Wisdom Journal
Business Development
David C. Baker:
“An expert is more likely to listen than to talk. She observes to learn and build her pattern library, and when she is asked what she thinks, the din of conversation lessens a bit and faces turn to hear what she says. The observation is either new, or familiar but expressed in an interesting way, but seven things are always true:
The expert has a point of view (or perspective).
The expert is concise.
The expert is believable.
The expert can answer follow-up questions without choking.
The expert seems confident.
The expert holds many principles subject to later modification.
The expert—in a work setting—believes the ‘how’ is just as important as the ‘what.’”
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Marty Neumeier:
A brand is a customer's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It's not what you think or say it is, it's what your customers think it is.
When everyone is zigging, you zag.
"The quickest route to a zag is to look at what competitors do, then do something different. No - really different."
"The best rule to follow when mapping your value proposition is to forget about 'best practices.' Best practices are usually common practices. And common practices will never add up to a Zag, no matter how many of them you apply."
"Rather than trying to please everyone at the risk of pleasing no one, step right up and pick a fight. Just make sure you take on the biggest, most successful competitor you can find... The goal is not to topple the big guys, but to employ the principle of contrast to throw your zag into sharp relief. Sometimes the enemy is not a competing company but the old ways of doing things. Point it out!"
"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Strategy: While strategy is a powerful discipline, many companies forget that without good execution, a strategy is only a plan, an intention. Every year, thousands of strategic plans fail because they weren't translated into compelling customer experiences."
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Blair Enns:
“The world is drowning in undifferentiated creative businesses. What the world needs … and what our people want to develop and deliver, is deep expertise. Expertise is the only valid basis for differentiating ourselves from the competition. Not personality. Not process. Not price.”
"Instead of seeking clients, we will selectively and respectfully pursue perfect fits – those targeted organizations that we can best help. We will say no early and often, and as such, weed out those that would be better served by others and those that cannot afford us. By saying no we will give power and credibility to our yes."
"The role of our thought leadership is to educate, not to persuade. The future client should be smarter for reading it, we should be smarter for writing it, and, one day, when the client does experience a problem in an area on which we’ve written, our guidance may be helpful to him in seeing the opportunity within his problem. Until that day, we continue to cement our position as leaders in our field through our writing. Experts write."