Let me tell you a true story …
I was walking along the beach one day, feeling lucky. My life was good. I had all my ducks lined up in a row. Whatever I had believed, I had conceived and achieved. And when the going had been tough, I’d got going.
As I walked, I saw a starfish lying in the sand. I picked it up and asked him, “What are you doing?” He replied, “I’m building a cathedral.” But he clearly wasn’t. So I threw him into the ocean.
Suddenly I felt a force in my back, and I was thrown face first into the sand. I turned to see a group of monkeys aiming a large hose of jet-cold water at me.
“What did you do that for?” I yelled. They stopped, and looked at each other, puzzled. “Err, there’s no ‘I’ in team,” one said haltingly, and then added, “Although, now that I think of it, there are two in ‘schizophrenia’.”
“Ummm … We were just shifting your paradigm”, said another.
“No, no”, said a third. “We moved your cheese.”
I just stared at them, until eventually one of them muttered, “Nobody ever asked us that before”, and they skulked away.
I turned away in disgust and looked out to the ocean. Suddenly, to my horror, I saw a battleship heading towards the beach, and – what’s more – right into the path of my starfish.
I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled across the water, “Turn 10 degrees to port – now!” In reply, their loudhailer boomed back at me, “No, YOU turn 10 degrees to starboard – now!”
They were in trouble – BIG trouble. But I had a positive attitude, which was contagious – and I hoped it was worth catching by the men on that ship. I called back again, “I’m warning you – turn 10 degrees to port – NOW!” But the reply came back, even louder, “And I’m warning YOU – turn 10 degrees to starboard!”
What could I do? They were heading straight for shore. “Stop! Danger!” I yelled. But the reply came back, “I stop for nobody. I’m a battleship.”
Quickly, I thought outside the nine dots and yelled back, “I’m a lighthouse”. Unfortunately, it was daytime, and they could see I obviously wasn’t. So they ignored my warnings and headed straight for the shore.
I knew I had to lead, follow or get out of the way. I got out of the way. Unfortunately, the starfish wasn’t so lucky.
I tell you this story not to sadden you – because the sun is always shining even when you can’t see it – but to inspire you.
Nor to apologise – because love means never having to say you’re sorry – but to theorise.
And not to point a finger at the commander of that battleship – because whenever I do, there are two fingers pointing back at me (there used to be three, but I lost one in a freak accident when I lost concentration while sharpening an axe for six hours) – but to point YOU in a new direction.
You see, that was in the past, and the past is just a memory. All we have is the gift of now – that’s why we call it the “present” (Ummm … and the gift of tomorrow, I suppose – that’s why we call it, err, the future. But that’s another story).
I felt bad at the time, but it WAS in my past. Looking back now, I realise it didn’t make a difference to me. But it did to that starfish.
Even if you attract people to your newsletter sign-up page, it’s another thing altogether to get them to sign up! You might be surprised (and disappointed) at how difficult it is to convince people to join your mailing list, especially now, when Internet users guard their e-mail address so carefully. So let’s look at what you need to do to convince potential subscribers to become real subscribers.
The Internet has changed the way we buy, which means you need to change the way you sell. People used to go directly to advisers, salespeople and trusted authorities. But now they go to Google first, and then social media, blogs, newsletters and other on-line places. This means you need to be in these places as well, so that you become their trusted authority again, rather than just an order taking competing on price. In this webinar, we’ll look at some simple ways to be your potential customer’s first choice – by delivering high-value content regularly. Based on the “Make Connections” chapter of my book 
Thanks to the Internet, clients today are smarter, savvier and more sophisticated than ever before. When they come to you, ready to buy, you can bet they didn’t suddenly think of you five minutes earlier. This is the biggest change in the sales process: You used to be the first port of call in their buying cycle (or if not you, at least a bureau or agent). But no longer.
