How to Make Great Decisions – By Paul Dalton

By Paul Dalton

How many times in your life have you put off doing something because you couldn’t decide the best course of action to take? I’ve known people plan to go out for a well earned meal with their partner and end up staying at home because they couldn’t make up their mind between Chinese or Italian. Heaven help the person who orders sweet and sour chicken when all along they should have been having lasagna! Can you imagine what it is like for them to choose between a staying in their job or take a gamble on starting that business they always dreamed of?

The fear of making bad decisions prevents people from doing all kinds of things that they might be better off doing. The truth of the matter is there is no way of knowing which direction a particular choice is going to take you. You can spend years ruminating over every possible outcome while in the mean time watching the world move on around you. It doesn’t change the fact that, no matter what you choose to do in the end, it might all turn out right and it might all turn out not so right.

But none of that matters because the secret to making great decisions is falling in love with making mistakes.

A lot of people will not make the distinction between making a mistake and making a bad decision, but there is a world of difference, and realizing what that difference is can literally turn your life around and set you on a whole new path.

A mistake is literally doing something in a moment that you think is for the best but later turns out to be not such a good idea for you. A bad decision is doing nothing to correct that mistake and then letting the consequences of it define you for ages afterwards.

Here are a few of examples:

Mistake = Getting into a relationship with the wrong person.
Bad Decision = Sticking with them and being miserable for the rest of your life

Mistake = Choosing Bognor Regis rather than Cuba for your annual holiday.
Bad Decision = Looking for everything you can find to hate about Bognor just to prove you were right about how you should have gone to Cuba! And then going back to Bognor next year! (Bognor is a wonderful place by the way).

Mistake = Going into business without having some sort of a plan.
Bad Decision = Injecting more and more of your personal finance, sweat and tears into it just to prove you can make the damn thing work.

Making a good decision is not about knowing the outcome before it has had a chance to happen. It is about committing to ANY course of action you FEEL is for the best and then paying attention to the lessons you are later presented with. It is the skill of interpreting the information generated by what has happened and choosing to either do more of the same or change your approach — even start again in some cases. In the same way that an airplane reaches its destination by continually measuring how off track it is from the set flight path and adjusting its course to get back on track, the same is true for good decision making.

Making a decision in any area is not a one time event; it is an ongoing and organic process that must evolve as life unfolds.

Today’s Homework:

Think about a decision you have been putting off making. What are the possible choices you have?

Just for a moment, let go of analyzing which choice you think you should make and just listen to your body; your intuition. If I were to flip a coin and the rules were Heads you choose option A and Tails you go with option B, which side would you secretly hope for, deep down, before knowing the outcome?

Just go with your instinct and do something to start to make that choice happen. Be willing to make a mistake, knowing that the only bad decision you can ever make is to not do something about the things you didn’t want to happen.

If things go wrong be willing to make a mistake in the opposite direction because, who knows, it might turn out to not be a mistake after all, but rather the realization of your dream!

No matter what your situation you always have choice. Don’t worry about having to choose wisely; that’s overrated.

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About the Author:

Paul Dalton is a Hypnotherapist and Personal Development Coach / Trainer with bags of experience in helping people change their lives for the better, combining skills from: hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, life coaching, leadership effectiveness, metaphysics, motivation techniques, and more.

Paul is also the proud creator of http://www.life-happens.co.uk/  – a Personal Development resource website for everyone interested in the fields of human potential, self-improvement and positive living.

The Reasons Why Average Marketing Campaigns Fail

There are marketing companies across the globe that do a very good job and help their clients see real results. There are not many, however, that can claim powerhouse, household-name campaigns and products to their credit. The reason for this is generally found in the approach the best of the best take to marketing.

Experts that cultivate marketing for some of the world’s best-known companies and products tend to know a few secrets that others do not. They approach marketing in a wholly different way and reach out to consumers on a different level.

So, why is it that some marketing efforts produce good results, but others catapult products into the public eye and hold them there?

The answer is often found in what typical marketing campaigns might lack. While they can and do make sales and have a positive impact on a company, they often lack in the features that can really make them shine. The reality is that for serious, runaway successes to occur, marketing must go beyond the safe, standard and tried-and-tested.

Even the best of standard marketing campaigns might fail to attract the attention desired because they often do not:

1. Take a holistic approach – Marketing a single product is often not enough to really sell it. Even if the campaign is solid, it can fall short if the company is not included in the mix. Some of the best-known marketing efforts nationally and even internationally are far reaching in nature. They promote not only a particular product, but also a company and even a way of life. Image and people’s perception of that image are everything in successful marketing. Successful products and their makers are synonymous by design, not chance.
    
2. Take chances – Many marketing campaigns are designed to play it safe. The goal is to sell a product; not catapult it into every household possible. Risk-taking is a way of life for some of the most successful companies. Their campaigns go beyond the tested and the results show. If cards have been played right on the holistic approach to advertising, even a bad campaign can produce positive results.
    
3. Reach out on multiple levels – Safe marketing campaigns will often sell a product solely on its merits. Advertisements and commercials speak to the features and appeal to consumers’ logic. These campaigns can and do sell, but they are not likely to produce huge results. To really enjoy success, marketing efforts must reach out to people on levels that go beyond logic and reason. Appealing to people’s emotions, the things that influence them and even the symbols they trust and recognize can make all the difference in the world. Highly successful marketers know these things and plan accordingly.
    

Playing it safe with marketing can produce moderate and even pleasing results. Average campaigns, however, are not likely to take a product and make it an incredible success. Standard marketing fails on this front because it lacks the ability to sell on multiple levels. The world’s best marketers know how to sell not only products, but also emotions and even lifestyles.

Signs And Symbols Can Sell When Other Efforts Fall Flat

Marketing is a very tricky game that most people tend to prefer to play safe. While tried and tested efforts can gain results, they generally will not turn companies into household names on a national or international level. When something more is desired, companies can learn a thing or two from the ancient and not-so-ancient past.

Consider some of the most successful companies in the marketplace today. No matter the type or types of products these companies offer, they all tend to have something beyond their powerhouse status in common.

So, what is that thing? It happens to be the use of signs and symbols in their marketing campaigns. Think of any company that is at the top of its field and chances are strong that it will be readily identifiable by its symbols alone.

Companies that enjoy success on a major level do not necessarily have to have their names stated in commercials and other marketing efforts, their signs and symbols speak for themselves. Anyone who doubts this need only consider the companies that are recognizable to toddlers. Toy companies, cereal brands and even sandwich and French fry joints will all make youngsters who cannot even read jump up and down for joy when their symbols are seen. The products might not even be a child’s favorites, but a response will be elicited nonetheless.

Why is this?

Long before there was written language, there were symbols. Humans have moved in a world where certain symbols stand for specific things. In many cases, symbols are also tied to strong emotions or subconscious responses. When companies capitalize on the use of the right symbols in their own marketing people tend to take notice without even noticing they are doing so.

Consider the many symbols out there that elicit positive responses in people. A checkmark, for example, is a sign for a job well done or completed. It makes people happy and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Olive branches and doves are signs of peace. An image of a lion stands for strength and loyalty. The examples go on and on.

When companies take familiar symbols that have positive meanings in the eyes of clients, alter them and make them their own, they can reach out to consumers on an emotional level. Some companies have also managed to create their own unique symbols and give positive meaning to them through tactical marketing campaigns. Regardless, the symbols, just like a checkmark on a homework assignment, have come to represent certain emotions and elicit specific reactions from consumers.

While not all highly successful companies have learned to tap into the power of symbols and their ability to say more without actual words, many have. When logos, product packaging designs and advertising efforts use the right symbols and manage to attach the right meanings to those symbols, household name status can follow.

Standard marketing efforts can go a long way in helping companies enjoy modest success. When going beyond is the goal, marketing needs to take on a different strategy. Reaching out to customers through symbols and speaking to them on the subconscious level can provide the impetus needed to turn a good company into a great one.

Motivating Forces Make Sales

It takes more than a simple explanation to really sell a product. While advertising campaigns that are purely informational can show decent results, they generally will not produce record-breaking numbers. This is often due to the fact that campaigns of this nature fail to actually motivate people to take action.

Humans are motivated by a number of forces. Basic needs, of course, are huge motivators, but there are many others. It is the other motivators that can really drive people forward to make purchases, adopt particular products as their brands of choice or even make impulse buys they have no need of but cannot seem to walk away from regardless.

In the marketing world, highly successful professionals tap into a number of motivating forces to help them sell companies and their products. There are, in fact, 22 motivating forces that are continuously at work in people’s lives. These forces can drive people forward to look for solutions to meet their needs and motivate them to buy when they believe they have found the answer to those needs.

Truly successful marketing efforts tap into these motivating forces and use them to guide people to take action. The best of the best know how to manipulate the unseen to get people to move forward and fulfill their desires.

Motivating forces can be powerful marketing tools for a number of reasons. They include:

1. Their ability to call people to action – When marketing taps into motivating forces, people will receive and respond to a call for action. Selling people on the idea that a product or service would make a good purchase is not enough. People have to be motivated to actually take action and make the purchase.
    
2. Their ability to appeal to desires – People are highly motivated by fulfilling their own desires beyond rudimentary needs. When they are motivated to believe products or services will meet their desires, they will respond accordingly. Tapping into different desires with marketing campaigns takes understanding a few well-kept secrets, but once they are employed the sky can be the limit on sales.
    
3. Their ability to touch people on an emotional level – Humans are nothing if not emotional. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns in history have tapped into the emotional side of human beings to get them to take a particular action or purchase a specific product.
    
4. Their ability to influence – People have to be influenced to make the purchase of a particular product over another. When motivating forces are used in marketing, consumers will often feel compelled to give a particular purchase a try or they might be influenced to keep buying the “tried and tested” even if something else has appeared on the aisle that looks just as good, but does not cost as much.
    

When marketing efforts tap into motivating forces to drive people to action, sales tend to result. If these efforts are especially effective, the resulting sales can go well beyond expectations and the repeat business will not fail to please.

Marketing Techniques Are More Important Than You Think

On the surface, most marketing campaigns appear alike. They mainly rely on the same advertising vehicles, involve the same types of agencies and tend to cost a fair amount of money no matter what.

Why is it then that some campaigns turn companies into near overnight successes and others just fail to make the grade? How is it that some companies with fairly average products can become household names, but companies with better products and even pricing might not even register as a blip on consumers’ radars?

In most cases, it all comes down to the techniques that were employed in the campaign. Common techniques can and do make sales. This is why they have become common. They do not, however, break records or catapult products to the top of sales charts. These techniques are simply missing the edge that others can provide.
If you want to see your business grow, the techniques used in your marketing will matter. Go with standard, straightforward tactics and your business will likely see results. Think on a deeper, more creative level and the impact will likely blow away expectations.

Consider some of the world’s most successful companies and the products they have to offer. The biggest burger chains do not necessarily have the best burgers in the world. The greatest selling sneakers might not be the most comfortable. The hottest rock bands might hurt people’s ears. Despite these things, the products they offer sell and they sell well.

So, how do they do it? The companies that are found at the pinnacle of their own industries tend to use marketing techniques that are slightly different. While their advertisements might only seem slightly slicker than others, there is more to their strategy than that.

Companies that succeed in their marketing efforts tend to appeal to people through:

1. Symbols – Their logos and advertising designs might appeal to people through symbolism. Whether it is a blatant effort or simply by chance, the right logos can reach out to people on the subconscious level. When the right message is received, people will respond.
    
2. Inborn responses – People, just like all other animals, are born with certain things that they respond to. When marketing triggers innate programming, people take notice. They will sometimes do so whether they want to or not.
    
3. Emotions – Appeal to people on an emotional level and they will be sold. When natural emotions are triggered through marketing efforts, people will tend to gravitate toward a product. If marketing makes people believe a product will make their family happy, provide them personal satisfaction, deliver fun, smiles, sex appeal or what have you, sales will follow.
    

Tried and true marketing techniques can build up your company and its product sales in a modest way. If it is time to take efforts to the next level, appealing to customers in a different way is a must. When campaigns reach out to people’s emotions, their inborn wiring or even their trust of certain symbols, the sky is often the limit.

Influence Customers And Sales Will Come

What makes one product sell a hundred times better than a similar and even lower-priced brand? Why will some people pass up major savings to buy identical items at higher-priced stores? How come some service providers are overrun with business when their competition hardly receives a telephone call?

There is a single answer to all of these questions: It is influence.

When marketing professionals manage to influence consumers with their advertising and branding campaigns, it shows in people’s responses to certain products, stores and service providers. If influencing is particularly successful, consumers are likely to pass by savings, convenience and even better service and higher quality to get what it is they believe they cannot do without.

Take pause and think about marketing campaigns that have proven wildly successful. Pay attention to stores and service providers that pack in customers even if their competition has better pricing. Look at their ads, watch their commercials and see how they do things. Chances are you will see influence at work in everything they do. From the corporate or product images they create to how they appeal to consumers, the highly successful know how to wield influence.

Learning the ropes of influencing through marketing is no easy feat. There are many marketing professionals who simply have not mastered the craft and likely never will.

To use influence to one’s advantage, it takes reaching beyond the norm in marketing practices and trying to connect with people on a deeper, and often more meaningful level. Many marketers shy away from the concept because it can be risky, but traditional means of making sales are proven and will show results. Rather than take a chance that could lead to incredible sales, they prefer to stick with modest returns.

When marketers do choose to use influence to help their clients enjoy success, they will find there are a number of different directions they can go. People are influenced by a lot of different forces. On the most basic of levels, they are influenced by the need for food, shelter, clothing and water. Working on a different level, there are 22 other major motivating forces that can drive consumers to take action, purchase products or patronize particular stores or service providers. When campaigns tap into these forces, they tend to reach out to people and drive them through their desires or wants.

Learning how to market through influence requires understanding a few basic truths about people. The reality is that while many humans like to think of themselves a logic driven, most people simply are not. When marketing campaigns sell an image, a lifestyle or a feeling, they do tend to get noticed.

If your marketing campaigns are falling flat or are just not getting the results you want, it might be time to exercise a little influence. When the right motivators are used in advertising, a big change can be seen in the bottom line. Campaigns of this nature are not easy to pull off, but the risk can be well worth the rewards.

Inborn Programming Is One Of The Secrets To Marketing Success

Gaining modest results from marketing by playing it safe and adhering to traditional techniques can work very well for some companies. They trudge along with a reasonable amount of success without ever looking beyond to see what else they might be able to achieve. 

Why is it then that some companies succeed beyond the wildest dreams of most people, even if their products or services are average at best?

Quite often it all comes down to marketing. How it is approached and what techniques are used can make all the difference in the world. When more than modest results are desired, it is imperative to think outside the box and tap into the secrets that some of the most successful companies from Madison Avenue to Hollywood have long known about. There are methods that go beyond the tried and tested norms that can make campaign results soar.

One of the biggest secrets used by major companies in their marketing efforts involves appealing to the inborn programming people are simply wired with at birth.  
Think this does not matter? Well, think again.

Just as certain animals migrate at set times during the year and most living creatures are born with an innate sense to protect their young, humans come preprogrammed with certain ingrained traits. When these traits are triggered through marketing, people respond without even knowing why in many cases. They will favor products marketed under programs that trigger their programming and they will make purchases even if another product is cheaper, prettier or even just plain better.

When marketing efforts use traditional techniques for promoting products and services, they can pay off, of course. This is why so many companies fail to take their efforts to the next level. They just don’t know a next level even exists. If they do, they are unaware of how to make the secrets work for them.

Companies that have made it to the upper levels in their industries, however, often rely on different techniques to get the word out about what they have to offer. They have learned to activate the inborn programming of people to drive their businesses forward. When this happens, consumers tend to beg for a product rather than have to be asked to purchase it.

Consider some of the most successful companies in the world. Their products speak for themselves. People inherently trust them and make purchases even if another option that is better is readily available.

The same understanding of inborn programming has long been evidenced in Hollywood where moviemakers appeal to the subconscious to get people to buy tickets to shows that might not even be all that good. Fast-paced trailers that flash gripping images in rapid succession can sell even the most mediocre of stories and turn them into real box office blockbusters.

One of the biggest secrets to corporate success is already found locked in the subconscious of consumers all over the world. Products and services do not have to be “the best” to sell that way. The marketing, however, has to be right. Appeal to consumers on the right level and success beyond the wildest dream is likely to follow. Stick with tried and tested techniques and modest gains are likely all a company will see.