Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these. Everything that happens in life is a matter of probabilities. There is a probability that virtually anything will happen. There is a probability that you will live a long, happy, healthy and prosperous life. There is a probability that you will drive safely to and from work tomorrow. Actuaries and statisticians can determine these probabilities with considerable accuracy. The entire world of insurance is based on these numbers, as well as much of the world of finance and investments. Most self-made millionaires in America are entrepreneurs, business executives or self-employed professionals. By becoming knowledgeable, proficient and skilled in the operations of successful business, you dramatically increase the probability that you will earn a lot of money, achieve financial independence and become a millionaire yourself in the years ahead. As it happens, all business skills and behaviors are learnable through study and practice. In this chapter, you will learn
the most important habits practiced by the most successful businesspeople in every area. Your job is to adopt these habits and then to apply them in all your business activities.
Focus on Marketing and Sales
Every business is essentially a marketing organization. The role of the manager is to innovate and market, because these are the only two activities that create and keep customers, and ultimately generate financial results. Surprisingly enough, most managers spend much of their time on activities that do not involve innovation and marketing.
In one study, they asked business managers, ‘How important is the marketing function to your company?’ Most executives replied, ‘Very important.’ They then analyzed the time usage of these managers and found that only 11% of the working week was actually devoted to marketing. Everything else was taken up in paperwork, meetings, and administration and non-marketing activities. It is important for you to develop the habit of thinking about marketing and sales results most of the time. Think about your customers most of the time. Think about the things that you could do, every single day, to make your products and services more attractive to more customers. When I consult with companies on their marketing, I encourage them to establish a basic mission for their sales activities. One of the best overall missions is this:
‘Our mission is to get our customers to buy from us rather than from our
competitors, to buy again because they are highly satisfied with their initial
purchase, and then to tell and bring their friends to buy from us as well.’
The Customer Is King
Today in our society, the customer is king, or queen. The customer decides our success or failure. The customer determines our level of growth or decline. Satisfying our customer must be the central focus and habitual ways of thinking of every person in the organization.Weall have one boss, the customer. And she can fire us any time she wants by simply deciding to shop somewhere else.
Customers buy just one thing: improvement. The reason that a customer buys from you is to improve his or her life or work in some way. Your job as a businessperson is to convince your prospect that he or she will be better off by buying your product or service from you, than he or she would from buying it from anyone else. Marketing, sales and business strategy is as simple and as straightforward as that. The customer is always right. If the customer does not buy from you, or even worse, buys from your competitor, it is because in the customer’s perception, your Offerings are not attractive enough to induce the buying decision. For this reason, you must develop the ‘outside in’ habit of dealing with your customers. You must continually look at your products and services, and what you offer, from the outside. You must see yourself through the eyes of your customers, so that you can make whatever changes are necessary to cause your customer to prefer buying from you rather than from someone else.
Think Like A Entrepreneur
Develop the habit of thinking like an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is like a
guerilla fighter in the world of capitalism. The entrepreneur has several qualities that enable him or her to start and grow a successful business against entrenched competition. Perhaps the two most important habits you can develop in entrepreneurial thinking are those of speed and flexibility.
Develop the habit of moving quickly on opportunities or problems, and of doing things quickly that satisfy your customers. Large companies tend to move slowly, but entrepreneurs have the advantage of speed. Today in our society, time is a critical element of decision making in buying any product or service. The faster you can serve your customers, the more valuable and attractive they will consider you to be. Develop the habit of moving fast in selling and serving customers and you will gain an edge in any market.
In addition, entrepreneurial thinking requires the habit of flexibility. Try. Try again. Then be willing to try something else. Remember that most things that you try in business will not succeed the first time, or even the second or third time. But the Law of Probabilities reigns supreme. The more different things you try, and the faster you try them, the more likely it is that you will discover the right method or process to make the sales and achieve the goals that you set for yourself. Keep asking, ‘If I was not doing this in this way, knowing what I now know, would I start it up again?’ If the answer is ‘no,’ be prepared to change quickly and try something else. Most entrepreneurial businesses eventually succeed by doing something different from what they first started. They succeed by offering different products and services to different customers than they initially planned when the business began. One of the marks of successful businesspeople is that they remain open to new ideas. They accept feedback and make quick course corrections when they find that something is not working as they expected.
No One Better or Smarter
Remember, no one is smarter than you, and no one is better than you. If someone is doing better than you are today, it is because they have developed a particular habit of thinking and acting before you have. And whatever other people have learned,
you can learn as well. The very fact that there are many hundreds of thousands of men and women who have started from nothing and become millionaires in business and entrepreneurship means that you can achieve these goals for yourself, if you just learn how. The only limits on your results are the limits that you place on yourself with your own thinking. By developing the thinking habits of successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople, you will eventually overcome all of your obstacles and difficulties, achieve all your financial goals, and become financially
Independent. Nothing can stop you.
By: Article Pro
If over time you’re arriving at 9:10 a.m. and leaving at 4 p.m. (with plenty of breaks in between), your reputation will suffer. This also goes for dress codes. Business casual is up to interpretation, but ripped jeans and concert tees.
Why Are Tiger Woods, Oprah, and Bill Gates Uncomfortable?
The same is true in all realms of business. Highly successful professionals in every industry display a relentless drive toward constant improvement. And according to Gordon, this is just one of the eleven key traits and habits that … If you calculate 162 games a year, 4 or 5 bats a game, the difference between a .250 batter and a .350 batter is only 1.7 hits a week. It’s the little things that separate the best from the rest.
Ask the Readers: How to Let Go of Control
One exercise I like to do is make a list of everything that’s on my mind, all of the ongoing and unfinished business so to speak. Then pick the top 2-3 things that really demand my attention and shelve or just not do the rest. … when you get completely out of control, your boat is filling with water, you are getting beaten and thrown around and you think you are about to die. All you have to do is find stable ground. 3/4 up the back going the same speed and direction.
Essential Habits of Article Marketing Experts
Many top article marketers also distribute their articles automatically, giving them more time to write quality articles and increasing their article’s.
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This post was written by admin on June 7, 2009
