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More Solid Than a Brick Wall
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By Robert Middleton
If you're in the business of giving advice, or supporting people in
getting things done, or providing a service designed to improve
your clients' results, you've probably heard one or more version of
the following:
"Oh, I tried that before. It didn't work. In fact, it won't work!"
The thing is, you know it will work. You've used your approach
successfully with many clients in the past and, all things being
equal, you know what you're recommending has a good chance of
success. If... they'd only give it a chance.
What you've run into is a mindset. And mindsets are very solid.
More solid than a brick wall in many cases. A mindset has the
following characteristics:
1. It's a strongly held belief or conviction.
2. It really feels true to the person with the mindset.
3. There is attachment or identification with the mindset.
4. Disagreement with the mindset often triggers negativity.
5. The mindset correlates with both actions and avoidance.
So, if we suggested to our client that they raise their rates and
you happened to hit a certain mindset about this you could
expect to hear some of the following:
1. "We just can't raise our fees, especially in this economy."
2. "Our fees are already high, so we can't raise them further."
3. "We like to be known as a business with affordable fees."
4. "If we raise our fees it will hurt our business."
5. Let's talk about something else to increase profits."
Like I said, more solid than a brick wall!
Another thing about mindsets is that it's easy to see them in
others but very hard to see them in ourselves. We think we don't
have mindsets. Sure, we have opinions (based on experience) and
we have certain ways we think we should run our businesses.
But no, we're definitely not stuck in any mindsets.
Is that so?
Mindsets (not circumstances) shape performance and results. And
if you've ever been stuck and unable to produce a particular
result, it logically follows that there had to be a mindset firmly in
place or there would be no struggle.
EVERYTHING you experience is based on a mindset.
Every thought, every opinion, every attitude, every business
practice, every principle, every creative idea, everything we do in
our business (and life) is ALL based on mindsets.
There is NOTHING BUT mindsets.
The good news is that there are two kinds of mindsets:
Constrictive and Expansive.
An expansive mindset is another way of saying "an open mind."
An expansive mindset sees new possibilities, is not defensive, is
curious and interested in how things work. An expansive mindset
is always wondering how to make things better, make a bigger
contribution and how to grow. Great performance and results
come from expansive mindsets.
In some areas of our lives we have an expansive mindset.
For instance, when it comes to my business and marketing
myself, I have a pretty expansive mindset. As a result, I
experience my business as fun and challenging, interesting and
exciting. I don't struggle in my business, I have a great time and
usually produce excellent results.
What about constrictive mindsets?
A constrictive mindset is another way of saying "a closed mind." A
constrictive mindset sees difficulties, problems, and obstacles. It
insists on being right and is not very interested in exploring or
learning or growing. A constrictive mindset is always thinking how
to be comfortable and safe. Poor performance and results come
from constrictive mindsets.
In some areas of our lives we have a constrictive mindset.
For instance, when it comes to sports or athletics or exercise, it's
usually a struggle for me. I don't wake up thinking about going
for a run; I think of sleeping in! I work at exercising but it doesn't
come naturally to me. And although I'm not really overweight, I
admit I'm pretty out of shape.
Your Marketing Mindset
Since this eZine is about business and marketing, the question I
have for you is: what are your constrictive mindsets? You don't
have to worry so much about your expansive ones, they'll take
care of themselves.
The only way to transform a constrictive mindset into an
expansive one is to first realize that you have that mindset and
then look at what it's costing you (in results and fulfillment). The
next step is to start imagining what things would be like without
that old mindset.
Some of the most constrictive mindsets I've seen in business are
related to marketing and selling your services. I talked about
these last week. The symptoms are "no plan, poor organization
and fear." All of these come out of constrictive mindsets.
What mindsets about marketing would you like to transform?
Would you like to be able to raise your rates? Attract more of your
ideal clients? Communicate about your services with more
impact? Get more meetings with qualified prospects? Turn more
of those meetings into paid clients? Get tons of referrals?
Of course you would!
There are specific how-tos for all of those. But before you learn
the techniques and skills to implement them, I assure you that
you'll find them a whole lot easier if you transform your
constrictive mindsets about them first.
Transform first, learn how-tos second.
Because there are limitations to a short eZine article about how
exactly to do this, I'd like to invite you to a complimentary
teleclass on "Transforming your Marketing Mindset."
A teleclass is a 75 minute class by teleconference where we'll have
from 50 to 100 people on the line. We'll talk about some of the
powerful strategies you can use to transform a constrictive
mindset about marketing into an expansive one.
The date will be Thursday April 16. Please go here for details on
time, what will be covered, and how to make a reservation.
ActionPlan.com
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The More Clients Bottom Line: There's nothing more important
you can do in your business than work on transforming your
constrictive mindsets into expansive ones. If you don't, you'll
simply avoid marketing. No matter how much information and
strategies and tactics you learn, it's unlikely you'll ever apply
them.
Article by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit
Robert's web site at www.actionplan.com for additional
marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional
service businesses.
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