“THINK differently in order to DO differently” is a tried and true strategy, one I rely upon, but….
There’s far too little ACTUAL independent thinking going on lately. There’s a LOT of listening, parroting, defending, arguing and sharing. But very little deep, quiet, CRITICAL — actual– thinking.
Lately I saw someone suggest that the reason people didn’t feel the (exact) same way he did about something was that they were “obviously weak minded.” I read his comment and literally chuckled to myself.
Didn’t he realize that the FASTEST POSSIBLE route to making sure your own mind is weak, flacid, and limp is to assume anyone who thought differently was “weak minded?” 
No, he didn’t realize. **wink** He apparently never thought about how the only POSSIBLE result of dismissing any other view as “weak” would leave his OWN thoughts and unchallenged… limp, weak and flabby.
To him, I’d cautiously offer another approach: to question things that give your OWN mind a workout, “Oh strong-minded one!” Questions like,
— How could people whom I respect feel so differently about this?
— I wonder what they are accepting as fact to come to that conclusion…
— If any of my friends SECRETLY felt differently than the wise old me, how might I know? (Hint: if you’re this guy… you wouldn’t.)
— If I HAD to pick one thing I could agree on with this person of an opposing view, religion, race, gender or location… what is the smallest thing I could agree with them on?
Anyway, I’m a thinker. I think about what I think about and — as a result of this — I have relationships with all sorts of people and as a result… my OWN mind stays strong and gets stronger. I encourage FREE, ACCURATE and CRITICAL thinking as an actual business strategy…
If you’re open to that sort of thing, here are 5 Ways you can pivot your THINKING (and your DOING) during the days of the Pandemic.
1) Pivot your thoughts AWAY from whether or not your prospect or market has the ability to pay, and towards whether or not they have the WILLINGNESS to pay.
This is huge. First, if your market truly doesn’t have the ability to pay, there’s nothing much you can do about it anyway. You’d be better served by focusing on deliberately building their WILLINGNESS to pay.
Questions to ponder:
— What do they already cheerfully pay for? How can you align your OFFER or your BENEFIT with something they’re already accustomed to buying?
— What do they consider mission critical in their lives right now? How can you hook into that “need” in order to present your offer?
— What’s most important to them? How can you re-present your offer as a SOLUTION to a problem they’re willing to spend on?
2) Pivot your thinking towards your CHOSEN market.
So, I emphasized chosen because you CHOSE your market. Built your offer, your funnels, your pricing around them.
If you chose poorly, it’s FAR easier to choose a different market. Many times we beat our heads against the wall, trying to suit / sway / seduce a market that is simply poorly chosen. No judgement, I did the same in the earliest days of my coaching business.
Your chosen market should AT LEAST
— know they have a problem you can solve;
— have the ability and willingness to pay to have it solved; and
— be easy to find, preferably en masse.
It’s far easier to shift your business towards a BETTER market than to change your entire business, pricing, offer, and messaging to suit the wrong market.
Question to consider: What NEW market has this pandemic revealed that may be PERFECT for what I do / sell / offer? What new avenues of revenue have been opened up to me?
3) Pivot your thinking to WHY your market should BUY from you.
This is something that you should think of constantly. Why ME?? Why SHOULD they buy from me…NOW… rather than any other person out there?
If your answer is something that hinges on “great value,” current circumstances DEMAND you go deeper. Think: What can I do to make my product, service, offer MISSION CRITICAL in their minds?
Question: What do I need to change to make my offer MISSION CRITICAL to their life, business, marriage, finances or health?
4) Pivot your role to that of RESCUE-R.
Many times in the past couple of weeks, I’m encouraged Women Who WOW members to run in the opposite direction of the masses… waving a flag and encouraging people NOT to go in the same direction as the mediocre majority.
You see, I was in business during the Great Recession. I saw way too many businesses follow the leader…. mortgaging themselves to the hilt (I ALWAYS advised against it.)… WAITING for things to “get back to normal” — when there would be no such thing — and disconnecting from the MOST important aspects of their business. FAR ToO MANY (Not my clients!) stopped marketing and selling, because they (Mistakingly) believed that “NO ONE” was buying.
Today, many businesses are making the same mistakes they made in 2008. They are allowing gains in employee trust to be eroded by rash decisions. They are permitting a slow death of their marketing, cutting sales people and exclaiming “woe IS me.”
Challenging times reveal many heroes. BE one. RESCUE their health, their marriage, their business, their sanity, their hope, their finances… whatever it is you do, THINK differently about it. Right now your people need MORE than you delivered 2 months ago. Right now, they need a shero.
So, ride in waving your flag. Proclaim that you’re here to rescue the willing… and then do exactly that.
Question: How can my efforts, my offers, my free information be MORE heroic in such a time as this?
5) Pivot from Building to Bandaging.
Here’s a hard truth: In lean times, no one relishes the thought of spending money. But do you know what they hate WAY worse? LOSING money.
So, instead of positioning your offer as “building something new” (which can be overwhelming in tough times) consider positioning your offer, work or services as a BANDAGE or a SAFEGUARD to what they’ve built already.
Build a safeguard around that which they don’t want to lose… and watch the sales come much faster than previously experienced.
If you’re hanging around Women Who WOW members… either here (online) or in your community, you may notice that our members are not only surviving, but many are thriving right now. This is NOT because I have some super stealth 5-part webinar strategy and 6-step email funnel we’re teaching. It IS because of how we THINK…
— about ourselves;
— about our businesses;
— about our chosen markets;
— about our value;
— about our RESPONSIBILITY to succeed; and
— about tough times.
It is ALWAYS about how you think…
AND THEN,..
what you do consistently.
If you have been interested in WOW, message me for the Pandemic Profit offer.
