Five Webinar Keepers Comments Off on Five Webinar Keepers
On Tuesday, March 1 Networking Times Magazine
sponsored my Webinar…
“Rejection Proof Networking!”
This program is filled with golden nuggets, valuable
life skills for business and business skills for life.
Here are a few highlights we discussed:
1) The “Stimulus – Response” Model:
Alters your relationship with the past and enables
decision-making to occur in the present.
Want new outcomes?
Change your stimulus.
Want to change the response you get from others?
Change your stimulus.
Want to change yourself? Choose in the present.
Control the gap between stimulus and response.
Stop reacting from the past.
Respond in the present.
2) “Millionaire to Lunch”:
Ready to eliminate rejection, save dozens of hours of
wasted time, and maximize your network resources?
Three statements will do it: what, why and who!
If you want to rock the world, get crystal clear on,
then tell everyone you can reach:
What you do!
Why you do it!
Who you are looking for!
3) “The Power of Three: The Pyramid of Performance!”
The three key coordinates to triangulate success.
Mindset – Motivation – Method
Purpose – Passion – Payoff
Head – Heart – Hands
What – Why – How
If you want to stop spinning your wheels, and play
at the top of your game, align your head, heart and
hands. Get your mind-set, motivation and method
in sync. Harmonize your purpose, passion and
payoff, get clear on what, why and how, and watch
your performance soar to new heights.
4) The Buying Cycle™:
Satisfied, Dissatisfied, Ready!
I have taught this proprietary model to more than
a million people from 30 countries. It is the single
most important customer model to master.
Aligning with the Buying Cycle changes the game.
Here is the essence.
People move through three phases of buying.
Each is unique, and must be managed uniquely.
Because a person’s state of readiness is different,
outcomes for each buying phase are different.
Success is measured differently in each phase.
1. Satisfied people look for information, maybe!
2. Dissatisfied people look for a trusted advisor.
3. Ready people look for options and solutions.
You want to:
Educate cool suspects (satisfied people).
Get alignment.
Motivate warm prospects (dissatisfied people).
Gain agreement.
Activate ready buyers (ready people, hungry fish).
Get commitment.
Shifting attention away from the selling cycle, and
focusing laser-like attention on The Buying Cycle™
has enabled my clients generate more than $2 billion
in new revenues.
Employ The Buying Cycle™ in your company.
You’ll see instant results.
5) “Five Steps from Mystery to Mastery!”:
I ended with this model that explains why so little
of what we learn produces results or outcomes.
These five steps are essential for new learning to
produce results. There are NO shortcuts.
1) Impact: “whack on the head” – new learning is mystery.
2) Repetition: practice necessary to integrate new learning.
3) Utilization: use it or lose it; the key step to get results.
4) Internalization: do it unconsciously; playing your game.
5) Reinforcement: you master; teach others.
This is the journey from mystery to mastery.
To perform like a master in whatever you do, you
travel the path from unconsciously incompetent
(you don ‘t know what you don’t know), to becoming
unconsciously competent (you know what you know,
no longer think about it, and do it unconsciously).
True masters go one step beyond, to the fifth step.
They are “consciously” unconsciously competent.
They are not doing what they do.
They are being what they do.
I’m reminded of line the comic actor Chevy Chase
said in the movie, Caddyshack:
“Be the ball!”
Mastery is being the ball.
Masters keep elevating their game, knowing they
will never arrive at ultimate Mastery.
Mastery is a fun game. You can play it every day.
Today is a good day to play mastery.
Ready to make today the day you eliminate rejection,
boost your confidence, get more people referring you
customers, enlarge your circle of influence, expand
your network resources geometrically, make new
choices, shift the playing field and change the game,
I encourage you to listen to last week’s Webinar.
Networking Times is making the Webinar available
for only $1.97, which helps them offset hard costs
to record, digitize and make it available online.
I encourage you to invite your friends, colleagues
and even your customers to listen to this. You
cannot get this content anywhere for $1.97.
If you or your friends don’t get at least one “aha”
worth a whole lot more than $1.97, email me and
I will send you a $10 bill and $25 gift coupon.
You can listen to my Webinar for only $1.97 here.
Mitch, CEO – Chief Encouragement Officer™
5 Webinar Keepers
Seek a NEW Mission: Put People Ahead of Profits! Comments Off on Seek a NEW Mission: Put People Ahead of Profits!
“There are two types of possible relationships. A person may relate to an object, which is a one-way relationship, since the object cannot reciprocate, or a person may react to G-d and to people, which should be a two-way relationship. Another difference between relating to objects and to beings is that things should be used, whereas G-d and people should be loved.” ~ Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski
The good Rabbi sums up beautifully the distinction between intrinsic value (the dimension of love and spirit), and extrinsic value (the dimension of all things material).
The real world is very important, and to be highly valued.
The spiritual world is the most valuable dimension of all. It’s the world where human beings are valued above all things material. It’s an abundant, infinite world where there is enough for all, and all beings are equal.
It is a world in which, as the Rabbi says, we use things and love people. When we use people and love things, we invert the true order of value in the world.
The title of Chapter 4 of my book, “The NEW Game of Business™” is,
“Seek a New Mission: Put People Ahead of Products and Profits!”
This speaks to an intrinsic approach to business, where the value is highest and the return on energy is best. A NEW Game business puts people first. They understand that both profit-ability and sustain-ability depend upon people.
You need people to buy what your business sells, and you need people to market and serve what your business sells.
People see and feel you differently when you relate to them at the highest dimension of intrinsic value. Connecting person to person is a special experience that maximizes value for both people.
When a company embraces this new mission, they immediately position themselves as a service provider of choice in the eyes of their customers, and an employer of choice in the eyes of their employees.
If you work for or run a company that embraces this philosophy and strategy, I’d like to speak to you. We are looking to acknowledge “NEW Game” companies that put people ahead of products and profits, and include some of those stories into the second edition of “The NEW Game of Business.”
If you work or run a “People First” ™ company, please…
Email me or call me at 973-736-1304
One more very important thing: Chapter 10 is titled,
“Generate New Money: Profit is EVERYBODY’S Business!”
As important as it is to put people ahead of profits, it’s also vital for each person to contribute whatever he or she can to increase profits. Profit is EVERYBODY’S business.
People and profit are not mutually exclusive. The best companies give the most to their people, and get the most from their profits.
Loyalty Road is a two-way street. It travels both ways.
You must give it to get it.
The paradox of business today is the yin of people loyalty must be balanced by the yang of profit-ability. In the new game, most companies cannot afford redundant employees. Each person must contribute to profit in some meaningful way. That is a new game truth. We are no longer an assembly-line society. People are job secure to the degree they contribute something to the revenue side of the business. If they don’t, they will be out-sourced or downsized.
Expense departments that can be run for less cost somewhere else are most vulnerable. Revenue departments that are cash cows are most secure. Like it or not, this is capitalism at work.
The marketplace decides what it wants, and the companies that provide it with the best combination of intrinsic, extrinsic and systemic value are the most successful.
Clearly, no amount of intrinsic value will overcome a product or service that has no real world demand. At the same time, companies with great real world products and services go down in flames every day because they don’t reach the people who can buy them.
The payoff is highest and best when each person contributes something to the other at all three levels: intrinsic (relationships), extrinsic (results), and systemic (resources). If you want to make a big jump in how people value you, make a big leap to relate to them at the highest value dimension.
Seek a New Mission:
Put People Ahead of Products and Profits!
Mitch, CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer)
Put People Ahead of Profits
PS – If you work for a “People First” ™ company, please get in touch with me.
Email me or…
Call me at 973-736-1304
Don’t Fall in Love with Products and Services Comments Off on Don’t Fall in Love with Products and Services
*** Join us: Tuesday November 30, 2004 from 1pm to 2:15pm ***
The NEW Game of Business Series: “THE Ultimate Profit Model:
How to Generate More Income with Little or No Expense!
Whatever your business, if you want more profit, don’t miss this call.
PHONE NUMBER: 858-300-3030
PIN CODE: 12254# (Remember the # sign).
********************************************************
One of the main reasons people DO NOT succeed in business is because they fall in love with their products and services. What? Aren’t you supposed love what you do or what you sell?
Do people buy McDonalds franchises because they love the hamburgers? Hardly!
Falling in love with your product can be dangerous to your health, damaging to your wealth, and devastating to your bottom line.
Here’s why: Love is blind.
When we fall in love we can’t see anything but the good. There are positives to that. It stimulates passion and a fervor to share what you have with others. It keeps you moving forward in times of trouble, and gives you the energy to “keep on keepin’ on” when things turn downward. That’s all good stuff.
The downside of falling in love with your product can have debilitating effects. For one, rejection can be personal. When you feel vested in what you say, what you do or what you offer to others, it can create all kinds of negative emotions if those others don’t respond, or worse, outright reject our offer or proposition. Some people cannot get over that snub. Why? Because in the NEW Game…
It’s NOT just business: it IS personal!
Ask the 100 million people who have come and gone in network marketing how much their families and friends contributed to their demise. I’m sure many of them believed strongly in what they offered, yet they were driven out of the business by a handful of Naysayers.
Just because we like (love) what we do, what we sell or what we offer, doesn’t mean it’s going to result in a viable, profitable and sustainable venture.
I’ve asked this question to thousands of people:
“Would you rather have a product you love and others don’t, or a product others love and you don’t?”
For many people, that’s not a tough question. They would take the product they love, hands down. They believe they can be passionate enough to convince others to love it too.
This choice strikes at the heart of business. Too many people have gone to the poor house trying to persuade others to feel the love they have for their products. They want others to love what they represent. The truth is, who really cares whether we love it or not?
What matters in the real world of business is whether other people love it enough for you to earn a profitable living selling it. Whether you sell jet planes or jelly beans, the number one consideration for the profit potential is the market potential. No market, no profit. If not enough people want what you have, you will not make a living doing it.
Representing a product you love is NOT A BAD THING. It’s a good thing. But “falling in love” can blind you to whether that product or service has enough market demand for you to succeed at it long term.
How many burger joints sell better hamburgers than McDonalds? Most!
How many are as successful and profitable as Mickey D’s?
It “ain’t” the quality of the burgers that makes for their profit. I doubt any McDonalds owners buy the franchise because they love the Chicken McNuggets.
When we fall in love with our product or service, we tend to present it from OUR point of view. We are passionate and excited, and that’s fine.
Unless the passion and love causes us to miss the faults and/or shortcomings of our products and services. We lose sight of the most important person’s perspective, the person whose voice matters most: the customer.
Passion is wonderful. I wouldn’t want to leave home without it. It gets attention, and keeps people’s interest. It also energizes the seller.
The conventional wisdom, the old game sales model is…
AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire, Action!
In the NEW Game…
WE DON’T BUILD DESIRE IN PEOPLE.
It must already exist for them to take action. Their desire, not ours is what creates a buying state. No matter how much we love it, or want them to have it…
IF THEY DON’T WANT IT OR NEED IT, THEY WON’T BUY IT.
After you gain someone’s attention, the buying decision is NOT based on YOUR feelings about the value of the product or service. Old game training taught all kinds of techniques to arouse us, to convince us, to “cause” us to buy.
Millions of businesses that had GREAT products and services went belly up. Many did so because the owner was too deeply in love with the product, and couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
No matter how much you love what you do, if the public isn’t buying it you better have a good Plan B. Companies fold every day because they don’t test the waters before spending a King’s ransom creating, developing and launching a product (as in Dot-bomb.com).
We had a little luncheonette on one of the biggest and busiest corners in town. You’d think it was a slam-dunk, a home run. In the last five years, five owners have come and gone.
When a new guy bought the place one Autumn just in time for the start of school, I told my son Adam he won’t make it to Spring. Sure enough, it was empty most of the time. He didn’t do his due diligence.
The sign in the window said something to the effect of, “Open under new management. Chef at XYZ (famous) restaurant now running the ABC Deli.”
I gave him six months, if that. Why? Five reasons.
1. Lousy parking. A few street-side parking spaces but no separate parking lot, therefore no walk-up traffic.
2. Busy corner means no easy access. People blow right by this corner, and by the time they see it, oops!
3. NO less than eight other eateries, including take-out and fast food restaurants within two blocks.
4. Bad history – nobody succeeded in that location after a popular candy store folded many years ago.
5. He fell in love with it. Love is blind. He thought people would rush in because he’s a great chef.
He severely miscalculated.
In six months, the store was dark.
I could go on, but it pains me. I know the guy sunk his life savings into the place, renovated it nicely, worked long hours, and had high hopes because he loved to cook and serve good food. He was looking for work before the leaves turned green. How sad! He’ll have a hard time recouping from this venture financially, but an even harder time recovering emotionally.
No matter how much you love your product or service, you’d better make sure enough others feel the same way before you sink your heart, soul, time, energy and money into it. Too many people fail because they fall in love with their products, only to find themselves alone at the alter of public acceptance.
Final point: if what you are doing right now DOES have public appeal, and has a growing market potential, be vigilant to adapt, change, alter, even “kill off” a product if it’s not producing a profit or earning you a living.
After all, you wouldn’t buy a McDonalds because you love the hamburgers, would you?
Mitch
*** Join us: Tuesday Call November 30, 2004 from 1pm to 2:15pm ***
The NEW Game of Business Series: “THE Ultimate Profit Model:
How to Generate More Income with Little or No Expense!
Whatever your business, if you want more profit, don’t miss this call.
PHONE NUMBER: 858-300-3030
PIN CODE: 12254# (Remember the # sign).
How America Can Stop Exporting Jobs… 1
Stop Exporting American Jobs…
Transform Customer Service into NEW Business Profits!
“People all over the world want what you have… including your job. The difference in the new game is that they don’t have to come to America to get it! By exporting our culture and now, our jobs we’re sending it to them!” — Your Humble Blogger
There is a feeling of inevitability that we can’t stop the exporting of American jobs.
Over the next 10 years, a tidal wave of work will be shipped abroad and there is little America can do to prevent it. The NEW Economy is global, and everyone everywhere wants their slice of the pie.
It’s been happening for decades, but the recent exodus is painfully acute. Service people are being hit hard. Jobs are leaving and not coming back. When a company can hire twice the number of service people at half the expense, the bottom line payoff is too appealing for many companies to pass up.
The truth is a bitter pill, but swallow it we must:
Exporting of service jobs will continue unless we change the game.
It’s time to play a NEW Game.
It’s a global marketplace, and we are competing with talented people from all around the world. Most are hungry and eager to climb the ladder to a higher economic rung. The are willing, able and committed to work long and hard to advance themselves and their family’s quality of life. They are coach-able. They take pride in their work. They do good work. The want more of what life has to offer.
THEY WANT WHAT YOU HAVE… including your job!
Who can blame them? They are smart, talented people who work hard, long and for less money to boost their standards of living. Truth is, there are plenty of people everywhere who can do what you and I do, and if given access to our jobs they will compete on the best leverage they have:
PRICE and TERMS!
They are willing to work for a fraction of your price, and will accept whatever terms come with the job.
If they can do your job for a lot less money, you become expendable and vulnerable. Your job, skill and knowledge are no longer protected, no longer scarce. It’s a tough game to play and win when your rival is willing to work twice as hard for half the price.
The global marketplace shifts the playing field. Americans are not prepared, nor ready to play this new game. Our greatest strength is our Achilles heel. The problem of being the lead dog is that the rest of the world is constantly nipping at your heels. Climbing the ladder is what America is about and why people risk life and limb to come here. I say it again:
THEY WANT WHAT YOU HAVE… including your job!
THE BIG DIFFERENCE TODAY IS THAT…
THEY DON’T HAVE TO COME TO AMERICA TO GET IT!
By exporting our culture and our jobs, we’re sending it to them!
It’s a NEW World with NEW Rules!
To maintain our competitive edge, we need NEW thinking, NEW models, NEW strategies, NEW solutions, and NEW skills. We need a NEW Game!
American companies export service because they view service as an expense department, a cost item on their income statement. A company will always consider ways to cut costs by changing vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, buyers, distributors, location, operations, technology or workers, even if it means exporting jobs to another country.
A Solution to Stem the Tide of Exporting American Jobs…
Turn Customer Service from Cost and Expense into NEW Business Profits!
The prevailing service paradigm is one of reaction, problem-solving, putting out fires, listening to angry, frustrated, upset, whining, complaining, threatening customers. That’s a formula for red ink, which is what most customer service departments contribute to their companies. As one of corporate VP put it, “It’s a necessary evil.”
Necessary, indeed, but evil? This paradigm is old game, and will continue to grease the chute for companies to export any service than can be done elsewhere for less, even if it means a falloff in customer satisfaction. In some cases, the bottom line payoff from lower costs is worth the tradeoff in customer care. This is not the company line, but it’s the cold, hard truth.
In the next few years, our economy will continue to shift from a service model to a new model dominated by distribution. Millions of people who watch their service jobs get replaced or eliminated will find themselves by choice or chance in the distribution channel. More and more people will move out of “reactive” service and move into proactive distribution; in other words, sales.
It’s natural for consumers to buy from people they know and trust. It’s true for most cultures that people tend to buy from their own: Americans prefer to buy from Americans, Asians prefer to buy from Asians. People have a stronger bond with, and trust for people they know than they do for outsiders, and value existing relationships over new service providers.
The good news: SALES ARE WHERE THE MONEY IS!
The better news: WE DO IT BETTER THAN ANYONE!
You tilt the playing field by transforming customer service from an expense center into a NEW business profit center.
When customer care transitions from reactive trouble shooting into proactive problem solving, profitable new opportunities emerge.
Customer service will continue to be a target of “outsourcing” for as long as it remains an expense center. If a company can lower costs and get the same results, they will do it. It’s hard to reverse a trend of servicing customers from overseas when it has such a dramatic effect on the bottom line. Unfortunately, loyalty to people ends at the water’s edge.
One Way to Stop Exporting Service Work is to…
Transform service into new sales.
Turn reaction into pro-action! Transition customer service into a NEW business profit center.
There’s a big payoff to transform service into new sales and revenue. In the NEW game of business, service IS sales, and the best kind of marketing you can do.
People prefer to be served than sold, and would rather be patronized than pitched (or marketed to). Serving first adds value in advance. When you serve, deliver, serve some more, you transform customer care from a cost center into a profit center. People will want more of what you’re “serving” up.
Marketing is expense. Sales are income. Service is expense.
Most companies have two bookend expense areas draining one primary income source. Sales departments are under constant and often intense pressure to produce more revenue to cover marketing costs and service expense, and generate profit to boot. It’s no great mystery why sales teams suffer high turnover.
The NEW Game Solution:
Integrate marketing, sales and service into one holistic process.
Turn salespeople into advisors, and service people into true customer care specialists. As your service people contribute to new sales, the cost of marketing goes down and the profit per customer goes up.
Service people can advance customer relationships, open up new business and get referrals. With a few strategic questions, they can uncover new buying opportunities in the same conversation in which they resolve issues and solve problems.
Service can be one of the best sources of hot leads and new sales.
Turning service into profit transforms your army of trouble-shooters into customer care advocates. Among the best marketing your company can do is to serve people a great experience every time they engage customer service.
We must remind ourselves why it’s called, “customer service!”
In the NEW Game… everybody sells, everybody serves!
Marketing, sales and service are one holistic process, not three separate, competing departments.
A “service first” strategy transforms service into profit.
If we are serious about keeping service jobs in America, we must invest in PEOPLE, our most valuable assets. An investment in new thinking, new training and new tools pays off in new revenue and new profit.
Teach them, train them, and arm them with new skills. Encourage them to serve, deliver, and serve some more. Give them a stake in the outcome.
Transform them from an expense center into new profit center.
How can we slow down or reverse the trend of exporting American jobs?
Transform Customer Service from Expense into NEW Business Profits!
Mitch
© 2004, Mitchell Axelrod, The NEW Game. All rights reserved.
Reproduction permitted with author’s consent.
Private comments welcome.
Email me
10 NEW Game Distinctions 1
Here are 10 of the dozens of distinctions we made during our live seminar in San Diego:
The NEW Game… of Business, Money and Life!
1. Welcome to the Age of Interdependence: You can’t do it alone. Your team is as valuable as your talent. Sometimes, more valuable. Assemble your team. Playing with better players makes you a better player.
2. Life is not a zero sum game: 1 + 1 = INFINITY! Don’t compromise; aim for highest and best in all transactions. If one party loses, all parties lose. Highest and best creates more pie for everyone.
3. Response-ability is NOT Optional! Control the Decision Gaps between what you can’t control (stimulus) and what you do control (response). Reaction is in the past, response is in the present. Reaction is no-choice, choice; it’s automatic. Response is a conscious choice; it’s intentional. Make conscious choices; control the decision gap.
4. If you want people to respond differently, CHANGE YOUR STIMULUS! It’s the definition of insanity to continue giving the same stimulus and expecting a different response. If you want me to respond differently, don’t try to change me; CHANGE YOUR STIMULUS!
5. Time is inelastic; watch it carefully and trade it wisely. If you earn $100 per hour, for every hour you do $10 work you must earn $190 in the next hour to break even. If you can earn more than you can pay someone to do a task, delegate it. Fill as many hours as you can with “$100/hour” work.
6. People aren’t much interested in what you sell; they’re interested in what they get. They’re even more interested in how they’re treated. If you really want to know, ask them “How do you like to be treated?” How do YOU like to be treated?
7. Don’t fall in love with your products and services (this one really pushed buttons). Instead, fall in love with what you do for people. Sell the love.
8. Put the game in motion. Get clear on what you do, why you do it, and who you’re looking for. Take a Millionaire to Lunch. Tell everyone what you do, why you do it and who you’re looking for.
9. Residual income will become the backbone of the NEW Game of Money. Network marketing will be the residual income vehicle of choice for anyone who doesn’t write, act, sing or make movies. There are few choices to generate residual income. There is no better residual income model than network marketing. Why? Low risk, high yield, tax-favored, and the most reliable and predictable source of residual income in the new game of money.
10. Ask yourself, “Are YOU your best (or most profitable) product?” Or might you be worth more through collaboration with someone else? In other words, are you a jockey or a horse? Are you the rider or the ride? Do you work for someone else, or do others work for you? Riding a good horse is as important as being a good jockey. The best jockeys ride the best horses. What’s your active, passive and residual income horse?
11. Bonus Distinction: THE Ultimate Profit Model™ maximizes the bottom line by generating new revenue with little or no expense. If you’re self-employed or run a Fortune 500 company, THE Ultimate Profit Model will generate more income with less cost.
Read about Ultimate Profit Model here.
In the New Game, profit is everybody’s business. Make it yours.
Mitch, CEO – Chief Encouragement Officer™
10 NEW Game Distinctions
IF THERE WERE EVER A TIME FOR NEW, IT’S NOW! Comments Off on IF THERE WERE EVER A TIME FOR NEW, IT’S NOW!
Welcome to…
The New Game™!
My name is Mitch Axelrod.
If you’re ready to play a new game of business, money and life, I encourage you to get in the game, jump on the field, step up to the plate, and swing the bat.
My aim is to help you prepare your game plan, assemble your team and play to the best of your ability.
It’s time to play by new rules, design a new strategy, practice new economics, seek a new mission, send a new message, chant a new mantra, find new solutions, acquire new skills, build a new model and generate new money.
These are the 10 core principles to play and win The NEW Game of Business!™
September 11 is always a special day; it’s Mom’s birthday. That day took on a whole new significance in 2001. September 11, 2004 was the first birthday without Mom. She passed on March 22, 2004. Mom was a giving person, always sharing what she had with others. She encouraged her children to be generous, and modeled it by her actions.
Mom’s spirit was to celebrate life. To honor her spirit and her birthday, on September 11 I decided to invite anyone who wants one to download a digital copy of my book, The NEW Game of Business.
There is one request I have that I hope won’t offend you (some people have called me horrible things for this):
To download the book and read it, I ask you first to “PLAY it Forward!”
I ask you to share it with other people who you feel would appreciate it, read it, benefit from it, and not be offended that you would send them a gift without their permission. As I said to one highly critical opponent of PLAY it Forward, “It’s a game. You can pass, or you can play.”
If you’d like to download and read a digital version of, “The NEW Game of Business™” visit our home page and click the BIG RED BUTTON on the right that says, “PLAY it Forward!”
I encourage you to play the new game, and I invite you to play it forward.
Share the principles with as many people who want to discover them. The more people who get in the game, the better the game gets.
The old game is over. The NEW Game is here.
Spread the word. Read the book. PLAY it Forward!
Are you ready to PLAY the NEW Game?
I’ll meet you on the field.
Mitch Axelrod, Author, “The NEW Game of Business™!”
CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer™), “PLAY it Forward!”
P.S. Click this link to Play it Forward and Read The NEW Game of Business