|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Are You Getting Ready To Get Ready? 
Rob, you´ve talked with us before about strength, vision and mission. What´s different about the Unique Ability?
"When companies talk about strength, which they increasingly do in this market, traditionally they talk about `mission´ and `vision,´ which have been perversions of an idea of what they expect for the future. They´re talking about their idea of what the future will look like, or they´re talking about a contrived statement that lacks a backbone. A typical mission statement says `we´re gonna always smile at out customer and provide the best possible product,´ but that doesn´t really talk about how the individual is involved, and it doesn´t really talk about what the customer´s needs are.
It´s a false attempt, and a pretension of understanding what the customer wants. What we´re talking about when we speak of the Unique Ability is going through a process that puts you very squarely in the customer´s mind, and, maybe for the first time, shows you what they think is unique about your service or product." Can you explain to us what this process is? "Basically, the Unique ability follows the Credo. We talked about the Credo in our last interview, we asked ourselves four questions: Who am I? What do I do? Who are my customers? How do they benefit? Having been through that process with my own business, I know that it was really helpful in crystallizing my thinking. Right! That´s a very important place to start. The Unique Ability, then, really takes us to the next level. You´re going to go to current and past clients, and you´re going to ask them `What did we do together that was of value to you, and how did it help you?´ Then, to follow up, you can ask them `What do I do that was really distinctive to you, or really different?´ You will be really surprised by their answers. And those answers will give you the language to describe what you do; they´ll refine your presentation, they´ll refine the attitude and backbone you put behind your marketing, and they can even redefine your business plan in some cases. They are key in bringing together business reality and personal freedom. But when you ask these questions to your current customers, won´t they simply tell you what you want to hear, or what they think you want to hear? You´d think that, but in reality, very few people actually ask the question. And when someone you work asks you `What´s my unique ability?´ it´s not an affirmation—you´re not asking them to answer yes or no, or to give you their personal preference on an issue—it´s a deeper question. It´s a serious question. And because of that, people will give you the truth. They´ll tell you what they really believe. The challenge with the answers people get is to understand what they´re trying to tell you. A chiropractor was told, for example, that he had a great ability to make people feel comfortable, and the chiropractor was frustrated because he really wanted to hear a "business" answer. But he took this answer, even though it wasn´t exactly the one he wanted or anticipated, and expanded on it. He began to offer support services and took the time to welcome new clients and reintroduce himself to old clients, and those integrations caused his business and client base to grow by 30%. And it was because he was willing to hear and understand what his Unique Ability was from the perspective of his clients. The Credo he had in place was supported by the understanding of how others saw him. I had another client who found that her Unique Ability is her capability as a business consultant to get people to a point where they are willing to tell her everything that is going wrong with their lives, even though she is a business coach. The comfort level her clients have with her is such that they´ve told her things like `I wish you´d been my high school guidance counselor!´ She was a bit puzzled by that, but this was her customers´ gut reaction to her. So what she is doing is integrating that into her business by taking the time with people to really make them feel comfortable and open. Now, these are two cases that are remarkably similar, but some of the responses others have gotten are statements like `You know a lot more than anyone else.´ What would you do with that information? That´s where this process can become a bit more difficult. But I´ll tell you what happens once someone makes their Credo and goes through their Unique Ability: the Unique Ability can alter the Credo. You may find that you need to rewrite your Credo altogether to align it with your Unique Ability. Once you´ve done that, and you start to develop new language around what you´re doing, and you understand better who your target is, then and only then are you ready to market yourself. And before you market, you need to decide which tools you are going to use. Too often, people jump right in to marketing: `I know who my audience is, and I know this is what I do.´ Well, they do and they don´t. But if you´re a single practitioner, or someone with a small advertising budget, you don´t have room to make mistakes. People, particularly in a small business environment, fail because they don´t take the time to plan. They´re so intent on jumping in and rolling out the business, that they don´t take the time to really understand who they are and what need they serve, not only from their perspective, but from their clients´ perspective. The Credo and the Unique Ability allow you to really craft your strategy, and to really see yourself from 360 degrees. Then you´ll really be ready to present yourself to the marketplace. That´s the difference. So what happens when someone tells you something that you really don´t want to hear? Something you don´t want to formally add to your persona? How do you use that in a positive way? That´s an important question. The purpose of this for someone who´s being coached in the system is to understand that part of the problem in presenting their business to other people isn´t other people but themselves. If people are telling you that this is what they value, then, Number one, they´re telling you that this is what they need, and number two, they´re telling you that you can fill this need for them. If your problem is that you don´t want to hear that, then they will go somewhere else. That´s a fundamental business problem that people face. If you don´t want to hear what your own clients have to say about you, and to listen when they tell you what´s good about you, well… the handwriting´s pretty much on the wall at that point. It´s really that simple. I´ve heard many times throughout my career that you should ask your customers, those you´ve had your most successful relationships with, what it is that you´re doing right. It makes a lot of sense, but I don´t know anyone who has actually done it. I don´t know if I´d be comfortable talking to my clients like that. It´s interesting. Most of us don´t think it would be comfortable. In fact, we think it will be very uncomfortable. But clients like that. It gives them a chance to give feedback, and it´s very valuable to them. Should you revisit your Credo and your Unique Ability from time to time, or are they static values? Any business building exercises should be done on a regular basis. Why? Because your business will always be changing. Your clients will change, your staff will change, all of it changes. One of the values in these exercises is that they help you monitor what these changes are. As you develop within any business career, your strengths are going to change, and your needs for clients are going to shift, if only very slightly. So, should these exercises be a part of your regular business practice? I think so. Is there a tendency to not do them? Yes. And the more successful you become, the bigger the tendency not to do them. But my coaching clients find that the biggest error they make is failing to continue something that was successful. There´s a better challenge for someone who´s success has caused them to stop evaluating themselves or has made them feel that they can continue to coast into success, and that challenge is to find a new target audience. Grow a new business division. You move ahead using the same skill sets and the same focus, and then you can modify your Credo and your Unique Ability again when you move into this new area, all without disturbing the franchise you´ve already got. That´s a challenge that makes more sense to me. Do you believe that as a result of our discussions here, our readers will be able to take some meaningful steps toward a sustainable activity on their own? I think people can do a lot on their own. I´m in the process of putting together a worksheet that people will be able to use online, and it will be available to www.iBizRespurces readers on the businesshawks.com site in the future. Watch for the third part of this interview series in an upcoming issue of the www.iBizResources newsletter.
Robert Bailey can be reached via email or at http://www.businesshawks.com. Robert Bailey has been coaching formally for about six years. His consulting career has its beginnings in New York City´s commercial real estate industry (where he was also a broker), helping his associates hone their presentation skills. He began integrating sales training into brokerage (the second best paid business in NYC, after investment banking). He has developed relationship-based sales training--with professional coaching--with colleagues in Chicago and Vancouver. Robert is a graduate of the The Wharton School, and received his masters in journalism. Speaking as a coach, he says: "I believe an individual soars when he or she takes the time to find purpose so meaningful that it combines all your energy with your life objectives. Period." << Back to Homepage |