Author Archives: Logan Rivenes

You Tried Your Best…

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What happens when your best isn’t good enough?

If an opportunity is missed, we say “you tried your best”.

Your first act is your only chance.

What if we know we can be better?

Most sales are not closed in the first meeting.

Businesses are not usually successful at the beginning.

So trying our best does not apply when we are not successful at first.

Trying our best is continuing after rejection, learning from failure and repeating.

If we are willing to learn, we can always be better the second time. With more knowledge and more experience, the first attempt was not our best. It was merely what was possible at the time.

Don’t let “I tried my best” be an excuse to quit. It could be that your best is yet to come.

Good luck and good selling!

10 Things I’ve Learned After One Year In Germany

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I moved to Germany in January 2015.

From San Francisco.

Actually Alameda, but a distinction with little difference.

I moved form the most expensive place in the U.S. to the second most expensive place in Germany. The Bay Area is still two and a half times more expensive.

Comparing prices is not the point. The point is to share a few things I have learned after a little over a year of living in Germany.

I am now gainfully employed with a Startup that is doing big things for the speed of the Internet, as well as enjoying the European lifestyle.

Germany is in the Western World, which means the lifestyle and cultural differences are not too great. The biggest difference is language.

Here are 10 things I have learned after living a year in Germany.

Go for long walks

Walking is very European, and the cities in Germany are designed to make walking to destinations easy. Also, parking is difficult.

More importantly, going for a stroll is important for health and relaxation. Sunday’s, everybody goes for a “Spaziergang”. The direct translation is to go for a relaxing stroll. The English word would be a “promenade”, but I think this is a bit pretentious.

I enjoy my Sunday Spaziergang.

Don’t be so sensitive

Sensitive in the German language, according to my German teacher, is a negative word. You are encouraged to be direct, so you need thick skin.

Don’t be offended so easily.

Pay with cash

When I lived in America I never carried cash. Always payed with a credit card. I treated this as cash, as I lived within my means. I know that this is not the norm for most Americans. But for Germans, the only reason to have a credit card is to make purchases online. Credit card rewards programs are uncommon.

The result is people do not have credit card debt, and if they do not have the money, they do not buy things. I think the byproduct of this is prices stay significantly lower. Making the standard of living a bit more affordable.

Take time for lunch

Regularly I worked and ate lunch at the same time. This was done either through a working lunch while in trainings, or eating while driving. Currently, I take time for lunch. This is sitting in the kitchen and eating. The view is this is an important break during the day.

A side note to this is multitasking. It is viewed to be more productive to do one thing at a time, and lunch is no exception. There is evidence to suggest that people cannot multitask.

We are not so busy or important that we cannot take 30 minutes for lunch.

Don’t work too late

When you continually stay late at the office, Germans view this negatively. This is viewed as not having a good home life.

The question asked: why would you not want to go home and see your family?

Make communication easier for your listener

In America we do not learn languages. Although more of the world does not speak English than does, there is an expectation that people should try to communicate with us. Not the other way around.

When your language is not a world language, this perception is very different. It is normal to speak multiple languages to better communicate with people. The view of communication is to make an effort to communicate in a way that is easier for the person you’re speaking with.

Enjoy long dinners

Dinner at a restaurant in Germany is an affair. It regularly takes 3 hours to have dinner at a restaurant. The reason is nobody is there to rush you. The point of dinner is to sit and have nice conversation with those you are with.

Otherwise, why would you go?

You can want what you want

Just because you want something does not mean you are going to get it. There’s not much I can say about this statement. It speaks for itself.

Don’t make quick decisions

When purchasing a car, my wife and I wanted to sign the paperwork that day. This is normal to us, as in America you are not allowed to walk off the lot without purchasing something.

This was not possible in Germany. We looked at a car on Friday night and were forced to call back Monday to confirm we still wanted the car. We had to take the weekend to think about it.

Do not make quick decisions. It is better to sleep on it.

There is a different way, be open to consideration

Food is different in Germany. Two examples:

Eggs do not have to be refrigerated. Why? They are not washed. When you wash eggs, you remove a microbial layer on the eggs that protects them from salmonella. Without the protective layer, you need to put eggs in the refrigerator to prevent salmonella. In order to not wash eggs, you can no longer cage the chickens. The result is cage free eggs you do not need to refrigerate.

Pork can be eaten raw. There is a meal called “Mett”, which is raw pork. We believe in America that pork has to be cooked, and over cooked at that. But Mett proves this is not so. I have tried Mett, did not get sick, and it isn’t bad.

There might be better approaches to things, especially food. We just have to be open to try.

Your urgency is not my problem

In the American business environment, everything is urgent. It is not easy to be proactive, as most of the day is reactionary.

Ignoring the urgency of others might be something worth emulating.

kein Stress, kein Angst

This is the German phrase for “no stress, no anxiety”. Stress and anxiety are viewed negatively, which results in a more peaceful and zen-like environment. I still have the inherent American anxiety, which living in the Bay Area puts this feeling on steroids.

It is difficult to suppress these feelings with the number of top 30 under 30 lists being produced. The feeling of inadequacy when you have not made your first billion by 25 is tough to overcome.

Maybe kein Stress, kein Angst is better for our health?

I know I said 10, but there is too much I have learned over the past year that I felt compelled to share. Although, this is not a complete list.

There are things I find better in Germany, but America has a business appeal the world envies. It is not that one Country is better, just different.

Raising Prices

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Price is a sensitive topic.

It requires you to ask for money.

Closing the sale, asking a boss for a raise, a friend to pay you back. All require the act of asking for money. Uncomfortable.

The conversation comes often, so it is better to be comfortable with it. Asking for money is not dissimilar to raising prices. You are asking customers to pay more.

When Companies Raise Prices

I enjoy desserts. A lot. My new found love is Mövenpick ice cream. It is creamy, soft, and delicious. But I’ve noticed, as with most products over time, the fill levels are down. This means one thing. They have raised prices. They did not tell me they raised prices, but did it in such a way that hopefully I wouldn’t notice.

In college I had the privilege of working in fast food. During my time at this company, they adjusted their prices. The price on the menu didn’t change though, it was done through an elaborate campaign of making cups smaller.

The smaller cups were visibly the same size, and one would not know the difference, unless you took a close look. This was so extensive that the way products were made was adjusted. I understand the reason; it was to cut costs, but we did not tell customers.

Netflix is raising prices. They have done so, most likely, as the result of movie studios requiring more money. Their costs have gone up. They have also cracked down on the use of VPN’s, which comes at a time when I have one episode of Mad Men left; the last one. Please do not spoil it.

How To Raise Prices

The difference between Netflix and the other two examples is that Netflix has said they will be raising prices. They might lose a few customers, but at least everybody knows.

The result of these events is that prices go up. Inflation goes up. This is natural and I have nothing against it. It allows businesses to grow, bonuses to be awarded, and stock prices to increase.

In an altruistic sense, the increase in prices could allow for the companies to provide better salaries to their employees. Or allow companies to just continue to provide jobs to those they employ.

What I am against is raising prices in the form of a lesser product, and not being willing to have the conversation with customers. Hiding behind deception, hoping customers will not notice they are receiving less.

Considerations When Raising Prices

In your own business, if you have control over your pricing, do you have the “I need to raise my prices” conversation?

If you are afraid your customers will be upset that prices are going up, maybe you did not provide enough value?

If you have provided enough, your customers will gladly pay more. They will not be able to live without your service.

Trust is a large factor in getting customers to do business with us. If we raise prices by lowering quantity or decreasing quality without telling customers, we may have destroyed the trust we invested time in building.

Is the small increase in revenue worth it?

Good luck and good selling!

Self-Serving

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It is not about you.

Your product, your story, your solution.

It is about how, those interested enough to listen, identify with you.

Therefore, a self-serving message is undesirable. Self-serving does not establish trust.

Self-serving is going for the hard close to early in the sales process. It is the easy road. It is wearing a customer down. They say yes just so you go away.

Self-serving is providing information only to talk about your product. Showing you do not understand your product is one tool in a larger tool bag.

A non self-serving sales professional provides solutions to a customers business, that may not be directly associated with their product.

For example: when a clients main concern is growing their business, you need to discuss how to grow their business. Inserting your product along the way is how you are successful. Trust is built through helping them build their business. After all, you listened to their biggest problem.

A non self-serving marketer understands their customers world. Makes a point to become an expert resource in areas related to their problems. When they have a question, they ask you first.

For example: marketers may turn to Hubspot or Kissmetrics. Sales might turn to Selling Power.

In both examples, the use of your product is the result of understanding the customer and building trust. Trust is built over time, through value provided. It is the long game.

In a world sensitive to sales and marketing messages, it is not enough to be self-serving. Do not sell yourself short by taking the easy road.

Good luck and good selling!

A Few Quotes I’m Pondering

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I want to share a few quotes I’m pondering:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”—Mark Twain

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”—Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

“There’s always a good reason and there’s always a real reason.”—James Altucher

“Control the controllables”—Anonymous

“Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products.”—Al Ries, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

“The only reality you can be sure about is in your own perceptions. If the universe exists, it exists inside your own mind and the minds of others.”—Al Ries, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Good luck and good selling!