Growth Cubed

Results Based Business Coaching

David Carter

5 Ways to Avoid Commoditization in Your Business

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Decreasing profits and increasing competition characterize commoditization. This is a fact of life in most industries today for many reasons. In the eyes of your buyers, products and services are less and less differentiated.

At the same time, there has been a significant transformation of consumer behavior. They are more informed about the products and services they want to buy; they are armed with comparative data about quality, availability, and price; and they are determined to be successful on their terms.

So, how do you and your company respond? Here are five ways to avoid commoditization in your business.

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8 To Be Great – What really leads to success?

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SUCCESS. For some it’s elusive, for others it seems to come easily. We all want it. But whatever your own definition of success is, why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Marketer, Success Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into this unmissable 3-minute TED TALK.

“Richard St. John was on his way to the TED conference when a girl on the plane asked him, “What really leads to success?” Even though he had achieved some success, he couldn’t explain how he did it. So he spent the next ten years researching success and asking over 500 extraordinarily successful people in many fields what helped them succeed — and distilled them into 8 words, 3 minutes and one successful book.”

What do you think of his “8 To Be Great” …

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Do Less, Then Obsess! New Perspective on Performance

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We have all heard the cliché – Work smarter not harder. What does that really mean? I don’t think anyone wants to work “dumber.” Are you working long hours and others go home on time or early? Are some people more productive than you? Are we falling into the trap of equating volumes of activity with accomplishments?

I always look for alternative viewpoints and perspectives. And, here is one! Morten Hansen, co-author of Great by Choice with Jim Collins, has released a new book Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More. He upends conventional thinking about how we should work.

He points out the real key to your individual performance are seven “work smarter” practices. The more you adopt the seven practices in your work, the better you perform.

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How to Make a BIG Decision

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We all have a few BIG decisions that we have to get right, setting the course of our company and our life. How do we make them wisely? How do we make great decisions? Simply stated, our success as business leaders equals the sum total of all the decisions we make.

I am always looking for a different perspective, or a new lens to examine key issues. Today I look at this NY Times article by best-selling author Steven Johnson that details the research behind making better BIG decisions. Quotes Johnson:

“The ultimate limitation of the pros and cons list is that we are merely transcribing our existing understanding of the decision at hand and not seeing it with fresh eyes. “One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination,” the economist and Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling once observed, “is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.”

So what do you do instead of a pros and cons list in decision-making?

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What is Sales 2.0? (Or Possibly 3.0?)

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I have decided to update/repost my blog on Sales 2.0. Are most businesses engaging with Sales 2.0? The answer is yes to some degree. AND, I think further clarity on this topic is needed. It is not so much the quantity, BUT quality of embracing Sales 2.0 which is the focus as we are moving hyper speed into another iteration – possibly Sales 3.0? So how do I embrace Sales 2.0 you ask – what are some new tools not mentioned below? Let me know you thoughts. Best. David

The term Sales 2.0 has come up in network meetings I have attended and in blogs that I read. What is Sales 2.0? Is there a Sales 1.0? If so, what is the difference? Is one better or more effective than the other?

We all have realized that traditional “interruption based” marketing is becoming less-and-less effective. Likewise, we are learning that “interruption based” selling is becoming less effective. Buyers are beginning to live online and they are the ones in control of your sales cycle.

A major growth challenge for many companies today is this profound transformation in customer behavior. Today’s buyers are enabled by the Internet, empowered by the enormous choice in every market, and possess the ability to compare real-time competitive prices. They have, in essence, taken control of the purchase process.

So what is Sales 2.0 (or possibly 3.0)?

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How Does Jeff Bezos Hire Great People ?

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Of all the components of business, PEOPLE continues to reign as the number one decision for success and growth. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, states adamantly “who first!” Great companies have the right people in their organization before they focus on the “what, where and how” of growth.

But how do we know we have the right people? I continue to get this question from clients, alliances, and many of my relationships. Until you settle your people issues, they will consume a tremendous amount of emotional energy and make it difficult to focus. So what I want to share today is a hiring perspective of Amazon.

How does Jeff Bezos continue to hire great people?

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