From Tim Coote‘s always brilliant and enjoyable blog:
“When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them — And nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — But I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If somebody’s thinking, “How can I be really good?”, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.”All of the strategies and marketing angles will be trumped by this one piece of advice everytime – “Be so good they can’t ignore you”. If you’re catching balls in the end zone week after week or motivating people to do their best and it works week after week you will be noticed. People want to notice you because it’s why the world spins. It’s why people are able to get out of bed and go to work. Aspiring to greatness is the honey in the lion.
Damn, Tim. Well put.
I received a similar piece of advice last night as a business owner from a financial counselor my wife and I were talking to. It’s tough being a business owner (and currently the only “employee”) because not only do you want to do the actual work of the business, hopefully it’s something you are very passionate about but also you have to do the administrative work, then their comes the marketing and sales. Of course the sales trainers want you to get out there and “make those sales” and teach you how to do it effectively but what are you really selling if you are not producing the best product or creating the best service experience?
I am coming to a realization that I need to perfect my craft more and more and let that work sell itself more than going to every network meeting in town no matter how much the peer pressure. Does that mean I won’t sell and set up appointments to talk with potential clients? No, but instead of thinking I HAVE to to to this or that networking meeting or HAVE to pursue the next “cool” thing before I have really realize the potential of what I already have.
This has nothing to do with sales per se but the other day I made a decision to to focus on on piece of software I owned instead of two and also to remove a big chunk of something off my laptop.
Our company had two virtualization software packages. Parallels and VMware on two different computer to run Windows on our Mac. I decided to just run VMware on the office computer, remove parallels (nothing wrong with it just my decision) and remove Windows off my laptop so I could focus and know VMWare like and expert instead of just know it and the other competing project just “ok”. I also want to have one instance of Window and concentrate on that at the office.
It’s just a “baby step” but as a “big picture” person I try to try everything out. That can be good for learning and awareness but I definitely need to focus and what my core strengths are.
Thanks for an extra shot of reminding me that I need to be so good at what I do, what I am gifted at that they can’t ignore me.
[…] It’s a short post, but it has an excellent quote about success there from Steve Martin that I was going to clip a piece of, and then decided that it couldn’t be clipped, so read the whole thing. […]
“Be so good they can’t ignore you”. – same goes for everything in life. No one is just going to make it happen for you. You have to work for it and be the best. If you are doing that then in the end you won’t be ignored.
It is so easy to forget this! But it is also a symptom of lazy thinking – we think we can buy success and recognition – but done right, both come to us. We just need to put the time and effort in, in the first place!
Many people buy into the crappy downline secrets and internet network marketing lead generation tactics of IM gurus and not much attention is paid to the quality of the product that is being sold. But if you’re able to identify the needs and frustrations that your potential clients face, then of course, these people would care. The more helpful and valuable your information is the greater the chance those customers will convert into buyers. This is the concept behind attraction marketing, a new internet network marketing lead generation method where you develop ongoing relationships with clients and become a person of value by educating your buyers first and then moving them along the buying path in your communications.
did you see the nba 2k12 team ratings? Miami Heat are really pumped up.