Sep25
Tags: irresistible, LinkedIn, Liz, value proposition
Which Is More Attractive?
Last night, I got email asking “Do you have something special planned for the weekend?”
It’s not my favorite question, because I hardly ever have that “Oh yeah, I’m doing the fun thing answer.”
Since the time when a Saturday was a day off school, weekends are the days when we’re supposed to get to those things that we don’t get to do when other days fill up with things we sometimes can’t choose.
So suppose someone offered you a chance to do one of two things with your Saturday …
- Get to the 11:00 AM commuter train, ride for an hour out to the most exclusive suburb where you’ve never been before. Upon arrival you’re asked to catch a car to an address at the corner of Private Road and Exclusive Lane to attend 200-person social event for the celebrity who lives there. The acquaintance inviting you is the only person you are likely to know. Still, the event is likely to be an amazing, one-of-kind experience. Dress is formal.
- Meet a friend at a local bistro, where he has reserved a private room for 8 people you know — his treat to celebrate his new business — after which you’ll just hang and talk for as long as you want to.
Which do you choose?
In my experience in personal choices and business choices — when faced with a sure winner and higher yield / higher risk complicated contender most folks choose the almost all opt for the simple deal.
A simple, clear value proposition is can be responded to quickly. Simple is attractive, comfortable, easy.
- It’s easy to understand.
- It’s easy to trust.
- It’s easy to judge its value.
- It’s easy to explain to others.
- It’s easy to verify that the promise is being kept.
Too many obstacles offer reasons to say “no.”
Too many bells and whistles confuse the value.
Too many unknown lower trust.
That’s how simple can be irresistible.
Be irresistible
Liz Strauss
Find out more about working with Liz
Sep22
Tags: irresistible, LinkedIn, Liz, niche
Narrow Your Niche, Widen Your Opportunity
On the last night of SOBCon Colorado I spoke with someone about a project she’s working on. She was having trouble naming it. The project, in her mind was almost done. I asked a few questions. They made her nervous — certainly not my intent. I slowed myself down.
“Who will find you irresistible?” I asked.
She didn’t want to answer. Then I realized what was going on. Well, actually she told me.
“I don’t like to make decisions. Who an I to think I’m an expert?”
Boy I know that problem. But let’s turn it around.
Who wants to use a product from someone who’s not?
It’s Hard to Be the Expert of Everything for Everyone
As we delved further into her concept, what I found was that the territory she was trying to cover was way too wide for a first step. Because the content base was so huge the audience would include almost every kind of person from 21 to 65 who might step out their door to meet another one around the idea of business, social media, or tech in any place in the world. It’s no wonder she didn’t feel qualified to be an expert. Who would?
Here’s where narrowing your niche becomes more than a great idea and turns into strategy. Consider these points:
- When we choose a narrow niche, we can go deeply vertical. We get to know one certain group of people very well. We know who were talking to. That lets us know which words are in their vocabularly, which metaphors are theirs, which sorts of ideas get them to move.
- When we choose a narrow niche, we get the world of that specific customer group. We can more easily imagine and think about the ways they make decisions and what they worry about. We more easily decide ourselves what features and benefits serve them well and what will be just so much more noise to what they’re doing.
- When we choose a narrow niche, we can closely study the specific problems of that singular customer group. We get to know what frustrates them, what they yearn for, wish for, and which they never saw again. We have special insight into their view.
And as a result of narrowing our niche, they quickly recognize that we “get” them, that we’ve built a product or service that was made for them, and they become our fans and tell they friends that they should too.
It starts with a decision to be irresistible to one specific group. Then we can move out slowly to the group that stands right next to them.
Which group will you serve first?
Be irresistible.
Liz Strauss
How can I help you be irresistible?
Sep20
Tags: irresisitble, LinkedIn, preselection, SOBCon
Thoughts, Words, Actions
This morning my son sent me a passel of photos he took last May at SOBCon2010 It took a few minutes to download them all. But those few minutes were punctuated with lovely memories and glimpses of familiar faces. They recalled a weekend of working together to build a barn.
Rather than uploading the entire photo roll to flicker — the good, the bad, and the oh so not attractive — the way the photos came was irresistible.
- The photos were only the best. My son took the time to choose those that he thought were the best. That led me to spend my time on those that I truly enjoyed and could find great uses for.
- He had weeded out those that were less attractive. He saved me time having to sort our the ones I’d probably never use. He saved me space on my computer, probably knowing I’d never be able to toss images of my friends once I had them.
- The wow was that he delivered them to me. He fit the process easily into my life by emailing them to me. That was nicely done. It’s far easier to locate and keep them in my gmail account. When I want to access and share an image from my iphone it’s already there.
So I used the time I that I might have used sorting and reviewing photos to choose four or five that were outstanding images of attendees and send them on as a surprise to the people who were so beautifully depicted in them.
Being irresistible is mostly thinking about how to makes someone’s else life easier, faster, more meaningful.
What irresistible thing will you do today?
Liz Strauss
How can I help you be more irresistible?
