How to turn “I don’t get it” into seamless engagement
Okay, so you’ve got your business idea and you’re thinking it’s probably about time to start sharing it with the wider world. I want to share with you my approach to spreading the word about The Good Business Club in the first few years and what I’ve learned that’s enabled us to engage the audience we want.
1. Talk to the right audience
No matter where you are in the journey of getting the word out about your business, you will no doubt have already had at least one conversation where the person either hasn’t fully understood the concept, they offered a “better” way of approaching it, or you’ve left the conversation feeling like you’ve had to convince them that it was a good idea.
The first rule of bringing a business idea in to the world is accepting that it isn’t for everyone, no matter how much you believe it is. As humans, we are used to living in a bubble alongside people like us so we assume the whole world is made up of people like us. It isn’t, and the sooner you can get who this is for and isn’t, the easier you’ll find it to take on or disregard feedback based on how relevant it is to the business.
I could write a whole blog piece on this because it’s fascinating and so important, but I’ll leave that for another time.
The first mindset I’ve developed is getting clear in every conversation that I have on whom I am talking to in terms of the stakeholders to the business. Is this someone who would fit the profile of the type of customer we are looking to serve? Or are they someone whom you see as an ally in the ecosystem? If not then, with utter respect, their opinion isn’t one that you need to be too concerned about.
2. Adopt a learning mindset
Now, we are all human. Even if we know the feedback we got from Aunt Samira isn’t relevant because she isn’t someone who would engage with the business, hearing criticism or concern when you’re early on in the journey will have an impact on your confidence. You’re probably apprehensive of sharing the idea with others.
The second mindset to build is one in which feedback is seen as a contribution to the evolution of the idea, not a reason it won’t work.
In all honesty, if someone isn’t understanding your business concept, the problem you are trying to solve or the value you are trying to bring to the world - that’s not their fault. It’s yours, as the communicator of the idea. And it’s your job to develop the messaging so that the stakeholders you are trying to engage get what you’re up to.
So rather than resist and push against the questions or concerns, take on a mindset instead that listens and learns from their contribution.
For example, if the first question everyone asks when you share the idea is “who is this for?”, do the work to understand who it is for and weave that into the introduction so the next time you share the concept with someone, they have the information they are looking for already.
3. Focus on the benefits
I spent the first two years of launching The Good Business Club focused on two things - why we had set up the Club and our big vision, and the features members could expect if they joined. On reflection, I know we’ve only got as far as we had because ‘our why’ was so clear and enrolling.
Although customers will want to understand the features they are buying, that comes a lot later down the line in terms of communicating your business. What they really want to know is what impact engaging with your business will have on them. What are the benefits you offer?
As someone who is very feature orientated, I found uncovering the benefits really hard. The access point in the end, which I’ve got to shout out Ben Bennett for supporting me with, was getting really focused on who our customer was (really niche down) and then practice finishing our features list with “so that..” sentences until you can’t add another “so that..” to the end.
For example, our feature of “matching members to others in the community with relevant experience” extended to “so that you can set up a business without decades of experience behind you”.
These three mindsets have enabled us to evolve our communication over the years to something that lands for our audience. I hope they enable you to craft words that have that same impact for your business.
Nicola Telford, Views for Change on 1-2-1 Mentoring
“It didn't surprise me that whenever I laid out issues or challenges, Sara would not only offer advice and suggestions based on her own experience but would selflessly connect me to others who were specialists in those areas.”