you are good at, and don’t be shy about moving conversations to your business expertise. 

Practice Most things go better with practice. Telling your story is no different. Talk it out. See if you can break it down into conversational bits. Think about what you would tell someone first about your business. Imagine the questions that might trigger. Then, think about the next attribute of your business and how you’d explain it. The more you describe your business, the better you’ll get at it.

Schedule Networking is like exercise--you might get to it every once in a while by chance, but you will be healthier if you schedule it.  Once you define your expertise and have a little internal practice, target time and events where you can network with people you would like to meet. Yes, you are busy and other things seem more immediate. But putting events on your calendar that force you to get out pays off in the long run.

Communicate You’ve got to tell people what you are doing before they can help you. And networking doesn’t have to be in a formal setting or at a networking event. Don’t be afraid to tell people--just regular people you happen to know--about your business and what you do, so they can find a match or natural hook in your story. Without being overbearing, talk to folks who aren’t your perfect targets, but who might know an investor who would be. These individuals often know someone who might be a better match than those you have identified.

Find Your Comfort Zone A natural conversation with someone you’ve just met doesn’t usually doesn’t start with you spewing out all the details about your business. Without being artificial, find your comfort zone for small-talk topics that you enjoy. The weather works remarkably well, but there are many other topics that are more interesting and help sustain a conversation before you move onto business.

Meet New People The easiest thing to do when you come to a big event is to find people you already know and talk to them. It’s just easier and feels less socially awkward. But you aren’t there to talk to people you’ve already met. Force yourself to talk to those you don’t know. An easy starting point is look for someone else who’s alone and introduce yourself. They usually do know someone else there, and when their connections walk up to talk with them (and now you) your network grows.

Most of these points are about assiduously ensuring you connect with people you don’t know well to see if they could be of value to you and your business.  We all squirm when that first type of networker hits us up too quickly or too hard in the hopes of getting something from us. On the other hand, individuals who use their networks and resources to help others feel very different. Whether we admit it or not, we feel a debt to them for their help.

Written by Ed P of IINC

“Everyone has to move to being a connected, customer-oriented company.” Marc Benioff as he prepares to launch a product which is trying to automate  the way a company finds potential customers by analyzing and sending personalized ads over social media.

Yes, that’s what we need...more stupid tech marketing tools. I love tech marketing tools however what gets me upset is when companies think they can reduce sales & marketing to 1s & 0s. 

Marc, sales & marketing performance has little to do with technology, it helps a little, however you still deal with real people,real concerns and real influencers. 

“All of us have to become connected companies, changing fundamentally how we sell our products to customers,” said Marc Benioff, the founder and chief executive of Salesforce.com

Mr. Marc Benioff believes it’s about social media, mobile, big data, cloud computing and human factors. Thanks for the update, Marc.

Now answer this, how can companies deal with the power of social, peer recommendation and influencers when they know just as much as you? 

And Marc sees the future of marketing social media as less human staff in the process. Yeah, Good luck with that.

He envisions marketing as being capable of understanding in real time what customers are doing with the products they have purchased, and staying in constant, and appropriate, contact with customers.

Wake up Marc. When you look at every successful product in life, Marc, successful brands, services are successful due to repeat positive endorsement by humans and human mechanics such as an analog voice conversation over a telephone or face-to-face. An article in Consumer Report. Not whether you spy on your customers 24/7.

Any company thinking everything in marketing could or should be automated is seriously delusional.  Marc, humans haven’t really change since our existence, we still crave and desire things that technology can’t fill.  We still need others to love us. We still need to trust. We still need sensory pleasures.

In my opinion, people have to give up access to their minds before we ever get close to true marketing effectiveness. I don’t even want to imagine a world where corporations had physical and virtual access to consumers minds.  - Manny of Founders Under 40™

So Marc crunch your data all the f$%@^ you want, companies have to face the reality that humans are the best marketing tools.

P.S. nothing personal, Marc Benioff, just tired of people thinking technology is the answer to everything. Helping to manage a group like Founders Under 40™ (foundersunder40.com) has reinforce in me the value of the human soul.