I told you so…..

In one of my earlier posts on this blog I wrote about how to rebuild GM.

My ideas centered around shrinking GM to just three core brands.

Basically it was simply going back to how the original creator of GM, William (Bill) Durant started the company.

For some reason beyond my belief though, GM still wants to hold on to GMC.

This could work if they make only a specific heavy duty truck.

However, if GMC makes any kind of product that is similar to their other products, more specifically Cheverolet – then they will strip sales away from the other brands.

In truth, now is not the time for the General to get sentimental with it’s brands.

By it’s own mis-handling of their company, they are now forced to take a hard stance in order to get back to profitability.

And if I were talking to the heads of GM, I’d simply tell them to pay attention to your customers.

There were plenty of indicators that consumers were falling out of love with the products that GM was producing long before they made it to the situation that they are in now.

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• GM Seeks $16.6 Billion. Plans to Cut 47,000 Jobs (shoppingblog.com)

Here’s a “look Ma, no hands” approach to getting traffic to visit your blog.

Communicate with the people whom you would like to drop by your blog.

Visit their blogs and join in on the conversation that’s going on there.

Post your comments to their blogs.

Do a google search for blogs that are based on your topic of choice and start communicating.

This will breed trust in you from the owners of that blog over time.

Oh, and don’t spam the blogs that you do find.

Forget about buying some nifty piece of software to make posting quicker, easier and faster.

Do the grunt work yourself.

Show the blog owner that you are a real person with opinions and views.

And pretty soon traffic will start to trickle in.

Then that traffic starts to gain momentum, and you will start to gather a following.

From there it’s just rinse and repeat.

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An often missed warning sign that most people overlook when it comes to creating their own success is to simply find a product or service in a particular market that is creating a “disruption,” and either work with that company or sell their products or services.

By a disruption I mean that the normal way of doing things can be done in a much simpler way that is totally different then what people are used to.

For example.

How could apple come in so easily and take market share in the phone industry from well established phone makers like nokia and motorola?

Apple did it by creating a disruption.

They changed the way you used, and thought about your cell phone.

Touch screens, simple interfaces. These things allowed you to do the same things as handheld and flip phones, make calls, access stored information on the phone – but just more efficiently.

In fact, if you want to learn more about how to successfully create disruptions in markets, than apple is a good company to follow and study.

They also created a disruption in the music handset market with the ipod.

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• Fail now, succeed later (billbennettnz.wordpress.com)

Having a blog to use as a marketing tool is a really good idea.

It lets you keep in touch with your market…build trust with your readers…and offers a simple way to make a soft offer of your products.

However, what most people don’t understand about having a blog is that in order for you to get readers on a regular basis, you have to build up momentum.

You have to post to your blog on a regular basis in order to see traffic come by and read what you have to offer.

This was something that I always kind of knew….

But didn’t fully follow.

Until now.

Keep in mind that I operate 4 different blogs. So keeping them all up to date was really time consuming.

A post here, a post there….

That type of strategy never really turned out to be a winner.

However, by changing the way I used time,  I changed my results.

I’ve set limits on how much time I’ll spend on any one of my blogs. when that time is up, I move to the next blog.

That one step has allowed me to build momentum for each of my blogs.

And now the blogs are starting to take shape.

Try it.

Set time limits for your blogs.

Heck, set time limits for everything you do.

In a future post I’m going to talk about how you can use time as a tool to leapfrog your way to success.

What exactly was I doing?

I decided to create a project for a local motorcoach company here in Chicago.

The idea was simple.

Create a community site where the people who ride and use their services could experience full transparency of the company.

By that I mean, people can express their displeasure with the company as well as what they liked.

It’s in it’s infancy right now.

However, with continued work I think this site will be a winner.

Check it out.

Http://hydeparktravel.ning.com

The answers to these questions could be the difference between making a hundred dollars and making ten thousand.

You can even use what you’re going to discover to create a series of successful websites that sell products or services for you,

Be sure to check back to this site.

Keir

If you didn’t have to hear about another bailout for corporate America.

Where is your bailout?

Here’s how I want to help you through these troubling times.

One of my personal pet projects has been to create a community of high achievers.

Way before the economy headed south I started this community site.

However, I let the project fall behind.

But now I want to start it up again because I think it’s needed now more than ever.

You can check it out by going here.

Http://2millionmindmarch.ning.com/

While browsing the news this morning, I saw reports that GM is now considering dumping some of it’s brands.

Pontiac, Saturn, hummer, and Saab could be gone.

This is what’s needed to bring GM back from possible extinction.

What GM has to do is loose its ego.

In the new economy small will be the new big.

No longer will it be a good thing to do to grow your company into a huge monster employing millions.

Flexibilty, speed and acuracy will be the new “it” words.

Big sales with fifty to eighty percent off.

Or how about buy one get one free.

These are some of trusted tools used on black Friday in the past.

But will they still work in todays troubled economy?

Here’s the problem with screaming sale, sale, sale.

You teach people to wait for you to drop the price.

Even if they can afford to buy products from you they don’t.

The reason being that they don’t want to feel like they missed out on a better deal. Call it buyers regret.

So if discounting isn’t always a great idea…then what should you do?

The highest number of sales will come when you pre-sell them throughout the year.

What you have to do give them reasons to buy from you before black Friday.

People are creatures of habit. Once they have established a pattern for buying from you then they will continue to do so even on black Friday.

Here’s what I would do to put the general back into the top dog spot.

Get back to the original idea upon which general motors was to be built.

3 brands. That’s it.

There should be one brand aimed at the person who is working and looking for the first new low priced car.

Next there should be a brand aimed at the person who’s moving up the ranks at their job. Higher priced than the first brand.

Then there should be a brand aimed at the person who has achieved success.

Why would I only have these three brands?

Because having to many choices can kill a sale.

GM has to make it easier to buy one of their cars than it is not to buy from them.

Right now they have too many brands competing with each other for limited sales.

Then consider that there are more cars being put on the road then there is space for those cars to travel.

GM doesn’t benefit from being the worlds largest auto maker when economic times call for a quick turnover of products.

They need to shake the idea of being largest and instead adopt the idea of being the quickest and most nimble.

Going forward in the new economy size will matter. But not in the traditional sense.

In the new economy smaller will be better.