November 15, 2019
Generosity
On Tuesday, I found out from my dentist that it’s likely to be a fortnight before I get even a temporary fix for my missing front tooth. “I’ll try and spe
Month: November 2019
November 14, 2019
Uniqueness
Your Promise of Value drives the way everything works in your business. Nowhere more so than in your Keep Promise processes.
Two firms can ‘do the same thing’, yet deliver their services very differently, because the people they serve are different, and consequently their Promise is different.
Two words of caution:
- Inside your business, consistency with your unique Promise is key, and has to be done intentionally. Not just because that’s what you promise, but also because that’s what’s efficient and profitable.
- Automate what should be automated, and make the most of software when you can, but beware of one-size-fits-all solutions for your industry. You may find yourself forced to compromise your unique way of doing things in order to fit with someone else’s model of how your business should work.
Your unique Promise, and more importantly your unique way of delivering on it is where the value is for your clients. Do it on purpose.
Nurture it, protect it, document it and you’ll be able to crystallise that value when you sell.
November 13, 2019
Hype
As soon as it happened, I knew, and was annoyed. With myself. For doing the one thing I shouldn’t do, and generally avoid doing – biting on that front crown.
But I did, and it broke, and now I have to rearrange my day. The podcast I was going to record will have to be rescheduled, and I won’t be out for dinner tonight. On the other hand, I’ll move some of the jobs I’d scheduled for tomorrow to today, and with a bit of luck I’ll be back on track, or not far off it by Monday, ready to face the world again.
It’s tempting to live your life as if it were a soap opera, and hype every mishap into a dire misfortune, every good thing into a heroic victory.
But it isn’t sensible, and it isn’t necessary. Life is quite interesting enough thank you.
November 12, 2019
Orchestration
When we listen to a symphony, our experience is of listening to a single score, when in fact what we’re hearing is dozens of separate scores being played in parallel. Orchestration, giving each instrument its own separate score to follow, containing only the notes it plays and the cues it needs, makes it much easier for the violinists or saxophonists to concentrate on their own performance.
Similarly, when we think about how we deliver on our promise to clients, we tend to think of it as a whole. We give everyone the entire score to work from, when what they really need is a clear part to follow, or we create departments, that simply break the score vertically, into sequential sections, with complex and contested boundaries.
Process enables you to think like more like an orchestrator, and break your symphony down horizontally rather than vertically. A process is a part running through your symphony, that can be clearly allocated to a single instrument.
That makes the musician’s life easier, because they know exactly what they have to play and when. And it makes it easier for you to expand your orchestra. Just add more musicians where they are needed.
November 11, 2019
Staying in tune
Keeping your promise is hard. Because your Promise is always much larger than the product or service you deliver.
Remember, what people are really buying is a means of achieving at least some of what they really want – agency, mastery, autonomy, purpose, community, status. That’s what you promised them, and that’s what they’ll be looking for on your journey together.
So you need to keep delivery in tune with that promise.
If you’ve promised to make life easier for them, don’t ask them to go through a complicated sign-up process just to get started. Make everything around delivery as easy as possible for them. Above all, don’t make them jump through endless hoops if something goes wrong.
If you’ve promised to be approachable, don’t hide customer support details in some dark corner of your website. Make your business approachable. That might mean a 24-hour chatline on your website, or giving your mobile number to every client, or even allowing them to contact you in whatever way works for them. It could also mean empowering everyone in your business to deal with any enquiry.
If you’ve promised to be no-frills, basic, direct, make sure your all your communications match that – including how you handle problems.
Anything that jars with your promise undermines it. Everything in tune with it enhances it.
Why make a promise you can’t keep?
November 8, 2019
Selling
Many of us hate the idea of selling. Our stereotype of a salesperson is someone who is pushy, manipulative, only interested in us for the duration of the transaction, and only motivated by their commission. Naturally, we shy away from the idea of being like that.
The answer is to forget selling, and focus on the person who you wish to serve.
The final step in sharing your Promise is to enroll your prospect on the journey they want to take with you. Unlike a sale, enrollment offers the possibility of duration, of being the start of a relationship, of learning from each other, of creating a bond that lasts longer than the work you do together.
Your job in this step is to make absolutely sure that you understand what your prospect wants and needs, to show how traveling with you will get them there; how you mitigate the risk for them, and how that is worth the investment you’re asking them to make. And if you’ve been able to do that, to make the sign-up process as smooth as possible.
Then the hard part starts. Keeping your Promise.
November 7, 2019
Experience
The first time a client buys from you is for both of you, a journey into the unknown.
They hesitate between desire and fear. Between the desire to get to where they want to be and the fear that you might not get them there. Or that you might.
You hesitate between the desire for the chance to prove what you can do for them, and the fear that you will actually have to do it.
A good way to overcome the hesitation is to take a test drive together. Show how you will look after them on the journey, demonstrate the value you will deliver, let them see what it feels like to be travelling with you beside them. Help them to experience your promise first hand.
If you can take them a little nearer to their goal, there’s a good chance they’ll ask you to complete the journey with them. If not, at least you’ll know now that you aren’t the right travelling companion for them.
November 6, 2019
Evaluation
Showing up in the right places makes it more likely that the people you want to serve will find you when they need you. But it isn’t enough to simply find you.
They need to be sure that you are right for them; that what you do will give them what they want, that you will keep the promise you are making. So they will want to evaluate before they take things further.
For you, that means providing the kind of information and evidence they need, and crucially, that they can research themselves – your website, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, third-party ratings, official records.
Of course it has to be true. It has to be consistent with your Promise and who you are, and it has to be consistent across all channels.
The good news (for me at least) is that the first stage of qualification is simply ‘Do I like you?‘. And that means you can share much more of your own personality, values, and beliefs that you might think – more than you might initially feel comfortable with.
Because you don’t just want to attract the people who will like working with you, you want to attract people who will love working with you. And you want to put off the ones who won’t.
The easier you make it for the right people to work out that you are for them, the easier it will be for the wrong people to work out that you are not.
That makes everyone’s life easier. Especially yours.
November 5, 2019
Showing up
You can’t help the people you serve unless they know you exist. So the first step of sharing you Promise of Value is to show up where they are.
That does not mean bombarding them with adverts, or selling at all.
It just means being there, alongside them, with the others who are like them, demonstrating in every action and interaction that you understand and empathise with people like them.
This sort of showing up is much easier and cheaper than it used to be.
You can write a blog, or create a podcast or videos. You can attend the exhibitions they go to, join the networking groups they join, or even better set up your own, just for them. Or, since you’re absolutely clear on the psychographic, and have narrowed down on the demographic – the pool you’re fishing in – you can approach people directly. Call, email, send a letter. Visit.
Showing up is not selling. It’s the groundwork for helping people to know that you are there, ready, willing and able to help if and when they need it.
Think of it as the start of a long conversation. Like all conversations worth having, this one requires your effort, attention and empathy.
November 4, 2019
Desire
What sends people out to buy?
Desire. For something that will enhance one or more of the things we all want from life:
- Autonomy
- Agency
- Mastery
- Purpose
- Community and a sense of our place in that community.
And once we’ve formulated our desire, we want the process of satisfying it to contribute too. So that unless we’re buying to satisfy an urgent and basic need, we want to be in control of our buying process. We want to research possibilities, weigh up alternatives and make a considered selection. Indeed sometimes, it’s the process itself we desire, rather than the thing we actually purchase.
If this is how people buy, then in order to sell effectively you need a process that matches and mirrors it.
That means that sharing your Promise is not selling. It’s helping the people you serve to find everything they’re looking for.