Timely diagnosis of a heart attack is the first and most important step toward initiating appropriate treatment. Currently, an accurate assessment involves multiple laboratory tests, which are time consuming and require multiple blood samples. Now a new lab-on-a-chip allows clinicians to diagnose a cardiac event quickly and easily using a simple saliva test.
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Posts Tagged ‘opportunity’
Saliva Test For Heart Attacks
Plug Into Your Future By Unplugging from the Present (Part II)
The key to becoming an opportunity manager is to have the discipline to unplug from the present at least once per week and instead plug into the future. Last month, I shared two steps on how to solve tomorrow’s problems before they occur and see the new opportunities change can bring. This month, I have two additional steps you can take to move the ball forward and watch your success grow.
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Beyond Voice: How Your Cell Phone is Evolving
In the early days of cell phones, they were used merely for talking. Today, cell phones have a myriad of other applications. For many people, their cell phone is their daily organizer, music player, camera, GPS system, and news and weather device. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the very near future, cell phones will also be people’s banks, credit card, keys, remote control, and video conferencing platform, just to name a few. Clearly, today’s cell phones are much more than phones, and tomorrow’s cell phones will revolutionize the business world.
In order to stay competitive and ahead of the curve, businesses need to look beyond what the cell phone is today and anticipate where it will be tomorrow. You have to ask yourself, “How is the cell phone changing my customers?” “What new service could I deliver on a mobile platform?” Or, “How are these beyond voice capabilities changing my customers’ customers?”
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THINKING BEFORE DOING
A few days ago, I met with the top executives of a Fortune 100 company. (These executives were very busy as you might imagine.) It was not easy for them to devote an entire day to step back and examine what I call “The New Big Picture” and the rapidly emerging risks and opportunities associated with seeing it.
I started out by asking them if they thought the big three auto executives and all of their direct reports had been very busy the past five years. They all laughed as they agreed. Being too busy to think strategically about future risk and opportunity is often at the center of our biggest problems.
NOT THINKING
It seems the big three auto executives weren’t thinking when they all flew separately to Washington in private jets. Driving to Washington in each of their company’s most fuel-efficient car might have sent more of a “we’re working on it” message.
Not having a detailed spending plan for the billions of dollars they were requesting was another example of not thinking. Having a detailed plan as to how they would spend the money would have at the very least provided confidence.
Not connecting the rapid increase in automobile ownership in both China and India to the resulting increase in the demand and price of fuel was another amazing mistake. The irony in this becomes clear when you consider all of them were actually selling cars in those markets and were excited about the unprecedented increase in demand for cars. More cars mean more fuel, who would have thought of that?
The point is that being busy and not thinking can get you into big trouble.
During my meeting, one of the executives posed the following question. “If our government was to give the automakers the money, what do you think they should do with it?”
I suggested that everyone was focused on the wrong problem. The reason for the bailout was to prevent massive layoffs. The reason people aren’t buying the big three’s cars isn’t because the big three is low on cash. It is because the majority of the cars they make are gas hogs and many of the people who want to buy a car can’t get loans because of the financial crisis. Giving the big three money won’t solve the financial crisis and it will take years to redesign and build fuel-efficient cars. In other words, they will still have to lay off masses of people. It would be better for the government to give anyone who wants to buy a car a subsidy reducing the price of the car by up to $10,000, less for lower end cars. This would keep cars selling and workers working.
I know you are all very busy doing a lot of things as we face a growing recession. Let’s make sure we take the time to think about the risks and the opportunities, the present and the future before we do too much.
THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE LENDING
In the past month, I have given speeches to some of the nations top Real Estate agents, and a few days later, to executives from the largest Mortgage companies. As you might guess, none of them were very happy. This isn’t hard to understand when you consider that in Nevada, one in eight homes are in foreclosure, and soon mortgage lenders will own 25% of all the homes in the entire United States. Every day the news gets worse with no end in sight. In both audiences, the mind set was a mirror image of their entire industry – crisis.
I asked both groups; “Is the dramatic downturn in the housing market and the accelerating rate of foreclosures a permanent change or a cyclical change?” I could see on their faces a sigh of relief when they all agreed that what they were experiencing was a cyclical change.
What I did with a single question was help them to see light at the end of the tunnel – there will definitely be an end to the current situation.
Next I asked; “Will people continue to both want and need to buy and/or sell homes?” Once again they said yes! Will they need an agent and a mortgage? Yes! At this point, in both cases, you could feel the energy shifting in the room.
I asked the agents if there were opportunities in helping lenders liquidate foreclosures. This question seemed to open their minds to look for hidden opportunities they could act on today. And, when you have a room full of top sales professionals who have a mindset of opportunity instead of crisis, positive ideas begin to flow.
I asked the mortgage lenders if they wanted to own 25% of the homes in the entire United Sates due to foreclosures on their loans? No, they all responded.
Will the value of homes go back up again if we look beyond two to five years? Yes they agreed.
To stimulate their thinking further, I suggested that they provide an option to refinance mortgages by extending them to forty or even fifty years giving the homeowner the ability to keep making payments – a lower payment they can afford – and more time for their house to regain its value. Lenders could even add a mandatory life insurance and/or unemployment insurance policy. Continuing to collect billions of dollars in mortgage payments might be better than experiencing billions of dollars in losses.
As with the real estate agents, the room started buzzing with positive energy. The suggestions stimulated their thinking and their crisis mentality started shifting to identifying new opportunities.
Are daily bad news headlines keeping you from seeing the unlimited possibilities that are right in front of you? Ask yourself if the challenges you are experiencing are cyclical or permanent. Look for opportunities. The more you look, the more you will find.
TAKING SALES TO THE NEXT LEVEL, PART I
As a salesperson, you’re trained to ask customers what they want in terms of your product offerings. That’s wise advice. However, if you only ask customers what they want and then give it to them, you’re missing the biggest opportunity that has ever come in front of you.
Realize that clients will always under-ask because they don’t know what is possible. Think about it…No customer ever asked for a fax machine. They didn’t know it was possible to send printed communication via a phone line. No customer ever asked for an iPod. They didn’t know it was possible to listen to music without some sort of CD or spinning device. People don’t ask for things that they don’t know exist.
Technology allows us to do things that were once thought impossible. So for salespeople, while it is important to ask customers what they want and then to give it to them, realize that by doing so you’re merely competing with your competitors. Chances are your competitors are asking customers the same questions, they’re getting the same answers, and they’re providing the same solutions. When that happens, you end up competing on price and not differentiating yourself.
Therefore, the Golden Rule of sales is to give people the ability to do what they currently can’t do but would really want to do if they only knew they could have done it. That’s so much more profitable than simply giving clients what they ask for.
The key is that you have to look a little bit further into your customers’ predictable needs based on where they’re going. Only then you can see unmet needs and new opportunities.
At this point many salespeople might say, “But I don’t create the products; I just sell them. How can I deliver what customers don’t know is possible?” The answer lies in how you can redefine various aspects of your offering. Consider redefining your product. Today, it’s not about high-tech; it’s about higher-tech. In other words, it’s not about your product; it’s about how your clients use it.
Think about the products you sell. Sure, your customers are probably using the product for what it was intended to do. But could the same product help in another department? Could it impact the effectiveness of the company in some other way? Could it do something else or something more for your customers? Analyze how people have always used your product and think of other creative applications. That’s how you redefine your product so it adds more value and does what no one ever thought to ask.
Next month, I will show you how to redefine your customers and the value you bring to them.
