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Values, Choices And Strategy
filed in Strategy
When they opened their cafe, Shannon and Mo couldn’t afford $400 dining chairs, and besides, they wanted the food to do the talking. So, they bought second-hand chairs, then stayed up until midnight colouring in all the scratches on them with permanent markers. They served the food on IKEA boards with the logo scrubbed off, because they decided from day one to invest more in ingredients—the thing that was most important to them.
What we prioritise is an indication of what we care about, and conversely what we care about should be what we prioritise. Our values can be the foundation of a winning strategy because what we believe determines what we do.
Values are the beginnings of the signals we send and the stories we tell to the world. What we choose to do or not to do is a sign of what matters to us and in turn, helps people to decide if they want to align with our brands or ideas.
Sharing your values, and better, demonstrating them to your customers is a smart strategy. How are you doing that in your business?
Image by Roman Kraft
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The Myth Of Significance
filed in Story Skills, Success
Lately, we have come to believe in the myth of significance. Put our faith in being chosen, becoming ‘the one’. Striving to be bigger, noticed or more than, while simultaneously recounting a narrative of never enough.
In our minds, significance boasts a title, resides in a corner office, speaks from the centre stage, gaining recognition far and wide.
Significance, though, hides in plain sight. Carrying out seemingly small, unimportant acts, with intention and conviction. Without permission, to rewrite the future
Image by Anders Hellberg, Courtesy of TEIA
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The Value Conversation
Value is our subjective judgement about the utility, worth or desirability of goods, services or experiences.
It’s the story we each believe about the significance of something.
The value conversation is how we prioritise the allocation of finite resources.
The story we tell ourselves about the cost of gains over losses.
What’s the value conversation your customer is having?
Image by Mark Zamora
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Do The Unnecessary
filed in Strategy
The proficient doctor does the necessary. She greets the patient without shaking his hand. Examines him from head to toe without looking him in the eye. She’s alert to the slightest abnormal physical sign but doesn’t notice her patient shivering because the room is cold.
She taps information into the system and prints consent forms for the patient to sign. But she doesn’t acknowledge the fear in his eyes. She’s competent, efficient and some would say, good at her job. But if the patient comes away feeling like a collection of signs and symptoms instead of a human being, is she good enough?
A great deal of our work is about doing the necessary, meeting spec and making sure the client got what they paid for. But much of the skill and all of the joy in our work comes from doing the unnecessary—the things we’re not required to do. The acts that make our work meaningful to those we serve and to ourselves.
Image by Eugene Chystiakov
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Say It With Intention
Communication is not simply an exchange of information.
We’re never just speaking or writing to be heard.
We’re always trying to make ourselves understood.
Before you make the call, deliver your speech or write that email, think about what you want the recipient to know and how you want her to feel.
Then speak or type with that intention.
Because how the recipient feels, not only what she thinks, determines what she does next.
Image by Michael Brace
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Reverse Marketing
It seems like the most logical thing in the world to build your marketing strategy around the kind of customer you want to attract.
It stands to reason that you can tell a more resonant story when you know who you’re talking to. But when you’re faced with a market of everyone, it can be difficult to pinpoint your ideal customer. An easier place to start is by considering who you’re not for. Who is the antithesis of your ideal customer?
Who wouldn’t dream of buying your product or service, and why?
What’s the message you’d share to convince that person never to buy from you?
When you can tell that story well, you’ll be something to someone.
*Need help getting clear on your ideal customer so your marketing messages resonate?
The Story Strategy Course is for you.
Image by Todd Gross
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Rethinking Customer Loyalty
We’re very good at measuring customer loyalty.
We can track how much a customer spends and how often. We know how long they have been with us and have a plan for retaining them. We create premium memberships, gold cards, reward programs and ego boosting voicemails.
And yet, we often overlook one important fact.
Loyalty is reciprocal. It’s a two-way street.
Even in the age of customer empowerment, an unprofessional dentist will overtreat a patient to boost revenue. An insurer will cancel the cover of a client who’s paid tens of thousands in premiums if a single payment is missed. A bank will close a local branch used by elderly customers, who don’t bank online, to cut costs.
If we’re eager to measure how loyal customers are to us, why aren’t we so keen to measure how loyal we are to them?
Maybe it’s time for a rethink?
What if instead of only measuring, rewarding and expecting loyalty, we started measuring how we demonstrate it?
Image by Todd Gross
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More Vs. Enough
We’re surprised when a business that seemed to be thriving closes its doors.
The juice bar that succeeded in one location but scaled too quickly.
The online education platform with a big production budget but not enough students.
The great cause that couldn’t attract the support required to create an impact.
Our culture has taught us that we should multiply our effort to maximise our reward. But a sustainable business—one that is viable because it delights customer and creator, alike, doesn’t always depend on exponential growth.
Success isn’t only about doing all we could do.
Often, it’s about doing the best we can do, and being able to do it again tomorrow.
For many of us, that is more than enough.
Image by Amir Appel.
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Everything Speaks
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Business is picking up at the new restaurant I told you about a couple of weeks ago. Passers-by are poking their heads around the door. They like the look of the venue, the menu and the prices—so they’re giving it a try. I can confirm that the food is good! The owner, Sam, has got the basics right.
But here’s the thing, people don’t come back for the basics, whatever they say. If they did, $20 hamburgers wouldn’t exist. People come for the experience. People don’t just buy what we serve—they buy how it makes them feel. The fundamentals alone don’t garner loyalty.
So, it’s not good enough for the waitstaff to plonk a $50 bottle of wine in the middle of the table and walk away. It’s not good enough that the sharing dishes come without serving spoons. It’s not okay for the bill to arrive as a rolled up till receipt in somebody’s hand.
If Sam wants people to keep coming back, he must work on the experience—the theatre, the rituals and the way he and his team will commit to showing up to serve. They need to start by considering the ‘hows’ of the customer journey because it isn’t just the food in a restaurant that speaks for the brand.
It is:
How the customers are greeted.
How menus are offered.
How the wine is poured.
How orders are taken.
How the food is served.
How plates are cleared.
How the bill is presented.
How customers are farewelled.
Sam needs to design for the outcome he wants, by aligning the experience he creates with the story he wants customers to tell.
What speaks for your brand?
Image by Roman Arkhipov
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Small Acts Matter
filed in Storytelling
It was still dark when a dishevelled man wearing a hoodie walked into the city centre convenience store at 6 am. He seemed agitated. He swore loudly when he realised he didn’t have enough money for a big bottle of Fanta.
The sales assistant asked if she could help him. The man explained that he had $2.50 and couldn’t afford the drink he wanted. Without missing a beat, the assistant came from behind the counter and showed him where the small, more affordable cans were stacked. As he was paying, she looked him in the eye and asked if he’d like a straw.
It took a moment for her question to register. The man looked puzzled for a second, pausing before accepting.
‘Yes, please,’ he whispered as if she’d offered him the world. Which of course, by treating him with dignity, she had.
How we serve matters. Our smallest acts have the power to make the biggest difference.
What are your small acts?
Image by Tina Leggio