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What's Hot in 2009: Questions

Written on January 8, 2009 by admin in Business, Life Planning, Personal Branding

hto_2009 This week on The Bigg Success Show, we’re discussing opportunities and threats in 2009. Today, we continue the five-part series by looking at some important questions to ask.

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss the questions to ask in 2009 on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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marylynn Earlier this week, we discussed continued outsourcing as a threat to our careers. We also talked about the opportunity to be a free agent – to start your own micro-business to which large businesses can outsource. So a threat to one person may be an opportunity for another.

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That’s why it is so important to look at the opportunities and threats holistically. We wrote an article recently with five questions which help you do just that.

Is there a cheaper substitute?

This is one of the questions we suggested you consider in light of today’s economy. We discussed in a previous show this week that consumers are repairing instead of replacing. And when they do replace, they’re often looking for used items instead of buying new ones.

Substitute: Store brands for name brands
In other words, they’re substituting down and it goes beyond lower priced alternatives to a product or service. In other words, it doesn’t just mean they’re buying store brands instead of name brands.

Substitute: Do-it-myself for do-it-for-me
As an example of that, we’re coming out of an era where more and more consumers were willing to pay for more and more services. They wanted someone to do-it-for-me. Now they’re substituting with do-it-myself more often.

Prove the lifetime value
It’s not just about price, although that is a more important consideration. Consumers are looking at lifetime costs, not just upfront costs. They’re willing to pay for value, but you need to be able to prove it to them.

Your business, your career
If you’re in business already or considering starting a business, think about what your product or service could be a substitute for. That’s where you’ll find opportunity. Also consider what products or services might be a substitute for what you offer. Those are your threats.

What about your job? If your company offers a cheaper substitute, there should be opportunity right now. If not, can you help them find ways to reduce costs? Or prove to customers that what you offer will pay them back in the long run?

Personal considerations

So far in this series we’ve only looked at the external environment, but that doesn’t paint the whole picture. You also have to think internally.

The best opportunity for you will match a market need to your personal considerations. So as you consider a career or a business, it’s important to consider your own wants and needs.

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george I wish I had heard that advice a long time ago. I tended to be very opportunistic. I got into businesses that looked promising without thinking enough about how I really wanted to spend my time. I enjoyed being a business owner, but I’m having even more fun these days!

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Find your passion
We hear it all the time, “Do what you love.” That’s the ideal. However, what if you can’t get paid to do what you love? What if there are no job opportunities? Then do something that lets you do what you love when you leave work.

Consider your preferences
Also think about your preferences when it comes to the environment in which you’ll work. Some people prefer to work at a desk; others can’t stand it. Some people prefer to work in a group; others like to work alone.

The best opportunity in the world isn’t a good opportunity for you if you don’t enjoy working at it.

Contemplate your proficiencies
What are you really good at? What do other people compliment you on? What do you find really easy to do? Chances are that is a skill you can exploit.

Now take another look
With your passion, preferences, and proficiencies – we’ll call these “the three P’s – in mind, consider your career and/or business opportunities again.

What can you help people do? What can you teach them to do? How can you save them money? What skills do you have that are transferable from one business industry to another?

Match your 3 P’s to a market need to find your bigg opportunity.

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Thanks so much for reading our post today. Join us next time when we look at some fun trends for 2009. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Related posts

What’s Hot in 2009: Careers

What’s Hot in 2009: Businesses

What’s Hot in 2009: Threats

(Image in today's post by MISHA)

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Increase Your Sales by Knowing the Answer to this Question

Written on April 22, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Business, Business Ownership, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Management

You’re probably familiar with the old saying, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”

And a related one, “Features tell, benefits sell.”

HEAR THE BIGG SUCCESS SHOW: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Features, of course, are the characteristics of whatever it is you’re trying to sell. Benefits answer your customer’s biggest question, “What’s in it for me?”

If you want to make more money, it’s important to clearly understand the difference between features and benefits.

When you’re selling anything – your product or service, yourself for a job, a loan, or even to get a date this weekend – focus on emotions, not intellect.

Because people buy emotionally, and then justify rationally. People buy for two reasons – to stop the pain or to get the gain.

So paint a clear picture in your prospect’s mind of how wonderful things will be after they buy what you’re offering. To do that, you have to clearly understand the benefits of what you’re selling. And that’s not as easy as it sounds! We usually make two mistakes:

Mistake #1: Spending too much time on features and too little on benefits.
We know our product inside and out. The problem is we often don’t fully understand the difference between a feature and a benefit. We often think of features as benefits. But they’re not. We need to translate those features into benefits – how they help the customer.

Mistake #2 – Stopping before the real benefit.
Fortunately, there’s a simple question that helps you get to the real benefit of your offering. That question is …

“And that means?”
On the show, George and Mary-Lynn illustrated this by pretending to work for an insulation contractor. George played the part of the sales person and Mary-Lynn was his manager.

Isn’t that an exciting service to sell? See if you’re more excited after the discussion!

Mary-Lynn: Alright, let me hear your pitch.

George: Inadequate insulation is a leading cost of energy waste in many homes.