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Issue #39 ~ January 5, 2010 Printer friendly PDF file
2010: The Year of Opportunity
A perspective shot in the arm to launch the year!
Welcome to 2010! The past couple weeks I have been pondering this new year we have just begun and the recurring theme to my thoughts was - Opportunities. As such, many of the newsletter articles I have planned throughout the year will have an “Opportunities” theme in them starting with this New Year kick-off article that was going to focus on various aspects of seizing opportunities. Throughout the year we’ll then look at Opportunities in networking, sales, marketing, positive attitude, community and many other topics.
And then something happened. Divine? Maybe. Timely? Definitely! Whatever it was, it created a prelude to the “seizing opportunities” topic. Before seizing opportunities, let’s first look at the perspective in which we will focus on opportunities. Let’s take a walk together here for a minute to set the stage…
Over the holidays I watched the movie Evan Almighty where the main character, a newly elected U.S. congressman named Evan, is asked by God to build an ark - right in the middle of present day Washington DC. It was a cute movie with a good message, but there was one thing in particular that really stuck with me.
There is a scene where God, working as a waiter in a restaurant, is talking to Evan’s wife about what her crazy husband is doing building this ark. After explaining the situation, she asks the “waiter” what he thinks of it. His reply is “it sounds like an opportunity!” He then goes on to offer the following analogy.
“If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunities to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage or does He give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prays for a family to be closer, do you think God zaps with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does He give them opportunities to love each other?”
That scene could offer a different perspective on the opportunities we look for in business and sales. We have budgets, forecasts, goals, quotas, funnels and strategies. If planned carefully and executed diligently, they may provide the road map for us and our businesses to be successful. However, without the proper focus, the best laid plan can fail.
Quite often, focus is on the bottom line, the quota, the commission or any other sales metric used to define a person or business’ success. When focus to serve your customer is lost, no amount of budgeting, forecasting or strategizing can save your ultimate game plan.
When your written goal or sales quota is driving your efforts, your service is laid at the foot of the wrong person - you. Rather, serve you customer with all your might and all your focus and you’ll surpass your forecasts, quotas and goals.
So let’s shift the perspective a bit. For example, when working your plan this year, rather than focusing on how many ad spots you can sell, focus on the unique opportunities you have to work with each business and the opportunities to help them increase their visibility and increased resultant opportunities to serve their customers better. Or, rather than focus on how many furnaces you can install, focus on each opportunity you have to help a family efficiently stay warm this year.
Taken one step further, rather than focus on what your customers can do for you, focus on how you can better serve your customers with every opportunity they provide. In doing so, when you make your goal to sell 100 units, you’ll look for enough opportunities to serve more people in a manner they’ve never experienced. Your focus will be on serving rather than selling. Your focus will be on people rather than numbers. Keep this focus and watch your sales cup runneth over!
Now, Go Get ‘Em! (Better yet, Go “Serve” Them!)
A perspective shot in the arm to launch the year!
Welcome to 2010! The past couple weeks I have been pondering this new year we have just begun and the recurring theme to my thoughts was - Opportunities. As such, many of the newsletter articles I have planned throughout the year will have an “Opportunities” theme in them starting with this New Year kick-off article that was going to focus on various aspects of seizing opportunities. Throughout the year we’ll then look at Opportunities in networking, sales, marketing, positive attitude, community and many other topics.
And then something happened. Divine? Maybe. Timely? Definitely! Whatever it was, it created a prelude to the “seizing opportunities” topic. Before seizing opportunities, let’s first look at the perspective in which we will focus on opportunities. Let’s take a walk together here for a minute to set the stage…
Over the holidays I watched the movie Evan Almighty where the main character, a newly elected U.S. congressman named Evan, is asked by God to build an ark - right in the middle of present day Washington DC. It was a cute movie with a good message, but there was one thing in particular that really stuck with me.
There is a scene where God, working as a waiter in a restaurant, is talking to Evan’s wife about what her crazy husband is doing building this ark. After explaining the situation, she asks the “waiter” what he thinks of it. His reply is “it sounds like an opportunity!” He then goes on to offer the following analogy.
“If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunities to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage or does He give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prays for a family to be closer, do you think God zaps with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does He give them opportunities to love each other?”
That scene could offer a different perspective on the opportunities we look for in business and sales. We have budgets, forecasts, goals, quotas, funnels and strategies. If planned carefully and executed diligently, they may provide the road map for us and our businesses to be successful. However, without the proper focus, the best laid plan can fail.
Quite often, focus is on the bottom line, the quota, the commission or any other sales metric used to define a person or business’ success. When focus to serve your customer is lost, no amount of budgeting, forecasting or strategizing can save your ultimate game plan.
When your written goal or sales quota is driving your efforts, your service is laid at the foot of the wrong person - you. Rather, serve you customer with all your might and all your focus and you’ll surpass your forecasts, quotas and goals.
So let’s shift the perspective a bit. For example, when working your plan this year, rather than focusing on how many ad spots you can sell, focus on the unique opportunities you have to work with each business and the opportunities to help them increase their visibility and increased resultant opportunities to serve their customers better. Or, rather than focus on how many furnaces you can install, focus on each opportunity you have to help a family efficiently stay warm this year.
Taken one step further, rather than focus on what your customers can do for you, focus on how you can better serve your customers with every opportunity they provide. In doing so, when you make your goal to sell 100 units, you’ll look for enough opportunities to serve more people in a manner they’ve never experienced. Your focus will be on serving rather than selling. Your focus will be on people rather than numbers. Keep this focus and watch your sales cup runneth over!
Now, Go Get ‘Em! (Better yet, Go “Serve” Them!)