Insights With Trent Munday

A few day ago, in Ep. 913 of this show, I spoke about how hard work and talent alone won't necessarily guarantee success. You'll also need a bit of good luck and good timing. Well, something else that might come in handy on the road to success is Patience. We're all in a hurry, especially for success. But the longer you can deploy just a little patience, the better chance you have of achieving meaningful, long term success. Here's a link to Ep. 913 - Never Underestimate The Role Of Luck And Timing - https://bit.ly/2AMoh8Q #patience #success #successprinciples

Zig Ziglar is credited with saying... 'You don't build a business. You build people. Then they build the business.' It might be a cliche, but there's lots of truth in it. In the past, many companies have tended to pay lip service to the idea. But now, in these difficult times for so many businesses, focussing on your people may well be one of the ew things you can control. So, focus on building them up now, so that when the customers start coming back, they will take care of your business for you. #businessbuilding #employeefirst #companyculture

For most people Privacy and Freedom go hand in hand. But after just a few months of being denied many of our freedoms during the global lockdowns, we're now being told if we want our Freedom back, we will need to give up some of our Privacy. Contact Tracing means we need to let the 'authorities' know who we are, where we go and even, to some extent, what we do. Based on our actions today, it would seem that most of us are in fact willing to forgo Privacy for Freedom. It remains to be seen if our attitude towards Privacy and Freedom will ever be the same again. #privacy #freedom #contacttracing 

A few years ago Accor, the global hotel powerhouse, launched Accor Local. The concept was 'conceived as a way to make Accor a key player in the daily lives of the communities in which they operate.' It was intended to be a way to embed Accor into the local community by helping local businesses expand the scope and scale of their offering. For example, the local Dry Cleaner, who usually closes his store at 6pm, could now use the local Accor hotel, which is open 24 hrs a day, as a drop off and collection point. Accor Local would also, of course, be a great way for Accor to explore new revenue opportunities in these specific verticals. Given what's happened with global supply chains during this pandemic, smart hotel companies will probably try similar approaches. And not just hotels. Any global player in any industry could now be trying to win the hearts & minds of your local community. So if you have a local business, now is the time to double down on your local community. Make sure you can win thei

Price is a construct of the Seller. The Buyer doesn't care what the Price is. He only cares about the Cost to him. Same thing? Kinda. But it's a different perspective and one that puts the customer first, not the seller. It may not specifically change your pricing strategy, but it might change the way you communicate your price. As an example... Offering me a 50% discount from the Recommended Retail Price is sending me two messages I don't really care about. - I don't care about the RRP - And I don't care about the amount of the discount What I really care about is the final cost to me. Here's a link to the article I wrote on pricing that inspired this discussion - https://bit.ly/3cxZ2Ez #pricingstrategy #consumerinsights #buyer

When times are good, we tend to let our egos run away from us a little bit. But when times are bad, when we're in CRISIS, we need help.  We need new ideas. We need partnerships and collaborations. That stuff just doesn't work very well if we let our egos get in the way. So, if you've found certain business relationships in the past didn't work out due to a clash of egos, now might be a good time to circle back on them. Because right now, in this time of crisis, if you can both check your egos at the door, you might just find a solution that benefits both parties. #ego #personality #businessrelationships

Over the years, I've spoken a lot about how Voice could very likely become the User Interface of the Future. You only had to look at the boom in smart speakers and voice-connected everything to understand that. So when I first realised that close contact and touch was going to be the enemy in the post COVID-19 world, I figured this would be the real watershed moment for Voice. But so far, it hasn't happened. Why? According to world-renowned Voice expert Brian Roemmele, there are two reasons.. 1. We've reached the edge of the Voice technology. 2. Innovation in Voice (as with many things) has stalled due to the global lockdowns. Interestingly, Brian thinks this crisis may actually prove to be a setback for Voice, rather than a springboard. I hope not. Check out Brian Roemmele on Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrianRoemmele #voicetechnology #voiceinterface #voice

I can honestly say I don't even bother looking at the latest data on the COVID-19 pandemic anymore. I've just had enough. It's not even that I'm sick of hearing all the sad news. I'm just numb to all the numbers. To the data. Data Fatigue is real.  So as you prepare to open your business and implement the new SOPs for a COVID-Safe world, just be careful you don't bombard your customers or guests or clients with too much data. They've probably had enough of it too! #data #fatigue #communicationstrategy  

Hard Work. Hustle. Grind.  All are crucial to achieving success. Right?  Maybe. But Luck and Timing can also play a major role.  We don't acknowledge that enough. You may have incredible talent. You may well have worked really hard. Well done. But don't kid yourself. Luck and Timing were also on your side. #luck #timing #success

There's no shortage of expert advice out there on how to sell. But here's my non-expert take on it... You can't SELL me anything, you can only HELP me buy. Ultimately, the decision to purchase is up to me. You help me by educating and informing me of the benefits and features of what you're selling, empathising with my situation, etc. Taking this approach with your sales team will ease the pressure on them and allow them to focus on the bits that really drive sales...the help. Try it. #sellingtips #salesskills #salestraining

Are you having trouble monitoring and managing the performance of you people in the new era of Work From Home? Many have. Look a bit deeper. There's a real good chance that this is nothing to do with being remote. The real issue may well be that you just don't have great mechanisms in place for monitoring and managing performance at all. Regardless of where the people are. Many companies have found out they simply have more people than they really need, even before you factor in any slow down in business. Many have found they have compensation and reward systems that grant individual incentives based on team KPI's, for example. The way we work is outdated. It was true before COVID-19. It's more true now. You need to check out Brave New Work - https://www.bravenewwork.com/ Talk to Aaron Dignan or Sam Spurlin over at The Ready - https://www.theready.com/ It'll help. #performancemanagement #remoteworking #organisationalchange

A random observation... There are two types of game - Those That End & Those That Do Not. Endless games like CandyCrush & BubbleShoot seem much harder to put down. They seem inherently more addictive. Puzzle-type games, like Sudoku or Angry Birds, have an end. In fact, they usually have multiple ends or stages. That makes them much easier to put down, walk away from and come back to later. Wellness and Wellbeing is an endless game. It has no end. So, if you're searching for a way to add gamification elements to your Wellness product or service, you should probably focus on the types of games that don't end. They'll probably end up being more addictive too. And if you're pushing Wellness, that can't be a bad thing, right? #gamification #wellness #personalitytypes

If you're selling a solution to a problem - which, let's face of it, most of us are in some way - you're selling the wrong thing. People don't buy Solutions. The buy the Fix. Within reason, they often don't even don't even care how you arrived at the Fix. They just care that it fixes their problem. It might seem like a subtle distinction, and maybe it is. But when it comes to packaging and marketing your thing, it matters.  

There's more to IKEA than meets the eye. They've found a way to create a product that appeals simultaneously to different markets. And I'm not talking about the geographical markets. That bit is relatively easy. The one product is equally appealing to Do-It-Yourself market AND the Do-It-For-Me market. And I swear they've made the build of their products just a little bit more complicated than it has to be. Again, to make it just that little bit more appealing to these very distinct user markets. Genius I reckon! #ikea #marketing #productdesign

Face Masks have become part of our daily dress code. The folks at Reebok's European Innovation Lab, the Creation Centre, seem to think this might be the way it is for some time yet. They've started to play around with some design concepts for Fitness Face Masks. Most exciting is The Symbiosis Mask which would filter out dangerous particulate and purify the air being breathed in. This is exciting news for the many millions of people around the world that live with terrible air quality. Here's the article... https://www.fastcompany.com/90507362/reeboks-fitness-masks-are-proof-were-living-in-a-dystopian-hellscape Thanks to Julie Bach for the story! #airpollution #airpurification #innovation

Consider this, rather than seeking change, what will really should be doing is finding a way to navigate that change. Why? Well, because by the time we seek change, it's already happening. By continuing to seek change, we are able to give ourselves an excuse for not acting...because we're still waiting for the change to happen. However, if we accept that the change is actually already in play, then there are no more excuses. It's kinda empowering in a way. #change #changeyourmindset #noexcuses

With all these new rules around social distancing, retail stores are limiting the number of shoppers inside the shop at any one time. But of course retail footprints have been designed for a time when many people can move freely around the space. That brings a massive disconnect between the current spaces and their current usage. How can we re-imagine the retail experience for the New Normal? What if we adapted the Sushi Train concept and applied it to retail stores? Maybe the products could be the 'sushi' or maybe even the shoppers could be the 'sushi' in this scenario. Sound crazy? Maybe it is.  Then again, we are living in crazy times. #retailexperience #retaildesign #retailinnovation

Ray Dalio is the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Capital. Perhaps more importantly though, he is the author of Principles for Success. There are many great insights in the book. This particular one, around problem solving, really resonated with me. Seeking a solution to a problem is really just a short term fix. To really make the changes you need to make, you need to identify the root cause of the problems you encounter. Here's the video presentation of Ray's book. Highly recommend that you take the 28 minutes and 46 seconds and watch this... https://youtu.be/B9XGUpQZY38 #principles #achieveyourgoals #achievesuccess

As many businesses around the world are starting to re-open, or at least plan for that, COVID-19 guidelines are the first priority. But it would be wise to re-think your entire work flow now too. There may well be parts of your guest flow, your service flow, that aren't necessary to the overall experience or result. If that's the case, maybe you should be removing it from the flow? Much of our business processes will be more burdensome in a this New Normal. So if you have unnecessary steps in place, chances are they too will become more burdensome to your customers or your staff. #rethink #workflow #businessprocesses

I've said it before. I'll say it again. People buy your story!  That's what they resonate with. That's what hooks them. That's what keeps them loyal. Now, more than ever, it matters. As I see businesses opening up again, they're still missing it. Unless you are selling a totally unique product or service, which most of us are not, your story is the only thing that truly differentiates you. Just be careful not to include too much Doom & Gloom. A little is fine, if that's your reality, but not too much. We've had enough of that. #storytelling #brandstory #authenticity