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Louder Than Words
filed in Marketing, Storytelling
We’re obsessed with finding the right words to communicate our value. We finesse our LinkedIn bios, agonise over product descriptions and sales pages. Of course, words have enormous power. But they are worthless without the actions that support them. It’s no good describing how great your product is if you haven’t put in the work to make sure it never disappoints.
Our stories are every bit as much about what we do as what we say. You have to work at being as good as the words you want to have the privilege of using.
What did you do today to tell your story?
Image by Niall Kennedy
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What Do The Best Salespeople Do?
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
A young couple spent a while ‘just looking’ in the furniture store before approaching a salesperson to ask about fabric choices on a particular sofa. She showed them the swatches and said nothing. The guy asked if they had anything like it—a large squashy four-seater in leather. They didn’t.
“What size exactly are you looking for?” she asked.
The couple didn’t know, but they started to describe the style of sofa they wanted.
Comfortable, not too formal.
“Come back to us once you have your measurements.” she smiled, as they walked out the door.
The salesperson didn’t ask, where they lived, in what type of house. She forgot to find out where the sofa would go, what they would mostly use it for and the number of people in their family. She lost the business because she prioritised the facts before the story. This doesn’t happen at IKEA.
Yes, the sofa has to fit in the room physically, but it has to fit with the customer’s wants, needs, hopes and dreams first. The best salespeople always start with the story.
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The First Rule Of Standing Out
If you want to stand out, do the thing that’s in short supply.
When everyone is fighting for attention, be the one who earns permission.
When everyone is looking for an angle, be the one who acts with integrity.
When everyone is chasing growth, be the one who deepens connection.
When everyone seeks scale, be the one who values loyalty.
When everyone takes shortcuts, be the one who cares.
The thing that’s scarce right now is sincerity in one form or another. We’re tired of tactics that manipulate as a means to someone else’s end. In the end we win by being the exception to the rule.
Image by Thomas Hawk
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The Art Of Making Progress
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
If only your business had more media exposure.
If only you could get the materials cheaper.
If only all the reviews were positive.
If only the website had more traffic.
If only your colleagues responded.
If only every employee listened.
If only more browsers bought.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to change things that are often out of our control, instead of taking action on the things we can influence and impact. We only begin to make progress when we stop trying to control the outcome.
The people who change the world start walking the path—they don’t waste time waiting for others to catch up.
Image by Joelene Knapp
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Is Your Business Reacting Or Responding?
It was impossible to walk down any high street in June without running into a notice informing you fidget spinners were BACK IN STOCK. The fidget spinner was clearly ‘the thing’ of the moment. A month later we’re already beginning to witness its decline. Another fad bites the dust.
A fad by definition is transient. It’s success hinges on what people are talking about today and is not backed by a genuine need that will require to be fulfilled tomorrow. It takes effort and courage to respond to everyday needs instead of following the crowd that’s reacting to what’s top of mind. It’s impossible to do both—which is why a good business strategy is always intentional.
Is your business reacting to the fickle market or responding to a customer’s unmet needs?
Image by Mario Adalid
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The Value Of Subtraction
filed in Innovation, Strategy
The call centre operator’s power is limited. He can’t bypass the company’s systems and processes. He is employed to apply a band-aid to the wound—buying the company some time until someone in another department (who he has no direct access to) can solve the problem. He should be empowered to delight and when he’s not the call centre becomes a point of friction. This is exactly the opposite of what the leaders in the company intended to happen when they invested in customer phone support.
Value is traditionally measured by what is added—giving the customer more for less. When we only view our products and services through that lens, we’re ignoring opportunities to add value by taking something away. What customers want now more than ever is a frictionless experience. Our job then is to remove as many obstacles as we can. When we begin thinking about how we could add value by subtraction everything changes.
Warby Parker’s home try-on service, subscription razors, digital accounting software, online check-in, free trials and same-day dental appointments, are all a result of thinking about how to remove a step in the customer’s journey while still helping her to get where she wants to go.
How can you give your customer more with less?
Image by Daliophoto
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What’s Your Failure Strategy?
filed in Marketing, Strategy, Success
Everything runs like clockwork when all staff members show up for the hectic Sunday morning shift at the cafe. Customers are greeted at the door, informed about delays and offered a drink while they wait for a table. The whole system falls apart when one team member calls in sick. Waitstaff double as greeters and coffee runners. People forget to prioritise, service is compromised, and customers get disgruntled.
Every business has a success strategy. We set targets and create plans to achieve them. We imagine how we will perform and serve customers on our best days when staff show up on time and everything is going according to plan. It’s much harder to plan for failure. We don’t devote the same time and resources to imagining our next move for those times when we have to deviate from our original plan. We’re unprepared for failure because we don’t always think about what could go wrong and what we will do when it does.
The server might crash.
The package may get lost.
The email might offend.
The salesperson could have a bad day.
The marketing campaign might not perform as you hoped.
What then?
The difference between an exceptional performer and an average one is that they prepare for their ‘off’ days. It turns out that we do our best work when we plan for failure and success in equal measure.
Image by Garry Knight
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Noticed Vs. Remembered
filed in Marketing, Strategy, Success
For every ten things we do today to get noticed we will do one thing worthy of being remembered. The irony, of course, is what we want deep down is to do work that’s remembered—not just noticed. We only achieve that goal by redressing this imbalance—forsaking the desire for attention today, to double down on doing something that will still matter tomorrow.
Image by Ant
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How Much Do The Answers Matter?
filed in Innovation, Strategy
Asking questions is a big part of our job whatever our role. We know we can enhance our products and services and improve client outcomes by asking the right ones and acting on the answers.
So we send surveys.
We listen to what people say and watch what they do.
We go to the trouble of gathering data and then often fail to act on it.
We’ve become very good at digging holes to peer into.
Learning to ask great questions is a crucial skill both in business and in life. What’s even more important than asking the right questions though, is having a genuine interest in the answers you get back. We need to be more honest with ourselves about why we’re questioning something at all.
It’s just as critical to know how you’re likely to respond to the answer.
Image by Trygve Utstumo
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The Transformation Business
When a woman wears heels her posture shifts. How she moves and carries herself changes—not just because of the physics and her altered centre of gravity, but often because of how wearing the heels makes her feel. Both her gait and her behaviour are transformed. Similarly, once the coffee drinker pays $4 for a cup of barista coffee, he’s unlikely to see the value in the $1 cup available at the corner deli. His behaviour reinforces the story he tells himself. He makes new assumptions about quality and price. His worldview changes.
We have a limiting belief about commerce, which is commonly viewed as a series of transactional exchanges. The truth is sales and marketing are less about oiling the wheels of transactions, and much more about enabling behaviour change than we realise.
As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we’re in the transformation business. If we’re doing a good job, we’re not simply convincing people to part with money in exchange for goods and services—we’re enabling them to make sometimes imperceptible shifts in their posture. Our role is to help customers take steps towards the change they’re seeking.
Where does your customer want to go next? Who does she want to be when she gets there?
Image by Rawle C. Jackman