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Do You Suffer from Expert Failure?
| Guest post by: Cidnee Stephen |
Article Overview: Malcolm Gladwell was talking about a concept he calls "Expert Failure." He was suggesting that once you feel you have mastered your area of expertise, you stop seeing the warning signs of what might be breaking down or what might possibly go wrong.
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Free Download - Where to focus in 2012 By Cidnee Stephen |
Do You Suffer from Expert Failure?
I've had an interesting couple of weeks thanks to two very interesting events I was able to attend. Firstly I had the absolute pleasure to hear Malcolm Gladwell speak last week. He was talking about a concept he calls "Expert Failure." He was suggesting that once you feel you have mastered your area of expertise, you stop seeing the warning signs of what might be breaking down or what might possibly go wrong.
Secondly I had the honor of being a judge for the ACE Regional Exposition. Here, I had the opportunity to hear the success stories of some of Canada's top student entrepreneurs. One in particular caught my attention. He was a polite young Mexican who is currently studying for his Business degree. While he is completing his degree here in Canada he also owns and operates the second largest online bookstore in Mexico with annual sales exceeding $1 million dollars. As he shared his story, I was astounded how much he knew about the day to day operations of this business that runs in a completely different company, and I realized this is someone so far from expert failure that we could all learn a lesson or two from this astounding young, hardworking man and the principles of Malcolm Gladwell.
#1 - LISTEN
Gladwell shared a story about General Hooker and the Battle of Chancellorsville in the American Civil War who had his scouts trying to tell him the enemy was getting set to invade. He didn't listen to them and as a result his army was caught by surprise and he lost of battle that he should never have lost. Our young little student learned early in his career that his customer can tell him better than anyone what information they require and what trust factors need to be in place before they will buy from him. In Mexico, adults are very uncomfortable purchasing online. It took him years to build enough trust with them, as well as to train them to place their orders online instead of over the phone. He continues to maintain this high level of customer intimacy.
Gladwell shared a story about General Hooker and the Battle of Chancellorsville in the American Civil War who had his scouts trying to tell him the enemy was getting set to invade. He didn't listen to them and as a result his army was caught by surprise and he lost of battle that he should never have lost. Our young little student learned early in his career that his customer can tell him better than anyone what information they require and what trust factors need to be in place before they will buy from him. In Mexico, adults are very uncomfortable purchasing online. It took him years to build enough trust with them, as well as to train them to place their orders online instead of over the phone. He continues to maintain this high level of customer intimacy.
Lesson Learned - When is the last time you surveyed your clients or received feedback? With the onslaught of Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc, it's never been easier to have a real conversation with your target audience. Survey them, poll them, interview them - find out what you can do better and what they need from you to feel comfortable doing business with you.
#2 - REVIEW, REVISE, RE-IMPLEMENT
As this young Mexican presented his story, he more than any of his young competitors shared an incredible amount of measurable results. He learned that his first website wasn't effective in attracting clients, so he changed it. It was better, but his analytics told him it could be better yet. So more changes. He is constantly looking at patterns, and preferences, revising his approach and quickly implementing changes. He does the same with his costs - looking at the amount he is buying from his suppliers, negotiating better rates, so that he can maintain his competitive pricing for his customers.
Lesson Learned - How often do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing? Do you look at your costs and ways to minimize these? Do you review the results, split test ads, revise your approach and quickly implement the changes? Do you look at the stats of your website every week and consider ways to add to your content, change your content to make it better?
Sometimes we get so busy that we assume that the future will only be better, and then find ourselves in yet another valley; scratching our heads, wondering how that happened AGAIN! LISTEN, LEARN, MEASURE, IMPROVE. Don't become a victim of expert failure.
Related ArticlesSometimes we get so busy that we assume that the future will only be better, and then find ourselves in yet another valley; scratching our heads, wondering how that happened AGAIN! LISTEN, LEARN, MEASURE, IMPROVE. Don't become a victim of expert failure.
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Article Tags: expert, failure, marketing, small business, strategy
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About the Author: Cidnee Stephen RSS for Cidnee's articles - Visit Cidnee's website Click here to visit Cidnee's website   Are You Giving Up Too Soon Where to focus in 2012 What is a Prospect Looking for Online Why All Companies Need a Story Social Bookmarking For Business |
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Why A Project Fails?
- Hello Everyone
As the size and complexity of ones business grows, so does their need to effectively manage projects. I have been thinking about the major reasons why a project can go wrong and my limited experience comes up with the following.
1 Leadership: A project manager with leadership skills and not just management skills.
2 Failure to (Foresee and) Plan
3 Failure to Manage: Ineffective change management control methods. Unclear decision making guidelines.
4 Talent: Finding, allocating and developing people
5 Scope: Setting an overly ambitious or amibigious project scope
6 Alignment: When projects are not prioritized in alignment with the business strategy, or project members personal objectives are not in tandem with that of the project / company
7 Lack of Candor: Communication Breakdowns
I would be interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on this, especially on ways to overcome the above mentioned obstacles.
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Re: How can I promote my site?
- I think because you have a very visual product you should focus on creating valuable videos and post them to sites like YouTube, Viddler and Expert Village.
Some ideas for videos could be an overview of how to create an animated movie, tips for editing, how to find actors ...etc...provide value to your customers and they will flock to you like a magnet.
Rachel
Re: Service Or Product?
- I agree with starting a Service-based Business in the economy. Here is what I think is critical:
1. Researching that your Service business has a market.
2. Marketing the Service with as much leverage as possible.
3. Product-izing the Service (aka Package Expert Knowledge). This will only help elevate you as "the" expert in your niche and make you accessible to people in different price points.
Introduction
- Hi Fellow Entrepreneurs,
My name is Rita Cartwright, owner of RJ's Word Processing Services. I am a Professional Administrative Expert offering virtual assistant services. I have been in business for 7 years and specialize in Internet marketing and word processing services. I also offer bookkeeping, transcription services, website design and maintenance, and general administrative assistance.
I'm originally from Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State University with Magna Cum Laude honors. My degree is a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing with a minor in Spanish.
I look forward to networking with each of you.
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