What Supermarkets Know That Network Marketers Need to Learn, Part II

Hello again...welcome back.

In Part I, I was talking about a supermarket that tried to drum up customers for their store a bit differently than it usually would. For three months they decided to advertise strictly by word of mouth, meaning no TV or radio, no internet, no newspaper ads, no circulars, no postcards or any other type of mailings that they would normally do. Every employee, from stock personnel to cashiers to custodial staff, to everyone in between, was sent out by turns to meet with the general public in many different places far and wide to talk with people, inviting them to dropping by and see what their store had to offer. Anything went, they were told, as long as it got the desired result, which was getting people to walk through the doors. Because after all, everybody had to spend money on groceries eventually, so speak to as many people as they could, since everyone they met was a potential customer for their store.

When we left off, I had gotten to the point where the supermarket was tabulating the results of their three month experiment to compare the numbers with the prior three months' activity...

I bet you can tell me what the results were without my having to say a word. If you guessed that sales at the store during those three months went DOWN instead of up, you would be correct. People stayed away in droves, and sales of the store's items in every category dropped.  Like a stone.  If you're surprised at this result, you shouldn't be. I can explain the reason for this dramatic reversal with two words:

HUMAN NATURE

That's right, human nature. Here's what I mean:

Long story short, people don't like to be sold, they like to buy.  People want to do things that feel as if it were their idea.  Not yours, and not mine. If you convince people to do things they're not sure they want to do (or are sure they DON'T want to do), they will resist because they feel that somehow they've been conned, they've been had, that you put one over on them, taking unfair advantage of them somehow. Even if it isn't true, and you really did give them something of value, they won't be able to fully appreciate it because somehow they'll feel violated, that they cannot trust you. And it doesn't mater if you really do have their best intentions at heart, they won't see it that way because you didn't allow them to see it for themselves.

(ALERT: I just dropped a major hint bomb on you. I hope you caught it)

Of course you realize there isn't a single supermarket that advertises in the manner I described in the three month experiment. It is sheer lunacy to even consider doing so. What do they do instead? I'll tell you what they do:

They advertise through the mail, in newspapers, online, on TV and radio...AND through word of mouth. Yes, they engage in word of mouth advertising, BUT...they let their customers do the bulk of the word of mouth advertising for them. The big mistake many marketers make, and especially network marketers, is in making word of mouth advertising the main focus of their promotion efforts. Small wonder why it can be a struggle at times. You won't get very far spending the majority of your time trying in vain to talk people into liking you, trusting you, or buying whatever you're selling, no matter how much they may need it.

By contrast, supermarkets advertise to attract people, whether it's for the daily or weekly specials, the convenience of their location or store hours, the availability of certain items their customers may want or need. Then they let customers walk through the doors and decide for themselves what they'd like to buy, and enjoy the shopping experience for themselves. They allow consumers to form their own opinions about the buying experience without putting words in their mouth. No force feeding here. The only things they may solicit from the customer is feedback, usually in the form of telephone or online surveys, but again that is left up to the customer's discretion, at a time and place of the customer's choosing.

So to sum up we can learn the following about "super" marketing:

* Position yourself in a location that is convenient and available to the people who want and need what you have to offer

* Make your potential customers an offer that will attract them to view all your other offerings

* Let your prospect decide for themselves what they want and need, WITHOUT your involvement, AND:

* Once you have done all you can do to ensure they have had a pleasant buying experience with you, allow them to spread the word about your business of their own free will; trust that they can (and will) do so without your input or undue influence.

Let me remind you once again, everybody likes to buy, nobody likes to be sold. Think long term; don't risk turning people off over the long run for the sake of having too narrow a focus on short term results.

"Networking is more about 'farming' than it is about 'hunting.' It's about cultivating relationships."
- Dr. Ivan Misner, BNI

Think about it. We're talking about human nature, which has much to do with perception. No matter how good your product or service is, if people perceive that you cannot provide what they want or need, they have no problem doing business with someone else, even if that someone is offering the same product or service that you're offering. If the other guy does a better job of delivering that product or service, you'll be left holding the bag. It's that simple.

Well, that's all for now. I trust this has been helpful, and that you'll give it some consideration the next time you have to pick up some groceries yourself, whether a little or a lot. Use the "super" market to build your network market and next thing you know, people will chase after you like they're the bears and you're the honey.

Okay, gotta run.  Until next time remember people:

Keep it simple...  See ya!

What Supermarkets Know That Network Marketers Need to Learn, Part I

They have been around for years; you know them well. They can be found in your neighborhood, or somewhere close by. You don't always need it, but it's good to know it's available, whether you need to pick up a couple of quick last minute items or you have to make a full-blown buying blitz for the sake of stocking all the shelves in your refrigerator/freezer, pantry, closets, cabinets, whatever.

I'm talking of course about your local grocery store, convenience store, supermarket. Whatever you call them, they are available, ready to serve, happy to meet whatever need you have that they can fulifll. For the most part they're pretty successful. They're good at bringing people in the doors, and don't have a problem attracting customers. They seem to make it look so simple: you open the doors, and there are people standing right outside, ready to walk the aisles, choose whatever they want, and go to the registers to pay for their selections. No big deal, right?

Well actually it is a big deal, and I'll explain why shortly. But first I want to present to you a scenario. For just a moment I want you to imagine this:

Suppose you local supermarket decided to try an experiment for the next three months. Let's suppose that each employee, from the store managers, to the cashiers, to the stock personnel, to the custodial staff, and everyone in between was given an assignment: they were to take turns during the week going into all the local neighborhoods to drum up interest for their store. But instead of passing out flyers, postcards, circulars, or any other promotional material, they were told to talk with anybody they met on the street at any time, anywhere they happened to run into them: at the movies, gas stations, post offices, libraries, schools and universities, day care facilities, churches, parks, family gatherings, drug stores, restaurants...you name it, that's where they went, up to and including other supermarkets to sing the praises of their store in an effort to convince everyone they met to walk through their doors and give them a try. Anything goes as long as they bring in new people and the end justifies the means (so they say) because after all, everyone's a customer with money to spend and everybody needs groceries, right...?

And just make things interesting, let's say that this word of mouth campaign is the ONLY form of advertising the employees are permitted to use for the entire three month period. No TV. No radio. No newspapers or magazines, no flyers, circulars, or postcards in the mail. Just word of mouth is used to promote the store. That's all. Nothing else. Everything else is 100% OFF LIMITS for the duration of this experiment.

At the end of the three month trial the numbers are crunched to compare sales activity during the experiment with sales from the prior three months. And when they looked at the numbers, do you know what they found...?

I'll tell you what they found...

...when you come back next time to read the conclusion...

Like they said back in the day,

Be sure to tune in next time,
Same Bat Time,
Same Bat Channel...

Y'all come back now, y'hear...?

Until we meet again, always remember:

Keep it simple, folks...

See ya!

And heeeeeeeere's JOHNNY...!!!!

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people to become interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

In my humble opinion, no one on television better demonstrated the power of that classic quote than the legendary host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson. He was the undisputed king of late night talk television, holding court for 30 years at NBC's "beautiful downtown Burbank" studios in southern California. His shows lasted anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, leaving his audience and insomniacs across the nation (it was a late night show after all) in stitches with his many famous comedy routines interspersed throughout the program, along with performances by special guests, followed by short interviews afterward. At the time of Carson's passing in 2005, he was revered by many in the entertainment business as one of the true giants in the history of television.

You may be wondering how it could be possible that a man from humble beginnings in the midwestern United States could be transformed into such a popular figure in the medium of the small screen, despite the fact that he was considered a very private man according to some, extremely shy by others. The answer isn't really all that difficult to determine. If you ever get a chance, watch some of Johnny's performances on DVD, or even YouTube if you have the chance, and you'll see what I mean. Let me explain.

On many of his shows you'll see something he does that is very simple. Besides his monologue at the beginning of the show, besides his comedy routines where he is the center of attention while interacting with other members of the show's cast, there is something else he does that endeared him to so many people. You see, Johnny was not the first host the Tonight Show ever had, but he is by far the most memorable, so much so that many who have stepped into the host's chair after his departure in 1992 still point to him as one of their greatest influences, from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon, and everyone in between.

Johnny had what was called a "conversational" approach to his interviews with guests. He'd ask them a question and sit bit, allowing his guest to do the majority of the talking. He would listen intently to whatever they would say, responding every so often, inviting them to lead the dialogue. Long story short, he got his guests to talk about themselves, and the more he let them know he was interested, the more they would talk, allowing them, and himself, and by extension the audience, to become more engaged in what was being said. He would draw people out of their shells, allow them to "let their hair down," so to speak, and in so doing, gave them a chance to show the people in the audience (and those watching on television) that his guests were human, they were likable, and they were people with whom anybody watching could relate as easily as if they were talking at the backyard fence or the kitchen table over a cup of coffee.

It was his ease at mastering the art of conversation, getting people to open up about themselves that made Johnny Carson such a standout personality, so much so that it was considered an honor to be invited to perform on the Tonight Show stage, and the highest honor indeed to be invited to sit in the guest's chair when your act was finished, whether you sang, played an instrument, or did a comedy monologue of your own. Anybody who was anybody in the world of entertainment wanted to be seen on The Tonight Show with Carson; it was a major feather in your cap to accomplish such a feat. The biggest names in the world of entertainment and other fields (sports, politics, theater, etc.) were drawn to Johnny Carson like moths to a flame.

And it is Johnny Carson's mastery of conversation skills that can help you in every area of your life, whether in personal relationships or in business.  The key is to make people realize that you have a genuine interest in the things that are important to them, rather than convincing them to take an interest in you. People want to know, more than anything else, that you care about them. It is said that the sweetest sound anyone can hear is the sound of their name on your lips.

It's not a difficult skill to learn, once you realize something I learned growing up, which I was able to successfully pass on to my children:

God gives us two ears and ONE mouth for a reason...think about it...

That's all for now, folks. Until we meet again, remember...

Keep it simple...  See ya!

What You Can Learn From Your Shadow

If you click on the video above, you'll see a very popular tune sung by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. The song is entitled "Me and My Shadow," and if you listen to it two or three times, you may learn something very important about building relationships, whether in life or in business.
As a side note (and a bit of a hint), I recall reading some of the writings of Dr. David Burns. In one of his books, "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," he told a story of a gentleman who was eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and got a chuckle when he opened his fortune cookie at the end of the meal. He got a message which said,

A woman is like your shadow. Follow her, she flees. Flee from her, she follows...

Now I'm not going to get gender specific here and debate whether the message on that piece of paper is true or false. That really doesn't matter, but the principle of the message is, the part about the shadow. Let me explain.

Everybody has a shadow, and it goes with you wherever you go, whether you want it to or not. You have no choice in the matter, and you have no say. Whatever you do, it does. It is what it is. But there is something you can learn from your shadow, a lesson that is very valuable if you apply it correctly.  And the lesson is this:

Look at what happens when your shadow is in front of you. If you chase your shadow you will never catch it; it always runs away from you. Don't take my word for it, prove it to yourself. The next time you're outside and the sun casts your shadow ahead of you, start walking after it and see if you can catch it. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you can't; no matter how fast you run after it, your shadow will always be just out of reach.

But let's flip the script a bit and say that your shadow is behind you instead. And you try to walk away from your shadow. Go ahead, give it a try. On second thought, don't bother. You won't outrun your shadow; it's attached to you. Wherever you go, it goes. It's attached to you and there's nothing you can do to get away from it. It's stuck to you like glue, and will follow you to the end of your days like a bear with the scent of honey in its nostrils. Nothing you can do to part with it.

So why not take advantage of it? The principle of the shadow, I mean.

Why not, instead of chasing, hounding, harassing friends, family, acquaintances, associates to take a look at the goods, services, products, opportunities, gifts, talents, abilities, you have to offer to the point where they avoid you like the plague (both literally and figuratively), take steps to make yourself so intriguing, so interesting, so fascinating, so thought provoking, so worthy of discussion, that people are hanging on your every word like a dangling participle, or like people used to do decades ago with long running television programs that ran from early fall through late spring of the following year, then had to "suffer" through the entire summer waiting to see what would happen next with the next new episode...? As I recall these shows would have season ending episodes called "cliffhangers," because they left the audience hanging with baited breath, wondering what was going to happen when the new season would start in the next few months.

How would YOU like to be a long-running series, having people in your circle who can't wait to tune in with you to find out what you're going to say or do next because they know that they're going to learn something valuable that will help them with their life or their business?

Would you like to know how that's done...?

Well, tune in next time and I'll show you how to get people following you like they're your shadows. You may have so many people seeking a word of wisdom from you that you'll need to go incognito from time to time like a rock star.

And not to date myself too much, but I'll sign off like a couple of very popular television shows did way back in the day :

Tune in next time,
Same Bat time,
Same Bat Channel...

Y'all come back now, y'hear...?

And remember folks as always...

Keep it simple...

See ya!

A Fishing Lesson

I remember talking with a relative not long ago who was reminiscing about her childhood, and all the fun she had with her father. She said her favorite time spent with him was when he took their whole family fishing. It wasn't about the number of fish they caught (there were many), or about the work they had to do to clean and cook the fish (which I imagine took at least as long as it took to catch the fish, if not longer), it was about the time they all got to share together as a family. And from what I understand it was a rather large family by today's standards: seven or eight children, if my math is correct.

In the middle of our conversation I asked her a curious question with an obvious answer (you'll see why it was so obvious in a moment).  I said, "When you went out on the pond with your dad, did you use any bait to catch the fish?" She said, "Certainly." I asked, "What kind of bait did you use?" She said they used worms, of course. So I asked why she would do that, knowing full well what the answer would be. That being said, I want you to pay close attention to her answer.

She said they used worms to catch the bait because..."that's what the fish want..."

"So you're telling me you wouldn't try to catch any fish with one of those chicken sandwiches you like so much..?" I asked.

"No, of course not," she said.

"Why not?"

"Because they wouldn't want a chicken sandwich...they like worms," she said.

I hope you're not reading this and dismissing this conversation as idle chit-chat; it's anything but, if you know what to pay attention to.  There's a lesson there that too many people so easily overlook. We spend so much time trying to get people to like us, trying to get along with people, trying to get them on our side, and we fail miserably.  Want to know why?  I'll tell you why.  We fail because we're trying to get people not only to like us, but to become MORE LIKE US. That's a roundabout way of saying to others, "I won't even consider liking you unless you're more like I am," then we sit around and scratch our heads when people walk away from us with all due speed (my dad liked to call it "advancing to the rear") and whenever we come around them, or they should have the (mis)fortune to find themselves around us, they do everything short of twisting themselves into a pretzel to avoid us as if we were the plague. And many of us still don't get it.

Here's the fishing lesson I spoke of, the one which guarantees you'll catch fish (eventually), and will help you find success in your everyday life, if you apply it properly:

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." 
- Dale Carnegie, Author "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

In an upcoming post I'll share how a famous television personality used the wisdom of Dale Carnegie and applied the fishing lesson I described to become legendary in the entertainment industry. Nine years after his passing, his name is still revered by those who have followed in his famous footsteps.

That's all for now...hope you were able to apply the lesson here. It's not hard to find if you know what you seek.  Gotta run, but until next we meet:

Keep it simple...

See ya!

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Why Would You Ever Teach a Pig to Sing?

I remember taking road trips to my Grandma Pauline's house in North Carolina when I was growing up. She lived way out in the backwoods, so far away from civilization it seemed that you had to go toward town just to find the country, or so I was told.

The one thing I remember about all those trips down south, above everything else, was the sight of the hogs in the pen: all the grunting, running from here to there, and of course their favorite part of the day, when they would get "slopped"...it was feeding time, and all the hogs were in a frenzy fighting among themselves to get to the food. And of course it goes without saying that besides eating, their favorite activity was wallowing in the mud all day to keep cool.  Just grunting, getting slopped, and wallowing...that was the lot of a pig's life, and he was quite content with it. Had no need for anything else.

Now suppose I told you it was your job to take a bunch of those pigs, get them all cleaned up, and somehow find a way to train all those pigs to sing on stage as a chorus, in a choir, or dare I say it, an opera. I can hear you laughing now. That doesn't make any sense, you're saying. Pigs have no place doing anything like that...they're pigs, after all. It would take up a lot of time, a lot of effort, and most likely cost a great deal of frustration on your part and aggravation on the part of the pig. Simple, right?

Long story short, it's not hard to figure out that trying to get a pig to do something it doesn't want to do would be a losing proposition for all concerned. Face it, you just won't get anywhere doing that. You'd have better luck driving cross country with your emergency brake on (also not the wisest strategy, but somehow I believe you get my meaning). With that being said, why do we insist in business that we "need" to convince people to do things they don't want to do in order to build a business? Wouldn't it be much simpler to find people who have an interest in the product or service we have to offer? Wouldn't that make a big difference in the amount of stress, frustration, and drama we'd have to endure?

I heard a gentleman say this years ago, and it still rings true to this day:

"Stop wasting time trying to get a pig to sing. It frustrates you, and aggravates the pig."

We spend far too much time trying to convince people to see what we're offering, and buy what we're selling when them absolutely no interest or desire in anything we have to show them. Wouldn't it make more sense to find people who want what we have, and show them how what we have can help them get whatever it is that they want? Instead of capturing their interest, wouldn't it be much easier to attract it? Entice it? Even seduce it, so to speak?  Supermarkets do it. Car manufacturers and dealers do it. And you know for sure that restaurants, amusement parks, and all kinds of vacation destinations do it, along with all other kinds of business and non-business establishments (schools, hospitals, even churches)....

So why shouldn't you...?  It's much more effective (and a lot more fun) to draw people to you than to chase people down. For one very important reason:

When you draw people's attention, it's a lot easier to JUST BE YOURSELF:

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." - William Shakespeare

If you would like to know more about what NOT to do to attract attention, as well as useful strategies you can use to improve your relationships in business, as well as life in general, click here:

http://bit.ly/1fkp8FL

That's all for now, gotta run. Until we meet again, remember...

Keep it simple...

See ya!

Follow Their Lead: Conclusion

Hello again, hope you're doing well out there...

During my first post I told you about what happened when I picked up my son from daycare after work. I saw his teachers struggling to get him ready to be picked up and taken home, because he wasn't paying them the least bit of attention. He, like many children at that age (three years old at the time), wasn't happily playing with toys, minding his own business, without a care in the world. (Makes you wonder why some so-called grown-ups can't learn to mind their own business, as the world would be a better place in my opinion, but I digress a bit...back to the story)

Anyway, when I arrived the teachers complained about how they couldn't get my son to follow directions. So what did I do? I called him over, whispered in his ear, and I'd barely gotten the words out when he made a beeline through the classroom door like he was shot out of a cannon, racing for the main entrance as fast as his little legs could carry him, screaming and squealing with delight, wide eyed, excited beyond reason with a big silly grin on his face.

Somewhat understandably his teachers were shocked into stunned silence, looking at me as if they were deer and I was a set of approaching headlights. I'd just accomplished with my son in five seconds something they weren't able to achieve in about an hour. Recovering from their collective speechlessness, one of them asked me with a look of shock and awe (at least I think so, anyway...I just had it like that at the time...LOL):

"What did you SAY to him...?"

Now I know this is the moment you've been waiting for, the spot where I left you hanging with my first post, so this has to be really good. This is big people, so in the classic words of Samuel L. Jackson's character in the movie Jurassic Park:  

"Hold onto your butts..."

Drumroll, please....

I shrugged my shoulders and replied:

"I just asked him if he wanted to get a pizza..."

Okay, I know what you're thinking:

HUH...!!!???  THAT'S IT...???  THAT'S YOUR 'PEARL' OF WISDOM....????  YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN' ME..!!!  THAT CAN'T BE IT...!!!

Yes, that's it...
Yes, that's my "pearl" of wisdom...
And yes, that CAN be it...because that's all there was to it...
(I told you, these are SIMPLE solutions....remember...?)

All right, I see you're getting that look, too. Stop staring at me like that! You're not deer, and I look nothing like headlights. There's a very simple explanation, so stick with me.  This is what I asked my son, word for word, so pay close attention. I'll even make the key words stand out so you'll understand why I was able to get my son's attention. I asked my son:

"DO YOU WANT to get a pizza...?"

Did you catch that? Did I make it plain enough for you?

I got my son's attention with the first three words. Zig Ziglar said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough people get what they want."  Well, all I did was focus on what I knew my son would want (pizza, pizza, and more pizza...he's still a "pizza-holic" to this day...what teenager isn't...?) because I knew I would get what I wanted (him in the car, and a ride home with a stop to get some pizza along the way). Yes, there was a price involved, but it was small compared to the potential frustration I could have endured, the same frustration my son's teachers were dealing with, if I had tried to reason with him the same way they did. I didn't talk at all about what I wanted; I let my son lead the way, thinking the whole time it was his idea when it was really mine. It was a true WIN-WIN scenario, and everyone was happy: my son got a pizza, his teachers got another step closer to leaving for the day, and yours truly got a very happy child and a trip home....

Cool Beans...!!!

Now I'm sure there are some people who believe this is wrong, that I somehow manipulated the situation to get my son to do what I wanted. You might accuse me of offering my son a bribe to get my way. If that's what you think, you're partially right. I did offer him a bribe...but I call it what it was, an incentive to get him to do what I wanted, while letting him think it was his idea all along. That was the best way for me to get his cooperation, and it worked out great for everyone.  You can do the same thing in your relationships, whether in business, in romance, or life in general. Focus on the other person, let them know you are interested in them, and you'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish.

I'll be talking more about the importance of focusing on other people's interests in future posts, but I believe I've given you enough to chew on for now. Hope you enjoyed the story, and that you got something valuable out of it.  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, and until next time, remember:

Keep in simple...y' hear?

Later gators..!

Earl

PS  There are two types of people in the world: those who are attractive, and those who are repellent. Find out the difference, and learn how you can become more attractive in every area of your life:

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Follow Their Lead

Zig Ziglar once said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." Never has anyone demonstrated this idea to me any better than my son did, when he was all of three years old. He taught me a lesson about leadership that I will never forget.

One evening after work I stopped to pick him up from daycare on the way home, and when I got to his classroom I was met by several of the teachers who told me my son wasn't ready to leave because he hadn't been following directions, and was determined to do his own thing all day. When I looked across the classroom I saw my son busily engaged at play, having a great time, a big smile on his face. No problem, I thought to myself, I got this.

I acknowledged what the teachers told me, and called my son over to me. He came running with his biggest "glad to see you" smile on his face. I smiled back to him, then got down on one knee, put one arm around his shoulders, and whispered in his ear...

I barely got the words out when he broke into a huge grin, his eyes got as big as saucers, his face lit up like a Christmas tree...and he took off, RUNNING (!!!) as fast as his little legs could carry him, screaming and squealing with delight, making a bee line for the main entrance at the far end of the main hallway.
Left in his wake was his dad (yours truly), and three stunned, silent (mostly stunned) teachers who just moments earlier gave me "the 4-1-1" about how they couldn't get my son to cooperate with them. It was all I could do to keep from laughing, because as I walked over to my son's cubby to pack up his belongings to take home, all three of them looked at me with their best imitation of the Three Stooges (you know, Moe, Larry, and Curly) doing the "deer in the headlights" routine...as in, they were the deer, I was the headlights.

When one of them finally got her mouth moving, she asked me the question that had to be on all of their minds...  "What did you SAY to him...???"

I shrugged my shoulders and said...

Ohhh, would you look at that?  I ran out of time...I guess the answer will have to wait 'til next time...my fault, sorry about that...

But in the meantime, if you'd like I hint about what I told my son, and why it was so effective, take a look at this. It will help you with all your relationships, in life, and even in business:

http://bit.ly/1dhP4Fv

Until next we meet, have a great day...and don't forget:

Keep it Simple...  See ya!

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