Category: Share Promise

December 19, 2019

Trust your gut

The person in front of you is saying all the right things, but something feels wrong. Something jars. You don’t quite believe that they share your core values or your vision.

You have a feeling that you should say no to this prospect.

An initial consultation, sales meeting or discovery meeting is there to help both sides decide whether they really want to work together. It is perfectly OK for the prospective client to say no at this point. It’s also perfectly OK for you to say no too, especially early on in your business.

You don’t have to agree with the people you serve on everything, but a misalignment on core values spells trouble. Both sides will end up dissatisfied and resentful.

That means that the time and positive energy you gain to spend on your business by saying no to the wrong kind of client far outweighs the money they may pay.

Trust your gut and say no.

December 18, 2019

Show up and listen

It’s tempting to think that showing up where your prospects are is all about you. That it’s about promotion, raising awareness, getting their attention.

Showing up is really about showing that you care, and one of the best ways to do that is to use the time you spend with the people you wish to serve to listen to what’s really important to them. Then create products and services that help.

The surest way to gain the kind of attention that matters is to give it first.

December 17, 2019

Community

I spent Sunday with some of my family. My sister and I both read Seth Godin’s daily blog and were trying to explain why to her daughter.

At one point we both said, almost in unison “Some days its just like he’s got inside your head.”

I’m sure many of Seth’s readers say this every single day.

You can only do this if you know a) who it is you are trying to talk to; b) what’s likely to be going in inside their heads and c) where they are likely to go for inspiration, and the simple pleasure of being with ‘people like us’.

And the best way to know where the people you want to serve are at any one time, is to create a space and a community that does all these things just for them.

November 19, 2019

Promises made/not made

Measuring how you share your Promise is simple. Measure how many promises you’ve made. In other words, measure the result of your activity – enrolled, signed-up clients or customers.

But if you want to improve the way you share your Promise, you need more detailed feedback than that. You need to delve deeper and measure what’s going on inside it.

So, when you show up in places where the people you serve hang out, how many of them notice that you’re there? Do you get noticed more in some places than others? Are you getting noticed by the right people?

When some of those people evaluate you, what information do they use to do that? Do they visit your website or listen to your podcast? Do they read your blog? Do they look you up on LinkedIn? How many of them subscribe? How many come to the talks you give?

Of the people who’ve evaluated you, how many do you get to have a conversation with? How do those conversations go? What makes them go well? What makes them go badly? How many of them should not have happened, because you are not right for each other? How many result in someone signing up for something low-risk, as a way of trying you out?

And once people have given you a trial, how many sign up for something more permanent?

This will all sound familiar. Businesses have thought of selling as a process for a long time. I think it’s its more useful to frame it as a buying process, with the aim of making it as easy as possible for the people you are right for to find you, then get to know, like and trust you enough to enroll with you.

And as easy as possible for the people you can’t help to reject you as early as possible.

Measure how well you do both.

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.

November 28, 2018

Tell your clients’ stories

If your service is at all complex, stories make it much easier to explain your value.

So, collect as many mini-stories as you can about how you’ve worked to help your clients, and make sure everyone knows how and where to tell them.

Download our free e-book on collecting client stori es to find out how.

I’d love to share some of your stories – let me know how you get on.

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Discipline makes Daring possible.

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