The Disappearing Boss - Issue 7

What sends people out to buy???

Ultimately, the things we're all looking for:

• Agency - to make our own ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
• Mastery - to learn and master (even teach) new skills.
• Autonomy - to be free to choose how we make our dent.
• Purpose - to do this for something bigger than ourselves, that has meaning beyond the sale.
• Community - to do all this with ‘people like us’.
• Status - to know (and for others to know) where we stand in our communities.

We formulate our current desire for any or all of these things into a category of product or service, based on our personal beliefs aboutthe available solutions.??Then we go looking.??Not for ‘community’ or ‘purpose’, but for ‘bridge clubs near me’, or ‘local charity recruiting volunteers’.?Not for 'mastery' or 'status', but for 'guitar lessons' or 'dope shoes'.

We want the buying process to meet our needs too.?We want to be seen and acknowledged as an individual, as human.??To feel connected to the business we are buying from.??To have an opportunity to bond.??We want to be in control of the process:

Sharing your Promise effectively means building a process that mirrors this buying process, that helps your prospect to buy from you - the best possible solution to their problem:

Showing Up

You can’t help if they don’t know you exist, so the first stage in your 'Share Promise' process is to Show Up.

It’s tempting to think that showing up is all about you.?That it’s about promotion, raising awareness, getting their attention.?That it's about reaching as many people as possible.?Broadcasting.???But hitting eyeballs is not the same as reaching people.??

An interesting experiment illustrates this:?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.

So, if ‘eyeballs’ are out of the question, how do you get the people you wish to serve to realise you exist???

How and where could you show up for them???Wherever they seek what you can offer? However helps them to see that you may be the answer they're looking for?

Nowadays, showing up is not as simple as pushing yourself in front of your prospects, forcing them to notice you.??It's about being there for them, alongside them, demonstrating in every action and interaction that you understand and empathise with people like them, showing thatyou care.???By showing up in this way, you are laying a groundwork of trust, letting your prospects know you are there, ready, willing and able to help when they need it.

This sort of consistent, long-term showing up is much easier and cheaper than it used to be.??You can write a blog, or a newsletter, 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 event, 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 proactively and directly.?Call, email, send a letter.?Visit.?Not en masse, individually.

Think of showing up as the start of a long conversation.?Like all conversations worth having, this one requires your effort, attention and empathy.

Qualifying - both ways

It isn’t enough to simply be found or to make contact.?Before they commit, prospects need to be sure that your Promise is the right one for them, and that you’ll keep it.??They need to decide first, whether they like you, and second, whether you can meet their desire.?They need to qualify you.

The good news is that this means you can share much more of your own personality, values, and beliefs?than you might have thought - even in a business to business context.???In fact you want to do this, so that the people you serve recognise themselves in you and the people you aren’t right for decide for themselves not to take things further.

You also need to provide clear evidence of delivery in all the places a prospect might look, such as your website, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, third-party ratings, official records.??Your job at this stage is to help your prospect discover for themselves, quickly and easily, that you can help them.

For your prospects, qualification may be a drawn-out process, involving several activities, often invisible to you, as they circle through your various social media profiles, your Twitter history and Instagram posts - checking whether you are a good fit for them.?For them, making an enquiry is the final step.??

Just because this is the first you've heard of them doesn't mean it's the first they've heard of you.??So make sure that as part of handling an enquiry, you find out where they are in their buying process, and act accordingly.?The last thing a prospect wants is to be taken back to the beginning.

Remember too that qualify works both ways.? Handling their enquiry is where you get to find out if they are right for you.?Whether they’ll properly value what you do, and help you to help them.??That means using your enquiry process to properly understand their values, their worldview, and whether it really chimes with yours.??This may seem like overkill - after all a sale is a sale isn't it? - but if you get this wrong, you won't just lose money down the line in extra effort, you'll lose good energy and leave an unhappy client, willing to share that unhappiness with others as your 'poor service', when the truth is you should never have done business together.

So, make sure the way you deal with an enquiry includes a way to filter out the people you don't want to work with.??Have some questions you can ask that will indicate whether working together is going to be a good thing for both of you.??Then have a way to deal with the people you are not right for.??

Can you pass them to someone else???Can you point them to some self-help???The least that should happen is that they feel you have their best interests at heart.???If you can show them that this is true, you may even find they refer you to others even if they'll never buy for themselves.

Demonstrate Value

A first purchase is a journey into the unknown for both of you.?It’s a big commitment, that makes both sides hesitate.

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 this hesitation is to try something low-risk,together.??

We're all familiar with the free sample, the free trial and the test-drive, but letting someone try you out doesn't have to be free.??You could offer an initial consultation, a short course or a feasibility study.??The idea is to offer something that moves them a little nearer to their goal, and demonstrates the value only you can deliver.???Show how you will look after them on the journey, what it’s like to travel with you beside them.?Help them to experience some important aspect of your unique Promise of Value first hand.

Do this well, and 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.

Enrol

The final stage of your Share Promise process is to enrol your prospect.??

Unlike a sale, enrolment 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.

As always, thank you for reading this far.??Let me know if it is useful (or not).?If you enjoy this and would like to hear from me more often, sign up to receive work-daily or weekly musings on scalability, responsible autonomy and the disappearing boss.

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Cheers,