When you travel around from business model to business model it becomes evidently clear how very similar these different leaders perform their working patterns. Place all of them in the same conference room and most would deny they work in similar patterns. The reality remains, they do.
I recently worked with a business owner in the tire business. His pattern of work was almost the mirror image of the one a farm store manager performed on my last years' project. Other than the personality differences they possess, their work patterns moved very much the same, day in and day out. Business owners operate very similar working patterns. They have established very predictable patterns of play. It is very interesting listening to them describe how they believe each of them thinks they are very different, however. Each business leader does not want to believe they are just the same as someone else. It has been my traveling experience that they are almost all the same. Each of them do pretty much the same stuff every day.
Business leaders have a set pattern of work responsibilities that must be performed in order to produce their model of success. They must provide a product or service, market it well, make sure the accounting of their activities are being posted properly and handle the relationships between the customers and their employees. Every business leader nibbles each day on parts of these things. As time travels on they begin to develop a comfort zone of how they nibble on these routines. They eventually work their responsibilities into a regular routine. Each of them form a pattern of work that touches their duties in a similar way. Very few of the business leaders I meet are uniquely different in how they perform these routine duties. They do exactly the same kinds of working patterns the other leaders do.
Consequently, before I arrive to go help a new business model I already have a pretty good idea how the leader is practicing what they are doing. There are no great discoveries in this kind of work. As much as it might wick off every business owner, each of them are very much the same as the guy next door operating the bagel shop. Even though the specifics are different, the working patterns are quite the same. It is true.
The reality is, business leaders operate very much the same patterns of work duties. Once in awhile, I meet someone who is surrounded by a whole different set of personalities that separates that leader from the rest of the crowd. Occasionally, I find one leader to be quite a bit different in the style of work they perform. That's all. All in all, most of the differences I find between the business owners I have met can land somewhere between the differences in their personality styles or in the areas of focus each of them prefers to deliver during their working day. The rest of their functions can be bottled up and placed into the same vase.
Business leaders use almost a rubber stamp approach to how they lead their business models. Some are more diligent in some areas of preference. Some are more sloppy in detail of pursuit. Some are less disciplined in the accounting areas of work. All in all, every one of them performs kind of the same routine of work. Let's face it, very few business leaders perform uniquely different patterns of work duties. Very few.
Let's talk about that truth just a little bit. I fully recognize how this perspective described above might not be very popular with the business leaders. I know how much we hate to be compared as being the same as someone else. Most of us want to be recognized as individuals. Whatever the case, the truth is the truth regardless of how unpopular it comes down. In my business consulting travels and with my years of business experience, accuracy is a very touchy subject with business leaders. This much I know. The ego's of the leaders, male or female, is always a very touchy territory to travel. In fact, some of the women leaders have some of the largest egos I have witnessed. Many of the women egos can easily murder the egos most of the men harbor...hands down. Even the owners with the largest egos have the very same working patterns as those who process smaller personalities. Let's just face it, business owners operate much the same from model to model.
Given this pattern of recognition, let's talk about how a business owner can easily begin to work with a different pattern each day. Let's jump into the marketing segment of their business duties. Let's get a concept defined that will help every business owner develop a new and exciting success pattern of work duties. Let's make that concept become part of a new and exciting approach to marketing that will add value to the work duties performed. Let's begin to discover how each owner can improve how their business model grows. Let's start to change what the owner does each day. Let's develop a new pattern for work duties that will enhance the outcomes and improve the profits. Let's make some sense out of the day of work that is typically applied and allow the owner a simple shift in duties that will work better than the ones they are protecting right now. Let's examine how to become better operators. Let's blow the doors off of the competition. Let's get serious about being uniquely different yet simple and effective. Let's change the way we do our daily work patterns.
We will call this exercise, "Business Marketing #101: T.L.C."
Every business owner should recognize that they have something to sell. Owners need to quit working over time on disappearing into the crowd. They need to make it clear that they are out and about doing their beating of the drum. Most business owners work too hard on blending into the crowd. Their efforts of promotion fall somewhere between quiet and silent. Their business volume suffers and they just cannot figure out why it suffers. I make no bones about what I try to promote. I love productivity. I expect it. I make no bones about that effort. If you are not productive, you will know it. I make no bones about letting you know that I prefer to employ productive people. I keep that goal away from any secrets. I also make certain my work habits are more productive than the tongue that promises productivity. I do not pay lip service a lot of attention. I prefer doing. I practice leadership by example. I will 'out-work' any employee. I have a lot of energy and I apply every single bit of it. This is how I plan to go to work, how I initiate my daily work and how I usually end my day of activities. I do not go to work to rest. Neither should you.
With that profile in mind, let's develop a new and unique way to process your daily business work. We will work today on part one of this effort. I am sorry for that bit of news. I would like to do all of this post in one single print, but it deserves two. It is too important to cover in one single swoop. It needs to be covered in two distinct ways in order to be delivered with more effective comprehension. I want each of you to comprehend what it means to make a unique pattern change in the way you work your business model. It will take a couple of steps to see how to make that change work well.
I am going to define a new marketing method in a new format with a new idea that will help your business model market its way down a new and exciting success path. You will like how this turns out. It will be my job to describe it clearly to you so you can fully grasp how much help it will provide your daily pattern of leadership to the marketing work you do. It will, in the end, help your business model become more satisfying to manage and more productive to guide. Your growth will also improve.
T.L.C. That is where we need to start. Most people know that T.L.C. represents Tender Loving Care. Keep that concept over the head of this new change like an umbrella. As you work this new idea in marketing into your daily habit patterns, keep the tender loving care umbrella over this whole change of patterns. Pay close attention to the respect that is needed in your operation as you make these unique changes. T.L.C. is the reminder that you must change with care. Keep that umbrella over all of your change efforts. Do not become an arrogant bull.
T.L.C. Write these initials on a piece of paper or on the screen of your device. Place these initials into a simple file. Next to the T....write this statement. Take what they give you. We will describe in depth what this truly represents in your marketing efforts. Next, write the next initial...L. Next to the L...write this statement. Lend a helping hand to the added products and services you will initiate. Finally, write the last initial...C. Next to the C...write this statement. Create.
This is the new marketing approach you will initiate for your business model. We are going to change how you approach the marketing of your business model. We are going to change how you think. We are going to change your preconceived notions and your current marketing beliefs. We are going to add value to the business model you manage. We are going to drive your marketing methods with a different steering wheel. Your vehicle will look the same but your methods will begin to look different. The direction your model will be headed will also change its course. We will steer it to more successful lands. We will incorporate the concepts of T.L.C.
T. Take what they give you.
L. Lend a helping hand to the added products and services you will initiate.
C. Create.
We will begin the project of teaching you how to re-direct your marketing efforts. We will begin to change how you lead your business model to a new set of marketing ideas. We will begin to help you change how you approach what you believe. That will be the biggest test of all. Most leaders have a tough time 'testing' how they believe marketing to be. We get set in our ways come heck or high water. We know what we know and nobody is going to tell us anything new, differently. No way. That is usually how leaders subconsciously operate. I am one of those kinds of leaders. I know a lot about making changes in areas I do not believe. It is tough stuff to do. However, I have made some of my best and most life changing discoveries listening deeply to those things that I do not believe are true. Behind my original beliefs were some very interesting discoveries that actually added value to the ways I market my models. Let's go to work on examining T.L.C. a little bit deeper.
Until the next post...part two...try to mentally define how each of these three letters (TLC) can become part of your new marketing philosophy. We will describe them in greater detail in the next post on this blog. We will offer some great examples. Most of all, we need to get prepared to change the way we think about how we approach our marketing ways. For those of you who are successful using your current marketing methods, by all means, keep using them. Do not change what works. For those of you who are struggling with producing volume growth, maybe we can try something new like this. Maybe we can begin the work to modify how you market your wares. We need to produce better results. We need to change how we do that kind of work. We need a better method. We need a better plan. We need to initiate that changed plan. This might require that we change what we believe. Wow, that will be the highest test.
I will be gone for three days to visit an ailing Father-In-Law. I leave in a few minutes. I will not post while I am with him this weekend. He will have my whole attention. In the meantime, work on describing what you think these three letters represent. It will become your weekend assignment. If your business model fails in the next three days, we were too late in helping it anyway. We can get back to these three letters (TLC) when I return.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment