Sunday reminder
– Manipulating people and situations to influence markets for client advantage is what? – Consulting. [Rabbit/Hole ep 1] It did make me crack and laughed so hard. Then I realized that’s how consulting is seen for lots of people. And how selling is also seen and —worst of all— taught. Taking this view and understanding both selling and consulting as such creates this feeling of “selling is sleazy”. Your friendly Sunday reminder: Selling is an act of service. As an act of service it takes…
The Flip. p6.Clarity
Clarity: having your counterpart (clients, suppliers, prospects) aware of your claim (what you do for whom) and your purpose (why you do it). Is it clear enough for your prospects, clients and you to articulate what you do and how you can help them solve their pains? Or how you can help them be transformed? → Positioning. When your articulation lacks clarity, it stops people from going deeper —or just go and ignore it. It’s a natural response. When we have cognitive overload, we choose to…
Feeling safe
Fitting in. It feels safe. Find the product-market fit → safer to go onto the market (and, hopefully, sell). Fit in with the rest → safer to not being pointed out. Fit in → don’t stand out. Most of us are trying to fit in. Because it feels safe. Not creating hassle, not stirring the pot, not “being problematic”. That way, we believe we’ll be able to make our businesses thrive. Not burning bridges in hopes of “we might work one day” —ignoring big time all the red flags. [Spoiler: there are…
The Flip
Up till this point, everything’s been about you. Your purpose, your narrative, your alignment, your ability to focus. Now it’s time to look outwards. To move from self-focused to others-focused: to the ones you serve. What’s the language they use? What are their goals? What are their pains? What are their expensive problems? What’s the desired state they strive for? A way to start These questions can help you shift the focus (and your thinking). What’s in it for them? How would they know they…
Fit contradiction
You need to stand out —in a place where you’re supposed to fit into. How do you do that? Doing both is a contradiction: If you fit into something, you’re pretty much average in that place. If you stand out, you’re out of that average. Do you find the logic behind “stand out in a place you where you have to fit into?”
Empowerment
“We empower our clients.” Take a moment from how things go and let’s rethink of this word. If you run a team or work with clients and you empower them, it means you *give them power*. And just as you can give power, you can take it away. Best control model. Ever. And if you’re in control, the others are not. What you can do is give them agency and/or authority. You don’t need someone else to “empower you”. People —You, my friend, have power within yourself.
Mapping an ecosystem
Here’s the work of a project led by Philip Kotler: The Wicked 7. It’s a map of how intertwined several (and most times unseen) factors are. It aims to take a systemic approach —or at least gain awareness of how things work… and what could change. With this map, you can have a better picture that taking incremental change (or aim at one-problem) won’t influence the system itself. Taking an overall approach might do. Can you map out your own business ecosystem? Map of The Ecosystem of Wicked…
Incremental v. Systemic
Incremental change Takes how not to disrupt the system in search for (small) efficiencies and improvements. Slow: 1,3,5,10… Small changes to increase. Safe: Keeping what you have (aversion bias kicks in). Short term: Not big changes now. Sales to keep. Revenue to keep. Profit not to lose. Don’t stir the pot. What does it look like? Raise your prices… according to inflation, or by 5-10% Raise your prices incrementally +5%, +15%, + 30%… [Timestamp 14:07] ESG, B-Corp Short-term: how can it…
Change
Last couple of years, systemic change has become mainstream. Shows, podcasts, books have been published recurring to the idea that systemic change is needed to stop the decay of the environment or that it will help change how (broken) things work. I agree. However, the lens the vast majority sees systemic change through is of incremental change. They picture it like a waterfall. As if one fix will lead to fix the other one at a time, ignoring (consciously or not) they’re interrelated. That is…
It’s not fair
There’s no fair thing. Not from your POV as a seller / service provider. What you charge has nothing to do with you. Or if you find it “fair”. It’s about what’s important to your clients. If they think the work you’ll do will mean 500K to pay you and it’s acceptable to them, they’ll pay you (and you’ll take it). You don’t say “Oh, I don’t think it’s fair (to me) because it might take me 20 minutes to get that done or it’ll cost me 20K or I’ll be happy with 7K because that’s what ‘I’m worth'”….