Think Like Apple

How do you think Apple gets millions of people to enthusiastically lay down hundreds of dollars for iPods and iPhones, and thousands for MacBooks?

Marketing. Apple is extraordinarily effective at communicating that their products will meet or exceed the desires, needs and expectations of their target audience.

What is it you want to accomplish? More sales? Greater efficiency at work? A better job? A successful business of your own?

Maybe you can learn a thing or two from Apple.

You have an audience, too -- the person or people you’re hoping will provide whatever it is you want. They also have desires, needs and expectations. And your task is to get them to believe you’ve got the perfect "product" for them.

Apply these same time-tested marketing techniques used by the world’s most successful companies, and your “goal achievement campaign” will be just as powerful and rewarding.

Identify your objective. Before you launch any campaign, you have to be clear about what you want to accomplish. Be as specific as possible. By being crystal clear about your objective, you can measure every step you take against it. Everything you do, every action you take, should always be moving you closer to your objective.

Know your audience. So just who is this person you’re going to convince to “buy” your idea? You had better know more than a name. How old are they? How long have they been in their current job? Are they casual or formal, liberal or conservative? How long have they worked in their industry? Where did they work in the past? Are they on the rise in their career, or on the decline? The more you know about the person or people doing the "buying," the better your chance of making a meaningful connection with them. How do you find out? Ask. Engage them in conversation, or casually ask a few questions of an assistant. Google them. Ask others in the same industry. Become a detective (as we've discussed before), and you just might uncover the clue that will get you one step closer to success.

Understand their needs. One of the great paradoxes of success is, in order to get what you want, you have to give someone else what they want. How can you do that if you don’t know what that is? If you’ve already gained an understanding of the people you’ll be interfacing with, you’re halfway there. Now you have to probe deeper. WWhat are their specific needs? What is their “pain?” In other words, what problems are they trying to solve, and how can you help solve it? The better you understand the needs of your “audience,” the better you can position yourself and the qualities you bring to the table as the answer to their prayers.

Create your campaign. Here’s where it gets fun and interesting, and where all your research pays off. Just as if you were putting together a puzzle, you can now take the information you’ve gathered and craft a meaningful, persuasive, memorable “campaign” to sell your audience on your ideas. Remember, your message begins with your very first communication and continues at every subsequent encounter. Consider carefully what you say, how you say it, how you look, your attitude and tone of voice, your energy level. Every single element should be chosen consciously to be appealing and valuable to your audience, and move you closer to your objective!

Here’s a fact you must always remember: you will never get what you want unless you can convince someone to give it to you.

By carefully choosing each step you take, you will make that all important connection. Then you and your “audience” will come out winners!

Two Sides, One Coin

I work with this guy. He's terrific - really friendly, outgoing, self-confident. He's a great conversationalist and often adds a lot of energy and life to projects.

That's when he's at his best.

When he's not doing so well, he can be a bit loud, boisterous, pushy and overbearing.

And why shouldn't he be? These are the same qualities as the first list. Only these are the "dark side."

In fact, in the majority of cases, someone's greatest strengths are also his or her greatest challenges. Someone who is sweet and attentive can at times be too much-so, and annoying. Someone who is ambitious and goal-oriented can also be aggressive and overly-competitive. Someone who's generally very agreeable and willing to give others their way can come across as weak, timid and a pushover.

Start noticing this phenomena and I'm sure you'll see that it's true almost every time.

So besides being a very interesting aspect of human behavior to observe, what use is this information?

LOTS!

We all have a "dark side;" we all have a good one, too. (At least I hope we all do.) And it's good to recognize this in our personal and professional relationships, right from the start. If we can see the people we interact with more realistically, we will be better prepared to communicate with them in the most appropriate and effective manner available.

In the previous post, I suggested we should learn to "be a detective." This is an ideal example. If we are hoping to make a meaningful connection with another person, how useful will it be to understand as quickly as possible the best we can expect from them, and the worst?

Of course, this knowledge also helps us to be more compassionate with others when they're not exhibiting their most impressive qualities. We can remind ourselves that the annoying, hurtful or offensive behavior we're currently experiencing is offset by some outstanding traits.

We all have two sides. It's good to know them both.

Be a Detective

I've been working with The SuperSkill concepts for years, but I'm still surprised at how we all fall into the same patterns of behavior when trying to attain a goal. Our natural tendency is to focus entirely on ourselves, our own wants, needs and desires. And we pretty much ignore the interests of others involved.

This is not to say that we are, by our nature, self-centered or inconsiderate. Only that we seem to believe the path to achievement lies entirely on our own efforts.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In virtually every situation, your success depends on -- no, requires -- the agreement others. And in order to gain their cooperation, they also need to feel that their desires are being realized.

So what can you do about it?

Become a detective. Learn as much as you can about the people whose cooperation and support you need. Who are they? What's important to them? What to they want? What do they fear?

I was invited to participate in a sales-related conference call yesterday at the marketing communications company I work with. The call was with a young executive at a major corporation, and our objective was to get a face-to-face meeting. The host of the call , a colleage from my company, knew the exec's name and title.

I asked, "Is that it? Don't you know anything else?"

He didn't, and I was suddenly "inspired" to do a little quick detective work, twenty minutes before the call was to begin. I Googled our prospect, made a quick call to a colleague, searched his corporate website for press releases related to his department. In fifteen minutes I knew enough about him to at leat hold a meaningful conversation, reference successful initiatives he had been part of (and related work that our company had done), make mention of his last position with the company and most important, briefly discuss his interest (well documented on the Internet) in advanced technology solutions for marketing communications challenges.

We got the face-to-face meeting.

If we just take a little time to focus on what others want and need, we can often be the one that provides it to them -- and in the process, get exactly what we're looking for. Great marketers like Nike and Apple know this. It works for them. It will work for you.

KH

So what is this Superskill???

Welcome to The Superskill blog, where you can learn more about the little-known skill shared by the world's most successful people.

If you regularly achieve your goals, both professional and personal, you may already posess The Superskill. In fact, many people don't realize they have it, even when they do. FYI, it's not a "great personality" or "the power of persuasion" or a "Harvard vocabulary" or "minty fresh breath." The Superskill is a proven system for getting exactly what you want out of just about any situation.

I refer to this skill as something individuals use, because that's easiest for most people to grasp. But in fact, the world's most successful businessness share The Superskill, as well. In fact, in the corporate world, The Superskill has been developed to a science. And the beauty is, we can all use the same concepts, the same techniques, the same processes in our own lives.

So for starters, let me tell you that The Superskill is based on one simple principle: in order to achieve success -- in other words, in order to get something you want that you don’t have now -- you absolutely must have the cooperation, acceptance, approval, buy-in, support or agreement of at least one other person, and probably many more.

Someone, somewhere has to "give" you what you want.

The trick is, how to get them to do that, and do it on a consistent basis.

That is where The Superskill comes in.

I'll share many more Superskill conepts here from time to time. And please watch for the launch of TheSuperskill.com to learn even more.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading. I look forward to helping you have it all!