Perfectionists hate the concept of simply getting someone something to respond to.
But the concept works to move things forward. It works to get information that you otherwise 1. wouldn’t 2. would spend more time trying to find or 3. would be wrong to assume.
By all means, do some work and share it with your client so they have something to respond to.
By all means, contribute a half-baked idea to your community so they have something to respond to.
By all means, share your thoughts with your boss so they have something to respond to.
Written differently: shipping your work leads to the ability to ship more and better.
But when you remove the curtains… When you let people in on the little things that make you you, the world gets smaller, you feel seen and related to, and work and life simply becomes enjoyable.
Let people see your scuffed up shoes. Let them hear what music you listen to. Let them see what you did over the weekend.
And here’s the thing so many forget: the people who don’t care and won’t connect with you will treat anything you share or show like an irrelevant ad – they’ll scan right by it or forget it seconds after seeing.
One more reminder: You’re not the only one that longs for connection and feeling seen. It’s worth recognizing and appreciating others who have removed their curtains, too.
Stay Positive & Open The Window For Some Fresh Air, Too, While You’re At It
You can sell hot sauce, but including helpful advice on the best foods to use the hot sauce with can be the difference between a hot sauce purchase and a hot sauce purchase that someone tells others about.
Selling homebrew equipment, but sharing the tips and tricks you learned from using that exact equipment can be the difference between someone just rolling away and someone telling your boss about their experience with you.
You’re much more likely to get a nice tip for selling that biking equipment if you help the consumer with some ideas of incredible locations nearby to bike.
By all means, sell all you can or need to, but set yourself apart by helping after.
Not because you have to (because you don’t), but because you care enough to.
I’m fairly certain I’ve gone on enough riffs about choosing the clients you want (seek out fewer, better clients rather than rely on more of the ones that might pay you, but also treat you poorly) and about choosing the donors you want (a thousand to contribute $1 or one person to contribute $1,000).
If you’re not doing B2B or nonprofit work, rather you’re running a B2C initiative, you also have the ability to choose your consumer.
How you price your product helps zero in on the audience you want.
The hours you remain open narrows on the audience you want.
How accessible you are (is your personal cell on your website?) sends a signal of the type of people that do business with you.
There’s a lot of design you can implement on the upfront to decide on your audience, but choosing an audience isn’t a set it and forget it system.
It requires you to be present, listen, and evaluate the type of people that are coming in and when and how.
And when it becomes people that you don’t want as you’re audience, it’s work to figure out what brought that audience to you and what you can do to correct it.
Likewise, choosing an audience requires you to focus in on the source of what drives the people you do want to find you – and then to double down on what drives more of them.
There’s no perfect map. No perfect answer. But there is a choice.
Stay Positive & Make Peace With Who Your Audience Is (Then Let It Guide Your Decisions)
Here are a few takeaways from having just managed roughly 32 projects in the last week across 15 different people and four different communication channels. I’ve tried breaking out the takeaways for whether you’re managing or executing.
Leader: Always give a deadline when you ask for a project to be complete – no matter how small or large.
Doer: If you’re not given one, ask for it right away.
Leader: Proactively inform if a deadline changes or can be extended.
Doer: If you can’t meet a deadline, let the leader know well before the final hour or day before the deadline.
Leader: Rather than check in part way through a deadline; send inspiration.
Doer: Proactively share progress updates to mitigate any chance of micro management.
There’s a reason why entrepreneurship and sales are talents and skills; something that can be improved, studied, and trained.
While there’s plenty of work to put in to get good at the upfront convincing, the marketing, the initial conversations – what sets a remarkable salesperson apart from a mediocre one is being able to note when a potential customer is on edge, rather than ready.
There are people that will certainly follow your buyer journey, but there are others who will somehow find themselves at the purchasing moment from a different path.
That path, might be one of necessity or exhaustion or complete and utter disappointment in the alternative they just tried last night and was ineffective. They’re going to be tired, a little defeated and emotional.
The problem, of course, is that it’s easy to view these people as convinced of your story, sold on what you’re offering and understanding of your value.
But the reality is these people aren’t. They’re on edge, rather than ready.
The tenured entrepreneurs and caring salespeople will see that even at the end of a buyers journey, different people need to be treated different.
And no surprise, it starts with listening, not selling.
