“A Change Would Do You Good”

Reprinted from Mover Mike:

I'm a freelance writer and many books on writing advise listening to conversations around you. I had occasion to do just that last night.

A woman and a man were talking about their most recent meeting with teammates. The man was unhappy with the output of his team. He was struggling to motivate one or two to up their game. At first I thought the two were a couple, but from the conversation it quickly became apparent she was either his boss or superior to him in the company. The difference in the way she spoke was very different from him. She was decisive. There was no air in her conversation, meaning her speech was not filled with the usual words designed to keep the floor; the uhs, ers, you know, I mean. Her language was positive and she was upbeat and she offered suggestions based on her more considerable experience.

His language was whiny, complaining, filled with "you knows" and "like" and "I mean" and his sentences jittered. Jittered to me is speech that bounces from one topic to another, and there's an interior processing about events that the listener feels but doesn't hear. He clearly was having trouble with his teammates and when she offered suggestions, he didn't really listen, but stepped on her words and jittered on. From her I heard, "I totally get it." From him hardly any acknowledgement of her suggestions, only self-absorption in his problem.

I have been in sales my whole working career. When selling you need to be concise, know how quickly your prospect loses interest, be outer focused and be knowledgeable about the product. A leader is very much selling himself by all of his words and actions.

Recall Mel Gibson’s William Wallace in " Braveheart" how he succinctly defines the difference between the nobles and those who are willing to fight.

<blockquote>William Wallace to the nobles: There’s a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.</blockquote>

Imagine, if instead Wallace had said, "Guys, I mean, there's a, um, a difference between, um, us. You think the people, um, what's the word, live no exist, um, to, you know, provide you with, um, position. I mean, I think your, ah, position exists to, ah, provide these people with freedom. And, ah, why don't we, um, make sure they, you know, have it?

While Wallace wooed to the cause and he'd be talking to their backsides half way through the speech. There would have been no "Braveheart"

If she'd asked my advice, about this man I would have asked if he's valuable to the team. Does he have talents the team needs. If not fire him. If he is valuable, get him enrolled in a course on conversational speaking and selling.

A Change Would Do You Good
Songwriters
CROW, SHERYL / MACLEOD, BRIAN / TROTT, JEFF

8 Things That Make You A Sucker

Since I last posted here, Alex Shye, Founder at Soulmix has revealed 8 things that suck me in.

1. Explain something -The best headlines tap into an emotion.

2. Ask a question - A good question creates an sense of curiosity. 

3. Add a number - You love lists. Writers love lists. Everyone loves lists! (If you are reading this now, it's because of #3)

4. Overreach - Have you noticed that many articles don’t just guarantee interesting information?

5. Be negative - Another good way to tap into emotions is to be negative. There are many ways to be excessively negative. The easiest way is to just add a swear word into a headline.

6. Add unnecessary adjectives and qualifiers.

7. Invoke authority - People trust authority. Even if the writer isn’t an authority, someone is.

8. Combine these tricks together - And they work even better together.

My Aching Ranking

Just finished this piece for Danny DeMichele, Internet Marketing Strategist.

SEO! Did your eyes just glaze over?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is not a topic I like to read about. SEO, conducted by a professional, uses acquired experience and familiarity with the vagaries and changes of search engines to boost the image of a website. My website. In a cluttered world! I’m frustrated by my inability, so far, to get traffic higher and yet, can’t find the energy to be self-taught.

A couple of years ago, a local blogger announced he hit three million visits to his site. I was at 400,000. This week, he announced he had reached eight million visits. I have now received over 550,000. We both post consistently. I don’t consider him a better writer or better connected. He is not focused any more than I am on a particular area. We both are like Instapundit written by Glenn Reynolds. We all three cover everything we find interesting.

I know what I need. I need someone specializing in "seo consulting services." I need a professional with years of experience to tell me, I need to do this, this and this to improve my rankings, to garner more traffic, that will generate more revenue from ads.

Maybe, if you are like me, it’s time to hire some "seo consulting services.” Where do we start? Why not start with Danny DeMichele, Internet Marketing Strategist. He worked hard to acquire the knowledge to boost the brands of large and small businesses for over ten years. After all, when 60 million each year go online searching for a business like yours and mine, you and I want to be found on the first page. It’s time to call Danny DeMichele master of "seo consulting services" at (214) 414-0147.

October Job

We sometimes toss around words like “easy” and “simple” when we try to sell something to others. “This piece of equipment is easy to use; it is so simple…”

You know the next part, “That my dog on his worst day at his age could use it.” Really? Since the first VCR, things have not been that easy, unless you are in grade school. We even may differ on the meaning of “simple.” Simple could refer to freedom from complexity, absence of luxury, freedom from deceit, or lack of mental acuity.

For a retailer, simple may mean that the ringing-up-the-sale process gets the customer out the door in a good mood. Simple to the customer may mean no employee learning on the customer’s time how to use the fancy new gadget. Simple may mean the customer is taken care of like an old friend.

Simple may mean a lack of fear. Fear of messing up so much that a customer is lost, or fear that a credit card is charged twice, or fear that the boss will think the employee is stupid. My wife once had a battery-powered PalmPilot. She loaded all her contact information into it and then six months later, lost all her hours of work when the battery failed. There’s a fear that our simple tools can turn out to be highly disruptive to our lives.

We think you’ll love the Posterita POS system. With some practice, it will allow you to serve your customers more efficiently, track your inventory, coordinate with social media applications, and store everything about your business in the cloud.

It would be simple of us to promise anything more.