TOP OF MIND!

Early bird gets the worm, always.

It is believed by many great leaders and teachers that the speed in which you make decisions can greatly improve your overall results.  I feel the improved results take place in one of two ways.

First, if you make a sound decision quickly you often become the early bird and therefore get the worm.

Secondly, if you make a decision quickly and you happen to make the wrong choice you can quickly take corrective action and often times be ahead of where you were before you started.

I find that many business owners are taking far longer in the decision making process than they should.  It seems much of this is due to fear in the economy, but remember that a bad business practice in a bad economy doesn’t make it a good one.  Bad is bad, period.  Being in a state of analysis paralysis is all too common and those who are able to make corrections now have the ability to really innovate their business.

Moral of the story:  When presented with a decision, act fast.  Do your due diligence efficiently and take action.  You will never get ahead by remaining stagnant.

Market your product with desire, not logic

Consumers will spend, agreed?  Maybe not at the level they did a couple years ago, but keep in mind the value of human nature.  When someone is really into something there is no end to the amount of money they will spend to fulfill that desire.  In fact, people will go so far as to spend money they don’t even have, hence part of the problem with our credit bubble. People purchase emotionally as we have all learned and therefore decisions are not based on logic but rather desire.

Decreased sales are function of decreased value.  You don’t have to cut your prices in all instances to increase sales, but focus in increasing value.  Now, I am not going to get into detailed numbers, gross profit, etc., at this time, but the key is to view your approach a bit differently by creating as much desire as possible for your product.

The key to maintaining a profitable brand is not to offer discounts or buy one, get one free promos, but to build and maintain a strong emotional bond with customers. An analysis of nearly 880 case studies published by the World Advertising Research Centre shows that ad campaigns that focus on emotional engagement tend to be more profitable than ad campaigns that focus on rational messages (such as low prices or special offers), even when times are tough.
Adweek.com – -By Les Binet