How to be heard, seen, and felt while selling intelligently

Logically, it is understandable if you say that; a small and profitable company is better than a large, unprofitable company, and if this statement was to be defended, you can simply say that the essence of any business or venture is to make?a profit?while creating value and solution.

I learnt early on that “Revenue is the lifeblood of every business and innovation is the pulse.” Once you open your door, if you have an office space, whether you like it or not, you bleed every day and in other to keep your door open or stay afloat, you have to generate income enough to sustain your business even if you are not making a profit or you may suffer closure if you can’t pay rent.

Rather than trying to be the best or the biggest in the market, your strategy should focus on the difference you can offer the market.?Focus on the blind spots, every product and service have them.?

This is one of the best pieces of advice you can get on the internet about creating or innovating a new product, design or service.

Your solution should be simple but classy, and functional and should have a form and art. This is what separated renaissance artists like Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo Da Vinci considered the greatest of all time. The question now would be,?what is my separating factor?

Studies have shown that all it takes for someone to evaluate another person at the first meeting is a glance. A suggested theory can be drawn from this evaluation which can persist more or stick longer if the reviewer never has a chance to meet the person for a proper assessment.?

Here is how it is been put; “First impressions are usually formed on factors such as appearance, body language, clothing, and mannerisms. This tendency for humans to make automatic judgements is common across cultures although the circumstances under which such first impressions are formed may be changing.”

Source:?Proceedings of the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making, July 17-21, 2017.

Pay attention to the things they are saying and more importantly, the ones they are not saying because they find it hard to communicate with words. If there is too much distance between you and your intended audience, you are taking a losing position.

Ask yourself; when you strategize, does your planning process take into account all of the pain points of your audience? Don't be so out of touch with your audience and the people you serve, do your market research, seek feedback and be willing to receive it, create as many user personas as possible and, gather enough data as this will help you make better decisions.

When creating a product, don't make decisions in isolation.?You need all the data and information you can get to make the most informed decisions and most importantly, you need to listen to the needs of your customers. The best decisions are data-informed and not knee-jerk.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that “Stories have a unique knack for getting under our skin and hitting us at a deeper level than our thoughts. They can strengthen old certainties and open doors we thought were locked. Stories have the power to express the inexpressible and provide answers to questions that can in no other way. Stories-whether told in words, pictures, songs, or verses can satisfy a deep longing in each of us.”

When Jesus told His followers how much we all need God's love, it was not a theological treatise. Instead, He told a story: There once was a man who had two sons. And the younger one said to his father. 'Father, give me my share of the inheritance.' The simplicity of this famous parable belies some richly profound truths. And we can glean something different and important to ponder each time we read it.

The most enduring brands don't break their banks, they just need to break their immediate frames of reference and climb into our imagination. How do they achieve this? Your guess is as good as mine; STORYTELLING.        

With that being said, think of the first 3 brands that come to your mind. Have you done that? Why did they come to your mind? What emotions did they evoke? Such is the power of storytelling captured through the eyes of the readers, of the ears of the hearer into our very minds!

One of the greatest challenges every entrepreneur faces is how to bridge the geographic and cultural divides that separate their target audience that is half a world away - an audience over whom a tidal wave of competing brands comes crashing every day.

Here are simple steps you can take:

1. Map your company attributes in plain, simple and understandable terms
2. Make sure that your USP screams, you need me more than I need you, and in the end, we need each other
3. Find an exclusive but elusive white space that no one has occupied and set your tent there comfortably (I explained this in the third paragraph).
4. Focus on your company activities, it becomes your killer differentiation in the market.?
5. This is important; build a good understanding of the buying journey of your core customer and the key attributes they are seeking in a supplier of choice so they can buy in.

Merry Christmas in advance, and have a joyful holiday.