Keeping things safe
Nobody move. Things are just working. Play it safe. While keeping it safe might feel right the way to go, it is also a call to deflect from innovating and taking new risks. On how things that worked for a (long) time are still delivering some results… but not taking head on what could be next. Falling into best practices, rather than practicing. And getting too comfortable with how you’re running things —that will terrify you to risk any of it. Here’s the thing Better to get disruption from…
Not all of your clients
Not all of them will follow your advice. And that’s ok. It’s their prerogative. And as such, it’s not your responsibility either. You can only help the ones who let you help. And to find these ones, you need qualifying. Choose wisely.
The (high) price problem
Often times, you can think that because people are not buying at the volumes you expect it’s because of your high price. Logic would say that if you lower your prices, that would increase the sales. I mean, a school of Economics backs this up (price-sensitivity / price elasticity). But it might just be something else. 1. We’re humans. So logic is not our forte. (: 2. It might have with who you want your customers to be. And that Price Problem, might just be a Decision Problem. On not making…
Angst
In German, that’s the translation for Fear. Fear of sharing… … your secret sauce. The way you do things. The way you can lead the sale. The way you lead your engagements. The way you’re different. The things you know. All of them in fear of your competition figuring out “what you do and what you know” and doing it to take you out of the market. That’s just too egotistic. While they care, they don’t really care about you. You sharing all of your knowledge is an advantage for you because it…
Being challenged
Challenging your customers’ belief system… that’s a hard pill to swallow. If customer is king, why would you challenge them, right? Well, what if you challenge them to think different? To think big. To see things from an outside perspective. Because then, maybe they’ll start seeing what new opportunities they could take. What new ways they could better serve their market. What things could be done different in their market. And you know what else? The bar is SO low, that doing that minimum…
Your job
“Don’t pitch your value in the sale. That’s marketing’s job. Your job is to uncover the value the client is seeking. Arm yourself with questions, not claims.” Blair Enns That’s it for today. Make questions. The right ones. 🙂
Seeing things
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things” That was Steve Jobs in an interview. And that’s right, it’s “just” seeing things and connecting them. Creativity comes in a way that it sees something, it makes the connection and brings…
Seeing things and hallucinating
They’re 2 different things. Although they might look similar. Seeing things is about how you can have a vision and kind of grasp it. How you can see the application of one thing in a different context. Hallucinating is believing you’re seeing one thing, when the reality is not that one. It’s not about a vision, but about a reality. Hallucinating “We give amaaaaazing, premium service to our customers”. Customers call. They get on hold to talk to a bot. Get ignored. Make them feel like idiots….
Having a sense
Just because you’re measuring something, doesn’t mean it’s the right one to keep track of. You’re supposed to measure EVERYTHING that really matters to have a sense of where things are going. But that’s that: a sense. So that you can correct course. Everything can be measured. How you judge where that measure is directing you is what makes the difference.
Just like sex.
I mean, there’s no competition for who makes it faster, right? Which brings the question: What if slow is better? What if don’t need to improve the efficiency BUT the efficacy? What if it’s not about how fast / efficient / productive you get to a result, but about what kind of result you’re looking for? As Rory Sutherland in this video says: “What if it’s not about the speed of the commute, but about the commute itself?” What if we’re making the wrong questions? And it’s not about speed (or…
