Market Trends This Month

Before getting stuck into this months Market Trends, I just wanted to let you know that I am currently giving away my latest book 'The Future of Selling' for free! All that I ask is that you pay the shipping cost. Use the link below to order your copy right now! The book is limited to one per transaction.

steveclaydon.com/product-page/the-future-of-selling

Welcome to the seventh instalment of ‘Market Trends This Month’ whereby we look back on the month gone by and look for the clues and patterns that have led to some outstanding sales results and some of the traps and pitfalls that have led to some cuts and bruises.

Now you may be asking, ‘Where is this coming from? These ‘Market Trends’ that he’s referring to?’ and a great question at that. Well, it’s a great privilege that we get the opportunity to work closely with companies across Australia and the world, ranging from those turning over a few million to a few hundred million.

And you need to know something… The patterns are the same!

So, we decided that on the last day of every month we would give you the behind the scenes clues along with some practical guidance to take into the next month.

Let’s get stuck in for September with our new collaboration within Why Bravo Pty Ltd (www.whybravo.com) with Darcy J Smyth.

1. It’s time for “Content 2.0”

You may have noticed; the content flying through your news feed from most businesses is becoming quite predictable. It’s an informative video, a blog article shared from their webpage, an interview with a fellow business owner, just to name a few examples. Is this content valuable? Absolutely. But are we as an audience becoming habituated and bored by it? Just a little. It’s time for what we at Bravo are calling ‘Content 2.0’ – an approach to content that truly turns heads. Instead of giving information, thread it through stories, analogies, metaphors and visuals. Instead of just recording a video in front of your computer or through your phone, genuinely invest in the tools and resources to send the quality of your content through the roof (think a new camera, or a videographer to create a catchy, professional intro for all your videos). Even look into creating long form content as a documentary (The Project Principle – Enter The Void coming to a screen near you soon!) Content isn’t going anywhere, but it is now that we will start to see the low quality content be filtered out. Dig in and invest or fail to get your message out there to those who need it most.

2. All hustle and no health isn’t trending anymore

Hard work, commitment and fierce determination are critical for professional success – no one is taking that away from the working world we know and love. But what must also be appreciated is balancing it out with health. Professionals – and especially the millennials in the workforce – are now valuing their health and wellbeing far more than generations past because they prefer to make their work fit around their lifestyle, not the other way around.

The companies that encourage this in their team members are winning, and those that don’t will experience staff turnover at a rate that is only increasing with the millennial generation. Please understand as you read these words: there is no point achieving professional success if you are burned out, depressed and physically ill at the finish line. Your health cannot wait until later. Eat well, exercise, embrace mental wellness and value quality sleep before you even think for one second longer about building your career. You’ll be glad you did. A practical way you can outwork this within your company is ‘Well Days’. It’s standard that each Australian employee receives 10 sick days per year and unfortunately there can sometimes be a culture of shame when someone does take one. What we have introduced is 3x Well Days per year (taken from the sick leave technically) whereby if the sun is shining and one of our team wants to take the day to go to the beach or swing a golf club, then they are more than welcome to do so! The only catch is they can’t be letting another team member down in their work and they can’t let any clients down. This creates an environment of honesty (no more ‘cough cough’ sickies) and huge levels of productivity. Fun and wellness are not the enemy of productivity…. In fact they are the ultimate ally of it.

3. Vision, Mission and Values are one thing… but what are your principles?

So many companies say they have their vision, mission and values that they operate by, only in reality to have them tucked away in a draw somewhere to be revisited every time the company moves offices. This month’s market trends don’t suggest that ‘visions’ or ‘values’ are now popular again and they should be implemented immediately – in fact, if you’re a reader of these Market Trends you should never need reminding of this, nor need them to be popular to make them something you implement. But we do suggest you consider the glue that hold all of your vision, mission and values together and that’s your ‘guiding principles’ of operation in your business. They are the unwritten ground rules that your team members abide by. They let team members know how we actually express and live the values we hold so dear. Examples include ‘we are open to immediate feedback of all forms on any work we create’ or ‘we don’t leave at the end of the week until all of our KPIs and KPAs have been hit’. You will actually be operating with principles even if you’re aware of them or not. Get clear on them with your team and get them circulating as common knowledge for all involved! PS. If you’re looking for some examples, head over to https://www.whybravo.com/principles to see ours.

4. The obstacle is the way

It’s easy to do what’s comfortable and its comfortable to do what’s easy, but that’s not what great companies are built on. There is massive power in looking where we don’t want to look, in learning what we are resistant to learning and setting the goal we are resistant to setting. In a modern, rapid world where more and more is becoming possible by the day, there has never been less of an excuse for setting huge goals and doing what’s uncomfortable in order to get there. A question for you to ask yourself in October is ‘what is the one thing we as a company are resisting on our path of growth?’ and then dig deep on the answers you find. The answers hold unique gold for you that you may have been ignoring for years now.

5. The social media landscape is organising itself differently now

Has anyone noticed the quality of the content in their Facebook news feed has changed significantly in the last 6 months? What used to be statuses from friends, then became a news feed full of business pages delivering content, and has now become flooded with either memes or novel videos (as a wide generalisation). The truth of the matter is, it is critical to understand the environment of each social media platform and deliver content on it appropriately. Your ideal buyer may not actually be spending as much time on Instagram or Snapchat as they were before. Perhaps putting your content on LinkedIn isn’t actually the best place for it anymore. Take the opportunity this month (and heading into 2019) to reassess your social media strategy and be open to testing and measuring on a whole new platform where its required.

6. The secret is in the back story

This one is a simple yet extremely effective sales strategy and can be applied immediately… That is to explore the ‘Back Story’ of your client and potential client to find out exactly how they have made decisions in the past along with their point of view/perspective. You don’t have to look too far to notice that we are creatures of habit. We tend to stick with what we like, what works, and what we know to be true. Therefore if you can find out someone’s back story you can quite easily predict their decision making process and in turn position yourself, your company, your products and your services to help them navigate and tweak their future for greater outcomes. So the next time your qualifying a lead, ask them ‘I’m curious, what’s the backstory to this?”.

So, there you have it, insights from September to use in October. I trust that you have found some nuggets of gold that have prompted you to change for the better.

Until next time,

Steve Claydon