Adapting to a Rapidly Changing Environment

With the pace of change being extreme in today’s business world, people who can adapt rapidly are usually the most successful. You can’t afford to lag your competitors.

To be successful with change, you must gain new skills.

Jeff Haden in his article: “How To Master Any Skill (No Talent Required)”, talks about not only applying the hard work to learn a skill but the need to get out there and make mistakes to really master a skill.  Jeff goes on to show several examples about how this works.

You can’t be timid and wait until you master a skill, you need to go ahead and make mistakes.  You need to also learn how to minimize the impact of those mistakes, however.

Informal Market Research

Market research doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. You can find out lots, just by striking up conversations with or calling the appropriate people.

If you really want market intelligence, first do some planning:

1. What do you want to know?  Do you want to know what your customer thinks, do you want to know what the market conditions are or do you want to know what your competition is up to, etc?
2. Who is available to talk with?  Can you call a supplier that also supplies your competition, can you talk with your customer who also uses your competition or can you ask some other entity like a bank or some random business person about how she/he perceives the general business conditions.
3. What questions will get the answers you need?  What lead-in questions will you use to get the person talking?  What follow-up questions can you ask?  I often just ask people; How’s business?  It’s amazing how much information that person divulges.

You should invest the effort to form a relationship with the person you are asking questions of.  They could become a long term source of valuable information for the future.  You shouldn’t be too aggressive with the questions, just let the person talk and ask occasional questions.  Don’t forget to reciprocate and give the person some valuable information back.

It’s important to continually monitor your business, market, customer and competition by talking with the right people and listening closely to what they say.

Business Growth – Keeping it Simple

I read some sage advice from a source that may not be everyones cup of tea.  This person is a consultant to the MLM (multi level marketing – AMWAY is the most famous company) industry.

http://networkmarketingcures.com/hot-training/its-not-that-complicated-stop-making-it-that-way/

The point, though can be applied to every business.  How to focus on growing your business.

1. Keep it simple.  Put all of your energy into the big picture for your business.
2. Decide who the most valuable customers are to you.  Why?  Build a list of these people.
3. Why would they be attracted to you?  To someone else?
4. Focus on building a relationship with as many of these people, not just reaching them.
5. Master one communication method.
6. Finely craft your message.  Make sure it hits as many of the key points as to why your customer should be attracted to  you.  Hone your message, razor sharp.
7. Spend 15 to 30 minutes per day perfecting your message and working on getting the message out to your target customers.

Focus is key

“The ’secret’ to having successful marketing campaigns is copywriting. Better known as persuasion by words. Communicating your message clearly and directly to your target audience to move your business forward. This is something you should put all of your psychotic focus into studying.”