Discipline makes Daring possible.

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

Category: Share Promise

Showing your work
June 28, 2021

Showing your work

I used to wonder how potters could charge so much for their pots, until I took up pottery.

Then I saw how much work went into producing a pot fit to sell.   Not just the work of potting, but also how many pots get thrown away because they broke or cracked in the kiln, or because the glaze didn’t work.  Or even because the idea itself just wasn’t good enough.  I wondered then how they could charge so little.

A brilliant way to help your prospects and clients understand the value you bring is to show your work.    To share the process by which you create that value.

It’s easier when that process is clearly, genuinely focused on them.

Where, Who, When and What.
October 16, 2020

Where, Who, When and What.

We’ve already seen that motivation isn’t enough to lead to action.   It needs to be combined with ability.  But motivation plus ability alone is still not enough.  We also need prompts, says B J Fogg, behaviour designer and author of ‘Tiny Habits‘ .

We need to be triggered into doing things we are motivated and able to do.

That means that Sharing your Promise is all about finding the motivated and able, and prompting them to take action.

So, some questions that might help here are:

  • Where do the motivated and able people you seek to serve hang out?
  • Who do they hang out with?
  • Where do they go for help and advice?
  • Who do they trust?
  • Who do they look up to?
  • When are they most receptive to a prompt?
  • What makes an effective prompt?

Prompting someone to do what they already want to do feels much better than ‘selling’ doesn’t it?   Especially if you’ve already worked out how to make it easier for them too.

Empathy, empathy
September 17, 2020

Empathy, empathy

My friend Julian Donnelly recommended this book to me.  I’m very glad he did.

I recommend it.   Don’t be fooled by the action-hero cover, what kept going through my head as I was reading it was ‘This is Dale Carnegie. This is all about empathy, and understanding motivation.”

If you’ve ever done a Dale Carnegie ‘Winning with Relationship Selling” course, you’ll recognise a lot in this book, but you’ll see it from a new angle.   If you haven’t yet, this is great preparation.

Niche if you want to scale.
July 23, 2020

Niche if you want to scale.

For a long time I misunderstood why any business owner would want to restrict their marketing to a ‘niche’. Especially when what they do can work for any kind of business.

Then I learned what real marketing is.

Real marketing isn’t selling. It isn’t transactional. It isn’t manipulative. It doesn’t persuade people to buy what isn’t good for them.  Real marketing enrols people on a journey taht will help them get to where they long to be.

Real marketing takes time, effort and empathy. Empathy is easiest when you start with people like you, but it means you need to do some hard, soul searching work.  You need to work out your own values, behaviours and goals, so that you can identify who you can best serve, because you share values, behaviours, and sometimes goals.    This is your true niche, the psychographic, not the demographic.   It describes the kind of person you want to work with, rather than their business size, location or industry.

But still this niche is too big to be useful.  These ‘people like me’ are everywhere, in all walks of life.   How on earth do you help them find you?   Especially nowadays, when marketing means showing up day after day, giving value, demonstrating to the people you serve that they are understood, seen, recognised as human beings, laying a groundwork of trust in blogs, videos, podcast, newsletters, before you even get near a pitch.

It’s extremely hard work to pay anyone and everyone the attention they are due, in the hope of attracting the ‘right’ ones.

This is where a traditional demographic niche starts to make sense.  Think of demographics as the pools you fish in because you know they are likely to hold enough of the kind of people you serve.  Finding these pools takes effort of a different kind, research rather than soul searching.

Good places to start are pools that are ignored or under-served by your competitors or alternatives.   Or those where the inhabitants are going through a particularly painful set of circumstances, that you are well-placed to help with.  Or even a pool you have a lot of experience with.

But, counterintuitively, keep it small and specific to begin with.   Narrow, but deep enough to keep you going for a while.   Like flying a single route, or offering makeovers for blondes, or making jelly babies for vegans.

Because keeping your promise is the hardest part of marketing.  You want to make sure you get that spot on before you take on more of it.

Once you’ve cracked that, you’re on your way to scale.

A long slog
March 10, 2020

A long slog

This week I’ve mostly been getting a marketing campaign together.

I have a great tool, which lets me create and assemble content for all the social media channels in one place, so that when it’s all ready, I can metaphorically press a button, and off it goes.

Oh, but its a long slog!   I feel like I’m wading through treacle, learning the tool, finding images and coming up with the messages all at the same time.  More than once I’ve thought of giving up, and just posting more often in my usual way.

But I haven’t, because I know that once I’ve mastered this process, I can repeat it, and it will get faster and better every time.  Which means I will be able to do much more marketing for the same amount of effort – I will be able to scale my marketing and still have room to deliver my promises.

I’ll have a better business, even if it’s not bigger.

Hitting eyeballs
February 14, 2020

Hitting eyeballs

In 2011, the city of Sao Paulo banned billboards and logos from it’s streets and buildings.

Despite protest from advertisers, the move made hardly any difference to the economy of the city.  People still bought stuff.  The only people who lost out were the people selling advertising space.

Which raises three interesting questions.

  1. Is reaching ‘eyeballs’ the same as reaching people?
  2. If ‘eyeballs’ are out of the question, how would you get the people you wish to serve to realise you exist?
  3. Why is selling advertising still a thing?

Share your Promise better
January 15, 2020

Share your Promise better

Pinpointing who you are for as a business makes it much easier to share your Promise effectively and efficiently.

The people you wish to serve become much easier to find when you know who exactly who they are demographically.   If you start a new bus service on a route that is not currently covered, you know exactly where to look for potential passengers.

The people you wish to serve become much easier to find if you know who they are psychographically too.   If your new bus service uses luxury coaches with attendants, snacks and entertainment, you know which subset of potential passengers you need to appeal to, and probably what you need to say.

Of course, you need to find out whether there are enough of these people to make your bus service viable before you start it.

But if you know who you’re looking for, that’s easier too.

Signing Up
December 23, 2019

Signing Up

About 20 years ago, when I bought my first mobile phone, it was compulsory to take out an insurance policy alongside.

I signed up of course.

15 years later, I was digging around, looking at direct debits going out of my bank account.  It turned out I was still paying a monthly fee to insure a phone I’d long since ceased to own.

Unlike normal insurance, I got no reminders, no renewal letters, the direct debit never referenced what it was for.   In fact when I checked with the bank, the company taking payment had ceased to trade (which did make me wonder where the money was going).

Being in it for the long run is a great mindset to have when signing up a client, but only when the value goes both ways.

The people you serve want to be enrolled, not press-ganged.

Free Samples
December 20, 2019

Free Samples

A free sample is a tester, a test drive, a small taste of what I might expect to get if I enroll with you to experience your Promise of Value more fully.

That means your sample, whatever it is, must demonstrate at least one key benefit I will only get by working with you, rather than someone else.

For services, that kind of sample is not as easy to create as opening a pot of jam or giving away a spoonful of Thai green curry, but it pays to persist in looking for the right way to demonstrate the unique value you offer.

You may even charge for it.    The point is to make it low-risk for both sides.

The important thing about a free sample is not that it’s free, but that it’s a true sample.