Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

January 25, 2010 Leave a Comment

B2B Demand Generation| Do you use a Fixed or Growth Mindset?

In reading the New York Times best seller Switch – How to Change Things When Change is Hard, I read about a fascinating concept I wish to share with the readers here. Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset.

Do these comments sound familiar?

  1. “He’s not a very good salesperson”
  2. “She’s one of the worst managers I’ve ever seen.”
  3. “He’s not a very smart kid.”

Notice that each of those focus on a label – not good, worst, dumb. Those are examples of the Fixed Mindset. A person IS this or that. They cannot change.

On the other hand, the Growth Mindset believes that the brain is a muscle. As a muscle, it can be exercised and grow. Hard work and study is like a workout at a gym. The brain grows and adapts. (I’m a big believer in self-improvement and continual learning.)

The book shared the story of a teacher who used an interesting approach to “dumb kids.” She gave grades of A, B, C and NY (not yet). That way no one was labeled a failure. The kids responded and grades improved dramatically.

To show how a growth mindset works, let’s take the comments above and put them in a growth mindset.

  1. “He’s not a very good salesperson today, but I bet if he really works on it, he could be a great one.”
  2. “She does have some management challenges, but she could become a great manager soon by working to learn new approaches.”
  3. “His grades have not been great, but he’s really studying hard and I think we’ll see great improvement soon.”

See the difference? Each one can work and improve.

The fixed mindset is a rampant problem in business. Leaders label employees. Recruiters label candidates. In my extensive career, I’ve never been asked about a growth mindset – though I believe the best leaders exhibit a growth mindset.

Do most people have Fixed or Growth Mindsets?

What do you think? Do you hear a lot of fixed mindset words, such as “He or she is this or that?” I’d love to see a healthy debate.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers and his company helps businesses design and deploy world class lead nurturing and scoring programs.

To learn about Jeff, please click Who is the Fearless Competitor?

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

“Find New Customers can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.

Filed Under: Marketing

Why change a prospect’s lead nurturing process?

January 16, 2010 Leave a Comment
Albee3D090109_500

I was asked that question by my former boss, Chuck Schaeffer, CEO of A p l i c o r — the software as a service provider of  CRM and ERP software. It was a great question and undoubtedly a question a lot of marketers face.  I thought it would be helpful to share some best practices with my readers.  I hope you find it helpful. (Please note that I left that company and they “stole” our domains. Please do not buy anything from them.)

Let’s say a senior sales executive at a large software firm downloads your white paper.  Then later, she downloads an eBook.  Would you change the lead nurturing process she is on?  Probably not.

(Here’s an a key point about sharing your content – make it easy and simple.  Don’t do what Oracle did.  I wanted to get a sales challenge white paper from Oracle, but I found the process and form so cumbersome and intrusive, I abandoned it.  Ironically, do a Google search and you can access the white paper directly.  Shame on you, Oracle.  Really bad job by a very large software firm.)

While you would not change your lead nurturing program for a simple action, there are situations where you would.  A good example is a change of buying stage.

Let’s say after downloading your content, multiple people start searching for pricing in Google and using the built in search on your website.  That probably indicates that this company is no longer in the Awareness phase but it rather in a late buying stage.  So you want to adapt your lead nurturing process to the stage this prospect is in.

You might want to share a third party analyst report on your company’s position or an award your company has won.

If you wish to learn more about demand generation, I invite you to download the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers.    For a great book on these issues, check out Ardath Albee’s e-Marketing for the Complex Sale.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Check out the online show every Friday at 11am ET, “Laugh and Learn with the Fearless Competitor.” Find New Customers is one of few lead generation companies in New York.

Find New Customers helps companies like yours (with 50 to 5,000 employees and complex products) implement lead generation programs to improve the way you find and acquire high quality sales leads using best practices in online lead generation. Quality leads matter. In fact, a recent study found that sales teams with fewer, high quality sales leads closed more than sales teams with more leads of dubious quality.

If you wish to do sales lead generation online, contact the B2B lead generation experts at Find New Customers using the form below.






Filed Under: Marketing

How Jeff Ogden landed a top marketing job

January 11, 2010 Leave a Comment

(Update since this was written. I have left this company, A p l i c or. Their CEO decided, without warning, that they needed deep industry experience. He also ripped my white paper for not having enough company and product content.  Please note that this white paper became Definitive Guide to Making Quota, a very popular white paper for sales, so obviously this CEO did not know what he was talking about.) Please also note that they “stole” our domains.

If you saw me mentioned by Tory Johnson on Good Morning America, (You can watch it here, in case you missed it) you learned a success story of a 50 year and older professional in a tough job climate — how Jeff Ogden became a Director of Marketing without a resume or job application.  Not to mention the fact that I beat out well over 100 well-qualified candidates.

Despite what Tory said, I was not a desperate job-seeker blasting out resume after resume, as I was President of Find New Customers, “Lead Generation Made Simple.”  Business was okay, but it was getting better and better.  The future was very bright before this company found me.

You’re here undoubtedly here to learn more about how you can duplicate the approach I used.

For even more detailed information on these approaches, please visit Get Back to Work Faster.  This site and the book of the same name is a project I did with Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies.

Before we share our keys, let’s first talk about how the world of job search has changed.  Job searching and sales have a lot in common.  Job search is just sales where you are the product.  So job seekers need to study the world of sales.

Sales has been revolutionized by the advent of high speed internet.  Buyer self-education has changed everything.  In fact, MarketingSherpa found that 8 out of 10 deals occur when the buyer finds the seller.  In the employment field, it’s when the hiring company finds the employee.  Employers look for great candidates online today.

So the real key today is to make sure you are exceptional and findable online.  This is how I won this top marketing role.

Here are 4 tips on making yourself compelling online.

  • Establish a strong online presence
  • Focus and demonstrate expertise
  • Become a publisher of great content
  • Spread yourself everywhere

Establish a strong online presence

What does that mean?  I became very active and established myself on Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook.  I also wrote a blog that grew quite popular called Fearless Competitor.  And I created a website to showcase my expertise, Find New Customers.  How popular did I become?  I just learned that I’m much more popular online than an NFL player with an identical name.   Beat the NFL?  You can do it.

Focus and demonstrate expertise

What are you expert in?  Or what can you become expert in?  Remember, if you don’t have a strong expertise, blogs and books can bring you up to speed quickly.  My area of expertise was demand generation — the approaches businesses use to find and acquire new customers.  Refine and hone your expertise.

Become a publisher of great content

For me, that meant writing a white paper called How to Find New Customers.  I first had to find a sponsor and a mentor, so it’s not easy.  But you can do it.  I interviewed experts for podcast and created eBooks like Prospect Driven Marketing.  If  you don’t know what a white paper, eBook or podcast is, start researching it online.  Look at the content on Find New Customers for samples.

Spread yourself everywhere

You don’t know where employers will look, so you need to be everywhere.  The big sites are Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook — if you are not active and present on all three, you are selling yourself short.  Linkedin in particular is a place employers search.  (It’s where my new employer found me.)  If you’re not familar with these, research them online.  But don’t just sign up.  Be active online.  Search for information about a topic or company in Twitter, for instance.  If you find an article about your area of expertise, share it on Twitter.  Jason Alba of JibberJobber has an excellent DVD entitled Linkedin for JobSeekers.

Finally find yourself a great mentor.  Mine was the remarkable Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies (remember the similarities between sales and job search?).  Jill and I collaborated on the book Get Back to Work Faster.

Jill Konrath

For more information on how to use these techniques, please visit Get Back to Work Faster.  And I’m happy to answer any of your questions via email.  Just send them to jefflogden at gmail.com  (use the @ sign).  You can also connect to me on Twitter @fearlesscomp.

Good luck.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Check out the online show every Friday at 11am ET, “Laugh and Learn with the Fearless Competitor.” Find New Customers is one of few lead generation companies in New York.

Find New Customers helps companies like yours (with 50 to 5,000 employees and complex products) implement lead generation programs to improve the way you find and acquire high quality sales leads using best practices in online lead generation. Quality leads matter. In fact, a recent study found that sales teams with fewer, high quality sales leads closed more than sales teams with more leads of dubious quality.

If you wish to do sales lead generation online, contact the B2B lead generation experts at Find New Customers using the form below.






Filed Under: Self Education

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