Find It Out – Research Secrets and More

I thought your ATM model was good – and also how you applied it to Apple. (I see you are also an Apple fan – I use Apple as a case study in a lot of my workshops too, and have just finished a mini-case study on Apple for a workshop I’m doing in Dubai in December).

I guess I saw what you were doing was leading up to the sales pitch at the end – which, for me, damaged the content. I also agree that you did specify that it was for existing businesses above a certain size, and not for the Instagram type “wonder-business”.

In general my feelings on Entrepreneurs 2012 was that most speakers seemed to be targeting those who didn’t really have a business model and so needed somebody to tell them what to offer. I found this a bit insulting. I saw it as a similar sort of pitch (but much higher pricing) to Kleeneze, Herbalife, Forever Living, Amway and so on. Each of these MLM companies tries to get people to buy in to being an “entrepreneur” where they can work for themselves and the skies the limit. They make lots of promises, but only those people who are brilliant networkers actually make it. (I’ve had experience with MLM both through supporting my wife who loved selling Dorling Kindersley books until Penguin bought them and killed that business, and also doing research on behalf of an MLM company that was entering the UK market and needed to know competitor sales tactics. Along the way I’ve looked at several companies to understand their approaches and models).

What I’d hoped to experience at Entrepreneurs 2012 was stuff on creating a strategy (which you touched on) but also something on how entrepreneurial businesses succeed – so what not to do / what to avoid; the importance of networking; the importance of tapping in to new trends and being aware of new sales channels; and so on. Perhaps something on how to be disruptive (as in being a disruptive innovator). The emphasis was mostly sales rather than strategy. Worse, often sales was called marketing when the two are different. I also expected more sharing and networking opportunities among the attendees. This would not have been hard to do. (Tell everybody to make a group of the 6 people nearest them and spend 15 minutes talking about what they do, problems they have and so on. And then instead of getting people to wave their hands in the air, get them to change places with somebody in another part of the room).

For me, there are many ways to be an entrepreneur. The one thing it is not, is following somebody else’s route. That’s generally a recipe for failure. (The statement “differentiate or die” is really true). Yet this seemed to be the approach being advocated. For example, Simon Coulsen’s “anybody can publish an ebook and make money” is not true. Yes – some people can, but half of self-published authors make under $500 per year. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/24/self-published-author-earnings). Simon did it because he was in at the start. Doing it now is much harder. (I’ve always made money from my web-site – which is my main promotional vehicle. However I was also early – I’ve had my main domain name since 1997 and my original website was up in 1995). Similarly Andy Harrington’s implication that anybody could be a public speaker is also false. You have to love speaking in public to do it. If you do, then you can earn money from it. (I’m currently changing my whole business strategy towards more public speaking/executive training workshops. I’m leaving for Singapore on Thursday to lead a workshop. I’m in Dubai the week before Christmas and already have a date for Malaysia in 2013 and hopefully Prague).

There was nothing on the real dangers that entrepreneurs face (and I’m still trying to overcome some myself – even though I’m aware of them). E.g. avoiding a product or production mentality or a mentality which focuses on sales. Virgin is successful because from the start, they emphasised the customer and customer needs. That wasn’t really mentioned.

As for discussing products at events. Maybe I’m sheltered, but this was the first conference I’ve attended where speakers were encouraged to sell products from their platform. Every other conference / event I’ve been too that’s the one thing speakers are told NOT to do – i.e. to convey knowledge and have one slide at the end saying how to be contacted if you want more or to buy what they have. If people want to sell then it’s via exhibition stands. So part of the aim is to show expertise in the subject so that people want to come back for more.

I wasn’t originally going to write the blog post but after Marco’s speech I felt I had to write something. He showed complete insensitivity to his audience that were effectively tied in as they wanted to hear Clinton. A good speaker should notice when the audience aren’t paying attention and if necessary change tack completely. I was really annoyed that a good morning session was destroyed by him – hence the blog post.

However you also have a point and I was probably unfair on you. I’ve changed what I wrote – and maybe we should get together for a chat or drink at some point. (I’d have said at the Ecademy X-mas do but I don’t think that they’ve had one of those for many years 😦 ).