New Business Development

The Power of Opposite Thinking

Opposite thinking is an approach that may open up new positive ideas — innovations. I suggest that you do this starting with your own wants and desires. Come up with your own solutions.

Wants & Desires

Make a list of ten most wanted and desired outcomes, results or change or growth or… For example:

I want to increase sales 25% by this time next year.
I want to attract more interesting assignments.

What are all the things that are right for this to happen? What are all the things that are likely to prevent it from coming into being.

Restate the Problem as a Question:

Creative questions have many alternative answers. Start the questions with In what ways may I…, How may I…?

In what ways may I get the attention of the best art directors in the country?

Make the statement negative:

Make various parts of the statement negative by adding no, not, un, non, dis, or an antonym (wet is the antonym to dry) to the statement.

How may I find new ways to be ignored by the best art directors?

I want to invent ways to prevent art directors from contacting me.

Define what the problem is and what it is not:

Write down what everybody else is doing. Then write down what they are not doing.

Everyone else is sending email to a relatively blind mailing list. They know very little about their prospects. They think they are targeting, but they are not.

Everyone else is leaving more or less the same message on prospects’ voice mail and not getting call backs. Art buyers forbid and threaten photographers who contact art directors without going through them. Everyone else is giving up.

Identify ten possible solutions:

Hold a networking lunch or dinner. Tell prospects that you are putting together a group of people whom you think ought to know each other. Tell them about the other people who have been invited. Limit this event to a small goup of people. Do not bring your portfolio. Call them the next day to set up a face-to-face portfolio showing. Get referrals.

Remember. These are only examples.
Come up with your own positive solutions by deliberately thinking negatively.

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Tags: commercial photography, Creative Process, Creativity, Idea Stimulator, Opposite thinking

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Creative, Idea Stimulator, Sales & Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.