Who Powers Your Business? The Answer Might Surprise You
Who powers your business? It’s easy to imagine that it’s powered by you: your passion, your ambition, your expertise. But a more sustainable power source for your business is the person who makes it work: your customer.
While your business is an act of self-expression and guided by your unique vision, it exists in partnership with your Most Valued Customers.
When your business draws energy from those partners, it doesn’t require your constant support as owner. You can empower your team to draw inspiration from your customers. You can create tools that allow your customers to help themselves. The list goes on and on.
Unfortunately, it’s rare that you’ll see good advice on understanding who those people really are. Most teaching about your right customers is:
- Business-Centric – Your customers really do have lives outside of waiting for your company’s next offer.
- Lack Synthesis – What are you going to do with the fact that your customers read Sunset Magazine, shop at REI, and buy a lot of Colombia clothing?
- Don’t Provide for Deep Empathy – The way your customers think and feel, along with the mindset and internal scripts that guide them, is the real key to effective communication.
Now that I’ve told you what’s missing from the usual advice around finding your “ideal customer,” let’s reconstruct some fresh ideas about who these people are and how they can power your business.
First, as far as I’m concerned, you and your customer play equal parts in attracting each other. Just like you can’t stalk the subject of your more carnal desire to the point of loving you, you can’t just chase after customers if they’re not interested in what you’re offering.
You have to respect that there are customers who might meet the profile of the customer you have in mind as ideal but they may not be interested in or ready for what your business has to offer. Your job is to not only create a profile an understanding that guides you to the best people but one that guides people who are ready and willing to your business.
That may mean you need to alter who you think you’re meant to serve. It may mean the people you’ve been chasing are all wrong for you. Or it may mean that you need to shift your mindset away from “stalking and converting” to “romancing and wooing.”
Next, the work you do around better understanding your customers needs to be Customer-Centric, not Business-Centric. A typical business-centric survey question is, “What features would you like to see the next time we update this product?” or “What topics would you like us to cover on the blog?” Your business is top of mind for you so it’s understandable that it’s the easiest way to approach understanding your customers.
However, your customers will give you much more useful information if you imagine your business doesn’t exist. Weird, I know. This approach works whether you’re sourcing information directly from your customers or whether you’re sourcing the information from your own brain. Focus on your customers needs, questions, and desires. Think about their problems in terms of stumbling blocks or barriers. Consider the jobs (social, functional, and emotional) they need to get done on a daily basis.
Try questions like this:
- What frustrates you most about trying to…?”
- What skills do you believe would improve your ability to…?”
- How do you normally spend your weekends? Why?”
- If you could wave your magic wand and change 1 thing about…, what would it be?
Try to maintain as little bias and as much genuine curiosity as possible. There’s a time for sourcing your expertise, but it’s not now. Don’t worry about your relationship to the potential customer (trust me, they’re not), worry about your customer’s relationship to themselves, their time, their energy, their families, and their communities.
Once you’ve gathered that kind of unbiased information and you’ve examined your customers’ whole lives, it’s time to synthesize.
I have two commandments for this step. First, ask “Why?” And second, trust yourself.
The key to synthesizing the customer-centric information you gather is to always be looking for the motivation, values, or beliefs that swim underneath it. That’s what makes up the mindset–or worldview–that causes your customer to act the way she does, including acting to purchase something or share it with her friends on Facebook.
Each time you ask “Why?” and dig a little deeper, you reach more useful information. While knowing that your customers read Sunset magazine, shop at REI, and wear Columbia could help you place an ad or style your photos, asking “Why?” can lead you to more insightful information. You’ll learn that they appreciate an adventurous yet laid back lifestyle, value the environment, and have an appreciation for passion & expertise.
As I said, the trick here is to trust yourself. You don’t need to ask your customers directly why they like what they like or do what they do, though that can be helpful (it can also be unhelpful). Instead, ask yourself why your customers like what they like or do what they do. And trust that the answers you provide are true.
The thing is, we all gather information more information about people than we realize. We are constantly making inferences from what people say or do. We are receiving unspoken cues all the time. We’re social creatures and it’s how we survive social situations without getting punched in the face.
Unfortunately, most people turn that off when they think about their customers. They go cold and forget to check in with their social brain to uncover the information that is hiding just below the surface. But, as soon as you allow yourself to ask “Why?” and then trust the information you receive from the resources of your psyche, that information will come flooding to the surface.
My final point is on creating deep empathy for your customers. Dan Pink calls empathy, “a stunning act of imaginative derring-do.” It’s as close as I’ll ever get to reading someone’s mind, though that’s a comment I often receive.
Deep empathy isn’t just what you know about your customer. It’s literally being able to step inside his or her life from afar and use the same thought patterns & emotions that guide her actions. It’s anticipating what will resonate with her on the deepest levels.
Creating deep empathy for your customers means that you have access to their inner most feelings and mindsets. When you have that access, you can create the frameworks that allow you to be of greatest service. You can stop treating (or marketing to) surface level needs and start addressing their core desires. You can help them move past the barriers that stand between them and what you offer (i.e. buy).
Again, the action you need to take here is to unlock your social brain. Instead of focusing on concrete details, allow yourself to probe the feelings of your customer. Given all what you know about her experiences, how would you feel if you were her? What true desires would you hide from the world if you were her?
How do the answers to those questions change how you approach your brand, your marketing, your sales process, and your product development?
Remember, the goal with creating a deep understanding of your customers is not to convert people who are uninterested in what you do. The goal is to attract the people who are already searching for what you offer and guide them gently and sincerely to what they seek.
If everything your business does–from a lowly tweet to a signature product to a rebranding campaign–is powered by a deep understanding of your customers, it becomes easy for your customers to buy and for your business to serve them. That ease is the key to sustainable, enjoyable growth. And it’s powerful.
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Online dating, business, sincerity, and strategy
Warning: What follows is a lede you probably never expected to see in a business publication…
In the last 4 months, I’ve found myself in a position to give online dating a go. I’m merely a dabbler, but the process has left me wondering about what lurks in the murky depths below the “matching & winking” at the surface.
When I initially wrote my profile, I made it big and bold. I used words like “ambitious” and “driven.” And I reasoned, if a guy is turned off by that, he’s not the right guy for me.
And that’s not untrue.
But it’s not the whole truth.
The whole truth is that ambition and drive are characteristics that don’t often lead to attraction. I don’t just say that because I’m a woman. Those same qualities in a man might mean he’s prone to workaholism or keeping relationships at a safe distance. Not exactly sexy.
Four months into this little personal experiment and I can say I’ve come to one conclusion.
I put “ambitious” and “driven” at the front of my profile for 1 reason: I wasn’t as serious as I thought about trying to attract attention. It made it easy for me to say “There are no good men on this site!” or “Men just can’t handle a woman like me.”
This week, I came across two resources on online dating that piqued my interest. First, a book by the founder of eFlirt Expert, Laurie Davis, called Love at First Click. The second was a Wall Street Journal article called “Hacking the Hyperlinked Heart.” Both are about online dating strategy. They’re based on loads of personal experience and gobs of research.
Last night, I adjusted my profile. I followed the advice in the WSJ article and toned down the work stuff, concentrating on what I like to do when I’m not working. I talked about being driven by curiosity instead of ambition. I led with my love of travel, lattes, and wine. I talked about cooking and eating out.
It was true. It was sincere. And it felt attractive.
Then I messaged a few guys, winked at a few more, and ate dinner. In the span of a few hours, I had more activity on my profile than I’d had in 4 months.
It’s a good (re)start. No telling where it will go from here, but I feel like I’m taking myself and my goals seriously, all the while not allowing myself to blame anyone else.
“What does this have to do with business?” you might ask.
I’ll tell you. Many business owners nowadays do and say a lot in the name of sincerity, authenticity, and transparency. Sometimes this takes the form of blatant over-sharing, but it can also take the form of not following through on a big idea, not polishing their sales copy, or simply ignoring solid practices because they want to do it “their way” in an effort to be different for different’s sake.
Just as I wrote my dating profile in a way that allowed me to blame the guys, many business owners choose to operate in a way that allows them to blame their potential customers.
“They just don’t understand the value of what I do.”
“If they can’t handle my honesty, I don’t want their business.”
“No one is looking for what I create.”
When you choose sincerity without a care for strategy, you set yourself up to lose. Click to tweet. Maybe that’s what you’re looking for. Though, I’d put my money on the cause being your fear of true success. It’s not that you’re trying to lose (who does that?), it’s that you’re fearful of succeeding.
You’d have to serve the big client. You’d have to write the book. You’d have to create the life-changing program.
You’d have to put it all on the line despite the uncertainty of the outcome.
Sounds pretty much like dating to me…
Strategy and sincerity are not mutually exclusive. The question is: Does allowing sincere communication to fit within a strategic framework make it less true?
I wholeheartedly believe it does not.
On the contrary, allowing strategy to be your framework for relating sincerity means you have a much better chance of actually communicating in a way that allows your customers to see the whole picture, understand how your business can serve them, and make a true impact in their lives. Best practices, tried & true techniques, and definitive strategy work because they shed light on what we share as human beings.
When you inject your own personal truth into a framework of strategy, your truth comes in contact with our most profound sources of connection. You can do the good you’re meant to do through your business because you give your potential customers the best chance of being attracted to what your business has to offer.
Like so many aspects of business today, it’s both/and, not either/or. Choosing to engage both sincerity and strategy is a winning combination.
But, business owner beware, if you start combining sincerity and strategy, you might actually have to go on a few dates.
—
More praise for The Art of Growth
“What I appreciate about Tara’s work is that she smartly, succinctly, and intelligently lays out a path for the entrepreneur to leapfrog some of those steps that can lead to burn-out and abandoned dreams.”
— Jennifer, via Amazon
“…the value here is not just in the amazing concepts and philosophy Tara describes, but in the practical how to that’s woven in.”
— Anne Samoilov, Launch Strategist
“Your new book #artofgrowth is jammed packed w many layers to digest, consider + work with! So, thorough and thoughtful!”
— Teresa Capaldo, coach for the creative and soulful
“…truly opens your mind to what is possible.”
— Tat, Mum in Search
A Confession of Sorts–or–There’s More Than One Way to Grow Your Business
Will you allow me to share something a little uncomfortable with you for a bit? When I file my 2012 taxes this year, my personal income will be considerably lower than in 2011.
No, I didn’t cash in on some big business expense that allows me to claim less income. No, I didn’t shelter any in quasi-legal bank accounts.
I just made less.
About halfway through the year, I began to feel (as in, in my body) the results of earning less income. There were knots of stress, anxiety headaches, and the taste you get in your mouth from eating a bit of humble pie.
Maybe even some shame.
Luckily, I recognized the problem fairly quickly with the help of my set of trusted mentors and coaches. The problem? Oh, it wasn’t earning less money. It was that I wasn’t acknowledging:
- that I had purposefully taken “time off” from earning to grow my business in other ways
- that I was having great success with that growth
- and that I had changed my spending circumstances to meet the challenge
- oh, and, that my measure of success–even in business–was not revenue.
Let me back up. In early Spring 2012, I had constructed a plan to restructure the very foundation of my business. I started working with a literary agent on a book proposal. I changed the way I worked with 1:1 clients.
With more clarity than ever before, I worked to make the next iteration of my business based on how I was best suited to make the impact I want to make on the world.
For me, that means writing books–whether traditionally published or self-published–because I’m an ideas person. I’m curious, a bit obsessive, and could happily converse all day on the big picture. It also means continuing to speak, teach, and blog.
That means the rest of my business needs to grow into buckets that can take care of themselves. Scoutie Girl is one bucket. Kick Start Labs is another bucket. Even my own coaching and consulting is another bucket. Those buckets don’t function without teams, clear goals, and individual visions.
So, back to that revenue thing again. I didn’t personally make as much money this year, as I said. Why? Well, this kind of growth–even carefully planned, almost-can’t-fail strategies–takes time. I had to “give up on” some big streams of revenue to transition the business into these buckets. Then I had to rebuild those streams of revenue under new brand names and with new people.
In the midst of this transition, I purposefully took some serious time off from making money to work on my book proposal. It wasn’t a sure thing–still isn’t–and there was little chance it would make up for the money I wasn’t making. It was an investment in a different type of growth, one for which I’m very well suited.
Here’s the thing: I made less money in 2012 than in 2011, but my business grew like crazy. It made a big impact. I’m so proud of everything we accomplished.
How do you know if your business is growing if you’re not making more money?
…or hiring more employees …or quadrupling your subscriber base …or selling more products
You have to change how you define growth. In my new book, I talk about growth in terms of 3 areas: reach, revenue, and depth.
Growth based on reach is about fostering new connections. You’re putting your work and ideas in front of new people, more people. You’re casting the net to gather everyone who can take your vision and turn it into deep good. You’re partnering, networking, broadcasting.
Growth based on depth is about uncovering needs and desires that reside far below the surface. You’re working towards loyalty and strong relationships. You’re allowing curiosity drive those relationships and you’re rising to the task of creating a vast impact in individual lives.
Growth based on revenue is recognizing all the ways you’re creating value and implementing systems to receive value to match. You’re organizing, marketing, and packaging. You’re letting the current reality around your business guide you to higher returns.
When you consider how you’ll explore your next growth stage, you need must consider where your strengths naturally fall. If you’re really not into diving into big questions, you’re probably must better suited to growing your reach than growing in depth. If you’re really good at recognizing opportunities to create transactions, you might be best suited to grow in revenue.
You also need to consider what the big vision is for the impact you want to make in the world with your business. If your vision is to transform lives one at a time, growing in reach doesn’t serve that vision. If your vision is to introduce broad communities to your big idea, trying to grow in depth doesn’t make a lot of sense.
When you consider your strengths (both as an individual and as a business) and the impact you want your business to make, you’ll have a prescription for the type of growth you want to embark on next. You’ll be able to weigh other considerations (like a dip in profit!) against the type of growth you’re generating.
That means you can grow without (much) anxiety. You can change directions with purpose. You can create change with a vision.
That’s the art of growth.
—
Praise for The Art of Growth
“…offers tools to help your beloved business come of age and come into its own while simultaneously handing you the reins to your life back.”
— Tanya Geisler, creator of Board of Your Life
“By engaging the reader with her business philosophies gained through hard-won expertise, The Art of Growth will leave you with pages of notes and hope for scaling your next venture.”
— Dusti Arab, writer and branding strategist
Why “Only You Can Do What You Do” is Limiting Your Business
“Only you can do what you do” is a pop culture principle of the microbusiness movement. But it only tells a very small part of the story. And in doing so, keeps the impact these businesses can make on their customers and the world–as well as their owners–very small.
Yes, you have a unique set of skills, talents, and experience. Nilofer Merchant calls this “onlyness” and my friend Michelle Ward, the When I Grow Up Coach, calls this “uniquity.”
You’d be remiss to underestimate what that adds to the value your business creates and how it engages customers. However, your onlyness or uniquity is not the value itself. It is simply a channel for that value. It’s a differentiator. It may be a selling point but it’s not what sells.
I see this misunderstanding stemming from one problem and contributing to another:
First, microbusiness owners–and predominantly women–all too often see their businesses as a method of discovering their self-worth and an engine for igniting their personal development. While entrepreneurship and business ownership can, in fact, be part of the process of developing both, it is not the source of either.
Business development and personal development are not one in the same. One might inform the other but your attention to both should remain separate.
“Only you can do what you do” tries to validate your specialness through your business.
But until you can stand confidently in your beliefs, experiences, and worth as a human being, your business isn’t going anywhere. You’re already special. You don’t need a business to validate that fact. And your business won’t.
Your business can’t make your special. You already are.
Let your business grow on its own merits not yours. Focus more on selling the value it creates for your customers and focus less on selling yourself.
Second, microbusiness owners use “only you can do what you do” as an excuse not to create leverage in their businesses. The adage blinds us to opportunities for scale. If only you can do what you do, then it reasons that you must be involved in every aspect of your business.
This is not the case. I’d much rather believe that you, in fact, can do what I do. But even if that doesn’t work for your business, it’s important to know that just because your perspective is unique, executing it is not.
Your perspective is unique, executing it is not.
What if instead of running yourself ragged, trying to do it all, you trained someone to act on your insight? What if your business was driven by your unique perspective and realized by others skill?
If you choose to forget “only you can do what you do,” what new ideas could you dream up? What new areas for growth could you explore? What ways could your business create a greater impact on the world?
— PS —
The Art of Growth, my book on redefining business growth for a new generation of entrepreneurs shares more ideas like this one. Grab your copy today.
Hustling is Not the Answer to the Question of Growth
Business not as hot as you’d like? Repeat this simple mantra, “hustle.”
That seems to be the answer you’re most likely to find for all your woes. Write more, create more, network more, pitch more. Hustle.
Really? Hmm…
I don’t have an across-the-board problem with hustling. My problem with it is that it can easily lead to more ugliness than it solves.
When you’re measuring your work against the hustle imperative, it’s hard to see others success in perspective. You end up repeating others hustling instead of figuring out what actions would best serve your own goals.
The hustle imperative can also force you to work from a sense of scarcity. There’s only so much time, only so many tactics, only so many connections that count. You’re constantly racing against the clock and your own sanity.
It’s not that it doesn’t work; it’s that it’s exhausting.
Hustling is not the key to growth. It’s the key to getting individual things done, checking things off the list, sealing the deal. It’s not a long term strategy.
Growth is big. It’s expansive. It’s nourishing.
Growth requires effectiveness. It thrives on ease.
If you’re ready to grow your business–make a bigger impact, reach a wider audience, or generate more revenue, you need to focus on discovering what creates the most returns (as you define them) with as much ease as possible.
Doesn’t sound much like hustling to me. What do you think?
Let’s go a bit deeper with this conundrum, though. It’s not enough to say that growth is more about ease than hustle. There’s a pervasive belief that, while concentrating on ease, strengths, and core desires can lead to plenty of good feelings and a softer variety of prosperity, these things don’t lead to the kind of immense impact that hustling creates.
What I want to see in this new year of growth is a melding of ease & effectiveness with big goals & hardcore prosperity. It’s not a choice.
A brave approach to ease really can lead to bold growth.
As you begin to execute on your plans for this year, consider what bold growth might mean for you and your business: a bigger team, a shorter workday, 10,000 downloads, a life transformed, a 6-figure year, a book deal, a vacation, a baby, an investment. And as you’re tempted to do more and more and more to achieve that growth, remember that there’s a path–albeit, not well marked–by which you do less to reach greater success.
Effectiveness leads to expansiveness.
–PS–
My new book, The Art of Growth, tackles exactly this subject. How do you make a bigger impact with your business without working yourself to the bone?
What will growth look like for your business in 2013?
As one year ends and another begins, you’ve no doubt been inundated with opportunities to explore successes & failures, doors open & doors closed, goals, plans, and strategies. It’s true; this is the perfect time to evaluate where your business has been and where it’s going.
Most likely, one of your goals for your business in 2013 is growth. But what does business growth look like for you?
It’s your choice, you know. The picture of growth may be IPOs, 7-figure revenues, big teams, fame, or fortune. But that’s not all there is to growth. Growth is what you make it.
To kick off 2013, I’m proud to release my new book, The Art of Growth. Think of it as the big sister follow-up to my popular book, The Art of Earning (still name-your-own-price). This book is about both redefining business growth to reflect the opportunities we have in the You Economy and providing strategies for growth that you can adapt to fit your own values as a business owner.
The book lands January 8. It will be available as a multimedia pack here on my website and as a Kindle-only version on Amazon.
Below is an excerpt from the introduction. More importantly, I’d like to know: What will growth look like for your business in 2013? Click the link and let me know.
From The Art of Growth:
Growing your business is about maturity. Just like a child grows from a baby who needs your care to fill every need then, as he ages, requires less of your hands-on care, so does your business. Or, it will if you practice the art of growth. If you continue to baby your business with frenetic action and reactive effort, your business will remain a baby. The national news media wonders if helicopter parenting will create a generation of adults unable to to care for themselves; I wonder if helicopter entrepreneurship will result in a lost opportunity for millions of people to experience a new level of prosperity.
The art of growth is crafting a business that fulfills desires, changes lives, and rewards you without having to tend to its every need. The art of growth is about being proactive, not reactive. It’s about integrated systems and strategies.
The art of growth is not necessarily about the fastest track to a million users. It’s not necessarily about reaching the masses. It’s not about turning the people you serve into nameless, faceless numbers.
Scale doesn’t have to mean impersonal. Leverage doesn’t have to mean hands off. Impact doesn’t have to mean hustle.
As Danielle LaPorte, author of The Fire Starter Sessions, put it, “Love scales.”
That is the art of growth. It’s imagining the give-and-receive nature of business on a whole new level.
***
Look for additional thoughts on business growth in the age of connectedness over the next few weeks. And, in the meantime, tell me: What will growth look like for your business in 2013? Click here to let me know.