Are You Missing Out On Big Opportunities Because Your Focus Is In The Wrong Place?

The following video is a very interesting example by a very clever psychologist named Richard Wiseman of how our our focus determines what we experience as reality Watch the video carefully and see if you can tell how the trick was done?





If you watched the video and were focusing on the "colour changing card trick" you may have missed all the changes in the environment; the background; the table cover and even Richard Wiseman's and his assistant's shirt. Now if you are like me you probably missed ALL of those huge changes. The lesson here is that what you focus on you experience as reality. If you focus in on lack you will only find lack in your world. And you will ignore all the possibilities and opportunities around you. Not only that the energy you give out through your body language and interactions with others will repel big opportunities while attracting the ones that cause you grief.

When working with clients I have found the same principle at work. For many of them they all use the tactic of reducing fees or prices in order to get the business. However doing this just reduces them to becoming a commodity. If all that differentiates them is price then the contract will always go to the lowest bidder Dropping your fees or trying to undercut the competition is a tactic where nobody wins since you end up doing work with little or no profit.

You will also tend to look for smaller opportunies and not notice the bigger ones around you all the time. Just like in the video you will be oblivious to the larger opportunties around you and will miss out.

Another thing to consider is that by dropping your fees and undercutting your competitors you tend to attract "bargain hunters" who will mostly never value what you do for them, constantly complain and cause you huge amounts of grief. And of course you will need more of them because your profit margins will be so low.

On the otherhand there are what I call "premium buyers" in most industries where price is not the main factor. In fact although you may not believe it price is very rarely the main factor when somebody makes a decision. We usually go for the best "value". So the key to bigger contracts or opportunities is to focus on articulating your value and positioning your marketing sales presentations to attract premium buyers.

In order to do this you need to shift your focus from trying to sell small contracts and undercuting the competition to selling bigger high value contracts. You need to make a shift in focus in the type of client you are looking for.

A good example was one of my coaching clients who runs a small IT firm. When I first started to work with jonathon he was focusing on selling support contracts at £20 a pc per month to small businesses. Within a few weeks he was pitching to contracts worth £25,000 to £40,000 per year. Within six weeks he had secured his biggest contract to date - "three times bigger than anything before and just as easy to fufill".

When I asked him how he had done it? He told me that all of a sudden bigger clients started to show an interest in him and he got phone calls asking to pitch. He was amazed at how effortlessly it all seemed. The real truth was that these clients were around him all the time and by shifting his focus and working on his mindset he started to see the opportunities around him. And he also attracted them where as before repelled them in favour of the "bargain hunters".

Can You Swim With The Sharks?

I remember watching an episode of the Discovery Channel a number of years ago about shark behavior. It followed three marine biologists who could swim along side the world’s most dangerous sharks. They would do this in the most dangerous situations with no "safety net".

The first marine biologist was a man who would swim along side great white sharks, the same species of shark that was featured in the Jaws movie. He would literally hold on to its fin and hitch a ride without even seeming nervous and he came to no harm.

The second marine biologist was a female. Her specialty was to swim with dozens of Bull Sharks apparently the most dangerous species known to man. But she would pet them like friendly dogs and caress their heads as they seemed to be entranced, hypnotized to the point where they appeared to be submissive.

The third Marine biologist really amazed me. He waded into shallow water(the most deadly situation) with 50 or more Bull Sharks surrounding him. To make matters even more incredible he carried with him a huge joint of raw meat with blood dripping everywhere.

The water soon became a blood red frenzy of feeding sharks as they stripped the joint clean in a matter of a minute or so. He then calmly left the shallow red pool unharmed. They all had one thing in common. They all meditated before going into the water and had the ability to relax and slow down their heart rate.

Scientists have speculated for some time that sharks can detect the electro-magnetic field (energy)of living creatures. And are so sensitive they can detect a billionth of a volt. This means they can also detect a heart beat. If the heart rate is stressed the shark will perceive the creature as prey and attack. However if the heart rate is relaxed and unstressed the shark will ignore.

I believe we humans have some kind of system that picks up the "energy" emitted from other humans. I remember when I was regularly doing stage hypnosis work in front of reasonably large audiences. On the rare occasion where I walked on stage with personal worries on my mind the audience turned into "sharks" and they attacked me. I had a terrible time.

While on most of all the other nights they were eating out of my hand. I believe that somehow we can pick up on the energy others emit and that influences the way they respond to us.

I believe that the most basic form of influence is the transmission and receiving of energy. Basically our clients or customers feel what we feel and respond accordingly. Therefore it follows that we must become better at developing the right mindset and emotional states.

How many times have you been in front of a sales person but "it didn't feel right"? What they said sounded logical you might even want the product. Yet something somewhere isn't right? So you don't buy. What was happening was that the feelings you were receiving from the sales person did not match the words.

Many sales are lost due to being over anxious. That’s why even the top sales people can spiral into a period of getting no sales. They become over anxious because they lost a few sales. So the next time they feel even more anxious.

The prospect picks up on this and feels the fear. They don't know why they feel this way only that they do. The thing is, research suggests that we make buying decisions based upon emotion. The logic kicks in after.

Basically this means people decide to buy because they feel good about the product/service and sales person. If they are experiencing fear or are anxious they will associate it with the product and will be repelled resulting in another lost sale.

Yet for many sales people they get caught up in making the next sale and become over anxious. And they lose the sale. This becomes a vicious circle that repeats its self over and over until it is broken.

We must remove fear and install a higher level of energy, while being relaxed calm and centered at the same time. People will almost certainly respond to us with a similar mindset and emotional state, which in turn will affect their external behavior.

It is possible to influence or persuade others by the "energy" we give off. In fact we cannot fail to influence others. We either influence them to buy or not to buy. Which one would you prefer - receptive prospects or sharks?

How would you pitch on Dragons Den?

The other night I was watching Dragon's Den. It never ceases to amaze me how so many entreprenuers never learn by watching the show before they appear. Instead they turn up week after week unprepared. The vast majority make the same mistakes. The biggest one being that they believe everyone will be interested in and as passionate about their products as they are.

The reality is that when most things are considered no one is really interested in the products. They are interested in their own small worlds, fears problems, dreams and desires. Therefore the answer is to switch focus away from products and company to the mindset of those you are attempting to persuade.

Anyone watching the show can see that the Dragon's are looking for investments, a good return for their money. Therefore what should be the focus of any pitch is the investment opportunity. I've lost count the number of times I've cringed as entreprenuer after entreprenuer falls to pieces with a shakey voice and beads of sweat running down their forehead. The biggest crime for the Dragons is to not know your numbers.

Yet the majority don't have a clue. Every week more than half of the presenters don't know their numbers. They usually prattle on endlessly about their products. An opening pitch about size of market, current profits, how much they would expect to get on return for the investment would go a long way to getting a receptive response from the Dragons. (Supposing that the numbers and all the other info stack up.)

If you study the show there are a few exceptions that still get offers from the Dragons even when the numbers are completely wrong. But these are only with products where the potential is obvious and they like the entreprenuer. (remember Levi Roots?) Or they have real feel good factor by allowing the Dragons to get involved in a really good cause.(these are very rare) If you watch enough shows you will soon begin to get a feel for which Dragon will go for what type of investment.

So you can almost predict who will be interested and who won't be. I know most of you think this is obvious. However 90% or more of all the business and sales people I meet are guilty of the same thing. They use the same limp "pitch" with everyone they meet. They talk incessantly about their products or services and don't notice the eyes glazing over of their prospects or audience.

In order to present or pitch more effectively you must become an expert not so much on your products or services ( I assume you already are). You need to become an expert on your prospects. You need to learn how to chunk and sequence your information in a way that reaches your prospects in a deep and meaningful way. You need to understand their mindset, problems, fears, dreams and desires and show them how by doing business with you will get them there where they want to be.

Once you have moved away from selling your products or services to focusing in on to the mindset of your clients or customers you will find they will be much more receptive to what you have to say. You will become "hypnotic". And you will find that your prospects follow your lead.

Are You Throwing Your Money Away On Brand Awareness Advertising?

Creativity The Most Dangerous Word in The Lexicon of Advertising

David Ogilvy

I remember the 80s. I had just finished doing an HND in graphic design and was looking for a job in advertising. Back then there were a large number of award winning "creative" agencies that dominated the business. They spent a fortune of their clients money on expensive creative brand awareness campaigns.

It seemed back then that winning awards was the most important goal of the agencies. However since then most of them are now long gone they went out of business by the mid 90s. The problem is that this type of "creative" advertising is not accountable and rarely gets a good return on investment.

My only guess is that the companies who used to be clients eventually got fed up spending huge amounts of money to win awards. Even so most businesses still use Brand Awareness when Direct response would be more profitable for them. For one thing Direct response is not only accountable but can also be systemized. This means you should only ever use marketing that's profitable.

I am not sure when the video below was filmed perhaps the late 60s or early 70s?. But the message seems to be as relevant to today than when it was shot. It is a "message" from David Ogilvy a real legend in the world of advertising. If you are involved in any kind of sales and marketing for your business then the key message will be important to you. Simpley put spending your money on brand awareness is as good as throwing it away if you are a small to medium sized business. It may work for huge global companies such as Coke or Nike, but you don't have a huge budget to throw away.