3 is the magic sales number

3 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

by with No Comment Innovation News

Research finds that customers are 3 TIMES more likely to purchases when they LIKE the environment.
At the University of British Columbia students were shown the advertisements for products. In one case there was music playing that the students enjoyed. In the other case they were playing music that annoyed the students.
At the completion of the presentation the students were given the opportunity to purchase a small item. 3 TIMES more students bought when they were in the environment that played the music they enjoyed.
As Ben Franklin said, “If you would be loved, love and be lovable.” When you are making your pitch – make your environment as friendly and as likable as possible.
When presenting data to a customer you will be most effective if:
A) You provide a clear & simple chartB) You explain the data in clear & simple words
The correct answer is B, you explain the data in clear & simple words.
Research shows that when you use simple words versus a chard with numbers and percents – WORDS are 2 times more effective at communicating the marketing message. And 3 TIMES more effective at increasing purchase intent.
So if you want someone to really get the message you’re sending, don’t get clever with charts and graphs. Say it with words – the straightforward, easy way to get your point across and increase the chance that your customers will take action.
When attempting to make a sale research finds that the best return on your investment of time and money is to make 3 ATTEMPTS.
Ignite CURIOSITY with your first personal pitch, marketing advertisement or mailing. It should provoke interest through a mind opening thought designed to get your customers to stop, listen and most importantly THINK.
Your second pitch should deepen UNDERSTANDING and should explain with clarity how what you promised in the first pitch can be delivered.
The third pitch should focus on enabling them to make a DECISION. It should address any key concerns and most importantly always ASK for the sale.
Most people make one pitch and give up. DON’T! Always make three pitches in order to ignite curiosity, understanding and enable a decision. Your sales dreams are much more likely to come true.

50% card with colorful background with defocused lights

How Focus Can Change Your Business

by with No Comment Innovation News

Significant overall sales growth can be realized if:
A) You cut your product line by as much at 50%.B) You expand your product line to service all customers.
The correct answer is A, you cut your product line by as much as 50%. This has proved itself again and again in the research. But perhaps one of the most impressive studies was on an internet retailer.
The retailer cut their worst selling products which ended up being 54% of their products across 42 separate categories. The result was an average 11% increase in overall sales.
So the next time you find yourself baffled with how to increase sales and overwhelmed with products and variation – get to cutting. Focus your efforts, clean up your offerings and bump up your income.
In a related finding…
Doing less can actually help you win more, lose less and make more money.
The more you focus, focus, focus – and DO ONE THING great – the greater your success. A simple experiment conducted in California grocery stores proves it.
Customers were offered free tastes of 24 different flavors of jam. In another leg of the test only 6 flavors of jam were offered. When offered 24 flavors only 2% of those walking by the display made a purchase. When offered 6 flavors 12% bought. That is a 600% increase!
The conclusion is clear – by offering less options – you’re seen as an expert and you increase your odds of success.
The same is true in your career – when you develop a deep expertise in an area then your boss will see you as more valuable. and you will win more, lose less and make more money.
You can improve your problem-solving ability even by taking a very short break.
A study reported in the Creativity Research journal found that when you’re stuck – stepping back from the problem – escaping if you would from the challenge JUMP STARTS your cranium.
In the study 104 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to five groups. They were then told to compute the area of two geometric figures found in a complex drawing called an insight puzzle.
As soon as they came to an impasse each group was given one of the three break lengths (long, short, and none). They were also given one of two levels of activity (demanding or non-demanding tasks).
The results clearly showed that any break improved their problem solving ability.
Why? Oftentimes when people try to solve a complex problem they make false assumptions that they can’t mentally release. Taking even a short break releases their mind. It lets them apply a new organizing assumption that leads to a better solution.

Math is the innovation gas pedal

Numbers are Your Friend when Innovating

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Years ago at Procter & Gamble my team and I were trying to sort out what to do after having just gotten some horrible product testing results. Tim Feely, who I believe was a Product Development Director at the time, stopped into the meeting and told us, “Numbers are your friend when innovating.”    

At that moment the numbers on the pages in front of me didn’t seem like a very friendly friend. Tim explained that having a solid failure was a gift to us – as it made it clear that what we were doing was not working. It was time to change and to change significantly.
Tim’s comment has stuck with me for over 40 years :). I remembered it last week when a team was stressing that they didn’t have time to get their innovation idea ready to go out with a test that was scheduled. They were afraid they’d fail. My response was to paraphrase Tim, “Numbers are your friend – win or lose we will be smarter than we are now. My vote is to SHIP.”  Note – the idea shipped – setting a record for uniqueness and for purchase. Well – that was a record high for uniqueness and a record low for purchase interest. And from that the team began to pursue another cycle of learning.
The “Numbers” associated with innovation include:
Customer research results on your idea, product/service or non-profit program
Forecasts for sales, profits, fundraising, cost savings
Forecasts for investment required for production or marketing
As I wrote about last week, these numbers are the key to you being able to generate “pull” for your innovation from investors, management and other stakeholders. 
NUMBERS transform your idea from an “ABSTRACTION” into a TANGIBLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
If you don’t know how to do the math GET HELP. Find a numbers person you trust to collaborate with.

3 Secrets to getting Investors to Invest

3 secrets to Getting Investors to Invest in Your Idea

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To create, communicate and commercialize an innovation requires lots of money.  The money can come from your existing company, from outside investors or from your own savings. Note – when it’s from your own savings it’s not uncommon for that to not be fully your decision – you often have a spouse or partner who has a financial and emotional stake in you investing your money. 

I’ve spent over 40 years selling companies, outside investors, family and friends on investing in ideas that I’ve created or helped create. I’ve sold multi-national corporations, small companies, non-profits and even governments on investing in my ideas.
From this I’ve learned THREE SECRETS that I believe are nearly fool proof.    
MAKE IT REAL: Step one is to make your idea real. By this I mean you MUST craft two prototypes:Concept Prototype: This is ideally one piece of paper that presents your idea in the way you would show it to a possible customer.  When you don’t have the actual innovation use illustrations to help potential investors see your idea as you envision it.Functional Prototype: This is a works like demonstration of the “magic” that is your innovation. It doesn’t matter how ugly it is – it just needs to help potential investors see, feel and experience the WOW you envision.
GET THE NUMBERS: If you want investors to invest you MUST have the numbers. Numbers include: 1) Customer Research on your prototypes, 2) Sales & Cost forecasts and 3) R&D, Production and Marketing investment needs. NO MATH = NO PROJECT this is what I tell inventors inside and outside of companies.
PROTECT YOUR INVENTION: Define in writing how you can protect yourself from being copied. Investors like to “own” something – and know that no one else owns anything close to it. The easiest way to protect your invention is to file a patent. You can also use trade secrets, specialized supply chain or in some cases trademarks. 
When you can make your innovation real with prototypes, share your math and your proprietary protection then you have what you need to get investors to write you a check to support your innovation.  In my personal experience over the years this process works both inside corporations and with outside investors.

Measure Innovation Risk

Confront Reality & Build a Plan to De-Risk your Innovation Project!

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Using innovation to grow sales and profits is an accepted business concept.

Actually taking action on innovations – especially big idea innovations – is scary for many.
The Eureka! Ranch team has developed a new PROJECT P&L tool for helping innovators build support and confidence among leadership, investors and other stake holders.
I’ve learned over the years that the P&L statement for innovation projects is the key to building support. It’s the place where all of your assumptions about sales, profits and return on investment come together on one piece of paper.
Sadly, many innovators have not been taught how to use their PROJECT P&L as an innovation acceleration tool.   
With PROJECT P&L the Eureka! Ranch team helps you do risk adjusted math on AN EXISTING INNOVATION PROJECT. Having identified the three highest risk / variance areas they then help you craft a plan to de-risk these areas. The bottom line is a reduction of risk of failure by up to 80%.
Risk is quantified through measurement of the variance around your estimates. Some estimates associated with your PROJECT P&L will be relatively firm – with little standard deviation. Others, will have very large variance. The areas with high variance are the ones that are most likely to cause you to fail.
You can do this yourself – by simply estimating best case, worst case and best guess and using a spreadsheet to model that impact of the uncertainty inherent in your P&L on your odds of success.  
Alternatively – you can use the TrailBlazer Innovation Project Software developed by the Eureka! Ranch team. It’s a collection of easy to use tools that help you quantify the risk associated with forecasting inputs. Your quantified inputs are then used to forecast sales, cost and profit using a state of the art “Market Simulation” system.  It allows you to do a “virtual introduction” of your innovation into the marketplace some 10,000 times. The PROJECT P&L report predicts five years of trial, repeat and diffusion of your innovation into the marketplace. It also models the uncertainty associated with your estimates of cost and profitability. 
The first couple of PROJECT P&L assessments are done by the Ranch team working with your team. In time, your staff becomes trained to run them on all projects.
The bottom line result is nothing short of amazing.  You decrease your project risk AND build confidence among your stakeholders.
To learn more about how the Eureka! Ranch can help reach out to Maggie Nichols at Maggie@EurekaRanch.com

Innovation Team Earning Turst

How Leadership can Learn to TRUST their Teams

by with No Comment Innovation News

After 48 years of innovating and 33 years of consulting – I believe that the ROOT CAUSE of a lack of innovation at most companies is the lack of TRUST that leaders have in the ability of their teams to innovate successfully.

This lack of trust sets off a chain reaction of bad behaviors…
Because they don’t trust their teams can execute big ideas – leadership sets small goals.
Setting small goals for innovation results in changes without the WOW factor needed to be successful
When senior leaders see that they are failing on what seem like easy ideas – they lose more confidence.
Eventually – a “guru” is brought in to create big ideas – with fancy design ideas & marketing smoke.
Not being connected to the reality of how to actually develop and deliver – the ideas soon fail.
Management – having failed with little ideas & guru ideas – gives up – and resorts to using cost cutting to drive growth.
This strategy works for a short time – but soon sees diminishing returns.
Leadership is replaced and the cycle repeats
And it all started because the Leader didn’t TRUST in the ability of the company teams to innovate.
THE GOOD NEWS IS –
The people can innovate. The people have big ideas. The people can turn those big ideas into reality.
They just need support and structures to help them focus their energy more successfully.
Under the leadership of CEO Maggie Nichols the Eureka! Ranch team is using Eureka! Inventing projects to build leadership TRUST.    The Ranch experts – work side by side with employees.  They show by doing – teaching, inventing and driving out risk though rapid quantitative research. 
With this success – leadership sees a pathway to winning with innovation.   Leadership sets project missions that are more challenging – and that deliver higher sales and profits.
To make the process sustainable – the Ranch team provides Innovation Engineering courses and software tools.  Soon a new mindset develops where employees, managers and leadership believe – really believe that they can win with innovation.
 
 
WHAT IS EUREKA! INVENTING?
Use that button below to learn more about how Eureka! Ranch, CEO, Maggie Nichols and the team at the Ranch help companies win with innovation every single day through Eureka! Inventing projects!