Opportunity Does Fall Into Your Lap……

Aug 16, 1977, I had been playing blackjack all night and lost a bit more than I should have in the Stardust hotel in Las Vegas. It was 1:00AM as I sat at the hotel bar, perhaps contemplating how I was going to explain the lack of money I now possessed to my wife, when a news flash came across the bar television. Elvis Presley had died. As an aggressive marketer I knew immediately I was about to make a lot more money than I ever lost in a card game.

You see, one of the retail stores I owned and operated was a record store. Back in 1977 we sold vinyl and 8 track and cassette tapes. In Las Vegas it was 1 AM, but back in Pennsylvania, my home the time was 4:00 AM and every one was still asleep and no one had yet heard the news of Elvis’ death. I left the bar, found a telephone in the hotel lobby and telephoned my record store manager. I instructed her to telephone our 2 record/tape suppliers at 8:30 in the morning, the time they opened, and order every piece of Elvis they had in stock and back order 50 of every title on the market.

The rest is history. Everyone knows the sales mania that started for every Elvis record and tape. I cornered the market on Elvis titles for 3 months.

Was I lucky? Well I don’t believe in luck. I believe if you put yourself in the right place at the right time and do the right thing, your outcome will be much more successful. By being aggressive I am always in the right place. The time is always right to be aggressive. And I am always doing the right thing to make opportunity fall into my lap.

Catch the wave, an expression meaning finding and grabbing the opportunities as they come by. I guess the saying comes from the ocean surfing sport where they wait out in the ocean to catch the right wave to get the best ride to shore.

You will catch your waves by being alert and aware of what is happening around you that will help you and your business succeed and by being willing to make changes, sometimes instantly, to your business. To catch the wave on new products that will be popular in your area you must watch what products are hot sellers in other places of the world or with the same demographics your customers and prospects have.

I caught the wave on CB radios in the late 70’s simply by watching news broadcasts about the trucker’s strikes in the western and mid-western parts of the country. The truckers were using a radio I had never heard of to stay in communication with each other on the highway. I did not know what it was but if truckers in other parts of the county were paying two hundred dollars for it, I was sure truckers in Pennsylvania where I did business would also and so would passenger car drivers. For those of you to young to remember, CB radios turned out to be a multi billon dollar business.

We were one of the first independent tire dealers in the country to sell radial tires because I overheard a new car dealer telling a group of business owners about a new type of tire that rode smoother than any tire he had ever seen and was rated to give 40,000 miles of service while all other tires of the time were good for between 10,000 and 15,000 miles.

A new wave in restaurants is the low carbohydrate diets. Subway and TGI Fridays are being aggressive and offering low carbohydrate items, and even the beer companies are catching the low carb wave.

Always know exactly what your competition is doing, they may catch a wave before you but if you spot their success immediate it is not too late for you to catch and ride the wave to profits.

You can also catch the wave in the form of making changes to the way you do business. In the early 1980’s the standard of financing home appliance was interest accrued from the first day of financing. I subscripted to newspapers from New York, Detroit and Las Angeles. One day, in one of these paper, I saw an advertisement offering 90 days same as cash. I saw this as a wave to catch. I not only used their 90 days same as cash but expanded it to 6 months same as cash. I soon became the leader in financing customer purchases going from 6 months to 12 months, then 18, 24. Sure lot of my competitors caught the wave of free financing also but I made sure I was always the leader. And as you see in automobile, appliance and furniture ads today, that wave of opportunity is still being ridden.

Increase your sales success by aggressively looking for opportunities are a very low cost way to grow your business.



Opportunity Does Fall Into Your Lap…… - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Janet's Website.

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