I recently read “The Luck Factor” (Dr. Richard Wiseman), a scientific study of luck. After three years of study, Dr. Wiseman determined that “Luck is something that can be learned”. His research boiled down to four principles:

• Principle One: Maximize Chance Opportunities

  In business, do you spend more time trying to sell your product than paying attention? Increase the number of people you interact with (not just the obvious business networking groups). Increase your relaxation. Listen more. Pay attention to what people are saying and doing.

• Principle Two: Listening to Lucky Hunches

  If you know what the return on investment (ROI) is, the decision-making is easy (“black and white”). Unfortunately, many business decisions have incomplete information (“gray”). To be lucky in business, increase your “centered-ness” to build (and trust) your intuition.

• Principle Three: Expect Good Fortune

  We create our own realities. If your expectation is an increase of sales, you’ll be less affected by problems and focus on things that can produce good fortune. Others will sense your focus on the positive, and will react accordingly.

• Principle Four: Turn Bad Luck to Good

  Big business opportunities come from fixing what’s broken or missing, not from improving the status quo a little bit. When something breaks, remember it could always be worse, and find the gift in the problem. Then fix it.

It’s all about changing our (business) attitude. Focus on the positive. Smile. Be thankful. Help others. Trust. Breathe deeply.

(Prerequisite: Marketing 101)

You’ve crafted your marketing message (customer benefit, customer trust, and customer emotional connection). What now?

If you already have a customer base, tell them (email, postal mail, phone calls, etc.).

If you want more customers, try co-marketing or cross-marketing.

Co-marketing is working together with another company to market your products. Generally co-marketed products have a “fit”.

Cross-marketing is a type of co-marketing where the products are loosely related. The relationship can be a simple, “Now that you bought a hamburger, would you like fries with that?”. Sometimes it’ll take a bit of sleuthing to find out what your group has in common – A club affiliation? A love of art? Restaurant? Hobby? A type of car?

Let’s continue (from Marketing 101) our example of Janet, who makes earrings.

Janet could join together with some of her fellow jewelry makers and offer a jewelry show. In addition to advertising the show publicly, each jewelry maker would invite their customers. [co-marketing]

Janet realizes that a number of her customers do yoga. She approaches the local yoga studio, offering to make a beautiful display of her earrings. With the display is her contact information (on flyers for people to take home). In exchange, Janet offers to display the studio’s yoga brochures at her events (or on her website). [cross-marketing]

Both of these techniques require cooperation from other companies. When approaching others, highlight the mutual benefits. Later on, ensure follow-through. Proactively tell your co-marketing partners what you’ve done.