September 2009
Newsletter
Increase Your Influence and Get Ready for the Recovery
Welcome to the September issue of the Cardinal Consulting Newsletter.
Read on for tips to increase your influence, improve your communication
skills and ready yourself for the economic recovery.
In
This Issue
Influence in Action: How
to Go from Unknown to Essential in 4 Steps
In the News: "The Art of Public
Speaking"
Are You Ready for the
Recovery? 4 Tips to Position Yourself for Success
Influence in Action:
How to Go from Unknown to Essential in 4 Steps
Have you ever wanted to sell a new
idea to an unresponsive or uniformed audience? This month's Influence
in Action Case Study shows how to go from unknown to essential in four
simple steps: suggest, simplify, show and solidify.
First, a pop quiz: what fruit "belongs" in a bowl of Corn Flakes? If
you said, "bananas," you've been influenced by some of the cleverest
marketing in history. Did you know that this top-selling fruit is not
native to America and once had to be sold to a skeptical American
audience? Learn from the example of the now ubiquitous fruit and you
too can sell your new ideas.
1.
Suggest: Suggest how others can use and benefit from your idea,
product or solution. No one considered putting bananas in cereal until
the United Fruit Company partnered with Kellogg's (the maker of Corn
Flakes) to suggest that bananas were a perfect breakfast companion.
Fruit growers also introduced recipes (from baby food to desserts) to
further show the versatility of the new fruit.
2. Simplify: Simplify next steps and
make it easy for others to embrace your new idea. Kellogg's was the
first company to offer coupons on the box of a product to encourage
Corn Flake's purchasers to buy bananas. (The United Fruit Company must
have been influential indeed because Kellogg's even paid for the
coupons.)
3. Show: Show your suggestion in
action. When the banana was first introduced in 1876, it was considered
improper for women to eat them in public. The solution? Fruit companies
sent out postcards showing prim and proper Victorian ladies eating
half-peeled bananas. The result? Soaring sales and social acceptance
for a new product.
4.
Solidify: Solidify your idea with branding so that your idea or
product doesn't become a commodity. While there are many brands of
bananas available in your supermarket, the Chiquita banana has the most
sales. It introduced a solid brand early (remember the "Chiquita
Banana" lady?) with a catchy jingle that many of us could probably
still sing from memory.
If you can identify ways to suggest,
simplify, show and solidify your new idea, you too can increase your
influence and move from Unknown to Essential.
Interested in knowing more about the origin of this case study or the
history of bananas? Check out Dan Koeppel's book, Banana: The Fate of
the Fruit That Changed the World.
Read
the full article
In the News: "The Art of
Public Speaking"
The
State newspaper recently featured an interview with me entitled "The
Art Of Public Speaking" for the Let's Talk section.
Learn some practical public speaking advice as well as some background
on the Toastmasters International World Championship of Public
Speaking. Visit the link here.
Are You Ready for the
Recovery? 4 Tips to Position Yourself for Success
Most of us were blind-sided by the speed and depth of the recession and
economic downturn, and the news bears daily witness to some of the
disastrous consequences. But, did you know that unless you start
planning now, you'll be equally unprepared for the recovery and may
miss valuable growth opportunities as a result? Here are four tips to
position yourself for success.
-
Brainstorm:
You know the economy will improve, but you don't know exactly when. Now
is the time to brainstorm about the future marketplace and plan
accordingly. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What would my market look like if
demand increased?
- What will other (related and
unrelated) markets look like?
- Are there areas of pent-up demand
just waiting for the economy to improve?
- If so, how can you be ready when
the demand manifests?
- What can you do to encourage
people to begin the purchasing process now?
- What will your customers need as
the economy improves?
- How can you provide better
service at every step of the process?
- What new services will they need
in the recovery that they didn't need before the downturn?
-
Keep
in Touch: Never lose your connection with customers and
prospects, even those who have put off purchasing decisions because of
the economy. Use every opportunity (newsletters, website, articles,
phone calls, etc.) to maintain your position as a trusted advisor. That
way, when new opportunities do develop, you'll be top of mind for
consideration.
-
Focus
on the Positive: When you're bombarded with negative news every
day, it can be difficult to remember that 90% of people in the U.S.
still have jobs and that there are still businesses (probably some of
your clients and partners) that are doing well. Spend some extra time
catering to those groups and thinking about how their needs may be
different in this new economic climate.Then find new ways to meet those
needs.
-
Plan
for the Future: Don't get so focused on the day to day
activities of your company that you forget to plan ahead strategically.
As business consultant Alan Weiss says, think about "thriving" not
"surviving."
Read the full article
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