Don’t just tell people about the benefits of your offering. Give them proof.
A Customer Story is the Strongest Proof You Can Offer
Clearly demonstrate how an existing customer has experienced a tangible gain from using your product.
People are more likely to accept a solution if others like them have already accepted that same solution. The more the customer in your story shares in common with your potential buyer, the more persuasive this will be.
Prove It
July 18, 2011Volume #142
Don’t just tell people about the benefits of your offering. Give them proof.
A Customer Story is the Strongest Proof You Can Offer
Clearly demonstrate how an existing customer has experienced a tangible gain from using your product.
People are more likely to accept a solution if others like them have already accepted that same solution. The more the customer in your story shares in common with your potential buyer, the more persuasive this will be.
Whether you recognize it or not, your company has a culture. The question is, is it working for you or against you?
Successful Business Cultures are Purposefully Designed to Foster the Goals of the Organization
Culture grows with the organization.
A small effort towards getting the culture right early on will have a huge payoff as the business grows. However, a bad culture that has been allowed to take root will become increasingly more difficult to repair and can slowly poison an organization.
– From The Startup Daily
The first automobiles were noisy, expensive, and required constant maintenance. The early Internet was not very useful. The first mobile computing devices were extremely limited and barely mobile.
Don’t Judge the Significance of a New Innovation by the Quality of Early Implementations
To properly gauge the potential of a new technology, you must see past the flaws in early versions.
Ask yourself what this experience might look like if it was 10x faster, smaller, cheaper, or better.
– From The Startup Daily
Without a name, strategies, decisions, and behaviors are abstract concepts. But when names are attached, complex situations such as “bait and switch”, “superiority complex”, or “Achilles’ heel” are instantly understood.
– From The Startup Daily
To Dramatically Improve Your Understanding of a Situation, Give it a Name
Names help us learn, make sense of, and take control of a situation. The framework provided by a name improves our ability to quickly recognize and respond to that situation in the future.
Nobody wants to follow someone who has a habit of spreading gloom.
People Turn to Leaders for Optimism—and They Turn to The Optimistic for Leadership
Try to see find the positive in any situation, and share it with others.
Even small improvements in your attitude will have a noticeable impact on those around you. Figure out the little things that make you feel good and build them into your daily routine.
– From The Startup Daily
75% of your efforts on the web should be off of your own site.
It’s Not What You Say, It’s What Others Say About You
Whatever your business, there are social networks, blogs, and forums where your target market is already spending time. Contribute to these communities, and you will create roads leading back to your own site.
A company’s web site should be a hub. The more connections to your hub, the more visible you will be.
– From The Startup Daily
One of primary traits that separate those who consistently innovate from everyone else is the innovator’s habit of constantly asking questions. While everyone else worries about appearing dumb or being too forward, innovators question every assumption.
Don’t Let Fear of Looking Stupid Stop You From Asking Important Questions
Questioning is how insights are gained and new paths reveal themselves. Begin by asking “what is the current situation?” and “why?”, and move on to asking “what if?”
All great solutions began with asking the right questions.
If you want to scale your business, you need to separate yourself from the role you play. Train your business to run without you.
When Employees Come to You for Help, Don’t Just Fix their Problem, Fix the System
Establish a repeatable process for the employee to follow that prevents the problem from occurring in the future. It may take more time up front, but spending that time once means the problem gets solved for good, freeing you to focus on other parts of your business.
Don’t water down your vision in an effort to appeal to a broader market.
Proudly Exclude People
It’s a big world, you can confidently leave out 99% of it.
The more narrow your focus is, the more passionate your customers will be about you and your business.
You don’t need to be especially brilliant to be successful in accomplishing your goals.
Intelligence can even work against you at times—intelligent people often make simple things more complicated than they need to be.
Intelligence is Not a Prerequisite for Success, but Determination Is
Your journey will be filled with unseen difficulties. There will be many opportunities to give up along the way. Stubborn determination will be your greatest asset through these challenges.
