Finishers Look for Subtraction

Here at the Finisher's Blog, I try to observe and report what makes people great "finishers" in their chosen fields / areas. Then I try to connect those observations to business work...sales work...marketing work.

This week's observation is counter intuitive and a lot of people don't want to try it.

Great Finisher's subtract stuff from their list without apology.

(Here comes this week's Seth Godin Moment)...

Read The Dip...Seth's great book about when to quit and when to stick. He recently blogged about this idea HERE.

The idea is that you have to become the BEST in the world...and you get to define how broad your "world" is. In his blog post, he says that means you have to eliminate all the "a little of this...and a little of that" stuff. Be strict.

Great Finishers...whether they are in sports, in sales, in business or in real estate... SUBTRACT the stuff that is keeping them from being the best.

Addition by subtraction is not a new idea...but applying it to your day and applying it to your business WILL help with finishing.

What can you subtract this week?

Click HERE to see our SUBTRACTION CHALLENGE.

Finisher's Quality: Knowing When to Focus

Last night I was playing in my weekly tennis league. It is a double's league where you play 35 minutes with each player on the court. The player with the most games won moves up the ladder, the player with the least number of games won moves down.

I played so well for the first two rounds, and I didn't play well in the third. Now, this isn't that interesting to anyone, except that it is a great illustration of this week's idea.

Finisher's Quality: Know When to Focus. Know when to drift.

The last round I was playing with the best player on the court and I relaxed. The previous two rounds, I knew I would have to be at my best to keep from losing badly to the stronger player. Then, when I got my turn with the better player...I didn't mean to, but I stopped focusing on my own game.

You have seen this a hundred times in every sport on the planet. An individual has the focus to get ahead, but doesn't have the ability to close it out.

This does not just apply to sales people. I bet you can come up with a situation when you were focused...focused...focused...on a big goal. Then, once the goal is within sight, within reach...you relax.

"Well, I can get there even if I only..."

That is the tank. Instead of finishing...you are going into the tank.

I am convinced that I was playing the best tennis on the court last night...but I am the one going down the ladder. I didn't finish the night. I drifted when I should have focused. For two sets I played the ball and I simply concentrated on playing the point, not the person across from me. Then, I let the thoughts of who I was playing with and against get me off course.

Once you wander off that course, it takes some time to get the focus back. Next week I will explore how great finishers get their focus back.

If anyone has any ideas, examples, tricks about this...please let me know.

The Finisher's Blog

When I was 10 my grandfather made an observation about me...I was a fast starter but a slow finisher. I would often get excited about starting something, but would rarely finish it.

When I was racing bicycles I was able to focus on the early part of a race, but often allowed negative thoughts to creep into my head when the race started getting hard. One day I learned a big lesson while in training with a group of friends. We were turning up the pace and as we got to the last two laps on the velodrome I said out loud, "nope...that's it," and I pulled up the track and slowed down my pedaling.

After the race when we all sat down, my good friend and mentor came up to me and shouted, "If you ever go in the tank like that again I will never ride with you again!" I got the point.

In sports and business and life there are finishers and there are people who tank. There are people who do the work to get the job done, and there are people who are very, very good but who don't quite finish well.

For many athletes, it is a matter of mental approach and focus.

It is the same with me...I often lose focus right at the moment that I need it the most.

For the next several months, I will dedicate this blog to pointing out examples of finishing and of people struggling to finish.

Here is my first example:

A month ago I had a fistfull of proposals out the door. I was sure to have a good end of the summer because I allowed myself to count the dollars and say to myself, "Even if I only get two-thirds of these jobs started, I am in fine shape." And I went on vacation.

Well...I didn't finish the sales job properly and I didn't get most of the work. I had gone into sales presentation mode...feature feature feature....benefit benefit benefit...and I forgot to finish.

The Sandler Sales method is called "post sell" to finish the sale. I have worked with another great sales manager who called it "confirming" the sale.

Either way, there are ways to re-confirm what you think is happening. And I learned that if you can't get the customer to confirm the project with you...then you are just chasing and hoping.

I wasn't finishing.

...Continuing with the Sports Theme

I play tennis. I love tennis, and even though I am fast closing in on 40, I work hard each week to get better. There is always something to work on. I like playing with other people who are working hard to get better. I like playing with them even when they beat me!

I do not like playing with people who really aren't trying to improve. In tennis, often these are people who are called "pushers." They push the ball back over the net, without really making a shot, and without really taking a true swing. Tennis instructors will tell you, "you can play like that, but you will never get any better." Pushers have no follow through...which leads me to this post from Seth Godin.

Follow through is another sports training idea that is completely applicable to business.

How to do Sales and Marketing

Penelope Trunk has written a book.

She has a blog too. Here is a recent post about how to get an agent's attention if you want to sell a book idea:

URL:A week of journalism: Seven ways to get an agent’s attention

The cool thing is, this is great marketing advice.

Marketing is NOT just about features and benefits...and yet, people still focus on that almost exclusively. If I here or see one more car commercial that lists off a bunch of stats...!!

Think about how this advice relates to your company...your product...your service.

Any questions?

Network Marketing...How Is Your Elevator Speech?

I had the pleasure of attending a well run, established referral group meeting yesterday.

Great lunch guys..thanks.

This is a group of people that are as varied as you can imagine, and this is a group that does not allow direct overlap of business descriptions in its membership.

I was struck by the friendliness and genuine desire to help others in order to help yourself attitude that is a huge part of this group's motto.

I was also struck by how the membership described what they did, and it got me thinking about the dreaded elevator speech.

We work with small and medium sized companies to help them put together marketing plans, website plans, sales plans, printed collateral, interactive plans.

I promise you that if I ever get to work with you, the first thing I will ask you to do is to describe your company and what you do.

Commonly, people start with their name, their company, and they tell me exactly what they do.

Occasionally, there is a silly lead in teaser...and then a repeat of the above.

What many people don't get is that the elevator pitch is NEVER about what you do...

It should always be about your customers, the kinds of things they deal with, their struggles, their challenges...

Too many people think of the 30 seconds or less description of what you do as a "pitch" or a "speech" or a "presentation"...

In reality it will only be memorable by being engaging.

Engage the person who is asking you "so, what do you do?"

Get them to ask you another question.

Get them to ask you to tell them more, "Oh, how do you do that?"

It has become such second nature to describe what you do from your own point of view...

When really what you should be doing is engaging people by describing what your customers say you do.

Got any questions?

Marketing vs. Offering

Seth Godin today posts about Offer World, a new and strange land where traditional marketers feel a little uncomfortable.

Seth once again points out the very obvious:

Marketing isn't about marketing...it's about a relationship. It is more successful when it is a long term relationship.

Now - whether that relationship is a one on one meeting in a coffee shop, or visitors coming into your store, or someone coming to your website, everyone still must do the things necessary to develop a relationship.

Now - in "Offer World" you develop an initial (and subsequent) interest through the use of offers. But the big point Seth is making is that it is what happens AFTER you make that offer that counts.

It is the "After Offer World" where you earn the trust, loyalty, interaction and repeat business.

If you send someone a postcard and they take the time to go to your website and fill out a form to get your offer, AND they give you permission to contact them...by all means, you better have something remarkable that is coming next. NOT some PR rehash, NOT the same info sheet that you linked from the website...something remarkable.

What do I mean by remarkable?

HERE is another link. It is Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" presentation from a few years ago. These are 17 minutes that will change the way you work. It is remarkable.