Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . starting next week.
In this issue:
- Thoughts on Learning New Things
- Being Human
- Random Stuff
Thoughts on Learning New Things
- Learn something new. When I heard the story of Ben and Jerry (the ice cream guys) it said they learned ice cream making from a correspondence course. You're already great at what you do, so schedule an hour to work on a new skill.
- I started reading a new fiction book. Every chapter I am reminded, great fiction gives excellent insight into being human. Especially business interactions. I learn more about my fellow human beings from fiction than any business book.
- Finding the market a new product or service is a challenge. It requires a lot of pivots and backtracking. For this reason, we n eed the right people in this role from the start. Look for key behaviors, especially curiosity and patience.
- Who on your team doesn't have the skills right now, but has a capacity to learn? What can you do to make sure they're future-ready when you need them?
Being Human – New idea enthusiasm
“There is a sort of human paste that when it comes near the fire of enthusiasm is only baked into harder shape." – George Eliot
Is there anything better than a new idea?
This week I was pitched a new idea from a startup that found their previous idea was going to be a heavy lift. These are platform people, skilled in the ways of APIs and automation. Their previous idea involved pulling together multiple softwares into a single workspace and they met resistance. While no one disputed the improvements they claimed, no one seemed that excited to learn a new workflow or abandon their current processes.
This led to their new idea.
It's a great idea. A cool idea. And compared to their previous idea, it's going to do something their prospects want to do but never seem to get around to. They wanted to share their pitch, show off what they've built, tell me about the successes, and send them some leads. The reason they called me is because I gave them some contacts for their previous idea. Contacts that were interested, but "not right now" interested. (Unfortunately, those are probably most of the contacts I have!)
Their enthusiasm is infectious. I spent a few minutes after the call going through the pros and cons of the idea, and ways in which it might help me, or someone I know. I'm probably not any different than their prospects. I didn't know about this solution before, and now I'm searching for a problem it can solve. It's a reverse decision funnel. It could use the question box.
What's the question box? Let me show it to you:
We used it when training new sales people. New people want to talk about the solution, and the question box helps them get off the solution and into the problem. The way it works is you start with a list of problems your solution can help with. That goes in the middle of the box, like "cut end of month reporting time in half." With the problem you solve in the middle, you use the attached prompts to turn the problem into questions, like, "Who is in charge of month end reporting?" or "How do you handle month end reporting?"
With 10 or 15 problems you solve, you can load up 30-40 questions to ask around the problems your solution solves. This lets the prospect focus in on the problems they have, because, as you know, solutions derive their value from the problems they solve.
Done correctly, after running through some question box questions you will hear something like this. "Can it do XXX?" they ask. "Yes," you reply, "tell me more about what is happening that you want it to do that." Boom. You're closer to a new customer for your new product.
This is how you learn if your enthusiasm for your new idea is transferrable. It moves the prospect from trying to imagine what the tool can do, into actively conversing about the problems they want to solve in their business. It moves their consideration from happening after the call, inside the call. And that is worth a lot to a new startup. Or anyone trying to sell anything, really.
Good stuff.
Random Stuff
"I'd known her for years. We used to go to all the police functions together. Ah, how I loved her, but she had her music. I think she had her music. She'd hang out with the Chicago Male Chorus and Symphony. I don't recall her playing an instrument or being able to carry a tune. Yet she was on the road 300 days of the year. In fact, I bought her a harp for Christmas. She asked me what it was." – Leslie Nielsen as Frank in the Naked Gun
In gradeschool we were required to take Speech class. All about public speaking including sections like extemporaneous, drama, humor, etc. If you did well during class, you participated in the Speech Meet, competing against other schools. I competed in humor and had a piece about some magic beans. I didn't understand why it was funny. The teachers chose our pieces for us. I practiced the way they told me, which I also didn't understand. It felt like a dramatic piece, not a funny piece.
When I got to the meet, everyone in my section was doing what I thought was humor. Voices, gestures, sound effects, making faces. You know, clown stuff. When it was my turn I called an audible, abandoning what I practiced for some improvised clowning. I cracked myself up but no one laughed. I don't even know if they smiled. When I was done my teacher, who was watching from the back of the room, said, "what was that?" I tried to explain and she interrupted me. "It's meant to be a straight man piece, deadpan. You act serious and that's what makes it funny." Not long after that, I saw the movie "The Naked Gun" with Leslie Nielsen, one of the best to do it. I knew what was happening and why his deadpan was funny.
I am thinking about this because at my niece's wedding, I found myself talking to the cheese equivalent of Abe Froman, sausage king of Chicago. Having nothing in common with a cheese mogul, I went for the obvious. "What's your favorite kind of cheese?" I said.
"That's a silly question," he said, in his thick Italian accent. As I felt the blood rush into my cheeks, he continued. "You see, each cheese is best in its own way. . ." and then proceeded to go on about cheese on toast, cheese on pizza, cheese for snacking, and more.
I knew what was happening and I settled into the straight man to his bit. As he rolled through the common uses of cheese and his favorites, he paused, looked to the left and right, as he's done a thousand times before, and leaned in. "But you know the real answer, don't you?" he said, looking in my eyes. I waited, "my favorite is any cheese I make," and we both roared on queue.
I love bits. That was a good one, Abe.
