Successful Blog

What if We Chose a Different Color?

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Don’t Decide in Anger

Change the World!

Awhile back I wrote about stories I would make up about the grains of the mahogany in the headboard of my childhood bed.

The wavy lines were roads to villages where people had feelings that came in colors — anger went from red to orange.

And in the villages, they couldn’t see when in my mind I’d change the universe. On joyful days, I’d see the wood in shades of purple. On quiet days, it would be blues to greens. Rarely there would be yellows. On angry, lonely days I’d see it go from red to orange.

Red to orange. How I remember that feeling.

Anger is a lonely place.

In the response, a friend, brad4d, spoke of wisdom and anger…

“Wisdom entereth not into a malicious mind” ~ Rabelais ~ means to me, anger erases wisdom.

How skewed my thinking becomes when I feel angry. I lose sight. I lose perspective. I forget other people. I lose the wisdom and love of a lifetime. I lose the person I want to be.

Most times, I’m far from anger. Those days I’m a decent human being.

I know we couldn’t do it forever — I know we couldn’t all do it simultaneously.

But . . .

What if just once a whole bunch chose a different color? What if instead of the red of anger we chose the gold of compassion? How wise might the world start to be?

We can change the world, just like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

The Mic Is On: We're Talking About the Future!

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It’s Like Open Mic Only Different

The Mic Is On

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.

Anything about the Future. . .

Here’s a few ideas to get us started:

  • Trends
  • Technology
  • Social Media
future.jpg

And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)

Oh, and bring links about the future to share!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Let's Talk Future!

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Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

Join Us Tonight

You know, what’s going to happen.

We can talk about future trends, technology, social media and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.

Oh, and bring links about the future that you want to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves

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SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Customers Get to Pick

insideout logo

It’s a rule of childhood. Every kid seems to know it. I get to pick my favorite. You don’t. Some folks, as grownups, forget that simple truth. — they make us feel like we should let them pick for us.

That’s called the hard sell.

Ever been told, ‘You HAVE TO see this new product. You WILL LOVE our new service!” ?

What’s your response, right now, reading that? Mine is “You don’t know that! In fact, now I’m predisposed to like it just a little less.”

We’re hype adverse. Put that together with these natural human responses.

  • No one likes to be told what to think.
  • No one likes to lose the right to pick their favorite.
  • No one likes someone else to decide what they need.

We know other folks don’t get to pick — so when they talk as if they do, we back off. If you’ve met a sales rep who brings out these responses in you, it’s no wonder if you are having mixed feelings about taking on a sales role for what you do.

How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves

The question then is: How do we communicate an offer — a product or service — that we’re thrilled about and we’ve done all of the work to know folks will like it too, if only they’ll try it out?

Here’s what to do. You can do this in text or in person. (In text, point 2 looks a lot like an FAQ.)

  1. Offer a taste — a movie trailer. Make it a little one — spoon sized like at Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors. It might be one example of what you do, a case study, a blog post that you keep for sending to clients, a free weekly seminar, a phone call with you. Whatever you choose. Keep it concise and tightly focused on only one idea. It’s only one scene from your movie — overcome a tendency we have to give the plot away. (Often having the taste as an option makes people feel secure enough to buy without it.)
  2. Make everything about THEM. Ask questions and listen. Hardly say anythng. Be a verifier. Repeat back what you heard, “I heard you say you’re looking for . . .” Ask questions in that way until you’ve helped them draw a complete picture of your product or service. “I also hear you want . . . and a . . . If I put that together I get a . . . with the features of . . . . Does that sound like the ideal that you wish someone would offer someday?”
  3. Listen to see how his or her needs line them up with your offer. When you see that, you’ll have the confidence to say so. “We actually do that! Would you like me to tell you about it?” (Don’t worry if the needs and your offer don’t line up, just say so and don’t try to make things work.)
  4. Talk to the customer/client unemotionally about what you have to offer. You’ll know that you’re going somewhere when the person you’re talking to starts selling you on why it’s a good match. That’s when it’s time to start listening again.

Letting the customer pick is the same as when we were kids. We know what we need and why. We’ll even justify for you why it works for us, in essence selling ourselves on why we should buy.

What do you need to give this a try?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to work with you on these three easy steps, you’ll find her number on the
Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call her now!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Personal Identity: ROI of Behavior in Business and Life

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Identity and Relationships

relationships button

I read this on John Henry Clippinger’s blog for his book, A Crowd of One. Clippinger was quoting David Brooks.

Even David Brooks – conservative U of Chicago grad -in a recent editorial in the New York Times – acknowledges – begrudgingly that a new narrative is in the making..

“The logic of evolution explains why people vie for status, form groups, fall in love and cherish their young. It holds that most everything that exists does so for a purpose. If some trait, like emotion, can cause big problems, then it must also provide bigger benefits, because nature will not expend energy on things that don’t enhance the chance of survival.

Nature doesn’t do things that don’t pay off.

People don’t either.

Yet the payoffs we go for don’t always enhance our chance of survival. Think of these people

  • Stevie who stays in a bad job because she thinks that no one else will hire her.
  • Tyrone who shuns a formal resume when going for a job he needs
  • Wally who tweaks the blog all day rather than trying to contact potential clients.
  • Gerald who is cranky and complaining and treats most people — those who work for him, those who sell to him, and his customers — as if they are stupid
  • Dot who says “I’m too ____ to learn how to do that” though she is brilliant.

    • All of these “example people” seem involved in behaviors that are keeping them stuck in less than ideal situations. Yet, in every human action we realize some return on how we invest ourselves and our time.

    What payoffs do you see in these situations? How might you convince one to look for a stronger investment — one that will give them a positive return?

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

    Related
    About that Word, Brand, that Keeps Coming Up
    Finding Your Frequency in Business and in Life
    See the Successful Series page Brand You Series.

    Zude Super Review: Internet Revolution? 6 Experts Weigh In and a Grownup-Kid Thinks

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    A Super Review — What’s That?

    Zude

    Jim McNeil and I played around with Zude for almost 2 hours Friday afternoon. While we talked, I heard the teacher in me say, “Most folks won’t see how this has the potential to change the way we interact with information and each other. Communication is fun again.”

    This weekend I’ve been reading the pre-launch reviews. I face my keys and realize that the most useful review is not one person’s reporting of features and facts. So, in the spirit of Zude, I’m building a super review by gathering the relevant insights and information from experts all over the Internet. I’ll throw my grown-up kid thoughts in along the way.

    6 Experts Weigh In

    I can’t help but begin with the way that Zude was introduced to me.
    “Zude is a pretty cool tool that allows anyone—we like to say “grandmas to geeks, coders to kids”–to build a website, from scratch, just by dragging and dropping objects from anywhere on the web. Items like photos, text, videos, even widgets can be built into your page, even if you only know how to click a mouse.” said Matthew Kraft when he extended an invitation to talk with Jim McNiel (CEO) about the product.

    zude dot

    How cool Is THAT?!!

    “McNiel, CEO, and Steve Repetti, CTO of Fifth Generation Systems, “dropped by my table at the Web 2.0 Expo to show off a very cool Web site tool called Zude. It was the coolest thing I saw at the Expo. —Robert Scoble, May 16, 2007 (check out the video

    I’m right there with Robert and Robin. WAY Cool is my answer.

    zude dot

    So what makes it cool? Well . . .

    “But what’s cool is that you can also import entire web pages, and by dragging the URL into your Zude page you are presented with a choice of how you would like to import the content – as an RSS feed, a full-page rendering of the website, an embedded version of the web-page or even a button linking directly back to the source page.

    Zude gives you the chance to quickly and easily bring in all kinds of content (dealing with intellectual property issues falls on your own conscience) and quickly remix it into new pages. As such it serves as nice way to aggregate content whether for your own research or future reference, or to share with friends.” —Robin Good, Master New Media

    Finally, life on the web is moving to seamless. (Intellectual property here is also an issue of conscience — or Kinkos saying they won’t make copies.)

    zude dot

    Who’s going to love it?

    “Although it is unquestionably one of the most revolutionary services to hit the Web in a long time — one that, once out of beta, should prove to be equally usable and useful to Grandma as it is powerful to hackers, corporate developers, knowledge workers, and business analysts — once you’re done playing around with Fifth Generation System’s Zude.com, you’ll probably have as tough a time as I am putting your finger on how to categorize it.” —David Berlind, ZDNet

    Why can’t it be a category of one? Cirque du Soleil is. People love what satisfies their needs, wants, and desires.

    zude dot

    How does it work?
    “Essentially, you create a free Zude account and start with a blank canvas, where you can drag and drop anything from the rest of the Web. When logged in, you simply open a new browser window and grab any piece of content you would like – a photo, a video, a widget, or even an entire Web page – and drop it on your Zude page. From there, it can be manipulated, resized, or even given functions such as alt text or hyperlinks. Thus, Zude can serve as anything form a simple personal site, to a tribute to your favorite band, or become the “ultimate mashup” where you combine information from all of your social networking profiles, blogs, widgets, and favorite web sites.” —Adam Ostrow, Mashable

    Ever been stuck in the code of a blog theme?

    Zude is like playing in the backyard when we were kids. The focus is what and why — the how comes naturally.

    Take a look. Here’s to places folks have already made — enlarge them to take a look. Here’s a link to the LizStrauss Zude page.

    Zude Thumbnails

    zude dot

    How is Zude different from the rest?
    “There are two main elements that separate Zude from Netvibes and Pageflakes. Zude is not simply a homepage where favorites are visited and utilized, it has an unlimited depth of possible pages and uses. Secondly, Zude uses a sophisticated and fast cross domain drag-and-drop aspect to simplify and dynamically change the way people add content to their pages.” —Phil Butler, Read, Write, Web

    It’s fun to move things around (check out the Monty Python-like image library), and it’s deep enough to hold up to professional intent.

    zude dot

    What makes it work?
    “Content modules are not widgets, but capsules that can hold any webpage code (HTML, Javascript, Embeds). Zude isn’t aiming to create its own widget standard, but simply allow people to host embedded widgets from other sites on their platform. At launch each of these modules will be taggable, ratable, and sharable, meaning if you see a module you like on another site, you can grab it for yourself (like WebJam). The release will also feature their first module with dynamic content, blogging.” —Nick Gonzales, Tech Crunch

    All that and a wireless mouse coupled with an idea or two.

    zude dot

    What possible weaknesses do the big guys see?
    “The interface is fairly painful to navigate at first, at least in Firefox (it’s supposedly better in Internet Explorer; it didn’t work at all in Safari), but with the end goal of putting together a custom webpage, it’s still easier to figure out than Dreamweaver.

    It’s also easy to make a really ugly, graphic-heavy web site, replete with clashing colors. As we learned from MySpace, self-expression isn’t always pretty.” — Adena DeMonte, Giga Om

    “My only concern is that the platform is too flexible and that users faced with too many choices will shy away from the service.” —Nick Gonzales, Tech Crunch

    Kind of sounds like the first release of desktop publishing, doesn’t it? Look where we are with that idea now . . .

    Conclusions of a Super Review from 1 Grownup Kid

    Why did everyone fall in love with the iPod?
    It wasn’t only the technology.

    The IPod worked because it was fun. When folks used an iPod, it changed how they felt about themselves and how they experienced the world.

    Where are the people in the tech reviews? The facts alone don’t tell the whole story. If they did, the Edsel would have been a hit and the VWBeetle would have been a bomb.
    Customers choose what works by what works to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.

    Work, play, who we are — surely not perfect and it takes a few minutes to find your feet — sounds like life to me.

    Try Zude. I’d really like to know what you think.

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz!!