Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .
IN OUR WORLD
I have one of those jobs where every week is an adventure. This is enough to drive you crazy and hopeful at the same time!
Everyday features conference calls, meetings and idea sessions around possible projects for a variety of clients. This always challenges my thinking when shifting from, financial services to insurance to health benefits, to consulting firms to manufacturing.
Dominating the project landscape is the Repeatable Successful Acts platform and the new strategies that result from those power behaviors of million $$ producers.
I had a great meeting with a public relations specialist regarding extending my sphere of influence and helping me place my ideas.
The bad news is my productivity has been greatly slowed by a severe right wrist injury that makes typing, designing and writing a real challenge.
Off to Austin, my favorite city in Texas!
Have a great holiday weekend!!!!
HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE
AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Got a phone call yesterday from a client wondering what they could do that would be quick and simple (not complicated) to give their sales approach a quick face lift. First, there is hardly ever anything that is a quick fix, unless you have duct tape. So I gave him the following suggestions:
- Be More Curious – Be genuine in your approach to the connections you make with your clients. Find out about THEM. Discover their likes and dislikes, delve into their needs and desired outcomes. Now add that approach to expanding your knowledge base. Subscribe to email business magazines and updates to expand your knowledge of what’s going on.
- Develop a Series of Open Ended Questions – The better you become a developing the ability to structure open ended questions to your clients the better you are at getting their story. To start your open question tool box, start with the classic – “Tell me about . . . . “ The open ended question is the foundation of curiosity.
- Be Engaged – Let your client know you are all about them. Ask them; “is it OK if I take notes?” It tells your client that you care about the information and involves them in a very subtle way, that you are engaged.
Sounds simple, right? The idea is to take impactful, strategic steps that won’t complete shift your existing sales efforts.
ENTERTAINMENT
MOVIES: Prince of Persia: Looks like a fun way to spend a hot summer afternoon in Austin with my family.
NetFlix Fans: The Road: This is an outstanding film with a phenomenal performance by Viggo Mortensen. WARNING: it is very dark and bleak.
TV: We are in the nether season of TV. Winter shows have all bid us good bye and summer show’s (especially the great programming of the USA Network) have not started. Only the French Open and Justified keep my interest!
BOOKS: Innovation X – By Richardson. This is a great read. It deals with complexity that seems to grip the innovation process. If organizations are so focused on innovation, why do they get so few impactful results?
MUSIC: I slipped back to my Counting Crows listening binge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKErocP7EH0
WEB SITES: Love this movie / comic book / fantasy site.
http://www.heatvisionblog.com/
SOUTH OF NORMAL
Loved this story:
The milk producers are in a froth over the use of the term “milk”. Got milk? Not if it’s something you grabbed from the dairy (the term is “dairy) case and it says; Soy Milk or Almond Milk or Rice Milk. The dairy crowed is pissed off about the use of the term “milk” for these products.
The cow folks have headed to the good old US Congress to get the term milk taken off those other products.
Hey, the soy milk market is approaching a $1 billion, so this is a big deal.
The final test, get up in front of a Congressional Hearing and milk a soy bean or an almond. I think you have to have mammary glands to produce milk and though I am not an expert, I have never seen those on a soy bean!
Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com
Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.
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