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.
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
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.
We humans don’t just want community, we want to have our own place in that community.
We like to know where we stand relative to our fellows. Which means that everything we do isn’t only about becoming the person we want to be, it’s also about being seen to become that person by the people we see as our peers, the people like us.
What can you do to deliver this as part of your Promise of Value?
Here’s a brilliant example of one way to do it. Here’s a different way, equally brilliant.
I’m sure you’ll think of others, now you know.
What’s the point of becoming the person you want to be, if nobody else sees it? Or cares about it?
We all want to belong to a community, a tribe. At least one. A group of like-minded people. People like us.
The way we dress, the way we work, what we eat and how we spend our leisure time often signals which tribe(s) we feel we are part of, and those we don’t. Everyone I know would be astounded if I suddenly took up golf.
So in formulating your promise of value, it pays to understand what communities the people you serve are part of, and which they seek to join.
You may even want to consider creating a new community just for them.
Clients and customers don’t just buy the product or service we sell, nor even the promise of moving one step nearer to being the person they want to be.
They also buy the experience of buying and the experience of that becoming.
Which means that the experience of buying and becoming has to be consistent with their values, beliefs and style – with both who they are and who they want to be.
Imagine trying to deliver that experience to someone with whom you share not a single value, belief or style. You would feel like a fraud. they would feel it too.
It’s much easier (and more satisfying) to start by clarifying our own values, beliefs and style, so we can intentionally attract like-minded clients and customers, and deliver an experience that’s authentic for both of us.
To be truly fulfilling for both parties, customer experience has to be built-in, not bolted on.
We all want to be someone else. Someone better. Stronger, fairer, kinder, cleverer, more authoritative, more creative, more exotic – the list goes on.
If you happen to be a cosplay or fancy dress business able to literally do that – lucky you!
The rest of us have to spend some time working out a) who the people we serve are and b) who they want to be. And of course there can be several of either.
Whether you sell a product or service, the challenge is the same. Take electric drills, for example. As someone famously said, when his marketing department insisted on going through features “people don’t buy drills, they buy holes in the wall!”.
They don’t of course. They don’t even buy a bookshelf on the wall, or a picture hung, or a wooden toy mended. What they buy is the ability to become a closer version of the person they want to be.
Putting up a shelf, or hanging a picture or mending the wooden toy might make a father feel he is taking care of his family, as his father did before him. He’s out at work all day, so he misses out on mealtimes and bedtimes, but he can do his bit for the nest they’re all in.
The same thing might make a woman feel like she is independent, capable, self-sufficient, so that when she chooses to settle down its because she wants to, not because she has to.
That’s a lot to pack in to a product or service. As responsible businesses we have a duty to understand who we serve and who they want to be, as fully as we can, and then find the best, most effective way to help them get there, without harming them, other people or the planet in the process.
We never buy just ‘stuff’. Which means we can’t sell just ‘stuff’.
The anatomy of a Promise of Value:
“We promise to help you become the person you want to be, in a way that is completely congruent with your values, beliefs and style, so that you can join the tribe that feels like home for you, with the status you seek.”
Every business offers their own unique version of this, whether by accident or design.
Much better to offer it by design.
We’ve all heard of unicorns. Businesses that disrupt entire markets, even create entirely new ones, often with a view to create a monopoly.
You may not have heard about zebras. I hadn’t until this week, but I recognise the species. I’ve met and worked with many of them over the years.
Zebras are businesses that balance profit and purpose, that aim to solve real problems and make the world better. Zebras aim to be systematically better, not just bigger. They look out for their people and their community as well as their shareholders. They are in it for the long term.
The great thing about zebras is they are real. And they are more numerous than we think.
Time to dazzle.
Every business is a system. The same things happen repeatedly, systematically, more or less efficiently.
The question is whether what the system does is what you intend.
Even when you’re not there.