Define, Define and Find!

I was at our 1-day Exposure Warrior recently and really took note of how many business owners don’t really understand how to create an effective message to tell people what they do in their business. When someone approaches you at a networking meeting or some such kind of social function, you need to be able to tell them what you do in a very short punchy sentence. In fact, you need to be able to write down what you do on the back of a matchbox. That means it has to be short to the point and informative so people do not to spend large amounts of time understanding what you do!

I’ve put this into a very simple to understand process!

It’s called define, define and find…

The reason why most business owners cannot tell people exactly what they do is because they really don’t know themselves exactly what they do. This is the first define! You need to be very confident and clearly define what product or service that you are delivering, it needs to be crystal clear in your mind so that when somebody else asks what you do, you can accurately portray and let them know what you do without having to spend minutes describing or convincing them of what you do. If they have a confused look on their face after you have introduced your business – then you have a lot of work to do to get your message crystal clear!

Is your business well defined and do you know exactly what product and/or service that you are delivering? It is critical that you get this done in order to define exactly who your customers are and your target audience is?

This is the second define! Once you know what product or service you are delivering and have it well defined, what you want to do for them, and what solutions your products or services deliver to them, then you can go out and find the markets that you are after!

Most business owners and entrepreneurs never accurately define their product or service, the market that they are after and where their market hangs out. In many cases it is like going out from your business every day and looking for clients in all the wrong places – you may be networking, attending meetings, education groups, etc., yet you do not even know if you market that you are targeting even attends these events.

I had a student yesterday sit down and write out exactly who they were targeting. Once they had completed this I asked him what kind of events he was attending, and what the demographics of the people at those events were. He was amazed and realized that the events that he was attending were not where his target market hangs out.

Take the time to define your products and services, which markets you are targeting with them, and go out and find them and hang out in the right areas where your target market hangs out.

There is no such things as “Having a BAD Day”

Taking things personally is one thing, but how long you hold onto these things is 100% your choice!

You’ve heard many people say I am having a bad day. My question is does it have to be a bad day or can it just be a bad moment, a bad hour or a bad half day? It is truly your choice of how long you hold onto these given situations. In fact, you should be looking at it as not “bad” but what can I LEARN from these given situations?

A good example is when you got to visit a client and you anticipate taking their order or signing the contract, and things do not go the way you thought they would. The client ends up beating you down on price, not giving you the terms that you want, or possibly just not signing the contract and you walk away with no order. For many people they take these situations extremely personally, when you should be truly be asking yourself, what can I learn from the situation and what was my contribution to the given situation? Simple things like the following:

• How can I prepare more effective the next time?
• What research could I have done to improve the situation?
• What needs to be done to ensure it happens next time?

If you have done all of the above and you still don’t get the contract, do not beat yourself up but rather say “NEXT” and move onto somebody who has the greater potential of becoming your customer.

What I really want you to get from this, is that how you approach every situation will determine the outcome and results you achieve. You can either look at everything as a learning situation or experience, take what you need and decide to move on or you can let it destroy your day, week, month, etc! From my experience this will be the demise of your business, the sooner you understand that every situation that arises in your business is because of the choices that you have made the better!

Holding onto things and taking them personally kills productivity, creativity and profitability!