Building and Growing a Business- Stephen Pierce

I have been trying to learn about internet marketing and doing business online for a little while now. Believe me there is a lot of crap out there. But this guy, Stephen Pierce seems to be the real deal. There is some good solid advice here on improving your sales process and growing your business.

I made some notes as I listened to this rather lengthy video(well over and hour). I will post them below. I don't know how long this link will work, but I thought it was a very good presentation. I can appreciate good solid, grounded advice as apposed to a lot of the overly hyped and exaggerated stuff you will find.(especially in the world of internet marketing)

My notes:

The 7 Figure Code

Nothing moves without a sale

* markets
* customers
* processes
* infrastructure
* offers
* metrics


Sales Process- Value is created in the journey through the sales process

* Value is what people are willing to take action to get and willing to take action to keep.
* The sale process is the profit nervous system of your business


What does your sales process look like?
You have to understand what everyone goes through as they move through your sales process

7 steps to 7 Figure Sale Process

1. Set your sales goals
2. Map your sales process
3. Set objectives for key value points
4. Measure key value points
5. Identify critical vulnerabilities
6. Select your focus of effort
7. Decide on and Activate Main Effort

Vince Lombardy- If you are not keeping score you are just practicing. (metrics, numbers, accounting for business)

Don't do what you can't measure.

Only automate something that is already working (making you money)

If you try to be strong everywhere you will be strong nowhere.

Three things you need to have success in anything.

* Focus
* consistency
* patience

Have You Ever Thought of Giving Up?

Self discipline and determination are hard to come by. I can really identify with this common problem that my boy Jack Johnson sings about in Flake(one of my favorite songs).

And often times we're lazy
It seems to stand in my way
Cause no one no not no one
Likes to be let down

We don't try because failure sucks. We don't want to let ourselves or anyone else down. Every time we try there is a chance of falling down which requires us to pick ourselves back up. So because of fear or just plain laziness we stall out and get nowhere. We let the laziness get the best of use and our forward progression stops.

So I think it is awesome and inspiring to see stories like this...

South Korean Lady Passes Driving Test on the 950th Try!

This 68-year-old woman wanted her driver's license so badly that she has gone to take the written test nearly every single day since April of 2005. When it was all said and done, Cha ended up taking that same written test about 950 times before managing to get a 60% or higher score. Ya you heard right – this lady took the written test 950 times before earning a passing grade. On top of that Cha spent more than five million won (about $4,200) in application fees over the last four years. Cha is not in the clear yet, she still has to pass the actual driving test before being rewarded with a real license. According to local media reports, Cha hopes a driver's license will improve her door-to-door vegetable-selling business.

[Source: Associated Press via Yahoo]

You can say what you want about this woman's intelligence. Say what you will about the horrific panic other Korean drivers might have if they saw her on the road, but the audacity, tenacity, and shear determination is simple amazing. I believe if we could only have this much resolve after each one of our failures our success in anything and everything would be guaranteed.

I really hope this lady passes the road test. For you this might seem like something small and insignificant. But Cha believes something.... she believes she can and will get her driver's license.

"Whether You Think You Can or Can't,You're Right"

-Henry Ford

The Formula For Happiness or Whatever You Want

"There are two ways of being happy: We may either diminish our wants or augment our means - either will do - the result in the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous or young and in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well; and if you are very wise you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society."

-Benjamin Franklin

I think that this quote from good ol' Ben is a true principle of success, prosperity, happiness, righteousness or any other battle we face here on this earth. He is talk specifically about being happy. But it can be applied to other aspects fo our lives. There is always a way we can better our situation. Some ways maybe be easier than others. There are different methods described that can be taken to be happy. For the truly wise (i.e. more successful, happier, more righteous) you have to do all you can.

In this quote I see 4 different techniques to being happy.

1. Only diminish wants
2. Only increase means
3. Diminish wants and increase means
4. Diminish wants and increase means with the purpose of helping others.

Examples

Sports: You might win by only playing good defense or just offense, but the champions are good at both. The legendary players do both and make all their teammate better at the same time.

Physical health: Some stay healthy by just watching what they eat. Different people are fit because they are very active. Guys like Richard Simmons do both and inspire others to be in shape too.

Financial Freedom: Some save, others just spend less, some do both, and the wise do both while helping others.


If any of you can think of some other examples share them in the comments for this post.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time!?

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You

Well I saw this book on a couple of other blogs that I read which sparked my interest that it might have some substance. Looking down the list I recognize several books and I have even read a few of them. I am hoping that this book won't be a let down. At the very least it will turn me on to some different books to read that I otherwise would have never thought of reading.


BOOKS IN THE 100 BEST...

Red-I have read it.
Green- I have heard of it.

1. Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
2. Getting Things Done by David Allen
3. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
4. How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley
5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
6. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
7. Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey B. Mackay
8. The Power of Intuition by Gary Klein
9. What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
10. Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisel
11. Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kell
12. On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
13. The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem
14. The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
15. Leadership Is an Art by Max De Pree
16. The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
17. Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman
18. Leading Change by John P. Kotter
19. Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
20. The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
21. Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill
22. In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
23. Good to Great by Jim Collins
24. The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
25. Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
26. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
27. Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
28. Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
29. Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad
30. Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
31. Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
32. A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell
33. Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
34. Zag by Marty Neumeier
35. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
36. Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
37. How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox
38. Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
39. The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
40. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
41. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
42. Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
43. Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
44. The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
45. The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker
46. Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming
47. Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno
48. Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
49. The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
50. The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
51. First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
52. Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald CliftonThe
53. Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
54. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
55. Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
56. Titan by Ron Chernow
57. My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
58. The HP Way by David Packard
59. Personal History by Katharine Graham
60. Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
61. Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey
62. Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
63. The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
64. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
65. The Republic of Tea by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, and Bill Rosenzweig
66. The Partnership Charter by David Gage
67. Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
68. Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
69. The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback
70. McDonald’s: Behind the Arches by John F. Love
71. American Steel by Richard Preston
72. The Force by David Dorsey
73. The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
74. When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
75. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
76. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
77. The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman
78. Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
79. A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech
80. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
81. The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
82. The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
83. Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
84. The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
85. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
86. Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
87. To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
88. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
89. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
90. The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
91. Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
92. Beyond the Core by Chris Zook
93. Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
94. What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
95. The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel
96. A Business and Its Belief by Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
97. Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody
98. The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
99. Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
100. More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin

In a comment below list any of these books you have read and tell what you think about them.

The Value of Time

Most likely your boss pays you an hourly wage or salary per year. You are providing your employer with your time in exchange he/she gives you a nice fat paycheck. You give your boss your time and he gives you money in return. If you think about it, time is the only commodity that anyone has to offer. It is also the only thing that can be used to create something of value. You can give someone a product or service, however I would argue that it is impossible to have them without using some of your time.

Why do some receive more money for their time? Its simple they choose to make their time more valuable. The activities that we chose to fill our time with determine the price per unit of time. Just like with any other commodity value correlates with its usefulness. Gold can be made into jewelry, oil can be used for energy, cows are delicious to eat and so on.

You have to fill your time with useful tasks if you want more compensation for your time. Educating yourself increases your ability to accomplish more in a given period of time. Education also enables you do preform work that very few others can. The more you fill your head with valuable information the more desirable your time becomes. Is there really anyone out there willing to pay a lot of money for someone's time because he has "mad Halo 3 skills." I certainly hope not that would be pretty lame if they did. But you will find that someone who can preform open heart surgery can demand a high price for their time. Those that need some of his precious time will pay that high price.

I guess the message that I am trying to convey is that we are all given a finite amount of time on this earth. We all have the choice and freedom to do as we please with this precious time. If we don't see the value of this limited resource then no one else will either. If you personally don't have any problem wasting your time then it is most likely its not worth much. Making the decision to eliminate the waste in you life and using that time towards value adding activities can be quite rewarding.

ACTION ITEM: If there is anyone out there that actually took the time to read this post then please take the time to leave a comment on something that you or others can change to increase the value of time. Whether it is eliminating a certain wasteful activity or changing to something more productive. I think that this would be a good use of your time.