Trizle

Scenario: "I have to close many sales today! Yay!" The common mindset to sales:

1. Contact prospect.
2. Close prospect.

The better approach:

1. Set up sales seeds today.
2. Anticipate sales tomorrow.

(Adjust range, accordingly.)

B2B Sales Takes Patience

Sure, you might look at your quota -- and think:

• "Hey, I have to close 5 clients this week."

Common wisdom would tell you:

1. Contact as many customers as possible.
2. Try to close at least 5 within that campaign.

So, you start solely focusing on "closing." Then, when you convert zero customers during a day, you'll tell yourself you'll adopt a more aggressive approach the following day. That leads to a vicious cycle of your sales flat-lining.

Plant Seeds Instead

Then, focus on closing. That is, instead of seeing sales as something you have to close outright, see it as a two-step approach:

1. Plant seeds.
2. Close sales.

You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales. Read that sonofabetch again:

• You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales.
• You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales.
• You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales.
• You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales.
• You plant more seeds, you'll close more sales.

Planting Seeds?

Planting seeds means you're getting the customer to commit to something; that is, you're selling a commitment instead of your actual product. Examples include:

• Selling an appointment.
• Sending your online brochure.
• Setting up a demo.
• Sending questionnaires.
• Yadda, yadda, yadda

Use whatever moves the prospect along your sales pipeline, then measure how well you're selling that "middle" thingamajigga.

How to Grow Ridiculous Gardens

Growing your sales numbers is akin to growing gardens. Say you want to grow an lush garden full of fruit and vegetables from scratch -- in the fastest time possible. What do you do?

• You plant every frickin fruit and vegetable you want in your garden -- right now.
• You sow your seeds.
• You start watering your babies.

Then eventually, what happens?

• Kaaa-mutha-@^^%-booooom!

You start seeing the fruits of your labor, with oranges here, apples there, strawberries over there, and big effin watermelons in front of you. You sing a happy song. Planting sales seeds gets you similarly super-duper-awesome results.

The sexy approach:

1. Plant as many seeds as possible -- ASAP.
2. Delight in eventual increased sales.

Start seeding.

Who would likelier succeed?

• a) Johnny starting with a "I'll-rock-the-world" approach. Johnny aims for the stars. His startup will have the best people, the best resources, the best tools, the best products, the best offerings, the best yaddas.
• b) Miguel, who starts with a "just-enough" approach. Miguel aims to just get started. He'll provide "just enough" resources, tools, and other ingredients so he can open his doors as quickly as possible.

Did-ya answer (b) Miguel? Ding ding ding! A simplicity approach exponentially increases your chances of achieving your primary goals. You get the best of two worlds: (1) achieve what you really want, (2) in the fastest time possible.

The Complex Approach

Contrast Miguel's simple mindset with Johnny's complex approach. Before he sells, he needs to:

1. The absolute best resources.
2. Hire, train, and build a ridiculous team.
3. Talk with the a variety of consultants.
4. Get his marketing materials branded.
5. Perfect every part/inch/spec of his customer service.
6. Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Before you know it, he'd likely:

1. Run out of cash.
2. Make his product obsolete.
3. Drain his team's morale.
4. Drain his own morale.
5. Drain future profits to keep his business afloat.

Most businesses don't succeed because they take too long from Destination A (scratch) to Destination Z (opening doors). Taking too long drains cash -- lots of cash, which would render your hard work fruitless. Remember:

What's the shortest path from SF to New York?

A straight line.

• You have your primary goal -- destination: New York.
• You have limited resources.

How do you get to New York safely, while keeping your resources in check? By taking the path of least resistance. Use Miguel's simple approach to ensure you get there safely, with enough resources to have the time of your oh-so-fabulous life. Says simplicity expert Mark Joyner:

By focusing exclusively on the simple actions that work to achieve desired results, you get them in the fastest possible way with the least possible effort.

But If You Want to Flower It Up...

Take this win/win approach:

1. Achieve your primary goal as quickly possible (i.e. straight line analogy).
2. Flower up you goal after you've achieved it.

That ensures you'll start something quickly, efficiently, and sufficiently maintain cash/morale/resources as you're building your business/product/offering/innovation. So, if you want:

• Spectacularly branded materials
• Amazingly awesome-looking website
• Branded uniforms, stationery, signs, etc.
• Polished employee manuals
• Ridiculously good-looking furnishings
• Yadda, yadda, yadda...

Do it after you open your doors. In the meantime, settling for "just enough" will get you rolling and rocking by maintaining sufficient resources and morale. Advantage: You.

Straight ahead!

You've dreamed of an invention for years.

1. You wake up thinking about it.
2. You spend hours producing new features for it.
3. You lie awake at night reflecting on how to improve it.

Yet, you're not doing anything about it -- you're just dreaming.

You're not moving.

Why? Wisdom would tell you're trying to be too perfect. But, better advice would tell you: You're fearing something.

Take Teddy.

We'll describe a little story about Teddy:

1. Teddy dreams of building one ridiculous business.
2. He tells the world what's going to happen.
3. He thinks about the impact his business will have.

Yet, five years later -- he's still reverting back to original self -- never moving forward with his plans. What's going on with Teddy? Subconsciously:

• He fears he'll destroy "everything."
• He fears for unemployment.
• He fears he'll lose his house, his car.
• He fears for his kids' future.
• He fears the first rough months.
• He fears spontaneous cash flow.
• He fears those inevitable harsh failures.

The fears prevent Teddy from doing anything. So, to be safe -- he continues dreaming, wondering one day when the time's ready. But, unfortunately, that day will never come.

Why Confront Fears

The more fears you confront, and beat down into submission -- the more you'll move forward. Think of fears as weights -- the bigger ones weighing heavier.

You want to travel to distance X.

But, the weights make it physically impossible to get there.

1. You try for days/months/years to get to X.
2. No matter how hard you try, you never see progress.
3. The weights are destroying your dreams to get to X.

If you don't confront those weights by knocking them down, you'll never make progress toward your goal. So:

1. You confront those weights.
2. You knock them down one-by-one, as you're moving forward.
3. Gradually-then-quickly-then-faster you make your way to X.

With more weights knocked down, the faster you make your way to your goal.

How to Tackle Your Fears

1. Define your goal.
2. List fears related to that goal.
3. Confront, tackle, beat down.

Think of the worst-case scenario associated with those fears.

• Are the fears overblown? You're likely amplifying them.
• Would the fears destroy you? Probably not.
• Could you accept it? Of course.
• Could you overcome it? Definitely.

But, if you can't possibly overcome it?

Reduce your goal to a less ambitious one -- one where you could overcome the worst-case scenario. Succeeding takes a step-by-step approach, knowing you can't build Rome in a day. Moving toward a goal takes persistent beat-downs of your fears. The more you knock down, the faster you'll go.

Sidebar: "I don't have any fears associated to my goal!"

If you're not moving forward, you're probably subconsciously fearing something. The human brain tends to avoid harsh realities, so if you explicitly seek those fears, you'll see them.

Knock the trashy effas down.

Say you suck at talking to people. Wait, make that: You believe you suck, so you suck.

1. You think you're socially awkward.
2. So, you mess up your words.
3. You ultimately have absolutely zilch confidence socially.

So, how do you overcome that mental suckiness? You do it by manipulating your brain into believing: "Hey, I don't really suck at all!" But, wait, you're thinking:

1. "I've already heard that advice some over-and-over-and..."
2. "I tried the positive thinking already! It never works for me!"
3. "I always return to my old habits, anyway."

El Solucion? Positively lie to yourself every-frickin-day, until you actually believe what you're saying. We'll explain.

How People Manipulate Their Brains

Think back to an argument about something you absolutely-positively-100% knew for certain your stance was correct.

1. You studied the topic for years.
2. You knew it cold.
3. You had the facts to back it up.

Then comes Know-It-All-Ernie. The conversation might have went a little something like this:

1. You: "Dude, you can't predict the future."
2. Ernie: "Bull! You can predict the future."
3. You: "I have the facts to back it up. Here's some hard data from the HBR, WSJ, and several peer-reviewed journals."
4. Ernie: "Bull! See Steve Jobs. He can tell the future."
5. You: "But what about the Apple Lisa, the Apple Cube, etc.?"
6. Ernie: "Uhh....no, dude. You are wrong."

Then Ernie rambles on about how Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Walt Disney, Malcolm Goldman, etc, etc, etc, could tell futures -- and how we would do the same, and get frickin' rich. When you handed him hard data, experimental studies, and empirical evidence disproving his argument -- why did he ignore the data, stuck with his original argument? It's because of this: When Ernie repeatedly tells himself "X causes Y", he'll believe it's an absolute fact that "X causes Y" -- even if evidence tells him otherwise. You repeatedly tell yourself something, you'll believe it. That's why logical fallacies abound in:

• Political arguments.
• Health care.
• Cults.
• Teens.
• Business strategies.
• Paris Hilton.

Repeatedly tell yourself "X causes Y"? You'll soon believe it as fact. The great Napoleon Hill calls that "autosuggestion":

• "Your mind will believe almost anything (true or not) that you tell yourself repeatedly."

How to Brainwash Your Mind for the Good

If you can easily trick your brain by repeatedly telling yourself something, how do you use those krraaazzy powers positively? Attack mental weaknesses. Regularly tell yourself positive lies.

• You're a "lousy" presenter? "I move mountains with my voice."
• You're a "horrible" finisher? "I'm a badass finisher."
• You "suck" socially? "I'm a great talker, bitches."

Repeat those 'lies' until you start believing those them as facts. You'll not only freakishly boost your confidence, but more importantly: You'll act accordingly to how you perceive yourself to be. Brainwash yourself for the good:

Lie positively, daily.

Consider these two extreme scenarios:

Scenario Football

• 5,000 football fans want hamburgers.
• One hamburger joint exists in the stadium.
• They cost $10 each.
• Result: Lines out-the-heezy.

Scenario Shushamu

• 10 people on Shushamu Road want hamburgers.
• 30 hamburger joints exist on that road.
• They cost $2 each.
• Result: "Boo! Where are the lines?!"

Sure, the results might sound obvious; but pay attention to the subtleties for a bit. It's the basic supply-and-demand concept: When supply goes up, demand for each supplier goes down. Thus, and much more importantly, you get:

• Decreased prices.
• Decreased premiums.
• Decreased sales.
• Decreased profits.
• Decreased vacations.

It happened with the railroad industry. Then, with the computer industry. Then, with internet startups. Then most recently, with real estate.

• When you have 986875868876865 people running at something, that something doesn't become so valuable anymore.

The true winners? Those that ignored the crowd, and saw vastly under-appreciated opportunities. Warren Buffett made his billions investing in companies where analysts wholly ignored. Going for what's hot might sound good and tempting, but you'll boost your premiums/profits/sexiness much more by catering to a market that's underserved. That is -- to increase profit margins -- serve markets where few suppliers exist, relative to demands -- and especially, where others aren't looking.

Heed Caution

The Timmy Tooltrap pitfall:

1. Timmy wants to make kabillions.
2. So, he thinks he'll just choose a market where's absolutely no suppliers exist for the product.
3. "I know! Let's invent and sell a fondu set that also combines a radio to break the monotony!"
4. He declares bankruptcy.

Instead, do this:

How to Choose Your Opportunity

1. Select a proven market. (e.g. Korean barbecue)
2. Reframe the industry: Within that market, who's being ignored that you can service better than anyone else? (e.g. Korean barbecue to white people)
3. Serve that market. (e.g.: Korean Barbecue USA! Red! White! Blue!, Inc.)

What happens?

1. No established suppliers.
2. "We can charge premiums!"

And since no second-rate magazines will declare your selected market as one that's "THE TOP 10 HOTTEST MARKETS THAT WILL MAKE YOU RICH", you'll have minimal competition undercutting your prices.

• Profit premiums: +more.

Now, you know one of the initial success secrets of the Americanized: Chipotle (Mexican), Pizza Hut (Italian), Outback Steakhouse (Australian), Olive Garden (Italian), Starbucks (Italian), China's KFC (American), Boudin Bakery (French), and Hooter's (rich, old, creepy men with midlife crisis, driving Corvettes, thinking they're kewl). Serve the ignored.

Seek what's not hot.

The common entrepreneurial cycle:

• Month 1: Spend cash for the future
• Month 2: Spend cash for the future.
• Month 3: Spend cash for the future.
• Year 1: Spend cash for the future.
• Year 2: Spend cash for the future.
• Year 3: Kaput! We bankrupt, bizattchies.

Investing for the "future" constructs a never-ending, habitual habit that will destroy your company before you could seek that "future".

Why Investing for The Future Sucks

Like underground disco, the world is a never-ending ballgame. When Billy thinks he's investing for the future, he thinks:

• "Oh...the world will just remain static for me to slowly-but-surely perfect my million-dollar innovation."

Fact is: The world's not static, son. True innovators dish out new innovations that change the corporate landscape, daily. What would've been such-an-awesome innovation a year ago --- would totally get !@^^ rocked by another company now.

What Could Billy Do, Then?

• Option 1: Billy could introduce his outdated invention, and see mediocre results.
• Option 2: Billy could add the world's new cool stuff into his invention.

Let's just be gung-ho, and say he goes with the latter approach. So Billy, being the entreprenerial dude that he is, then goes:

• "Let's perfect my innovation by adding the new innovation to my innovation!"

The Cycle of Doom

Because of his I-will-perfect-this-thing-till-the-end mindset, Billy's vicious cycle:

1. Spends months/years incorporating the new innovation.
2. "I'm-almost-done! But-wait! New-innovations! I'll incorporate the new innovations!"
3. Recycles to ^1.
4. And on, and on, and on, and on -- to inifinity plus ONE.

The cycle of doom drains Billy's cash -- until he's out, he's done, he's got no-mo-money. Boo. Boo.

Why Profit Now

Peep this ridiculously amazing analogy:

1. People need food to survive; trees need food to survive; dolphins need food to survive; plants need food to survive; Linsay Lohan's mama needs food to survive.
2. Likewise, businesses need food to survive.

Sha-bam!

1. Seek profits now.
2. Nourish the company to keep it healthy.
3. Then, at the same time, do your sex-ay innovation thang anytime your fabulousity wants.

Say NO! to Just the Future

Say NO! to solely investing for the future. Instead, ask your business fellows:

1. "Where can we profit now -- like, tomorrow or this week?"
2. "In addition, how can we also invest for the future?"

Think healthy.

Profit now + Invest for the future = Beautiful.

Imagine preparing for some local marathon, where your sexy ass will be running in those tidy-whitey short-shorts, while thousands of onlookers will scrutinize how seriously deformed you run. How do you prepare to run 26 miles in the months before the big race?

1. You start exercising daily.
2. You run 5 miles five times a week.
3. You set challenges. You set goals.
4. You track your records.
5. You remind yourself: Carbs, carbs, carbs.

Four months of training, and now -- duh-da-da-duh-da: It's time! "How will I spend my last day before the race?!" you ask your fab-self.

• Relaxation.
• Nutritious meals.
• Calcium, and carbs.
• H-2-the-mutha-effin-0.

You're ridiculously focused the night before, you prepare your entire arsenal for tomorrow, you free your mind -- knowing the rest will follow, you sleep early to get sufficient rest -- because tomorrow you're going to rock the @^^% house. It's race day:

• You eat a high-but-light carb breakfast.
• You psyche yourself with motivational screams.
• You visualize your dominating performance.
• You're prepped like a vicious hyena.

And, most importantly: You've best prepared yourself for a peak performance. You = winner. (Others = LOSERS.)

Why Workaholics Never Get Things Done

Imagine running a marathon the day before the actual marathon. That's akin to workaholics destroying themselves, daily.

1. Never allowing for full rest, they work themselves until exhaustion.
2. Then upon "going home", they go through Work Scenarios A, B, C, D, X, Z in their heads.
3. They start playing in their mind how to manage employee Cramo, employee Dolphin, and employee Mazuta.

Their minds are trapped into a viscous never-ending cycle that gradually strikes their energy reserves, their brainpower, their creativity, and their productivity. They wake up the next day, with cluttered minds, poor morale, gutted energy. Their inevitable performance? Suck-kay. While they're struggling to keep pace with their counterparts, some more equipped, prepared, sleep-sufficient, gung-ho, awesome dude is kicking them in the balls.

How to Prepare for Your Work

How would you prepare for battle if you were a champion marathoner? Now, replace "marathoner" with your occupation.

• "How would I prepare myself as an eventual champion _____________?"

Rule of thumb: The better you prepare for your work day, the more ass-kickings you'll have. With a sane mind, a clear head, a healthy body, you'll start passing up Workaholic Willie like he ain't but a thang on a chicken wing on a string-- while doing less work, and having an oh-so-much-more enjoyable life. You = winner.

Prepare like the champion.

Scenario: "Yo, let's spend the entire day on fixing ____. We-so-determined! Yay!" Peep this: Johnny Orangeseed runs a small factory in Fremont, Californ-i-a. This crazy mofo employs twenty employees.

The company ain't runnin' so well:

• His managers need resources.
• His accountant needs balance sheets.
• His employees need software.
• His customers need shipments.

But-oh-no-no-no! Sure, Mr. Orangeseed thinks subconsciously:

• "Oh-gee-golly! I have so much work to do!"

But consciously, what does his booty do?

• "Just wait right there! I gotta fix our customer feedback form first! Once I fix this thing, that will free up my time to help others! Shebang!"

So, what does the Johnny do?

• 10:00 a.m: He tries fixing teh report.
• 11:00 a.m: Still tries.
• 12:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 1:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 2:00: p.m.: Still tries.
• 3:00 p.m.: Still tries.
• 4:00 p.m.: "Gee-golly! I just fixed it!"

Then, he tells himself and whoever's listening:

• "See...when you put your entire heart into completing something, you can accomplish anything! Yay! Believe in yourself!"

So, he goes about his daily days with his self-indulgent victory trips, as:

• His managers drain morale.
• His employees lose productivity.
• His accountant's getting woozy.
• His customers start cussing.

Boo.

Why Accomplishing ______ Ain't So Important

What was the most important thing you did last year? "Oh-no, not-one-thing!" you scream. "My badass completed a plethora of things that contributed to my effectiveness last year!"

1. Take the the most important thing you did last year?
2. It'd still be a fraction of what you accomplished.

(And probably, within that context -- you still completed numerous mini-tasks.) A ridiculous collection of tasks contributed to that 2006 story. And the times when you focused 100% of heart, energy, and soul on fixing that itty-bitty problem that bugged you?

• In the grand scheme of things, that itty-bitty problem ain't so important after all.

If a future situation like that happens:

1. Delegate/trash it.
2. Move on.

It's not worth your time.

The Goal

1. Finish something quickly.
2. Start next task.
3. Repeat.

Productivity. Soar. Eagle.

Big Shots Think Bigger

Hewlett and Packard had no business plan. As did Salesforce's Marc Beinoff, Virgin's Richard Branson, and Michael Dell, Gates, Buffett, yadda. Walt Disney's behind just wanted to sell something. We still know folks that tell us they're still "perfecting" their business plans -- after 5 years. Boo. Spending 9968987408609587094 hours on one thing gets you nowhere.

It Just Doesn't Matter

Sure, you hear those "success gurus" telling you:

• "Never give up! Yay!"

They.suck.suck. Hanging onto something for too long suffocates productivity. It gets to a point where spending any more time on Task A will contribute nothing to Task A. Remember:

• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.
• Nothing's too important.

One-two-three-five-twenty years from now: It just does not matter.

Sidebar: Measuring Real Productivity

A sweet measure of productivity: Measure how many tasks you accomplish, daily. That is:

1. List the items you'd want accomplished today.
2. Tackle dem suckas.

Rule of thumb:

The more tasks you accomplish in a day, the crazier more productive you'll see yourself by the end of the week. Doing many things drives you to focus on bigger pictures. A collection of tasks drives freakish progress.

El entire enchilada.

Scenario: "Dude, they must follow guidelines X, then Y, then Z, then yadda, yadda, yadda. Yay!" Buh-laaaaaaaaaah. Crazy corporate productivity suckas make it more complicated than it has to be. To double your company's productivity, simply:

1. Look at your to-do list.
2. Double the number of to-do entries per day.
3. Have fun.

Your company's productivity is directly proportional to how many items you have on your daily to-do list.

Give John X, He'll Do X...

But, give John X * 2, he'll do X * 2. Remember back in college when you procrastinated until the last day on some weak-ass paper topic? Because you had 24 hours to do it, your productivity soared. Likewise, the amount of tasks your company accomplishes is directly proportional to how much time your team has to do those items.

How Our Brains Work

An increasingly looming deadline increases our urgency to the task.

• Scenario 1: If Task A is due in 365 days, your team be chillin.
• Scenario 2: If that same Task A is due in 2 days, their focus increases freakishly.
• Scenario 3: Now, if Task A plus the addition Task B is also due in 2 days, their focus increases freakishly X 2.

Then, to get your company pumpin':

• Increase the number of tasks.
• Decrease deadlines.

El Templato

Our company will accomplish: _______, by: ________.

Amplify dem to-do lists.

Scenario: "Dude, we've learned all we know. It's time to apply our knowledge and do the work. Yay!" Entrepreneurs adopt one of two mindsets when approaching a task:

• Mindset 1: "I will finish this!"
• Mindset 2: "I will finish this better than how I finished it last time!"

The former mindset gets you mediocrity; the latter mindset propels you toward greatness. Recommends a researcher who studied the work habits of great athletes, musicians, and orators:

• "Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it."

That is:

Improve, Improve, Improve

• If you're managing a team, consciously boost productivity every project.
• If you're selling your wares, consciously shorten the sales cycle every order.
• If you're pitching your products, consciously improve your value with every pitch.

When you explicitly seek to improve whatever you're doing, you'll start adopting freakish talents that will rock the effa out of whoever's in your way.

The Rock Star Approach

The more practice hours you put in X, the more you'll see yourself rock in X -- according to a study of talented 20-year old violinists:

The best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.

Of course, the key phrase: "deliberate practice."

Practice the Shoddy Way

1. You put in your hours.
2. You leave.

Practice the Badass "Deliberate" Way

1. You squeeze out every freakish inch of your practice minute to explicitly improve, improve, improve.
2. You return with the same mindset tomorrow.

Why "Deliberate" Practice Works

When you explicitly inspire yourself to improve at X, you start seeking ways to improve X:

• "How can I boost team morale?"
• "How can I check email faster?"
• "How can I finish work quicker?"
• "How can I boost productivity?"
• "How can I inspire my team more?"
• "How can I improve innovation?"

Improve, improve, improve, improve -- adopt that gabillion-dollar word into every task, and you'll soon see ridiculous results.

Yup, It's All in Your Mindset

Like most people, how does typical Icky Timmy start his day?

Icky Timmy's Routine:

1. Check email.
2. Do work.
3. Call clients.
4. Pitch to prospects.
5. Close business.

Now, contrast Timmy with Rocky Rock Star -- who has a similar schedule.

Rocky Rock Star's Routine:

1. Check email -- but find ways to resolve it faster with every email.
2. Do work -- but find ways to work more efficiently per hour.
3. Call clients -- but find ways to increase customer satisfaction with every call.
4. Pitch to prospects -- but find ways to generate qualified leads faster.
5. Close business -- but find ways to increase business with every transaction.

That is, Rocky Rock Star exploits the mutha-@^^%^ out of every minute to boost his talents.

The Fat Benefits

When you consciously will yourself to improve whatever you're doing:

1. You boost $$$ per time spent.
2. You amplify knowledge.
3. You increase productivity.
4. You free yourself for chillaxing-time.
5. You build one freakish business.

Win.

Improve every tick.