Package Promise – Page 3 – Discipline makes Daring possible.

April 8, 2020

Stepping into empathy

If, like me, your business-to-business offering feels a discretionary spend at the best of times, you’re probably thinking “Where will I fit in after this is all over?”

The answer? Wherever, whenever and however the people you serve are going to need what you can do for them.

The only way to find out where this will be is to step outside the bubble of your own concerns and put yourself in their shoes.

Not their shoes now, but their shoes down the line, when the urgent crisis is over, the extent of the damage better known, the time when the people you serve will be asking themselves the question “Where will I fit in after this is all over?”

For the right people, what you offer will never be a discretionary spend.

And we only find the right people with deep and deliberate empathy.

January 6, 2020

Gifts

What’s your gift? The thing you can do better than anyone else. The thing you can’t help but do, even though it’s not what you get paid for?

Perhaps you feel guilty about wanting to be paid for using your gift on behalf of others. Perhaps the people you’ve met so far don’t value it, so you assume nobody will.

It seems to me that for the moment at least, life is about finding a balance between exercising ones talents, and making enough money to live on, and there are at least two ways to achieve this.

You can earn money in a field that doesn’t involve your gift, and exercise your gift outside it, when and where you can.
You can invest time thinking about what your gift really is, who lacks it, and who needs it most right now – to the extent that they will be more than happy to pay you for it.

Option 2 is always worth trying, because the worst that can happen is that you’re back to option 1, but the potential upside is that you get paid handsomely by people who appreciate your gift – perhaps even handsomely enough that you can give some of it away to those less fortunate.

Leverage doesn’t have to be selfish.

Thanks to the cool women at this morning’s Like Hearted Leaders for prompting this thought.

December 16, 2019

Not necessarily in that order

Where choosing from many options is unavoidable, you can help people choose (and keep them engaged in the process of choosing) with hierarchy.

Start with a few big options to select from, then gradually increase the granularity of choice until your client is happy to deal with 57 varieties.

That way you’ve educated them in how selection works, and you’ve made them interested in what comes next.

That makes them much more likely to stick with it to the end.

December 12, 2019

Make it vivid

Another way to help the people you serve choose what they need from you, is to make the options concrete.

Instead of simply listing options, show your potential client what a particular combination actually looks like as a ‘finished dish’.

Then go further and put together combinations around what your target client needs, not just what you have to sell.

December 11, 2019

Narrow down

One way to help the people you serve to choose what they need from you is to categorise your offerings.

We’re used to this of course, in libraries, on menus, on well-organised magazine counters, on campuses.

The category gives us a very quick way in, a guide to where to start our more detailed search.

A caveat though, to be truly helpful, the categories need to be meaningful to your client.

December 10, 2019

Less is more

Have you ever stood in front of sweet counter full of chocolate bars? Or a wall-full of 500 pizza choices. And walked away empty-handed after a few min

December 9, 2019

Choices, choices

We business owners love to over-complicate things.

We think that more is always better. We love to give people options, second-guess people’s likely choices.

That’s a mistake.

People who are looking for help like to be guided, they like to be helped to decide with the right information and an optimal number of choices that isn’t overwhelming. This is especially true when they are buying expertise that they don’t have.

Your expertise is why they are considering you. Use it to honestly guide the people you serve to the right solution for them.

November 1, 2019

Packaging empathy

Packaging demonstrates the effort and attention you’ve put into empathising with the people you serve. Into understanding not only who they want to become, but also what will be the best way to help them get there, starting from where they are now.

That package may be a blog post or a video; or it may be a year-long project or a piece of software, or a continuous service.

Whatever it is, large or small, if it is well put-together, it will say “This is for you, for where you are right now” and it will be received with recognition and delight.

And you’ll never need to ‘sell’ again.

October 31, 2019

Billable hours

Your clients don’t want your time. They want who you’ll help them to become.

That’s the Promise you’re making them.

And it’s worth far more to them than the time it takes you to achieve.

October 30, 2019

Packaging

Your Promise of Value is unlikely to change much over time. That is the point of it after all – to encapsulate the thing your business is here to do for the people you serve. By the time you can get clear on that, it isn’t going to change.

How you deliver on that Promise will vary however, not only over time, but also within any one time.

Packaging allows you to offer your Promise in a format that will suit a particular kind of customer with a more specific need from you – a litre of whisky is for drinking at home or with friends; 35ml of whisky in a golf-ball shaped bottle is for giving, or collecting as part of a set.

Packaging lets people try you out before they take a bigger risk with you – a free sample, a test-drive or a trial period lets me check whether you’ll deliver on the promise you’re making.

It’s also how you evolve as a business in step with the people you serve – someone who has just bought a puppy is not ready for a dog-walking service, but they will appreciate puppy visits; one copy of a book is for my own reading, several copies are for giving away.

Packaging helps people to recognise themselves, their situation and their need instantly. Embrace it. It’s not about you.

It’s about your customer, and making it easy for them to buy from you. Or not.

An hour as a package makes no sense.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Category: Package Promise