What are you selling?

What Are You Selling? Who's Your Customer?

Peter Drucker claimed, "the purpose of a company is to create a customer." You have to agree with that on some level.

Being distinctly aware of "what you are selling" and "who is your customer" is extremely important to your success. Yet, I know from experience that it can sometimes be hard to pinpoint. That's due in part to the overflow of information and messages that permeate around us.

We're told to have a vision, mission and/or purpose. Seminars, books, and coaches on best practices tell us to create something bigger than ourselves, and I agree. That ties directly to one of my pillars: build yourself out in front. But bring it home. Bring it down to the grassroots; you have to pay very specific attention to knowing, being sure about "what" you're selling and "who" is your customer.

Ronald Skelton posted on Twitter (@RonaldKSkelton) that marketing raises awareness but selling is getting the check. That's specific and a salesman needs to know that difference.

If you are a mortgage loan officer? do you make dreams happen? Or do you sell mortgage loans? Did you take a application yesterday?

Insurance agents, do you give peace of mind, or sell policies? Did you write a policy yesterday?

Social media consultants, attorneys, executive coaches, accountants, IT businesses, financial planners; what do you sell? Who is your customer?

Everyone, every team, every company, every manager, every executive and every board must do a better job of understanding who the customer is and how to create sales. The revision of Drucker's book "The Five Most Important Questions You'll Ever Ask About Your Organization" states that if Drucker were alive today he would say "a company's most important purpose is to create fans." Can you create real fans without selling?

Just be sure you're getting checks and keep this out in front, right along with your mission statement. Know your mission, know what you're selling and know who your customer is.

Todays's Monday, I pray that you start your week well.

To that end.....

Danny

Do you agree it's a noisy world? 

If you do, you'll enjoy this book Hurdie and Danny are discussing. The author insists you have to have platform mentality. 

Did you catch that?...a platform MENTALITY for your online marketing.  Hyatt, the author, insists it is critical to being noticed and a flashy website is not a platform. Owning your platform is critical and you don’t own Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Michael Hyatt knows this from experience. An author, agent, and publisher for more than 40 years, he has spent the past 15 years creating an online following that numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

Join Hurdie and Danny as they discuss a small piece of their 8-year experience with Platform: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World.

Click here to connect to the Podcast or here for YouTube.

LIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF “YES”

Imagine Opportunities Everywhere

Prepare for Opportunities

Activate Your Current Opportunities

-Comfortable isn't comfortable
-Comfortable never got up before dawn 

-Comfortable won't get its hands dirty 

-Comfortable has nothing to prove
-Comfortable can't get the job done 

-Comfortable doesn't have new ideas 

-Comfortable won't dive in head first 

-Comfortable isn't the American dream 

-Comfortable has no guts

-Comfortable never dares to be great 

-Comfortable falls apart at the seams 

Don't get comfortable 

- The American Giant Way, www.american-giant.com/ag-ethos.html

— Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

CREATIVE PRINCIPLES TO LEARN AND LIVE BY - John C. Maxwell

1. BUILD A CREATIVE CULTURE by fueling passion, celebrating ideas, fostering autonomy, encouraging courage, minimizing hierarchy, reducing rules, failing forward and starting small.

2. MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER

3. MAKE PLANS BUT LOOK FOR OPTIONS

• Predetermine your course of action. 

•​Lay out your goals. 

•​Adjust your priorities. 

•​Notify key personnel. 

•​Allow time for acceptance. 

•​Head into action. 

•​Expect problems. 

•​Adjust your plan. 

•​Daily review your plans.

4. PLACE HIGH VALUE ON IDEAS

- Start Gathering Ideas

- Test Every Idea That You Gather

- Analyze Your Failures

- Adapt Other Ideas

- Question All Assumptions

5. SEEK OUT AND LISTEN TO DIFFERENT VOICES

6. TAKE RISKS

7. LIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF "YES"

For more information on these principles and how to put them into play, see the book, Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

UNLOCK THE MENTAL BLOCKS THAT KEEP YOU OUT OF THE CREATIVE ZONE

MENTAL BLOCK #1: "FIND THE RIGHT ANSWER" 

It's wrong to believe there is only one right answer to any question. There are always other solutions.

MENTAL BLOCK #2: "THAT'S NOT LOGICAL" 

Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

MENTAL BLOCK #3: "FOLLOW THE RULES" 

"There ain't no rules around here! We are tryin' to accomplish some[thing]!" - Thomas Edison

MENTAL BLOCK #4: "AVOID AMBIGUITY" 

Life is complex. It's messy. It's contradictory and paradoxical. Why in the world would we think we should—or could—avoid ambiguity?

MENTAL BLOCK #5: "FAILURE IS BAD" 

Creative people don't avoid failure. They see it as a friend. They know that if they are to experiment, innovate, and create, they will fail. They embrace risk.

MENTAL BLOCK #6: "DON'T BE FOOLISH" 

To stand up is to stand out. You have to stick your neck out to put your head above the crowd. If others don't at first understand or accept you, so what?

MENTAL BLOCK #7: "I'M NOT CREATIVE" 

The mental block that most keeps us from being creative is believing we don't possess creativity. 

The only real block to creativity is our disbelief.

-  Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

What Innovation Zone Are You In?

1.​THE COASTING ZONE—"I do as little as possible." 

2.​THE COMFORT ZONE—"I do what I have always done." 

3. THE CHALLENGE ZONE—"I attempt to do what I haven't done before." 

4.​THE CREATIVE ZONE—"I attempt to think what I have never thought before." 

To which zone do you naturally gravitate? Do you tend to live in the coasting zone, casually—even passively—doing as little as possible? Do you tend to stay in the comfort zone, avoiding risks? Do you connect with the challenge zone, where you try new things and willingly risk failure? 

Or do you try to stretch yourself the furthest by living in the creative zone, where you explore new ideas, seek out other perspectives, and cross bridges in your imagination long before you physically reach them?

-  Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

What Zone Are You In?

BALANCE CARE WITH CANDOR

How does a leader move others from "I like being on the team," to "I need to produce for the team"?

The answer is to balance care and candor.

People naturally default to one or the other. But here's why it's important for you to practice both: 

•​Care without candor creates dysfunctional relationships. 

•​Candor without care creates distant relationships. 

•​Care balanced with candor creates developing relationships.

HOW TO SHIFT FROM PLEASER TO LEADER, part 4

ASK YOURSELF THE HARD QUESTIONS BEFORE ANY POTENTIALLY DIFFICULT CONVERSATION

— Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

Do Not Avoid Tough Conversations

"Leadership demands that we tackle the problems. That includes tough conversations. And their difficulty increases when the issue is not easy and it involves people on our team. But we should never delay tough conversations.

The more you wait, the more difficult they become.

Why?

• Silence to most people means approval.

• When people have to fill in the blanks themselves, they do so negatively.

• Problems left unaddressed have a snowball effect: they become larger and gain momentum.

• Problems left unaddressed cause inner erosion: we lose respect for ourselves internally.

• The Law of Diminishing Intent is in effect: The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never do it. One of these days becomes none of these days."

— Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

HOW TO SHIFT FROM PLEASER TO LEADER, part 3

WORK TO ESTABLISH EXPECTATIONS UP FRONT

As a leader, you can either set expectations on the front end and set up the working relationships for success or leave expectations unstated and deal with disappointment on the back end for both you and the people you're leading.

Sharing and setting of expectations on the front end as the litmus test for a leader.

Go out of my way to be up-front with people.

•​Up-front appreciation places value on the person and increases the value of our time together.

•​Up-front expectations increase the value of any meeting. (The sooner I set expectations, the quicker and easier the meeting.)

•​Up-front questions are the quickest way for people to understand one another and increase the value of our time together.

•​Up-front discussion influences the way and direction we lead others.
•​Up-front decisions increase the value of our time together.

HOW TO SHIFT FROM PLEASER TO LEADER, part 2

2. VALUE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS YOU VALUE YOURSELF

Your value assessment of yourself determines your personal investment in others.

•​Leaders who value their people give them their best effort. 

•​Leaders who devalue their people give them little effort. 

•​Leaders who value their people serve them. 

•​Leaders who devalue their people want to be served by them. 

•​Leaders who value their people empower them. 

•​Leaders who devalue their people control them. 

•​Leaders who value their people motivate them. 

•​Leaders who devalue their people manipulate them.

HOW TO SHIFT FROM PLEASER TO LEADER, part 1

1. CHANGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS TOWARD LEADERSHIP - I had to put my thoughts in the proper order

By learning to ask myself these three questions in this order, I was able to clarify my motives for leadership decisions.

1.​What's best for the organization? 

2.​What's best for other people within the organization? 

3.​What's best for me?

"YOU NEVER KNOW IF PEOPLE ARE REALLY WITH YOU UNTIL YOU ASK THEM FOR COMMITMENT."

— Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

CONSISTENCY

LEADERS UNDERSTAND THEY NEVER GET TO STOP CLIMBING

— Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell
https://a.co/bwL86D5

Consistency Provides Security for Others

Consistency Establishes Your Reputation

Consistency Keeps You in the Leadership Game

Consistency Compounds

The reality is that •
​Practicing is not amazing.
•​Studying is not amazing.
•​Showing up is not amazing.
•​Working hard is not amazing.
•​Asking questions is not amazing. •​Changing is not amazing.
•​Trying is not amazing.
•​Failing is not amazing.
•​Trying again is not amazing.

But every one of these things is necessary. They are the price you must pay every day to reach your potential. If you pay that price and do it consistently, the final result can be amazing.

- John C. Maxwell

The Cost Shift

Strength and growth come through continuous effort and struggle.—NAPOLEON HILL"

- Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

GROWTH PERSPECTIVE - Shifting From Goals to Growth

"Few things have a greater positive impact than shifting from goals to growth. Why do I say that? Because the benefits are so numerous.

Make growth your priority and . . .

• You will unlock and achieve your potential.
• You will feel good about yourself.
• You will strengthen your values and abilities.
• You will grow in humility and self-awareness.
• You will become more so you can do more.
• You will be an example for others to follow.

I want to say one more thing about shifting from goals to growth before we move on to the next leadershift.

Being a goal-oriented person means having more of a short-term mind-set. We often reach for goals because we want the positive feelings that come from quick achievements.

But when we make the shift to focusing on growth, it means we've begun to adopt a long-term mind-set. By focusing on growth, we go from improving in spurts to improving day after day to reach our potential. That consistency compounds."

— page 59 Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

HOW TO BECOME A GROWTH-ORIENTED PERSON

1. EMBRACE CHANGE

2. ADOPT A TEACHABLE SPIRIT

3. MAKE YOUR LOVE FOR LEARNING GREATER THAN YOUR FEAR OF FAILURE

4. DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER GROWING PEOPLE

5. DEVELOP GREATER HUMILITY

6. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

7. EMBRACE LAYERED LEARNING

From Chapter 3 — Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

GOALS TO GROWTH - The Personal Development Shift

Improving yourself is the first step in improving everything else. —UNKNOWN

"The goals I set and achieved were nice, but they weren't as significant as the growth I experienced. Goals helped me to do better. But growth helped me to become better. The growth experience was giving me greater satisfaction than reaching individual goals." - John Maxwell

Growth Changes

As I look back at the time I was making this personal development leadershift from goals to growth, I can see that I made three significant shifts in the way I approached becoming a better leader: 

1. GROWTH OUTWARD TO GROWTH INWARD 

2. GROWTH IN EVERYTHING TO GROWTH IN A FEW VITAL THINGS

3. GROWTH WITH A TIMELINE VERSUS GROWTH WITHOUT A FINISH LINE

From — Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell

Good Leaders Focus on Sowing, Not Reaping

Good leaders shift from being self-focused to others-focused. They give more than they take. They focus on sowing not reaping. As leaders, we need to maintain a seed-sowing mind-set. What does that mean?

1. FOCUS ON ADDING VALUE DAILY

2. ADD AS MUCH VALUE AS POSSIBLE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE

3. NEVER WAIT TO ADD VALUE

4. GIVE WITHOUT KEEPING SCORE SO MOTIVES STAY PURE

5. WELCOME ANY RETURN AS AN UNEXPECTED BLESSING

From Chapter 2, Leadershift, by John C. Maxwell

Sad will be the day...

"Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do."

- Phillips Brooks, the author of the famous hymn "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Quoted in Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C. Maxwell