MICHAEL PARRISH
DUDELL
Michael Parrish DuDell’s
new book, Shark Tank
Secrets to Success (
Kings-well; not available at Costco),
was released in May ;;;;.
MORE IN ARCHIVES
At
costcoconnection.com,
search “Michael Parrish DuDell.”
FRESHVIEWS
THE NEW YEAR is upon us, and companies
across the country are looking for innovative
ways to differentiate themselves from the
crowd. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, there are ways to grow your organization,
strengthen your positioning and remain
hyper-relevant in ;;;;.
Think small to grow large. Rather than casting a wide net and trying to appeal to the masses,
try adopting a “long tail” approach. Instead of
trying to gain more customers, try experimenting with the opposite approach: Sell more goods
and/or services to fewer people.
For example, if you own a dry-cleaning
business, it may be wise to grow the company
by fine-tuning your offerings to better serve a
smaller, niche group (e.g., eco-conscious shoppers). You could roll out a larger scope of environmentally friendly cleaning services geared
toward a more specific consumer. This not only
focuses your brand and market positioning, it
provides a sustainable way to expand.
Double down on customer service. For
small businesses, the key to consumer loyalty
boils down to one thing: service.
A ;;;; report by Parature, a cloud-based
software product designed to help teams provide
better customer service, found that ;; percent of
global consumers have “stopped doing business
with a brand or organization” due to a lackluster
service experience.
While many large organizations are forced to
sacrifice service for scale, small companies can
lead by increasing their commitment to better,
more personalized experiences at each and every
consumer touch point.
Refresh your digital presence. According
to the data in a November ;;;; Adweek report,
more than ;; percent of shoppers conduct online
research prior to making a purchasing decision,
so having an up-to-date digital presence is more
important than most realize.
Have you added new products? Changed
pricing? Moved to a new location? January is
the perfect month to refresh and recalibrate
your company’s website and social platforms to
ensure that your online and offline identities
flow seamlessly together. This will elevate your
credibility, and ensure that current and future
customers have access to the latest and greatest
your business has to offer. It’s a small task that
can make a big impact on the bottom line. C
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Stand out in 2017
BY CATHY SALIT
I’M A STAGE performer and CEO of
Performance of a Lifetime (performance
ofalifetime.com), where we train busi-nesspeople and companies to perform,
the way actors do. We help our clients be
who they are and who they’re not, as a way
to grow and achieve breakthroughs in
their professional lives.
But wait a minute, you say. Perform
like actors? Be who you’re not? Isn’t that
inauthentic?
I get asked that a lot. Most people believe that to find happiness, to succeed in
life and work, we need to be authentic; we
have to find—and be—the “real me.” But
what if there’s another way to look at what
it means to be authentic? What if there
isn’t just one “real me”?
Imagine these scenarios:
• Your daughter puts her newborn in
your arms for the first time.
• A state trooper pulls you over.
• A conference room of new employees gazes expectantly at you as you speak.
If someone advised you to “be your-
self” in each of these situations, you’d
probably ask, “Which self?”
To be authentic in each of these sce-
narios, you draw on different versions of
yourself—and none of them are phony.
They’re all you. None of us has just one
self. Each day, life presents us with situa-
tions both familiar and brand-new, things
we don’t know how to do, people who affect
us in different ways and opportunities to
experiment, explore, take a risk. And each
day, we can continue to craft new versions
of ourselves in response to our changing
world. We can create both who we are and
who we are becoming.
Walt Whitman, the poet and humorist, wrote, “Do I contradict myself? Very
well then I contradict myself. (I am large,
I contain multitudes.)” I’m with Walt. To
fully live, learn and grow, we must perform in an ever-expanding array of new
ways. We have to be who we are not—yet.
Expressing our multiplicity in this way is
profoundly authentic. C
Cathy Salit is the author of Performance
Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to
Success at Work (Hachette, ;;;;; not
available at Costco).
What if there isn’t a“real me”?
SMALL-BUSINESS TIPS
?
