In business you need clarity. You need to know what you do and how you do it and importantly why you do it. Today will be some thoughts of the day. You need to make a difference. Not for yourself but for others.
In sales you need to have done your research. You need to know your audience and your company and products and the relationship that you have with the audience. You need to have a goal. You need to be able to position yourself to satisfy the needs and wants of the audience. You need to be able to overcome objections and close the deal.
Today listening to all the talking heads about the debate last night I am brought to a startling conclusion. When confronted with a challenge some people shrink from it and others rise to it. I think it is clear who shrank last night and who rose to the challenge.
We have been continuing to do what we have been doing for three and a half years now. Spending more than we earn and not getting results. High poverty levels, declining income levels, high unemployment and record deficits are not results that anyone should find to be acceptable. I don’t think we want to continue on this path unless we can get different results. Do you? Einstein said that was insanity.
We are confronted with an extremely clear choice; More of the same and more and more – OR – different. Remember the words – The five points?
- North American Energy Independence
- Fix Public Education
- Increase trade – especially with Latin America – fair trade – especially with China
- Balance the budget
- Encourage small business
Remember repealing ObamaCare and redoing a lot of Dodd Frank? Remember the “big kiss” in too big to fail as a gift to the five largest banks? There is a lot to do and the time clock is running faster and faster. The time is now.
Marketing Missile v2.0
Branding is a critical element of Marketing. It is who you are and what the market believes you to be. A brand is an elusive element of marketing. How do you create a brand? It is the same as your culture. It is not what you want it to be it is what it is – plain and simple.
Do you remember the amazing Kreskin? He made his incredible skill of reading minds a marketable skill. He is still going strong well into his seventies. There was a recent article on him in the American Way the inflight magazine from American Airlines, my preferred airline, even in these troubled times. Back to the subject – Kreskin – he says “To those who understand there is no explanation necessary…but to those who don’t no explanation is possible. That is the same with marketing and branding.
You must have a brand. It must represent who you are and what you do. You must have marketing in order not to remain in the shadows of the market.
In today’s world of social media it is now being said that unless you are using Twitter and Facebook you lack credibility with the younger generations. The older generations have differing needs and channels. The point through all of this clutter is that your brand and your marketing have to span all generations and all motivations for your products or services.
So what is your brand image? How do you protect it? Who drives your marketing? How is it designed? These are critical questions for you to answer. The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #34
Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy.
Anonymous
Little things please little minds.
English Proverb
Adversity causes some men to break, and others to break records.
Unknown
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #33
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
Norman Peale
Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.
Phil Jackson
I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.
Lou Holtz
The time is now.
Education #11
In 1987 Allan Bloom the landmark “The Closing of the American Mind,” then last year Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published their landmark study of collegiate learning, “Academically Adrift.” So starts an article in the National Review on October 15th, 2012. I won’t dwell on the article other than to extract a key metric. (Those of you interested in learning will find the article refreshing in its candor and I believe enlightening.)
The key metric I want to refer to is the “Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). The CLA measures what American undergraduates learn in college. In the work of Arum and Roksa they find that 36 percent showed “small or empirically non-existent” gains in “general collegiate skills” – critical thinking, complex reasoning, writing, and computational skills – after four years of college. Rather astounding don’t you think? The article goes on to identify some of the reasons for these poor results. I don’t think you will find there is much that is a surprise to you.
Meanwhile in the Texas legislature there are efforts underway to pass a law requiring all students at public colleges and universities requiring all students to take the CLA during their freshman and senior years. “Every institution would be called to account for how much students learn under their tutelage.” “The CLA would ultimately serve as an alternative credential to the bachelor’s degree.” “This would help students, parents, and legislators to take a more open-eyed view of the current state of higher education.” This might also begin to allow more parents and educators to come to the conclusion that specific technical learning is an important alternative to the sacred cow thinking that everyone should have a college degree. The time is now.
Thought of the Day #12
In looking around the media and the education community and the unemployed in America these days I am astounded that the main stream media (MSM) are expounding on the needs that the current President has to get out the vote of the young as he did in 2008. I don’t think that is very smart.
The facts as I know them include the fact that over 54% of the graduates in 2012 do not have jobs. I look at new terms for the part time workers, the educated men and women who are working at jobs considerably below their skills sets. I don’t know why the current President would want that group of people to be voting in the same proportion as they did in 2008. Do they think they will continue to vote for the results that have been produced in job creation over the past three and a half years?
These people are smart, they have taken exams, and they know what good results look like and when they are not good. Who do you think they will vote for this time around? Hope and Change? Or Please Move Aside? This is not a good job on which you should have a do over is it? Clint Eastwood had it right when he said “when they don’t do the job you just got to let them go.”
Some facts to consider
This is not a record that the younger people will find comforting. They will not be voting for the current President. They have had about all they can stand of his hope and change. I am struck with the MSM and the wringing of their hands that the younger voters will not be turning out this election and that this will hurt the current President. Au contraire mes amis, if they vote in numbers they will in all likelihood be voting for Romney. And none too soon. The time is now.
Training Tidbit #2
Webinars are a terrific tool to transmit information to people doing the job. Our webinars last about an hour, are subject specific, allow more than one person in the room and are inexpensive at $95.00.
They are the usual format. It is a GoToMeeting style with slides showing bullet points related to the topic being discussed. There is a short Q&A at the end to allow for clarification or expansion on the topic at hand.
On the 15th and 16th of October we offer four webinars. Two on Monday, TeleSelling and Basic Inventory Control, and two on Tuesday, Parts Pricing and Warehousing.
Those of you that have not attended one of these informative webinars should make the time and register. You won’t be sorry. The time is now.
CAS Filosophy v1.3
You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.
C.S. Lewis
I watched Titanic when I got back home from the hospital, and cried. I knew that my IQ had been damaged.”
Stephen King
And, to close, words to live by:
Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!
Audrey Hepburn
The time is now.
WH Filosophy v1.5
Thank you Bill.
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.
John Burroughs, American naturalist and essayist
There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, British politician, poet, playwright and novelist
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #32
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the shores of Waikiki from me to you
All that we are is the result of what we have thought! Our thoughts are so powerful so choose great ones!
Buddha
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
Henry Longfellow
Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.
C.S. Lewis
The time is now.
Thought of the Day #11
In business you need clarity. You need to know what you do and how you do it and importantly why you do it. Today will be some thoughts of the day. You need to make a difference. Not for yourself but for others.
In sales you need to have done your research. You need to know your audience and your company and products and the relationship that you have with the audience. You need to have a goal. You need to be able to position yourself to satisfy the needs and wants of the audience. You need to be able to overcome objections and close the deal.
Today listening to all the talking heads about the debate last night I am brought to a startling conclusion. When confronted with a challenge some people shrink from it and others rise to it. I think it is clear who shrank last night and who rose to the challenge.
We have been continuing to do what we have been doing for three and a half years now. Spending more than we earn and not getting results. High poverty levels, declining income levels, high unemployment and record deficits are not results that anyone should find to be acceptable. I don’t think we want to continue on this path unless we can get different results. Do you? Einstein said that was insanity.
We are confronted with an extremely clear choice; More of the same and more and more – OR – different. Remember the words – The five points?
Remember repealing ObamaCare and redoing a lot of Dodd Frank? Remember the “big kiss” in too big to fail as a gift to the five largest banks? There is a lot to do and the time clock is running faster and faster. The time is now.