Changing why into how, what and when. And why.
Asking Why turns things personal AND complex. It requires that the one asked justifies and explains a thing, behavior, event. If it’s too close to them (eg. the owner and their decisions re: their “ugly” website), it becomes a judgment on what THEY decided. They get defensive. Reframing Why. Do think (to start) with why, just reframe it into How, What, When. Why do you work like this? → Explain to me. Justify, TO ME, YOUR decision. Get defensive. Another ways: What made you take this approach…
Don’t write daily
That is, if you have no interest in: Gaining clarity on your thoughts Finding deeper insights from your customers Thinking in new ways of the one thing you excel at Figuring out different ways to serve your market Stepping into your fears and make something out of it Leading (with your thinking, instead of with bullshit) Standing out in your market Taking a stand for something Delighting your customers Building your authority to be the go-to person for your right-fit customers. Don’t write…
A trend on failure
A bunch of replies to yesterday’s email “What would you say the opposite of failure is?” go into a set of themes. I find this fascinating. The opposite of failure: Success Safety (as in non-adventurous) Regret Success Creativity Learning Trying First thing to notice in all of these answers/themes (and that I personally LOVE): none of them said “To Win”. What do you see?
The right mix
Ron Baker, host of The Soul of Enterprise and author of Implementing Value Pricing and Time’s Up sustains that you (paraphrasing him): “need to look at clients like an investment portfolio. Some might have more risk, and be more profitable; some more conservative, and safer”. In that way you can start finding balance in how you play and how you reach prospects and the ones you want to work with—which just made me think of poker and how, if you always play risky, your odds to lose are…
The bright side of the force
That’s you showing up to serve your customers. Serving them can take many forms: You doing work for them. Advising. Coaching. And telling them “No, I’m not the best one for your situation”. So you refer them to someone who could be. This last point is (the) one that makes you stand out. And how they’ll remember you. Not for the work —who remembers what specific work you did 15 years ago? But for how you helped them. It comes from the clarity of knowing who you can help best, how they can get…
Delighting cold calling
Have you ever gotten a cold call and felt fantastic about having that conversation? Weird, isn’t it? Today i just got one like that from Strategic Coach. Even when I knew I was going to say no, there was no pressure on the other side. No shame. No sneaky tactics to pull Noes into Yeses. Even better, no trying to frame me to say yes to get into a buy. It went like this: – Hey Rod. I’m X from Strategic Coach and thought I’d call you to go through some things smoother than over an email. I…
Consequences to failure
Safety (or risk) Regret Creativity Learning Trying feel more like a consequence of failure, than the opposite to failure. As friend-of-the-list Genevieve Hayes says [brackets mine]: “If you succeed at the first thing you do (aka don’t fail), then why ever try anything different?” The only way to know you’re failing is when you set a goal to achieve. How you take the outcome of that process —whether you fail or not— is what builds you up. How you grow. Because all of those words at the start…
Not to win or Not to succeed?
Failure: to not achieve a determined outcome. Merriam-Webster defines it like this: “• (the) omission of occurrence or performance • a falling short • lack of success”. However, failure could also represent another view(s): To not win To not succeed A win → takes that others (or yourself) lose. It’s a thing that has an end. The rules are fixed: to win, you need to have these requirements. Success → takes that winning is part of it. Just as losing. It’s more nuanced. It doesn’t have clear…
You’re looking for no.
One thing that comes up constantly in owners, founders, soloists and —really, anyone doing sales, is looking for the sale. How to close the deal. How to “get them to yes”. Here’s what happens. It puts unneeded pressure on something that could happen naturally. This is the moment selling becomes: All about your brand (spoiler: we don’t care [at all] about your brand. We care about our problems). All about presenting. All about convincing. All about the sleazy used-cars salesmen techniques we…
Walking away
Saying No to unfits. It’s always a hard one to swallow. How does one walk away? With will. The key here is to be willing to walk away. And you can only walk away when you understand that: It might not be the right time to work together (yet) You’re not losing deals (because they were never yours in the first place) You have (also) power in the relationship.