A moment of belief sustained through bold action will overcome even the most overwhelming forces lined up against you. The Patriots’ winning season this year should teach every young and old person a huge lesson.

Whatever you believe that you can do, even if it goes against prevailing opinions and conventional wisdom, you can and will succeed when you refuse to give up.

The problem that many young people have today is they don’t buy this idea because most of their education has been focused on staying within conventional bounds of thought and career planning formulas. For example, you must get a college degree (at least a Bachelor’s) after high school if you want a decent paying job to pay your college loans and start to build a life of your own. Get into one of the career fields where demand is highest and pursue one of those good-paying jobs (whether you like the work or not). Buy a home, maybe raise a family, save for retirement…

Maybe life can and should be more meaningful than that!

Do what you want in spite of what they say!

The conventional education-career formula is one viable way to make a living but it has proven to be very disappointing to a lot of people. They feel stuck in a job to finance their chosen lifestyle, longing for those 2 weeks of paid vacation each year. I know that prison very well having served a 25-year sentence. Through circumstances and grace, I managed to break free of the cycle. If I can do it, anyone can do it!

If you have a talent or skill that you enjoy using, then you probably need to build your career around that to be happy most of your days. All you really need is faith. You need to believe in your God-given abilities and personal calling. If you make a heartfelt decision to pursue your “dream job,” never give up working toward its total fulfillment and you shall succeed at it.

Some of us have figured out a way to integrate work time and personal time to be just about any time. Mondays are just as anticipated, fun and exciting as Fridays. Tuesdays are cool too.

Should the odds appear stacked against your life-career goals, that’s all the better reason to get going right now and go after your ultimate prize.

Remember this. The NFL deliberately and deceptively tried to knock Tom Brady and the Patriots off their winning track. Lots of jealous fans and a few rivals piled on. The Patriots ignored them because they aren’t worthy competitors.

The post Never let critics call your plays! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Sometimes this blog brings some hands-on marketing technique information to readers such as better SEO practices, how to use Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. But it focuses mostly on building skills that help business owners, marketing directors and salespeople do their jobs better. Let’s look at just a few key skills that will help you in your business, whatever category you’re in; professional services, manufacturing, construction, business services, retail, legal, real estate… you name it.

3 skills every business person needs to succeed:

1.  Networking & Building Relationships:  If you can’t listen well and carry on a mutually pleasing conversation with someone you may as well go back to your cubicle and fight carpal tunnel syndrome. That may be fine if you program or crunch numbers better than anyone else but chances are you’ll always work for someone else or need someone else to help you grow your business. There is no substitute for people doing business face to face. Clients and customers gravitate to people they enjoy being around and prefer to do business with people they like.

2.  Consistency:  Stay focused on what you do best. The jack of all trades is master of none and today’s customers want the best that’s out there. If you try to be all things to all people, you will be known for nothing. None of us can be best-in-class in more than one or two specialties. Resist the temptation to position your brand as an expert generalist. There’s really no such thing and customers know it. Business owners often fear they will miss out on opportunities unless they cast the broadest net. It may work in politics but not business. When you carefully develop your business strategy and clearly communicate your brand positioning by being known well for one thing, customers from all over the place will be attracted to that message because they want that one thing from the best in the business.

3.  Customize experiences:  Do your homework! “When you walk in empty headed, you’ll walk out empty handed.” There’s another brilliant quip from Jeffrey Gitomer. It means preparing for every unique customer interaction. If you have an appointment with a prospect or new customer, go in knowing about them and what makes them tick. How can your product or service experienced be customized to fit them like a comfortable glove? This takes research. It takes extra time and work on your part. Do the extra work and you’ll stand up head and shoulders above your competition. Your genuine confident smile will set your clients at ease and let them know they made the right choice when they called you.

We subtitled this “3 skills…” but here’s your bonus: Believe and have faith in the power that is greater than you – from whence all success is derived. Whatever your understanding of this power, know this. It exists and it isn’t you. I choose to call Him God. All of your skills and talents are given life to serve others and you are the instrument through which they are carried out in service. The most precious habit you can nurture is prayer and meditation to start your day – every day.

The post Soft Skills that Deliver Hard Assets appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

“You cannot be serious!” Imagine if John McEnroe had a meltdown about something he couldn’t believe was so… good!

Every once in a while there’s a new product or service so damn good it’s hard to believeit’s available without an inordinate cost. For example, I’m amazed by the value of email marketing on Constant Contact, Mailchimp and other email services. Just think of the service Google provides free – with very little if any advertising annoyance to you, the consumer.

Let me challenge you (I’m challenging myself starting right now!) to earn your next customer or client by being too good a value to pass up.

This is as transparent as it gets right here:

I screen every ad in this newsletter. I was just given a huge lesson when I clicked on my new ad this morning. It gave me the idea for this article: Be so good that even skeptical prospects will say yes!

My advertising service is just that – too good a service for me to pass up. LaunchBit put me in the online media business just by finding this newsletter (based on its excellent content) and offering to make the Chuck Sink Link actually pay something. All I had to do was give them some basic information and now this little newsletter generates a bit of income aside from the educational service it provides you.

So, just wait till you click on our feature ad today. I’m not saying this to be self serving. I’m blown away by how simple, easy and valuable this online tool is sign up for. If they follow through with their promise, this company will skyrocket. By virtue of their UX (User Experience) alone, this company will do extremely well. It is one of the best websites I’ve visited in a long time!

Quick update: after signing up so easily, a highly professional individual has emailed me twice and was very forthcoming with pricing and product info. We’re connected now as fellow marketing professionals.

Make sure you click the ad below before you exit. If you’re a businessperson, you’ll want to consider arming yourself with this tool because, literally, your competition will be all over you if they do. And yes, Mr. McEnroe, I AM SERIOUS!

Track Your Competitors What’s working in your competitors digital marketing? Let’s not leave that unanswered, so get tracking with TrackMaven – the competitive intelligence platform. (Sponsor this newsletter)

The post Be So Good They Have to Try You! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

This is important and serious business. Social Media – Facebook and Twitter in particular, have a bad rap in some business circles. Here’s why you need to consider some combination of Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, depending on what business you’re in.

The post One salesperson = 2,000 more. Sound good? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

There are these really old guys out there, some passed like Zig Ziglar, who no longer appeal to new generations striving to succeed in business. A new breed has come along. They promise miracles if you will only follow their formula to the letter. If you try and fail, it’s your fault for not doing it right.

There are golf equipment marketers who claim that if you will only switch to their brand of clubs or balls, you will shave a number of strokes off your game.* The asterisk is for the lawyers. How about weight loss products, exercise equipment, even software for business efficiency? Sure, truly breakthrough technologies from inventors and brilliant engineers offer new tools that leverage your skill more efficiently (sometimes exponentially), I get that.

But, there there will always be scam artists out there like the late PT Barnum who know full well, “there’s a sucker born every minute.” More subtle marketers can make believable claims about removing the hard work from business so you can “make money in your sleep.” Yeah, again, I get it! E-commerce technologies can automate transactions and bill credit cards for you, but what made that possible and how will it be sustained?

Please let a recently deceased and universally loved gentleman drive my points home, for I fear the risk of wearing you out. Please take over Zig… READ MORE

The post No Product, Pill or Person appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Executives and business owners will often call in a marketing company for ideas to help rejuvenate sluggish or declining sales. “We just need help attracting some fresh new leads for the sales team and we can handle it once we get them talking with us.” It’s a commonly expressed sentiment. My experience has been that once such a meeting takes place, and the marketing consultant knows how to probe, the discussion can turn into something much more profound.

Marketing isn’t a department or a function. Marketing encompasses products and services, brand(s), prices, distribution, promotion and sales. It’s most of your business activity and therefore requires the highest level of business strategy to succeed.

Small business owners are notorious for mistaking marketing with advertising and promotion and they let office managers or executive assistants “handle the marketing.” Even in large firms, the CMO – Chief Marketing Officer (if they have one) is almost always subordinate to the CFO and COO. They often report directly to the COO instead of the CEO. This makes me worry they might CCO – cease creating opportunities by having a buffer zone between the marketing officer and the Chief Executive & board.

The principles of marketing will always be pretty much the same because they are rooted in human nature and the laws of economics. The tactical marketing landscape, however, is nothing like it was ten years ago. The powerful implication here is that marketing strategy must adapt to new technologies and audience preferences. Product design must be superb. Service delivery must be revolutionary or you cannot sell on service!

New business prospect: “My current supplier does all that and more!”

Sidebar: Please stop basing your differentiation on service. Argue all you want but your service can and will be duplicated in short order. Great service must be a given or you’ll lose customers. Customers expect you to cater to them as a concierge and when you don’t, they will broadcast their experience rather than complain to you and a few of their friends.

A good marketing plan must be fully integrated in the overall business plan. A solid marketing strategy begins with a core foundation which includes:

• Market Research
• Target Audience Definition
• Competitor Analysis
• Branding (more important than many think!)
• Tactical Planing
• Implementation

Sounds like a lot of work and it is! I will readily admit there are successful companies that may not consciously plan out and execute all of the above but they actually accomplish these things by virtue of their innate business savvy. It helps when you have great people, driven every day to be the very best in the market! That overrides a lot of potential deficiencies in systems and processes.

There’s a whole lot more to modernizing and improving your marketing plan than trying to capitalize on social media. Feel free to chime in your thoughts with a comment. I’d also be happy to answer questions. You can even talk directly to the CEO. 🙂

The post Marketing is (Almost) Everything! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

It occurs to me that marketing and sales have more parallels to teaching than people may realize. As an adjunct professor I’m learning a lot about audience engagement.

Students sit though class because they have to, not because they want to. Their parents are paying good money for them to be there. Most students understand and respect that. They also realize that success or failure in a required class can have a real impact on their futures. There’s incentive pushing them forward and making them pay attention – as far as their attention spans allow.

Naturally there are a few students in just about every classroom who are internally motivated and inspired to learn everything they can. Predictably they excel in learning the material and participating in class discussion. What about the majority of the students who appear indifferent and uninterested? Their academic success is just as important to them as it is to the self motivated students, whether they know it or not.

I’m attempting to paint a metaphor concerning your business audience. Your loyal customers are a pleasure to work with. They look forward to hearing from you and often take initiative themselves to keep improving the business relationship. In reality, they make up a very small portion of your target market and total audience. By the numbers, the mass market of the indifferent could be the source of your future fortunes if only you could engage a significant percentage of them like you do your good customers.

What I find raises more heads and focuses more eyes on the professor is when he introduces emotion and human drama into the material being presented. When I stray off textbook rote and bullet points, I notice that most of my class is focused and listening. It’s the stuff they’re not expecting that has them thinking and becoming curious. So long as I stay within the core of the curriculum, I have a tool at my disposal to wake up my audience and get them refocused on why they are there; on the importance of paying attention. I get them to buy into my message (which is to teach them business communication skills).

Today’s lesson for you is to tap into what really matters to the majority of your audience. Once you understand the emotional hot buttons that can be assigned to your product and service benefits, you’ve stuck through the common bedrock of commodity messages to the real marketing pay dirt. Your otherwise bored students (prospects) will start paying attention and want to learn more from you.

The post Make them want to be there. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

By Chuck Sink

The post Your Friend the Competitor appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.