“Tell me. Stop marketing What is your why?” Early in my career, I would ask that question during strategy sessions. The result? A group of silent people with huge question marks above their heads.
I tried to save it. “Why does your company exist? That’s what I mean.”
Then there was some stammering, because you have to shout something.
“We want teams to work together better”
“We have a passion for pruning”
“We do it out of love for people”
Well… it all sounds nice. But the person who got it out after much pressing, didn’t even believe it himself. Useless in a marketing story.
It frustrated me and I regularly speak to marketers who still struggle with this. “We have tried to get input from management, but so little comes out of it. It seems as if there is no vision at all.”
I have since discovered that this is not true
It is not due to a lack of passion or vision within the organization, it is due to the approach of the marketer.
As marketers, we love marketing models
The Golden Circle, the Value Proposition Canvas, the sales funnel … They sound so deliciously interesting. As if you know a lot.
Why, how, what. Pains, gains, jobs. TOFU, MOFU, BOFU.
Phew, what smart people who know those kinds of terms.
The problem is that no one has a direct feeling for it. They only tell you something when you have immersed yourself in them. When you understand the models through and through.
Then they provide support and insight. You understand better how things are related and influence each other.
But the goal of a strategy session is not to teach senegal email list 60000 contact leads marketing. Managers and salespeople don’t want to become marketers. The goal is to quickly get to the basics of a strong strategy.
YOU need to understand those models. In order to then retrieve the right input in the organization.
Have a normal conversation
Good news: you don’t need google’s new priority hints api can speed up your website marketing models at all to collect input.
What do you need then?
Also read: Ask better questions with these 9 techniques
A good conversation. In which you ask aob directory questions that everyone understands.
“What is your why?”
“Why did you start your company? What did you want to change?”
“How does what you do make the world a better place? How do you contribute?”
“What’s your how?”
“What are the main alternatives to your service/product?
“And what makes you different from alternative X?”
“What makes you different from alternative Y?”
“What are the pains of your ideal customer?”
“What problems does your ideal client want to solve?”
“What obstacles does he or she face on the way to the solution?”
“What are possible objections your ideal client might have to working with you?”
“What are the pain relievers?”
“How does your service/product solve the customer’s problem?”
“How do you remove obstacles and objections?”
Hopefully you feel the difference. It becomes 1000x more understandable and concrete. Which also gives you a 1000x more understandable and concrete answer.
Ask further!
By the way, don’t just stop at your initial questions.