telescope or epocselet? Which way are you looking?

How often do you glaze over when someone enthuses about a product or service because you don't "get it"?

They blast off without the faintest idea about your circumstances, your needs or your desires. Result, a baffled story-teller and a semi-comatose listener.

In extremis, it's the religious zealots who knock on your door. But milder forms exist - the Facebook enthusiasts who are always trying to shove some dodgy philosophy down your throat - usually through pictures or video links. (Recommendation: 'unfollow' them - they stay in your friends list but you're spared the distraction.)

Sadly, these zealots exist in business too. Some organisations are so wrapped up in their own inventions that all their publicity and promotional activities are inward-looking. Self-obsessed, if you like. And this goes for the company spokespeople too. Anyone who says 'we' more than 'you' is likely to be guilty of this.(By the way, you can get a chart of where you stand, by doing this quick assessment - it takes just a couple of minutes.)

Once you start putting your prospect first (in the same way that all good journalists put their readers first) your story will emerge as something your prospect wants to hear or read. Something that promises to, and will, deliver a desired value. This will lead them to your physical or digital door and, if you continue to play your cards right, you'll have a new customer.

Common sense? Yes. But, in decades of dialogue with vendors of all kinds, I've discovered that many actually fail to make that bridge. They pay lip-service to the principle, but their words let them down. When consulting (often with Martin Banks and, more recently, with Dr. Bill Nichols), we've found ourselves using the term 'looking through the wrong end of the telescope' to describe this inward-looking approach.

We've even created a website called epocselet.com (that's 'telescope' backwards) as an umbrella for our disparate but aligned services. Our focus is firmly on executive management and we'd be delighted to act as guides or sounding boards in the discovery, articulation and sharing of your stories. Use us as little or as much of us as you like.

The journalist's mantra 'know your audience' can be applied equally in business. Change 'audience' to 'prospect' if you want, but the principle applies to anyone trying to influence anyone else, whether a prospect or an intermediary. If you're in business, you may have multiple audiences but, at heart, you're trying to move the same stories through to the ultimate audience, your prospect. You may be trying to influence internal staff, analysts, bloggers, journalists and the many social media cascades. In every case you need to ask yourself, "what's in it for them?", in order to refine the basic story to best effect.

Written baldly like that, it seems like common sense. But sometimes it's hard to change your perspective without independent and objective help. It's not my place to tell you where to go for this. Anyone intelligent who understands communication skills, your marketplace and who has no axe to grind will be able to help you.

But I have to mention that Bill, Martin and I - solo or in various permutations would be more than happy to help you if you're interested. You'll find more about us and our services at epocselet.com

 

Comments

[David Tebbutt]

Luis: we've exchanged comments elsewhere (just in case anyone's wondering why I seem to have ignored your comment). But thanks, again. We have refined our thoughts further since this post and I've not yet updated the site. I'll update very soon.

Colin: Thanks for the kind remarks. And, if your second 'go' was truthful, nice to see you came out as a classic 'pioneer'.

[Colin Reynolds]

The quick assessment tool -- http://www.epocselet.com/profile.html -- you offer here is very impressive!

[Luis Suarez]

Hi David, this is just such a terrific piece of news, my friend! I am rather excited for the three of you about how this new adventure would work out. I'm pretty sure it will be lots of great fun and a smashing success! Big congratulations to all of you and really look forward to finding out about the plenty of amazing things you will be able to do with clients! Best of luck!