There Are Two Basic Ways

There are two basic ways people can react, when they are have-not’s, observing have’s; when they are not doing nearly as well as some others in their field, industry or community.

One is to justify their unsatisfactory results, make excuses, blame others, and develop resentment toward the exceptionally successful.

The other is to study those who are achieving, seek information about their methods, accept full responsibility for results, and ultimately lift themselves up.

There are two basic ways people can react when they face adverse circumstances – anything from a slump in the economy making selling their wares or services more difficult to something more serious and personal, such as diagnosis of a debilitating disease.

One is to surrender. The other is to acquire important ‘how-to’ information, aggressively make changes, develop personal motivation, and be a warrior.

There are two basic ways people can react, when they encounter subject matter they find difficult and complex, and that they don’t easily and quickly understand.

One is to turn their back on it. Put the book away. Quit the course. Leave the group. Go in search of something easier, simpler and less demanding. Even insist “it doesn’t work” despite abundant evidence that it does.

The other is to re-double efforts, get help from a tutor or mentor, burn the midnight oil, be creative, persistent.

In essence, you can either move yourself up to a higher level of know-how, skill, capability and, thus, value, or you can settle into a more comfortable, less challenging, thus less rewarding routine and rhythm of living.

The most basic example of this: two people reading a book come upon a word they do not know the meaning of. One skips over it, and if he encounters too many ‘difficult words’ he sets the book aside. The other gets a dictionary and looks up the unknown words in order to improve himself. One stays put where he is intellectually, the other moves up.

The most important word in all of the above words is: can.

There is always something you can do about anything, in order to improve your situation. You aren’t a tree. You’re a human. You can move.

When you walk past a Mrs. Fields Cookies store in the mall, know the entire company exists because, when nobody was coming in to her first store, Debbi Fields did not sit there – she put fresh-baked cookies on a platter and went out onto the street.

When you walk past the Kenneth Cole shoe store, know that exists because, when lacking money to exhibit his line at his first trade show, and told by New York City he could not park a truck-based exhibit outside the hall in the street, he did not take ‘no’ for an answer and persisted and figured out a creative way to station that exhibit out on that street, and launched his line.

After years of lackluster sales in department stores, the manufacturer of a little counter-top grill moved it to TV infomercials and hired George Foreman as its pitchperson.

Jeff Bezos moved the bookstore to the internet and birthed amazon. Subway moved from just another fast food choice to being a weight loss program with Jared.

Jean Nidetech moved diets from the doctor’s office and drug-store to classes in living rooms, and created Weight-Watchers.

Countless people have moved from ghetto, from orphanage, from bankruptcy, from scandal to success, wealth, prominence. Limited space here forces me to cut the examples short.

Years back, a book given to just about all wet-behind-ears sales rookies was written by Frank Bettger, a baseball player turned insurance salesman. Its title was: How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling. You need never read the book to know the first and most important “How”.  It is Frank deciding that he could and accepting responsibility for doing so.

– By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series, and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

Special “Thank You” Video Gift

It’s that special time of year, when I need to tell you something very important…

And I truly mean it. It takes time and effort to grow a great business relationship, and I’m grateful for the part you’ve played in growing ours.

That’s why I got up earlier this morning to record a special VIDEO message for you – it’s some of my Thanksgiving ramblings, along with a heads-up on an overt-the-top ‘Thank You’ event I launched today.

As if that weren’t enough.  In this video, I’m also leaking (for the 2nd time only) 13 minutes of solid content from a recent SOLD OUT webinar where Yanik Silver grilled me for how I make more money, have more fun and give more back each day.  It’s perfect for today – and because this is the time of Thanksgiving…it’s yours FREE!

Turn up your sound and enjoy…


Please leave your comments below – let me know what YOU experience gratitude for this time of year!

(11/26 UPDATE: The sale event is now LIVE – but only through Monday, November 29…so act fast before the special discounts and bonuses disappear!  If you’ve ever wanted to master online prospecting, webinars, copywriting and more, this is your chance! Go here to get the full scoop.)

From my Lifetime Marketing Success, Inc. family to yours…THANK YOU!

Warmly,

Chris 🙂

Two Sword-In-The-Stone Secrets

How To Make More Money Than Ever When Others Are Stymied And Struggling

Secret RevealedMy newest book, No B.S. Wealth Attraction In The New Economy is all about making yourself magnetic to money, in part via different approaches to marketing. Here’s some insight into that process…

Last year I bought a 1972 AMC Javelin. I already own a ’63 Lincoln Town Car convertible. I don’t have them as investments or to show; just to drive around during the summer. I didn’t need two summer cars. In fact, I had to rent a garage for the second one.

Then this year, I bought Dean Martin’s 1986 Rolls-Royce, which has only 19,000 miles on it and is nearly showroom new. It’s not that I haven’t been affected by the recession and by anticipation of economic damage to come from the  President’s policies (mis-guided or sinister – your choice)  and the big tax target he has painted on my chest.

There are some things I might have bought that I stopped myself from buying precisely because of those realities. But I bought these because I wanted them.

What does this have to do with you, since you don’t deal in classic cars? Plenty.

It reveals two “sword in the stone secrets” of marketing and selling in any circumstances, but especially in tough times.

You may recall the Arthurian legend, or at least the Disney version: mighty knights could not pull the sword from the stone with muscle and brawn; only one young, much less muscular boy pure of heart and strong of mind could command the sword.

If you were prospering by “pushing” products and services on anybody breathing during the boom, you’ve probably now found that muscle doesn’t matter. Something different is required, for success with advertising, marketing selling; for attraction of prospects, customers, clients.

A fact about money.

Whatever money is in circulation is always in motion, moving constantly from one person to another like bees flitting flower to flower, attracted not by happenstance but for definitive reasons that can be managed. At the moment, there is, admittedly, money withdrawn. Some is sitting on the sidelines; private capital on strike; money hiding in what one of my clients, a business coach to 4,000 financial advisors, calls “coffee can portfolios.”

Middle class spending reduced by restricted access to credit. Affluent spending reigned in as much by feeling need to show respect for others’ recession as by financial reality. So yes, there is a little less money in motion. But there is also a lot less competition for it.

Tens of thousands of retail stores closed in 09, and that is continuing this year.  Thousands if not tens of thousands of real estate agents, insurance salespeople, etc. have gone into hibernation or off ledges.

An even bigger number in every business category just aren’t trying.

They believe effort or investment; advertising, marketing, promoting futile, because they deny the reality of money in motion, and the few times they’ve tried recently, they haven’t been able to budge the sword in the stone.

So there are orphaned customers, neglected prospects, discouraged and listless salespeople, foolish business owners stopping all outreach to try waiting out a New Economy evolving. Thus, there is actually more money in motion for you than anytime in over a decade. So, here are the two secrets you need:

#1: No matter what, each and every individual will buy when what is offered is perfectly, precisely aligned with his greatest, highest, burning brightest personal interest, desire or need. The individual in this situation will buy without price resistance or hesitation.

#2: To prosper, you need only (a) be certain you aren’t wasting time on the bottom 20% who really can NOT buy anything but bread crusts and water, and (b) align whatever you sell with someone’s greatest, highest, burning brightest personal interest and invest in presenting your business only to individuals for whom it is aligned with their greatest interest. 

And, a bonus #3: there is somebody whose highest personal interest can match what you sell. Plenty of such somebodies.

In order to be a good prospect, by my criteria, a person must have a need or desire for which he is profoundly and urgently interested in – preferably seeking – an answer to, and must have the financial ability to buy my answer to it, at my price.

I have other criteria specific to my businesses and you should have other criteria specific to your business. But this is universal, foundational criteria.

Important note: without great clarity about the ‘who’ you want as prospect or customer, you are playing “blind archery”, a fool’s game.

This is why I bought the $30,000.00 Javelin and $70,000.00 Rolls-Royce but talked myself out of an $8,000.00 closet remodeling project we actually needed in one of our homes – however, at the Home Show, had a very astute closet remodeling company owner or sales professional stopped yakking about their design awards, quality wood, guarantees, and deals and discovered that a very important wedding anniversary was coming up and talked about surprising my wife with something unexpected inside a box wrapped to look like another piece of jewelry, there would have been a closet bought, without a second thought!

If I were running the closet company, I’d get lists of affluent neighborhood residents, and busy doctors and other affluent professionals,  having spouse’s birthdays or wedding anniversaries each month and send them persuasive sales letters about ‘the gift she’ll appreciate every day.  Flowers perish. Fine jewelry worn occasionally, hidden away most of the time. But this gift….’  (Yes, such lists are available.)

All this requires making yourself a much more sophisticated marketer. A choice. But know this, for the foreseeable future, trying to dislodge that sword with brute force won’t work. I’m all for work. But the cliché is true now more than ever: working  harder won’t get much. Working smarter is essential.

The smart goal is perfect alignment of what you market or sell, probably re-positioned and more creatively presented, with the passionate, urgent interest of a group of reachable prospects, to the exclusion of all others.

In other words, be about something really meaningful to somebody, not about “stuff”; your product, your service.

By Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series, and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. FOR A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including newsletters, audio CD’s and more: visit: www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com

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