Increasing Productivity by 10: Goggle Has Some Proven Ideas

                                                                 

It's called Skunk Works. Already heard of it? Google didn't come up with the idea; one of the shining examples happened in 1943, when German jet fighters first appeared in World War II. The Allies needed a response fast.
Lockheed's chief engineer, Kelly Johnson fielded the call from the Department of Defense and learned of this critical mission. He recruited a small group of his brightest engineers and mechanics, gave them total freedom and walled them off from the rest of Lockheed's bureaucracy.
Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tell the story (and today's equivalent) in "Bold."
The Skunk Works delivered the first U.S. military jet in 143 days. Diamonds and Kotler stated ironically, "In a typical military project, contractors can't even get their paperwork signed in that window." The Skunk Works went on to produce some of the world's most famous aircraft.
Kelly Johnson had 14 rules for producing these "miracles"; Google has slimmed it down to eight. These rules are core to today's exponential entrepreneur.

1. Focus on the user. It must be a customer-centric business.
2. Share everything. In today's hyperconnected world, it's critical to allow the crowd to help you innovate and build on each other's ideas.
3. Look for ideas everywhere. Crowdsourcing can provide you with incredible ideas and insights.
4. Think big, but start small. You can start a company on day one that affects a small group, but aim to positively impact a billion people within a decade.
5. Never fail to fail. Fail frequently, fail fast and fail forward.
6. Spark with imagination, fuel with data. Agility required lots of access to new and often wild ideas and lots of good data to separate the worthwhile from the wooly. Successful start-ups today use machine learning and algorithms to help them analyze data to make decisions.
7. Be a platform. AirBnb, Uber, Instagram are all platform plays.
8. Have a mission that matters. It doesn't have to be about winning a world war like the first skunk works. But when the going gets hard, will you push on or give up?  Passion is fundamental to forward progress.

Bold: How to Go Big, Achieve Success, and Impact the World, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler.
Published by Simon and Schuster, Copyright 2013. This book explores the exponential technologies that are disrupting today's Fortune 500 companies and enabling upstart entrepreneurs to go from "I've got an idea" to "I run a billion dollar company."

LinkedIn the Sandler Way

Using LinkedIn, you can become a Master of Social Selling

Sandler.com/LinkedInSecrets

1.       Change your mindset

·         Turn prospects into sales appointments

·         How do I take “real networking” and turn it into social selling?

2.       Create a client attracting profile

·         Attract prospects to yourself

·         Get a quality picture for your profile.  People make up their mind in 7 seconds if they like you or not.

3.       Getting connected

·         Rotate new material into your profile every 6 months

·         Look at the “People also viewed” section.  This is like free prospects

·         Advanced search.  Save the search.  Then LinkedIn will send you a weekly message with new people. Again, free prospects.

·         90% do not really need the LinkedIn Premium that costs $79/mo

4.       Communicating

·         When you are asking for an introduction, provide a template for them.  Do the heavy lifting for them

·         If you respond to a request within 5 minutes, your chances of connecting with them increase 100x

·         InMail is read 7 times more than a traditional email message. People know it’s not spam, so it gets through

·         Use short subject lines

·         Pain list should only be 3 or 4 items. Then close with a question.  “When can I call you?” “Does this make sense?” “Have any of these issues been a problem?”

·         Don’t try to be someone on LinkedIn that you are not in real life

·         Get right to the point

5.       Dos and don’ts

·         Don’t beg for an appointment. Get invited in

·         Qualify before you present

·         Sell with integrity

·         Visit Sandler.com for another free e-book. Why Sales People Fail (sandler.com/WSF

6.       Top 10 Prospecting behaviors

·         Seek these connections before meetings; ask for referrals

·         Create a saved search for 10x the # of sales you need and pursue introductions

·         Follow “likes” comments and the people who viewed your profile

·         Schedule your social media posts

·         Send some messages to cold contacts. Ex. InMail message more “cold” Connect request is warmer

·         Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone

·         Research off line leads to find conversation starters

·         Comment on birthdays, job changes, work anniversaries

How much time should you spend on LinkedIn per day? 30-45 minutes should be plenty