Be
Sure to Sell Your Story, Not Your Product
As we stumble toward a post-pandemic economy, here are three
rules to keep in mind as you re-engage with customers, especially those who
have wildly unrealistic expectations.
BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER,
G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN
Customers are returning. In-person events are resuming.
(Springsteen on Broadway-- the Boss is back in town!) Orders are slowly
creeping up to pre-pandemic levels. Offices are looking more like going concerns
than graveyards, for at least a few days a week. Kids are headed back to
school. And, throughout it all, the stock market continues to soar.
In fact, almost all the trends today are happily up and to the
right, unless you're an unvaccinated Trump voter living in a Red State led by
arrogant MAGA idiots and hypocritical vax deniers. Then, your chances of dying
are increasing. Meanwhile the country's economic recovery continues to be
threatened by vaccine resisters and new virus variants which their willful
ignorance facilitates and helps disburse.
But, even as most things are headed in the preferred direction,
every business needs to be more careful now than ever not to squander the
once-in-a-lifetime restart opportunity that is in front of them. To aggressively
build back and build better, but with some considerable degree of care. It's not going to be easy with demand rapidly spiking,
employees deciding not to return or returning half-heartedly, resources and
supply chains still constrained, prices of materials and components inflating.
And, worst of all, consumer expectations haven't adjusted anywhere near
realistically to the new, more modest business offerings and service levels.
This is due largely to their desperate thirst for the good old days.
People were reasonably understanding during the peak days of the
pandemic, but now that the social, political and peer pressures are
diminishing, at least for the moment, the gloves have also come off. We're
quickly returning to a greedily grasping world of "I want it all and I
want it right now." Tolerance and moderation are much harder to come by as
the scramble for scarce products, services, properties, and reservations is
full on. Airline passengers continue to act out in aggressive and hostile ways.
Waiting, sharing, or the willingness to accept even a little less of just about
anything in order to make room for others, is strictly for wusses. This
selfishness masquerading as individual freedom is just one of the many Trump
legacies that we'll have to live with for a long time. We have to start dealing
with it now.
You've got to be ready to meet these new challenges if you want
your business to succeed, and the window for doing so is quickly closing. There
likely won't be much of a opportunity for second chances or do-overs.
Everyone's in too much of a hurry, wants whatever they can get, and the
prevailing sentiment seems to be that settling (not happily) for a little
something is better than ending up with nothing.
This is a different game and a different mindset than many
businesses have faced in the past and - for better or worse - this means that
their "stories," the tales they tell their customers, are going to
have to change and adapt as well. But some basic rules of the game never
change. You've just got to keep them top of mind in all you do.
It starts with a simple formula: satisfaction equals experiences
exceeding expectations. SEE for short and SEEing is believing. If you focus on
telling the right story to your customers and setting the proper expectations,
and then deliver against those promises, you'll have long term customers who
are happy campers willing to stick with you as things improve over time. It's
still a WYSIWYG world - what you see is what you get. In this universe, the
best story always wins.
On the other hand, if you overpromise or try to move too quickly to
do everything you used to do, you're almost certain to disappoint them and
fail. And, as an aside, you'll also burn out your employees, whose angst will
become painfully apparent. The best ones will leave, and the underperformers
will "quit" without leaving, which is even worse.
In troubled times, it's hard to overestimate the importance of
the reassuring connections your customers had and have with your front-line
employees - not just your senior management team. Keeping them all happy is critical because your customers
will never be happier than your least happy employee.
So, three key rules to keep in mind:
(1) People buy stories, not things. Your story for today
needs to closely and carefully match exactly what you can consistently deliver
at the moment and your whole team needs to be onboard and committed to the
plan. You'll get better over time, but for now you should definitely plan to
under-promise and over-deliver. Don't rush; do a few important things really
well.
(2) Stories are a powerful way to build loyalty and
maintain connections. Your story needs to be about acknowledging, understanding
and valuing your customers' needs and desires. There needs to be a simple
explanation of how you expect to satisfy them through hard work, honest
communications, and a continued personal commitment to getting better every day
- just as they will be. Make them an integral part of the program and partners
in the solution.
(3) Stay away from pitching math or metrics or relying on
technology for now. Everyone has the same tools these days-- they offer no edge
or competitive advantage. What matters is who has their hearts and heads in the
right place and can best tell their story. This is the time for an authentic
people-to-people pitch and no amount of cold technology, stats, or spreadsheets
can ever turn a sterile story into a heartfelt one. People don't make emotional
decisions based on numbers, they fall in love with your story, or they find
someone else.
AUG 3, 2021
