Thursday, August 26  

Business thinking is creative thinking

Business thinking is creative thinking

This blog is along the lines of an article I wrote a few months back about people applying for jobs. Read that article here.

I had an email last week from a University/College student:

"My group and I have an assessment which involves planning a mock event in which we have decided to include a motivational speaker. We were wondering if we could gather some information such as his (she mentioned the speaker specifically) booking fee etc so we can plan our budget."

I sent through the information this girl requested and that was that. This is what I'll assume will happen from here.

She'll go off and finish her assignment. She'll do a good job and get a good mark. That's fine. But in the real world of business it wouldn't work like that. This person wouldn't get a job.

You see, in business you need to be creative. I don't mean graphically creative. You don't need to be able to write, draw, paint, crayon.....nothing like that.

You have to be creative in terms of the way you think.

The speaker I quoted her costs $6,000 + GST.

That's a lot of money. In her assignment I'd guess it takes a fair chunk of her budget.

But look at it from the speaker's perspective.

Would he take less? Depends.
What factors would influence him in taking less? Let's see.......exposure to a target audience, credibility, ability to generate income from the audience.

Would the speaker do the speech for free after I quoted $6,000? Depends.

"Depends on what Brendon?" Glad you asked.

Depends on what the benefits would be to him.

Here's 1 good reason why the speaker would do a $6,000 speech for $0.

1. Because he makes $30,000

Sounds a bit clever, but stick with me here. Here's the conversation:

"Hello Brendon. How much for the speaker to do a speech?"

"$6,000."

"I want it for free. Here's what I'm thinking: the speech will be to 3,000 highly motivated businesspeople. Your speaker speaks on business stuff. He's well respected.

What we'll do is set up a space for him in the foyer at the entrance to the speaking hall. We'll provide tables and chairs and 4 staff members for 3 hours.

Your speaker has a range of merchandise - books, CD's and DVD's that he sells.

At our last conference to this audience our research showed that 50% purchased with an average buy of $50.

$75,000 in sales (1,500 x $50) is what we would expect your speaker to sell on the day.

The sales staff will man the booth immediately before the speech. After the speech we'll break for 1/2 hour so our guests can go off and buy your speakers stuff. The space will be reserved for your speaker for 4 hours after his speech.

We'll also set up 10 Internet connected computers so people can order online on the day.

And we'll insert an order page from your speaker directing people to his web site for more sales.

Now instead of making $6,000, your speaker could make 5 times that. How does that sound?"

Creative thinking in business means making things happen. Only then are you in business.

Have a good night.

Brendon