(1) Sales is ALL about what people want and need in a given point in time. Sales is about realizing what people’s general flow is (their relative position in life, surrounding aspects of that situation, and the velocity at which they travel), then integrating your product/service into that space. In this sense, it is to make your product/service minimally invasive. You have to create a perceived utility which meets a current demand.
Now, this doesn’t mean your product really has to meet that desire… you just have to sell it as if it meets the current need. I realize this the more and more I look at Barack Obama’s campaign for presidency: He could have ran simply saying, “Look, these are my qualifications and this is why I am best qualified, etc.” However, he not only did this, but also sold that he was the right person at the right time. It wasn’t about qualifications to be President in a general sense, but more about why he was the right person at the right time.
I think all of us in business need to remember — when selling our products, we need to show that we are the right person for the right time. (Don’t push your product to the market, find where someone is searching or in need… and give it to them).
(2) People posting inspirational status updates: I have found people who post confident and inspirational pieces on their blogs or statuses are often more confident and “successful.” However, are these status updates a result of this success or do they help build further success? I hypothesize these updates are what helps build a further successful person. The reason being because these updates help to overtly cement such concepts into the writer’s own mind. I say this only after my experiences in doing so — for writing things down in a journal or on Facebook tends to help cement my culture. Once it is written, I’m done and keep moving. It’s like guidelines that keep us moving on the track we wish to travel.
I feel that many who have somewhat mastered these guidelines no longer post them — reason: because they already know it. I know my buddy Shawn says his reasons are because he wants to promote positive messages to the most people possible — and, this may-very-well be the case. However, it also solidifies his path towards the direction which he speaks. I am going to try to incorporate this into my life for those two reasons (1) to promote a positive culture to my friends and (2) to cement my path towards a positive self. Implementation-wise, I plan to do this like Tiffany Yoshida who posts these inspirational messages at the end of her personal updates. I LOVE that idea – b/c it accomplishes all objectives of status updates : ).
(3) Blog idea: I had an idea to keep up a blog on a bunch of topics, but to offer my “guiding principles” to the side. The goal is to create a checkpoint for myself to make sure I follow my guiding principles. This will provide an easy avenue for people to critique my arguments, most especially as I wish to perfect them. (For instance, they can comment, “Ryan, you are in violation of Guiding Principle 4 in your argument when you proposed the following…”.) Hopefully this improves my logical thought processes.
