Searching for the next big thing? Aren’t we all.
We’re all want to discover the BIG IDEA that gets everybody excited, and believe it will make us rich. Well, if not rich, then at least popular because you showed creativity, original thought and an insight to our behavior where others have failed to take note.
How very Star Trek of you!
But closer to home, let’s look at Twitter.
While we were all spending lots and lots of time blogging, writing at least 500 words per post, putting all our hard-earned expertise on our blog for free, learning how to SEO the crap out of each blog post and fighting off copy-cats with little to no expertise….Twitter came along and said, no. All you need is 140 characters (now changed to 240 characters) and you’ll get a following, a community, people who will share your wisdom.
How did this happen? Let’s review three tips on how you can get the next BIG IDEA:
- Do the opposite: Where there is a trend to go big, consider going small. Just like Twitter. Even retailers are doing this, where we have Wal-Mart that wants you to spend all day at one of their stores offering everything from clothing to food to pharmacy items, other retailers are going towards niche product offering, such as just jeans and white shirts or only vintage.
- Look for underserved markets: This requires some research and analysis on your part but the pay off can sometimes be huge. Some of the questions that need to be answered are: why your competition not serving this market and what product or service is missing in this market.
- Change it Up: We all do it. We start to work in a company or start our own and we begin to believe that we know it all. We know about the industry, the people we are serving and product we are selling and that there is nothing left to learn. Try convincing a 25 year-old sales veteran that things need to change, now that’s a tough one to crack, but I digress… If you are looking for the next BIG IDEA, consider at looking at other industries for ideas, listen to younger or older colleagues and look at your customer’s questions in a different pattern. Instead of just answering their questions, ask how can I serve them better? This could result in a new product!
Not all BIG IDEAS set out to change the world but your next BIG IDEA could be the one that will increase sales for your company and cement a leadership position for your brand.
