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Do You Measure Your “Critical Drivers” Daily?
“Drivers” are key metrics that can expand (grow) or collapse (kill) your business or any business. Critical drivers are those key metrics, tested and tracked daily, that assist you to anticipate the future.
As I once heard Tony Robbins say, “Anticipation is power.” And I agree. When you look into the past – each day – you can predict the future of your business.
I’ve read many business management books over the years and one of my favorite quotes comes from Tom Peters says, “Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.“
The age-old management adage, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” was probably first uttered (and discovered) by some bazaar merchant thousands of years ago in Babylon.
Yet it’s still positively accurate today!
In my experience, the easiest step to improve any business to begin measuring the critical drivers in the business and then celebrate and amplify what you want to see more of. Case closed.
For retailers like Sam’s Club, a core critical driver may be the “dollars-per-square-foot” generated in each store.
For a real estate management organization like Remax, it may be the “number of new agency offices” opened each month. For an insurance agency, it may mean the “dollars-per-policy” generated, or the “revenue-per-agent.”
The species or types of critical drivers you want to measure is (more…)
Discover the Learning Power of “Content Diving”
I often enjoy cold pizza the “morning after” more than the piping hot version the night before 🙂
What does the joy of devouring day-old pizza have to do with your info marketing content or your success as an entrepreneurial CEO?
Two things, actually …
1) Principle centered content never gets stale, it only gets better with age.
You can return to it again and again to see it with new eyes on YouTube, hear it with a new ears on a Teleseminar or visualize it with a new mind when reading a blog post like this one
2) Deep diving into familiar content doesn’t breed contempt, it breeds more success!
As a student, your one and only path to mastering anything I teach you is through the path of familiarity.
If you are an info marketer, the only way (more…)
Kipling’s 6-Step Secret Dissolves “Writer’s Block”
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English author and poet. Born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai), he is best known for his works of fiction like The Jungle Book.
According to Wikipedia, he is one of the greatest innovators in the art of writing the short story. Kipling was one of the most popular English writers in the late 19th century and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.
He is the first English writer to receive the prize and to date he is still its youngest recipient.
As a work-at-home entrepreneur, I believe that Rudyard Kipling’s greatest contribution to the marketing and copywriting world was his Six Honest Serving-Men technique (or “Six Honest Servants” which is more politically correct today).
Whenever he waged an occassional battle with (more…)
Breaking Through the Far Side of Disappointment
Wikipedia has an interesting way of definining “disappointment.” If you take a moment to look the word up, here’s what you’ll find:
“The feeling of dissatisfaction that follows a failure of expectations to manifest. It differs from regret in that the individual feeling regret focuses primarily on personal choices contributing to a poor outcome, while the individual feeling disappointment focuses on the outcome.”
Looking back on my own marketing accomplishments, one of the things I’m certain of is that my disappointments inspire me to storm the gates that others gladly sneak past.
When you learn how to handle disapointments – miscommunications, violated expectations or thwarted intentions – as welcomed guests into your business life, you’ll have the mindset of cheerful expectancy of having a breakthrough not long after 🙂
If you feel what I’m saying is just a bunch of (more…)
The 3 “Marketing Paradoxes” Explained (Part 1)
I’m glad you’re reading this 3-part series because although the three blog posts are in reverse order, I want you to review each one carefully and think about how they impact the growth of your business.
I believe the 3 Marketing Paradoxes can have a profound impact on your business and marketing activities this upcoming year and many years to come. So it pays to re-read each post a few times to allow the message behind the message to sink in … just like they have for me.
According to Wikipedia, “a Paradox is a true statement that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or, inversely, it can be a contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth.”
Marketing is about “changing consumer minds” through the (more…)
The “Decoy” Pricing Model
According to Wikipedia, the “decoy effect” (also known as the “asymmetric dominance effect”) is the phenomenon whereby consumers change their preference between two options when also presented with a third option that is asymmetrically dominated.”
In plainer language, here’s the way decoys are utilized daily during consumer experiences.
Scenario 1: You order a medium-size Pepsi at the movies for $2.75 and the person behind the counter asks, “Would you like a large for just 25 cents more?” You say, “Yes”… that’s the decoy effect.
Scenario 2: You’re sitting at the bar in an airport terminal waiting for your plane to board. As soon as you order your $7 cocktail, the bartender smiles and says, “Want a double-shot for just $2 more?” You say, “Yes”… that’s the decoy effect.
I have no idea what your consumer response would be in similar circumstances, but I do know from my own experience (more…)
The Universal Language of “Flow Charting”
If you want to boost the impact of your marketing communications … then start turning your “static” mental ideas into “dynamic” flow charts.
Most entrepreneurial CEOs typically do not take the time to “flow chart” their marketing launches or business plans, yet no skill is more valuable in getting your point across faster, better and easier.
You won’t find the concept, “verbal vision” in Wikipedia or any online dictionary, but I utilize it regularly to describe two important concepts that lead to better business presentations.
To me, Verbal means “words and ideas expressing movement” and Vision means “the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be.” So then to flow chart (when utilized as a verb) means to graphically express the process and direction of your ideas.
Resource: www.FlowChartSecrets.com
Glossary: A “flow chart” is a verbal and graphic description of a process or stages of a project that provides a useful language for communicating a personal or professional vision.
The Power and Influence of “Marketing Lexicons”
If you want to burn your brand into minds of your students or customers … then I encourage you to begin thinking about creating your own marketing “lexicon” (vocabulary) in order to develop your own Glossary of Terms.
By so doing, you’ll automatically create your own vocabulary or language that instantly and automatically separates you from your competitors or rivals. Yet most info marketers fail to see the power of developing their own marketing lexicon.
But once you create a new vocabulary to amplify your marketing message (Tim Ferriss does with his 4-Hour Work Week blog and book), you almost instantly become an expert by “defining” your ideas.
Resource: www.AlexMandossianToday.com/glossary
Glossary: A “lexicon” is the mental vocabulary in another person’s mind for a specific language, social class, field, industry or glossary that communicates, organizes and pre-defines new ideas or concepts.