Hey magic-maker!
Your assignment, if you choose to accept it: find an insight — some little Easter egg, maybe even hiding in plain sight — that unlocks a new way of going to market. I’m talking about a 1 to 2 mm paradigm shift that changes the whole trajectory of how your company sees its customers, their pain, and thus how you and your company can fill a noble need.
Scary right?
I’m not gonna lie. Every time we take on a new project I’m a little terrified. What if this is the time that we don’t find the Easter egg? What if we dig and dig and don’t find an insight? What if we can’t come up with anything new or different? We are not magicians after all. We’re marketers.
“Trust the process” I say to myself at the start of every engagement. And then we ask the same from the client.
Thankfully, over the years and across hundreds of projects, we’ve designed a process that works. We are good excavators. And we’re great at figuring out where to dig to find treasure in the first place.
But enough about me. What about you?
What can you do when you need a breakthrough, but the conditions and outcome are uncertain?
Well, think of it like this. What if you were going to set out to climb Mt. Everest? You know exactly where it is. You even know the route to get there. But you’re still gonna hire a sherpa, right?
You hire a sherpa because they’ve been up and down that mountain many times. They know from experience how to read and respond to the changing weather conditions on the mountain. They know which routes are better than others. They’ve seen the short cuts, the detours and the danger spots
In other words, they have a combination of environmental awareness and a process that has been tested and refined over time.
Dr. Henry Cloud was on a podcast the other day and he was talking about his new book Trust. It turns out, that trust-building boils down to 5 things:
- Understanding - i.e. has the sherpa taken the time to really understand you, your challenges, and your abilities?
- Motive - does the sherpa have your best interest in mind?
- Ability - does the sherpa have the ability to get you there? Are they themselves physically able, do they have the gear, etc.
- Character - do they have the right temperament to work with you? Do they make you feel safe?
- Track record - have they done it? More than once?
When we think of trust, we usually think of trusting people. But it’s possible to have trust in a process too (or a product, or a service). In other words, your sherpa could be your process. It is for me. When I heard Cloud’s 5 ingredients, I realized why I have trust in our process. The process is straightforward, but it also has all of the right ingredients.:
- We kickoff a project with discovery. In other words, we ask a lot of questions and listen very carefully to the answers. Almost always in the form of a workshop. Something magical happens when you manage to get everyone in a room (or a zoom) and go through a process of guided inquiry.
- Then we do our own desk research – about the industry, the competitive landscape, etc. In other words, we look under a lot of rocks.
- We add in customer interviews, partner meetings, and other boots on the ground conversations to really understand the specific pain we’re trying to alleviate.
- And then we put everything up on a board and try to connect the dots. We start to look for patterns, themes, outliers – anything interesting. If nothing pops out, we keep looking.
- We form a thesis (i.e a suggested plan and route to the top of the mountain) and calibrate it with the client.
- And we do it over, and over, and over again.
As they say, repetition is the mother of mastery.
Here’s the thing though. Could the actual sherpa (the human one) show you their process, their governing framework, process flows, etc?
I have no idea!! I have no desire to climb Everest.
But should you? Definitely. Or else find a sherpa who does. If you don’t have a process you trust, find one who does – someone with a proven track record, who gives you the right feels. Someone you trust.
Thanks for reading to the end!
Ginger
