Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.
In this issue:
- Thoughts about Testimonials
- Being Human
- Random Stuff
- Back In The Day
Thoughts about Testimonials
- Effective customer testimonials recreate our client's past "current" state, before engaging with us. The problems/issues our clients describe before we came along are where our best future customers are right now. Make sense?
- A good strategy exercise is to sit back and invent a few testimonials from future best clients. Describe these imaginary client's situations before engaging with us and make up a story about what they've found since working with us. Seems silly, but something about the exercise makes it easier to find prospects experiencing issues we can help with.
- Prospects need relevant details from us to move projects forward. When they asked us to describe our work, say, "Let's not be theoretical. Give me an example of what you are dealing with now and I can tell you how we help with that." Relevant details, rooted in today, help them take action.
- Success stories, which is what a testimonial is, create tension. Prospects hear them and think, "I want that." Review testimonials and case studies. If they don't give the reader a sense of desire, try again. Hint: they usually fall apart when we gloss over specifics. Keep as many relevant specifics in as you can.
Being Human – Pitching
"So, tell me about your childhood." – from Thomas Dolby's "Hyperactive"
I'm a mentor for an entrepreneurship program. The mentees are from a prison re-entry program. Most of what I do involves helping them hone their pitches. My latest mentee sent me down a rabbit hole and I bumped into some of my pitch worksheets that I used to make my 30 second and 2 minute pitches for my consulting work.
30 Second Pitch
So, Greg, what is it that you do?
I’m a consultant. Businesses hire me to help them find more revenue, and I do that in a particular way. I help them design sales and marketing practices they can live with. Practices that fit. That are a natural fit for who they are.
2 Minute Pitch
So, Greg, what is it that you do?
I’m a consultant. Businesses hire me to help them find more revenue, and I do that in a particular way. I help them design sales and marketing practices they can live with. Practices that fit. That are a natural fit for who they are.
My clients are small to mid-sized businesses. $1-50MM in revenue, like the Inc 5000. They come to me because things are going well, but they want more. They ask, “Greg, how do we do that? How do we get more?” and that’s what I help them with.
I’ve done this work for decades and I see 4 reasons why my clients struggle with this growth on growth issue.
#1 is that they are hemmed in by doing the same things that everyone else in their industry is doing, whether or not it fits them.
Or #2 is that they can’t break free of their own internal way of doing things. They do it like they’ve always done it but it’s not working as well.
Sometimes it’s the opposite of that, they are trying the new and shiny approach that is popular in the press. Like Inc magazine.
And the 4th reason is that they try to emulate what the big successful companies have done.
All four of those problems are examples of what I consider a “bad fit” – it’s an un-natural fit for the business because they don’t consider the whole picture.
Like, who the company really is: the people, who they are as humans, their strengths and weaknesses – and that’s what I do. I help them design practices that are a natural fit for them. I help them figure out what’s best.
I wrote those 12 years ago. Still holds. (and obviously the movie "Taken" was fresh in my mind) There's a seven minute version too. It has actual examples of my work. Mini case studies. I should take the time to update my examples since I've had a few hundred projects since then!
30 seconds, 2 minutes, 7 minutes. A good exercise.
Random Stuff
I have an old friend from college and as we caught up on kids, friends, and acquaintances, we discovered that we are both obsessed with espresso. "The crema!" he said, and I know what he means. For thirty minutes we went into detail about finding beans, dialing in our grinds, and extraction times. It was nice to have someone not roll their eyes at the challenges of production. (we both have decent machines that have their quirks)
Right now I have a certain bean, weight, grind size, and water amount I'm happy with. I've tested it on guests and they'll nod and say, "mmm," as I stare at them looking for a reaction. I'm sure it's unnerving.
For my setup, I line up 16.1 grams of beans, have the built in grinder at 7, and aim for a 30 second extraction. The beans I use tend to be .1 to .2 grams each, so it gets a little dicey if the scale comes in a 16.0. Do I add another bean? Pull some out and start again? You wouldn't think .1 makes a difference, but it does. I'm not crazy!
This morning I pulled the perfect shot. It tasted so good that I told myself I deserved another. I carefully weigh the beans and get to that 16.0 part. Do I go up, or down or look around to find a bean that looks smaller? So many choices early in the morning! I opt for a small bean and it works out. 16.1 right on the nose. I lift it up to put in the grinder and just as I'm pouring the beans in I notice a single bean from the last pour clinging to the grinder cover.
Aughh!
Does that mean my perfect pour was really only 16.0 or, heaven forbid, 15.9? Do I start over and fish a couple beans out? Do I leave it in and see if 16.2 is right?
I felt silly fretting over such a thing and went with what I had. Great pour, tasty crema. My setup is just too inexact for me to worry, right? It's dumb to buy the next level machine, get a better grinder, and plumb the water line in direct like a coffee shop.
Yeah. I mean, who would do that?
Back in the Day
What I was thinking about last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.
- Last Year: Right FIT #514 – "What, me worry?" said Alfred E Neuman. I have that issue too. I forget that it's been with me for a long time, at least as far back as college. There are a lot of things to worry about so I should probably be more serious. Or not.
- Five Years Ago: Right FIT #305 – Ten years ago last week I wrote about Focus, or having a destination. Five years ago this week it came up again. I still use this almost weekly, definitely monthly in conversations:
The world will look like X, my customers will be doing Y, and we'll provide value to them doing Z.
- Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #43 – In Random Stuff I mention my first attempt at a novel, The Legend of Mad Gringo. I picked it up recently and flipped through the pages. It has its moments. I got a call from that bookstore just a few months ago. It seems like they still have unsold copies of my books. I seriously over estimated my take home pay from that effort.
