The other day a family friend asked me to review a resume.

It was the typical resume; her name at the top and her qualifications and skills followed along with her professional experience and volunteer work.

My first thought was this resume was just cold hard facts. As a business owner I want to get to know whom I might hire. In fact I don’t believe any business owner is just interested in the person’s name and qualifications. They only become interested when they begin to understand if there is a fit with the person and their business. At least I think that should be one of the most important fundamentals, if you want a staff that works well together.

Then it occurred to me that this is just a ‘canned’ formula that is promoted as the way to apply for a job. Can anyone tell me why people buy into this and expect to be hired? If all resumes look the same, how do you expect to be noticed? It is the same when you are marketing your business – how do you expect to be noticed if you look the same as your competitors?

My concluding question for you is; ‘If there is no thought being put into differentiating your business how do you expect to be noticed?’

Do you really have the goods?

I would like to give credit to the writer of this poem, but I have been unable to find the name of the talented one.

A lion met a tiger
as they drank beside a pool.
Said the tiger, “Tell me why…
you’re roaring like a fool.”

“That’s not foolish;” said the lion,
with a twinkle in his eyes,
“They call me king of all the beasts
because I advertise!”

A rabbit heard them talking,
and ran home like a streak.
He thought he’d try the lion’s plan,
but his roar was just a squeak.

A fox, who happened on the scene,
had a fine lunch in the woods.
The Moral - when you advertise,
just be sure you’ve got the goods.

unknown

Have you ever gone to a medical appointment, and had to wait?

Well that happened to me the other day. I had booked an appointment with my chiropractor for 1:15 in the afternoon. I got there a little early and the receptionist took me directly into one of the rooms. I am thinking to myself – this is great service!

Think again Gibney! 

After I read the waiver form and all the certificates on the wall I began to wonder what was going on. After what seemed to be an eternity I opened the door and walked back to see the receptionist. I stated that I had a 1:15 appointment and I wondered what time she had on the office clock. She stated that it was 1:30 and then said that we always run behind schedule. Then I said that I would be leaving. My thought pattern was that if he was going to charge me for his time and then was going to make me wait without telling me that things were running behind schedule, I would put a small dent into his pocketbook and not be available when he was.

What is the purpose of this rant? It is simple! If you don’t keep your clients informed as to what is going on regarding an order or a purchase, you’ve literally told them that their concerns don’t matter.

Do you know what the four rules to effective marketing are?

First of all you may be wondering why I can give you these rules. It is because I’ve seen them work for others and put them into practice in my life.

Please remember that the rules must be carefully thought out and then reviewed regularly. The reason for the review is because with changes in your business, if you don’t review regularly you can be described as driving a car blind-folded.

So here is what I believe the four rules for effective marketing are;

• Specialize – Remember you can’t be all things to all people.
• Differentiate – If you aren’t significantly different than your competitors from the prospects point of view, you are a commodity. To find out if you are part of the commodity crowd e-mail me at timothygibney@sympatico.ca, and I will send you two reports.
• Subdivide – If you offer more than one product or service, you need to divide your prospects into separate market segments.
• Focus – Yes no matter how big your company is you still have a limited amount of resources that you can use. For example; time is one resource, as you only have 24 hours in the day. You can’t spread yourself thin and still be effective so focus your all of your resources.

To conclude answer this question; what are four reasons that people should buy from you rather than your competitors? Please don’t response because of our quality of service or craftsmanship or because you’ve been in business for so long. This is because all of those are judgment calls on what they mean to the prospect. If you are leaving your best points up to the prospect you lose.

Did you know that only about 2% of people can work entirely without supervision?

This is according to the book ‘Eat That Frog’ from Brian Tracy. These 2% are the leaders in our society! Is this the person you were meant to be? I believe everyone one of us can become that person. That is if you decide to be. Yes it is one of the biggest decisions you will make in your life.

In order to reach your full potential, you must decide to put pressure on yourself. When you do that you can become the person you were meant to be. I am reminded of a quote by W.M. Lewis; it is “The real tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

So in order to begin living your life to the fullest, answer these questions;

• What can I do now to move towards my full potential?
• What can I do now to become the person that has always been inside of me?

Are you using the present moment in the best way?

Why the present moment? It is because I am totally convinced that we have control over one thing – that being the present moment. While nothing is wrong with planning I know that many people including myself spend way too much time planning for things that may never happen.

Yes, I know that there is 168 hours per week, but you can’t control the time that is in the future. The only time you can control is the one you are in now. So how do you control this time;

• Firstly, become aware of your mental, emotional and physical habits. What are the things that throw you off course?
• Secondly, be aware of ‘bad’ interruptions and prepare for them with statements or actions that will prevent these from occurring regularly.
• Thirdly, ask yourself questions like; ‘How much value will doing this achieve?’ or “Can this be done by someone else?’ or ‘Will doing this lead to a suitable outcome?’

When you overcome the barriers to working in the present moment, the actions you take will move you forward with greater efficiency.

When you are up to bat, do you keep your eye on the ball?

Yes baseball season will be starting very soon. Every one who has ever played baseball knows that when you are up to bat you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball. This means you are looking at the ball as soon as it leaves the pitchers hand. You do that so you can detect what type of a pitch you are getting, so you don’t swing at the air.

It is the same with your business; you need to keep your eye on the ball – that being the end result. Which brings up this question; what is the end result or goal your business has? The more passionate the goal is for your business the more it will determine how you as the leader work and how your staff follows you.

So how can you bring your staff on side so that they feel very passionate about the end goal of your business? The future results of this goal will be determined by your passion.

Have you ever received a survey from Microsoft?

The other day I got a survey from Microsoft, and I would like to start by giving you some background. The day before that I had decided to try out one of their programs before I bought it. I got the link to download the program and to make a long story short I had a great deal of trouble downloading it and have not yet been able to use the program.

Now getting back to the survey, on the first page they asked me the following questions;

Please choose the statement which best describes you;

• I selected and activated without purchasing yet.
• I activated a trial, and recently converted to a purchased product.
• I selected and purchased a product directly without a trial.

Now considering the challenges I have had, I could not selected any of the statements they asked me.

So you are asking ‘what does this have to do with marketing’? It has everything to do with marketing. Considering that Microsoft is a very large company and has world-wide recognition, even they make assumptions on their business practices. Is it possible or probable that you are making assumptions on your business practices? I think you know the answer to that.

Are you in the pizza business?

Whenever I see a company promoting by offering a sale I get completely befuddled. This is because it appears that this may be the only way that they have to draw prospects in. That is the reason I asked if you were in the pizza business. They are the businesses that are always flooding our mail boxes with their mindless promotions.

Let be honest, there is not much difference between one pizza company and the next. The product and service is not really that much different. They make the pizza out of dough and have a number of toppings that you can choose from. They have young people answering the phones and preparing the pizza. This business is not rocket science!

So my concluding question for you is – are you marketing your business with mindless promotions? If you are not sure contact me.

What is the key question you ask yourself before you start your day?

Do you continually ask yourself, "What is the most valuable use of my time, today?"

Why do you need to ask this question? It is all about being disciplined. The world of work is a very complex and messy activity these days. This is because there is so much going on that we can get very easily distracted. You will find that if you work on what is most valuable it will make a big difference in your life.

So how do you do that? I would suggest;

• Understanding the reason or the ‘why’ you are doing your actions.
• Imagine what the consequences are if you do not complete an activity in a specific amount of time. The reason why this works is that pain can motivate us to move mountains.

If you do those two things consistently, you will have started to be a very productive leader and a person that is less stressed.

Do you have perspicacity?

No, this is not some disease! It is keenness of mental perception. It is the ability to have insight or the ability to discern.

Yesterday I wrote about improving your business by improving your business processes and skill level. When you think that everything is fine in your business or your life, this is a sign that your discernment level is low. Discernment isn't usually a sudden zap from another realm. Discernment is something which emerges from awareness. It is characterized by an extraordinary level of passion for understanding life. I am reminded of what the interviewer Larry King once said; “I’ve never learned anything while I was talking.”

Instead of focusing your attention on what your actions are, you should instead be focusing on how your clients, prospective clients and your staff react to what you are doing. By doing this, you become less bound by your own attitudes, decisions and actions.

If you are not using perspicacity you are using it’s opposite – obtuseness. Obtuseness is being annoyingly insensitive to what is going on around you. I don’t know of any business leader who suffers from this.

What are you doing to make this year, your best ever?

Are you using the same strategies that you used last year? If so, now is the time to re-think that strategy.

The reason I state that is because business has changed and continues to change. Or has it for you? Is there new knowledge and skills that you should learn? Has there been some new competition come into your service area? Has there been a new development in your industry? If you answered ‘yes’ to only one of those questions, then business has changed.

No business will continue to grow if the leader is not aware that all levels of the business need to improve. This is because the processes and skill level of you and your staff have and use is how your profit level is achieved. The higher the skill level and the more improved your processes – the higher your profit level.

So the question is; are you going to complain that things are not improving when you have not taken action to improve your business?

What have you done in the past month to improve your knowledge and skills?

Did you know that here is a premium on knowledge and skill today? Yes if you were to gain more knowledge about a specific aspect of your business and apply more skill - the more valuable you become. Why is that important? If you increase your knowledge and skills your income will increase.

“But I haven’t got the time.” Yes at least one of you is saying that. Now tell me, do you work 24 hours a day? If you don’t you have no excuses. What your problem is; is a case of managing your priorities.

The saddest thing I’ve witnessed is that most people learn their jobs the first year then repeat that first year the rest of the time they work for that company. So when I hear someone say they’ve got 17 years experience I wonder if they have 1 year experience repeated 17 times.

What can you do to improve you knowledge and skill today?

What happens to you when a bad event takes place?

Do you feel that it will go on forever? If you feel that way, you are a normal person.

Why do I bring this up? This is all about what psychologists call ‘impact bias’. This is the tendency of people to over estimate the length of time an intense feeling will stay with you. The research also shows that people will also over estimate the intensity of the feeling as well. Everyone who works with other people needs to remember this because when something happens (good or bad) we can smile after our first thoughts.

This ‘impact bias’ is due to two reasons. Firstly we become extremely focused on what took place and we forget about all the other things that are going on in our lives. Secondly, we have a natural tendency to rationalize what happens in our lives. This tendency to over-estimate the impact of major events can affect our ability to make good decisions.

Whether the event is good or bad we need to realize that it is the actions after an event takes place that will help us move forward in our life. Remember that these actions will have the greatest impact in your long-term growth as a person.

What about your story?

Whenever you speak to someone about your goods or services you have to sell yourself first. This is not about putting up a false façade. It is about being true to your self.

It is your eye contact, your demeanor and the sound of your voice. It also includes showing and sharing the emotion you have towards your goods or services. The key that most great promoters have is that they want others to feel how they do about what they are discussing. To do that you must speak from the heart, not from your head.

To conclude let me give you a personal example. Years ago I worked for an international research and development company. We had developed some very unique training solutions. The company was firm about how we needed to explain how the training process worked. I was sold on what the training could do as I had seen how the training impacted me. My enthusiasm should have been enough to convince others to buy into the process – sadly not. I had convinced myself that I needed to follow a prepared script. As soon as I started to do that my enthusiasm subsided and the results weren’t as good as they should have been.

The next time you present ‘your story’ to anyone, make sure it is remarkable and unforgettable by showing your enthusiasm for it.

What is your story?

That is the question each and every one of us should have in our minds when we meet anyone.

Why? If you don’t understand the person you are trying to communicate with you will never be on solid ground with them. What is this solid ground I speak of? In my opinion it is the firm foundation of sharing some common experiences as well as understanding some of the unique differences between you and that person.

When you understand those commonalities and differences you can help them no matter what the situation. I know that the key to any relationship is all about understanding. The key to understanding is the skill of asking questions. 

Remember every action you take inside and outside of your business is marketing!

What is your concentration like?

Oh yes when you have to focus on something to get it done - you do it. But the concentration I am writing about is all about doing the things that you are very good at.

So do you concentrate on the things you're good at? In the book ‘Go Put Your Strengths To Work’ by Marcus Buckingham he examines some myths that we have bought into. For example; as you grow, your personality changes. This is a very big myth! We all know that our values, skills and self-awareness and some of our behavior may change, but the most leading aspects of your personality will remain the same. He believes that as you grow, you become more of who you really area.

So you need to find out who you really are. Then don't get bogged down. You need to concentrate on using the leading aspects of your personality in all aspects of your life. Then you will become more than you think you are.

What do you focus on daily?

Is your focus on the actions that will take you towards your goals? Or do you focus on the trivial?

By focusing on the important things, you leave the insignificant out of the picture. So what are the important things in your life?

Up and until you know what is important in your life you will let the trivial disrupt how productive your life really could be. So how do you focus on the areas of significance in your life and your business?

The key is to ask this question before you start any actions, "Will this lead to the achievement of what is important in my life?"

I’ve got a gold mine in my back yard do you want some of the gold?

This question was posed by a speaker I heard many years ago. Then he said all that you have to do is buy a shovel. How would you respond to this request?

This is what some of the people said to his question;

• I am not sure I have time to dig for gold.
• A shovel could be very expensive?
• How much gold is there?
• How deep is the gold?

The reason why I posed this scenario is that many times in our lives we are literally handed unbelievable opportunities but we say 'no' or put the request off. This is because we didn’t feel it was our idea or the opportunity didn’t fit what our plan was.

All that I can say with those types of thoughts is – how sad. Did you ever think that some unforeseen opportunities were dropped in your lap at the right time for the right reason? If you’ve rejected the last opportunity I think you should accept the next opportunity as it will get you out of the rut you are in, and give you a new experience in life.

Do you believe that the job you have right now is an important one?

Now consider this very seriously. This is because if you are not treating your present job with respect and dignity, how do you expect to move on to bigger and better things?

Yes, all of the work we do today leads to our tomorrows. This includes the jobs, careers or missions that we fulfill in our life.

So the next time you are taking it easy in your present job and are happy about it – remember that your actions will lay heavily on the next actions you try to take.

I am sure you would agree that you can’t go from 0 to 100 in a split second.

How do you speak?

Do you try to speak in words that convey hope and happiness? I hoped you answered yes to that question. If you didn’t you might not be focused enough on the good things that life brings when you are optimistic.

As a business owner if you are not optimistic, how do you expect the people you work with to bring their ‘A’ game? As a leader in your company how do you expect to solve your prospective client’s problems if you are not optimistic and forward looking with hope?

To conclude I would suggest developing a question that you can ask yourself each morning to get more client focused and optimistic. I would suggest that this question should start with these key words – ‘How can I…?’

Is what you are doing remarkable?

The basic principle is that in order to sell products or service, you need to truly impress your prospective clients. In other words; are you doing things that help you stand out from your competitors? Have you taken the same lackluster products, service or ideas that your competitors are selling and made them interesting for the marketplace?

If you haven’t done this I have a question for you; how can you change your ideas into something that is worth commenting about? When people comment about how you’ve done more than just satisfied their needs or wants and speak about it - that is being remarkable.

It is only when you transform what others are doing into something special and your own, that you will be head and shoulders above your competitors.

What are your manners like?

The other day I was asking a ‘teckie’ his opinion about what I thought was an important issue. When I started to ask my question, he went to his smart phone and started to answer his e-mail.

When I stopped speaking he looked up and told me to continue as he could do two things at once.

What a dreamer!

I know that you would agree that you like someone’s full attention when you are communicating with them. It is the same with me. What this ‘teckie’ doesn’t realize is that his inattention to me cost him business.

The next time you are approached, remember what the result will be if you don't pay full attention to them.