Everyone wants to succeed in business. After all, we would not BE in business if we didn’t want to succeed, right?
It’s often been said that ‘success leaves clues’. This phrase is often found on websites that are trying to sell you on their business. Just follow the clues, and you too will succeed.
But we both know it doesn’t work like that. Succeeding – whether online or offline – takes effort. It takes working hard and smart too.
Over the last few weeks I’ve given considerable thought to what success looks like.
During that time, I visited the sites of today’s top business people.
These sites varied widely in nature. Some are Internet marketers, as you might expect.
Some are physicians who are helping real people overcome health challenges.
Others are authors who observe the world and report on what works… sort of like the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”series.
While visiting these sites, I noticed some common denominators to their success. I call them the “B12 of marketing” because, like the vitamin B12, they add power to your life and business.
Check them out and see how many you possess. Then, if you want more power, add one or more of these wonderful attributes to your life and watch as very good things begin to happen for you.
B1. Be Consistent
The top performers are consistent. Their marketing message rings true in no small part because they are saying the same things today as they said last year. In some cases, as they said last century! 🙂
I was thrilled to see that Tom Hopkins still believes in his selling techniques. I was happy too to hear that Jay Conrad Levinson proves every day that Guerilla Marketing works just as well on the Net as off.
My personal hero, Zig Ziglar, was a model of consistency. He taught the same principles for well over 40 years.
These are people we can learn from. Their message is tried and true.
Are you consistent in your marketing efforts?
Do you only recommend products you use and know work well, or go for the quick buck by jumping on the latest and greatest bandwagon?
In business, consistency matters.
B2. Be Unique
Solomon once wrote “there is nothing new under the sun.” And he was right.
The Internet, while new technology, simply makes it possible for people to do the same thing we’ve been doing since the beginning of time … communicate.
But there are many new ways of doing the same old things, and I’m thankful for that.
Today’s top business people are unique in their approach to life, and business. They offer a cutting edge that others are drawn to like a magnet.
That cutting edge is often excellence, because today’s top performers are excellent indeed.
Is your offer unique?
If not, add something new today that makes it stand out from the crowd, and trumpet that as a reason to buy today.
B3. Be Aggressive
Here’s an interesting one. Today’s top stars are super-aggressive, but not in the way you might think.
Rather than littering their sites with a thousand “buy now” buttons, today’s top business stars are aggressively making the case of WHY you should buy from them.
Unlike many in the Internet marketing crowd, they don’t use false scarcity, or threats of your imminent failure if you don’t buy, as clubs to beat you into submission.
Instead, they show value and how you both can win.
They use every cutting edge technique they can to sell you something. They are aggressive without being pushy. A fine line to be sure, but one that can make all the difference.
B4. Be Visible
Ever notice how some people just seem to be everywhere at once? They have a new book coming out, a new website, you read about them on blogs, you get emails about their offers … and the list goes on.
It’s a pure fact that people online have very short attention spans today. As a business person, you have to become more visible than ever, and stay that way.
So, how can you do that? Here are five tips that have passed the test of time.
- Write and distribute articles.
- Publish an ezine.
- Offer site visitors an email follow up series.
- Participate in joint ventures.
- Visit forums and contribute helpful comments.
College professors know that you must ‘publish or perish’. The same holds true online.
B5. Be Interesting
No one – and I mean no one – does this better than Marlon Sanders. If you have never heard Marlon speak, you’ve missed a treat.
They say the #1 sin in business is to be boring. Yet, most sites I visit just sit there, waiting for me to make the first move.
How about your site? If you find your site less than stimulating, try adding audio or video to it today. Both are super-easy to do.
Or add a survey and get visitors to interact. No matter how you go about it, make visiting your site an experience.
B6. Be Of Value
Ah, the big one. I think every person who does business online should have to ask themselves this question every 30 days … “Does my product offer an incredible value?”
Ever wonder why fire sales work so well?
It’s because, when done right, they offer an incredible value. Real products, super-cheap. Who wouldn’t like that?
Want more sales? Take a look at what you offer, and find new ways to add value.
Then, be aggressive about telling visitors how much value they will receive!
B7. Be Giving
Every once in a while, we all need to give something away to someone else. I’m talking about the kind of giving where you do not have a reasonable expectation of getting anything back.
When I first started online, there was this guy who spent hours with me on the phone. There was no way that I could pay him back for his time, yet he gave. And I succeeded.
He was instrumental to my success and asked for nothing in return. Do you think there is anything I would not do for him now if he ever needed my help? That type of loyalty can only be earned by selfless giving.
That kind of giving only comes from the heart, and is rare online. But if you do it, good things WILL come back to you many many times. Count on that.
And thanks again Paul. I will never forget what you did for me.
B8. Be Credible
Yesterday this guy calls and says he wants to create a website telling people how to succeed online.
But …and this is a big but … he’s never made a dime online.
My advice was to go out and DO what he wants to teach first, and THEN try to share it with others. Shockingly, he was not buying what I suggested.
“Too much work” to actually DO the marketing and then teach it when there are so many who will buy anything online.
All it takes is a slick sales letter or a great sales funnel, right?
The bottom line here is simple: The people who succeed in life over time do so because they are operating from a base of experience and credibility that rings true without them having to say a word about it.
How can you build that kind of credibility? Do the work. Try many things. Keep really good notes. 🙂
B9. Be Available
Ever visit a site, want to contact them, and then not be able to find any valid contact information? Me too, and I hate it.
Those sites don’t want to help, they want to sell. That’s okay, but they won’t be selling me anything.
If you want to be credible and succeed long term – be available, or see to it that someone is available, to help site visitors and customers with questions.
B10. Be Understanding
Today’s top performers are some of the most understanding people on the planet.
They know that their product, their answer, their viewpoint, is not always right for every person.
When they find a person they can’t serve, they are very quick to say so, and refer that person to someone who can help.
Now that is personal power.
B11. Be Patient
The thing I like least about most sites I visit (especially in the online marketing space) is what I call the “just add water and stir for success” approach they take.
The truth, and I’ll bet you know this in your heart, is that success takes time.
As I look over my list of top performers I see no small number of overnight successes.
But that ‘overnight’ success happened after literally YEARS of paying their dues … learning their craft … developing credibility.
To be sure, the Internet has shortened the time it takes to succeed. If one is wise, listens to right counsel, wastes no time in learning how to use the tools of the trade, things can happen very quickly indeed.
But it still takes patience.
- Patience while your website conversion goes from .1% to a full 5% and higher.
- Patience while you get the wording on that sales letter just right.
- And patience when you issue a refund just because some person doesn’t know how to download.
‘Patience is a virtue’ the old saying goes. Indeed it is. In fact, it might just be THE virtue.
B12. Be Reasonable
Do you know why people get ripped off online? It’s not the really bad people who are ripping people off online, although that happens. No, it’s the sites that make unreasonable promises, preying on the desperation some people have for money, power, recognition, and freedom.
To be sure, all of these things (money, power, recognition and freedom) are available to you. But not by simply paying money to some site that promises to do all the work for you. And not by falling for outrageous claims that promise more than any site can deliver.
In fact, I’ve found that the more reasonable a site seems, the better it sells.
There you have the 12 principles I found during my search. Can any one person be expected to have all 12 working in perfect harmony all of the time? I don’t think so.
But it is better to aim at the stars and hit the moon than to aim at the moon and hit a rock. And that upward call is what separates the truly successful from those who almost get there.
Let me encourage you to create your own list of success attributes, then occasionally get alone with yourself and take inventory. Congratulate yourself on your successes, and challenge yourself on your shortcomings.
Do that every 30 days, and soon time will become your very best friend.
And that is a powerful thing indeed!
