Click HERE to watch the video

Sales Made Easy 8 – My Four-Word Rules For Success. Number 8 in a series.

We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing my four-word rules for business and sales success. My goal remains simple: I want to give you easy-to-implement tools, tactics, and techniques to improve your business.

Each rule is only four words long because, often, that’s all it takes to make a huge difference when building your brand and business.

If you missed any of the rules, you can find them HERE on my website.

Sales Made Easy 8 in a series.

But first a story:

A number of years ago, I was invited to present on the TEDx stage. I was very excited about this opportunity and spent a lot of time writing, editing, and—most of all—rehearsing my speech.

I left nothing to chance. I repeatedly timed myself to ensure I wouldn’t speak for too long. I worked with a fantastic speaking coach (Hayley Foster) to ensure my stories, points, and jokes were as good as possible. I selected what I would wear, scheduled a haircut a week before, and did everything possible to make the best impression. I even arrived at the venue a day early and walked the route to the stage to ensure nothing could keep me from being there.

The night before the event, the organizers held an organizational briefing. They told us that one of the videographers couldn’t attend, so they would use a locked-down camera. They told us that when we walked on stage, we should take the four steps to the white tape X on the ground and stand there without moving. Otherwise, we would wander out of the camera’s range.

“Okay,” I thought. “That could be a small problem for someone who moves as much as I do, perhaps, but it wasn’t insurmountable.”

Sales Made Easy 8 in a series.

Finally, it was the morning of the event. I got up early for my run, showered, got dressed, and went down to have a cup of coffee and a quick bite of breakfast before I walked across the street to the venue. I bent over to grab my bread from the toaster when I felt a little click in my lower back. Before the lightning bolt of pain struck, I already knew I had thrown my back out.

Two hours later, when it was my turn to speak, my lower back was in total spasm, and I could barely move without wincing. But because the organizers had told us to stand perfectly still on the white tape X, I knew that all I had to do was walk the four steps to the mark in the dark. And then, when the spotlights flashed on, I could give my speech.

And that’s what I did. I slowly counted to four as I painfully walked onto the stage. Then, when the lights hit, I smiled at the audience and began my speech. You can watch it HERE if you’d like. And now that you know what was going on, you’ll realize that throughout the eight minutes I was talking, I did not move a muscle from the waist down.

Sales Made Easy 8 in a series.

But before you feel too sorry for me, remember that this post is not about my TED talk. It’s about how to improve your business and your brand. To do that, you need to find the perfect moment when you matter the most to your prospect, when your brand value intersects with your potential consumer’s aspirations. You need to focus on what your customer wants because that’s when the magic happens.

Case in point? No one in the audience that day, and no one who’s watched my TEDx video since, cared about how much I moved around the stage. Nor about how uncomfortable I might have been. All they cared about was whether or not they’d be entertained, educated, and enlightened by my talk. And as long as those things happened, they were satisfied with my presentation (regardless of what I thought).

That’s why my Four-Word Rule for Success 8 is to Understand Why You Matter.

There are many ways you can set yourself and your business apart: You can be cheaper, faster, better looking, closer, more innovative, better, higher quality, more convenient, or better known. You can be all of the above. Or you can be something else.

However, the best way to build your brand value and demonstrate why you matter to your customers and your potential customers is to understand why you matter to them.

My TEDx speech proved that to me. I hope it proves it to you, too.