Category Archives for "Purpose"

0 Your Business Purpose: Supplier or Consumer?

Last Wednesday, I discussed the idea: profit is not the purpose of business.  The post was the first in a sequence about profit.  Today, I’ll explore another idea about the purpose of business.  A business is a supplier of goods, services and perhaps other things too!

Let’s start with maths. It makes sense for businesses to be suppliers. After all, if the business is a net consumer then it is making a loss. However, business is not so simple. Any product or service has costs attached.  It is not unknown to supply something and then discover its costs are greater than the charge attached.

Supplier of Information

The contribution successful businesses make to the economy is their knowledge about how to deliver things at minimal cost. This value triangle, helps us see how it is possible to choose any two out of three positive criteria. You can have a high quality service fast but you will have to pay for it. In this instance, the business passes its costs to the customer. The customer able to wait for the business to find low-cost suppliers, will find the overall cost to be lower.

This holds true for pretty much all businesses. What they do is identify a problem and find a low-cost solution.

The Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur keeps their eyes and ears open. They seek opportunities of potential benefit to their market and deliver them at low cost. They know, for example, how to persuade other businesses to offer their services at low or no cost.

The entrepreneur knows how to bring people together to work on innovative solutions to problems. They educate their contacts by providing opportunities to practice new approaches that solve problems, open up new markets, encourage collaboration and build the local economy.  Ideally everyone involved benefits, this mutual benefit is the badge of honour worn by all true entrepreneurs.

Usually, a good story results from the work of entrepreneurs. Do you have any to share?

0 Profit is Not the Purpose of Business

It’s time to talk about money.  Perhaps this is a taboo subject.  But we all need to come clean.  It is easy to reject profit and at the same time be mistress of the arcane art of grant applications.  Community activity, just like business, depends on money.

This quotation is from a contemporary economist from Scotland, called John Kay:

Profit is no more the purpose of business, than breathing is the purpose of life.

Profit, or money in general, is not the purpose of business but its means.  We think about money in the wrong way.  It is essentially dynamic and has purpose when in use.

As soon as we think of money as something to accumulate, we lose sight of its purpose.  The purpose of business is to do stuff.  This is true whether you are a business, a community organisation, a church, a local authority …

Two massive mistakes seem to pull in opposite directions.  Both believe business exists to generate profit.  Profit is essential for business survival, just as breathing is essential for human life.  We don’t live to breathe, do we?  So, why do we think business exists for profit?

Because the profit motive is the root of modern economic thinking. There are broadly two mistaken approaches: one embraces profit as the purpose of business, the other rejects it.

Profit as the Purpose of Business

A profit-centred approach leads to inequality.  Let’s clear away a few myths.  First, there is nothing wrong with some people owning more than others, so long as everyone is able to live with dignity.

A strictly equal society would be equal at sword point.  Only violence could enforce strict equality and those holding the sword would of course never succumb to temptation and accumulate more for themselves!

The problem is we are measuring the wrong thing when we measure personal wealth.  We need to measure wealth to understand inequality but the most important measure is money in circulation.

Societies can be less unequal than they are today.  They were, for example in the mid-twentieth century, when two world wars eroded inequality.

Profit-Centred Business Ideology

What does it mean when profit becomes the purpose of business?  It legitimises selfishness and dishonesty.  For the profit-centred business person the aim is to use any means to accumulate capital.

Regulation becomes offensive because in a completely unregulated market, personal power counts.  Lust for power erodes human relationships and apportions blame to weaker people.  Typically, subjugation of women and others on grounds of ethnicity happens because the powerful need groups they can blame when things go wrong.

This approach fixes on a mythical past when things were better.  It is a nostalgic worldview, based on pure fantasy.  But nostalgia plays well with many people and so populist movements can grow around charismatic business owners.

In 2016, we saw the triumph of Arron Banks in the UK and Donald Trump in the US.  Both are billionaires with the common touch.  Both focus solely on the profit motive.  They exercise a reactionary power that targets democracy because they believe democracy gets in the way of business.

They exist because the ideology of profit-first lends them legitimacy.  Their belief that business equates to profit leads to massive corporations extracting finance from the economy and so increasing inequality.  On a smaller scale, business becomes cutthroat, reducing collaboration and denying society the contribution businesses can make when they recognise a role beyond their immediate profit.

Rejection of Business Because of Profit

No-one can afford to make this mistake any more.  By rejecting business as a legitimate approach, we allow the political right to decide the purpose of business.  The pendulum has swung so far in that direction that it is almost impossible to get alternatives heard.

The reactionary right has succeeded because they have created a delusional alternative to the prevailing economic system that will in all respects be worse because it is committed to deregulation and is anti-democratic.

Radical movements do not have to reject business and indeed the idea they must is a late twentieth century mistake.  The problem radicals have is the mirror to the reactionaries, who focus on an imaginary past, while radicals live in an imaginary future.

Equality, democracy and all the freedoms we value depend upon people collaborating to resist those who would control our lives in the name of profit.  This is true here and now.

By rejecting business, radicals have allowed the right to control the market. Now the reactionary right are seeking political control, where they can deregulate our markets, increase inequality and destroy democracy.  They deploy their prejudices to mask their real values.  Deregulation benefits the corporations and disadvantages local businesses.  Those who would oppose them deny themselves the means to do so when they reject business as a legitimate activity.

So, this sequence will help you understand money, not in terms of nostalgia for a mythical past or dreams of an imagined future.  We need business rooted in present realities, building localised markets and mutual values.

0 Belief in Yourself

In this final post about self-employment, I explore self-belief. Belief in yourself, when no-one else shares that belief.

The truth is, everyone is better than I am.  They are better than I am at one or more things.  I am also better than any person at one or more things.  If I focus on the former, I shall feel under pressure.  When I focus on the latter, perhaps less so.

However, where I am better at something, it depends on who I’m compared with.  This is not a recipe for superiority.  The way I see it, we all have something to contribute on a small or large-scale and this may vary depending on context.

Your Market

Your market is the people who benefit from your unique contribution.  In this sense everyone has a market, even if their market is one person.  A carer may primarily care for one person, for example.

So, your market is those who hear what you’re saying, understand it and want your help.  You need to express your offer clearly and help people connect with you to decide whether working together will be mutually beneficial.

You also need to communicate clearly with people not in your market but may know people who are seeking your service.  Arriving at a clear statement of what you offer takes time.

You need self-belief while you work out your offer to your market.  In the early days, when no-one is interested, it can be difficult.  You know you can do the job and need to believe enough to persuade others.

Your Offer

Remember, if it feels like no-one believes in you, you must not share their belief.  You need the belief of your market only; their understanding of your offer matters and not really anyone else’s.

I find it most difficult handling, often well-intentioned, peer assessments of my offer.  Most of what they tell me is helpful but sometimes I’m not so convinced they are right.

For example, it has become clearer that my offer is primarily for coaches or consultants; people in business because they have something they believe will benefit others.  So why, they say, do I continue to bang on about community and the local economy?

I don’t talk like other marketers and there are at least two reasons for this:

We all need to find the language that will be heard by our market.

Belief in Yourself

I’m largely self-taught.  I’ve followed many courses and worked on various projects and built a portfolio of experience.

I don’t have fixed views on what is viable.  My experience informs my views.  I may ask a client whether they have considered an alternative approach or thought about their offer in a different way.

I have my views on what works and the pattern of support I offer is to some degree predictable.  But the real value is in the ways we adjust the approach to the client’s needs.  We do that by exploring the client’s business at a depth they have not experienced.  They describe their business in detail and I respond to that description.

Am I right?  I am the right choice for my clients, so far.  I am not a good choice for the business-person who knows exactly what help they need.  They may be better off with a specialist.  Most people who freelance rarely find opportunities to share about their business in depth.

So, yes I believe in my business.  I need that belief to keep going.  If my self-belief falters, I could go under.  Self-belief matters to me and to you.

How do you hold onto belief in yourself?

0 How to Practice Self-Motivation

Life as a freelance can be isolated.  This can be an advantage, with fewer distractions and freedom to get on with the work in your own time.  But it can be hard over the long haul and so today, I share some thoughts about three dimensions of self-motivation.

I live alone and I know that makes a big difference.  I find it hard to imagine the detailed practical issues someone faces working from home in a family setting.

Boundaries in those circumstances are likely to be harder to put in place and to maintain.  I can imagine opening my office door and finding three cats, a dog, a toddler and spouse, all waiting for my attention.  It would soon drive me crackers!

But even so, perhaps there are aspects of my experience, other freelancers may find helpful.

Self-Motivation

I know many people have problems with motivation and so it perhaps doesn’t help for me to claim I don’t share this problem.

One key to this is routine.  I know any time of the day or week what I should be doing.  This is not compulsive behaviour, I can vary it when I need to.  The value of routine is I don’t have to think about what I need to do next.

I divide the day into three parts.  Mornings when I follow-up desk work, afternoons when I walk and meet people informally and evenings are for more desk work and meetings.

I find walking really helpful and so I walk every day.  This is for health reasons but also it is an effective way to tackle complex problems.  Away from my desk, perspective can lead to a breakthrough for some problem or other.

I am enthusiastic about what I am doing.  Most days I can’t wait to set to work on whatever I am preparing.  If bored or uninspired by what you are doing, perhaps you need a change in direction?

Self-Validation

This is a tough issue because I depend on others’ validation.  When someone takes me on as a coach, they validate my work.  When they write a testimonial, they validate my work.

However, self-validation is also important.  One reason is I believe my chosen work is unique and as such it is my responsibility.  The hardest thing is explaining my vision.  This is a challenge all businesses face when marketing, finding the language that makes sense to their market.  It also needs to make sense to those who might refer you to prospects.

People are always keen to show you the error of your ways, to point to practitioners who are highly successful because they’re not using your approach.  It may take forever to prove your approach and no-one will do that for you.

Of course you can’t fully articulate it from the outset; it takes time to find the right keynote.  You need to validate your own results.  You need to decide whether you are still confident in your own approach.

Self-Reinforcement

So, it is important to be able to hold your position.  Not because you are necessarily right but you know your underlying perspective is not being heard.

I know that my developmental approach to marketing works.  I understand how it differs from other approaches to marketing.  The challenge I have is finding the words that make sense to others and so I need their reaction.  It has taken me a long time to get this far and I hope I have almost completed my journey.

During that journey I have received a lot of advice, some of it impatient.  I have heard all of it and noted it.  Some of it I will use at a later date.  Some I have concluded is not for me.  Use it or not, I am grateful because all of it helps me know what is essential and what I need to change.

How do you motivate, validate and reinforce your work as a freelance?

2 Repeated Failure and How to Keep Going

Repeated failure is most peoples’ experience, especially in business.  Some people claim the secret to business success is repeated attempts in the teeth of repeated failure.  Sooner or later you will try something that works!

Complacency

However, this is no reason for complacency.  There may be more you can do to find out where you are going wrong and taking steps to tackle it.

Think about your failures and try to discern if there is a pattern to them.  You may be lacking some skill or knowledge.  There are several ways you can address a problem like this.  You may be able to train or pay someone to provide the skill.

Many self-employed people are excellent at implementing their offer but lack the skills they need to run their business.  Failures may be a good learning environment, so long as you seek help and make sure you learn from them.

Organisational Culture

It is important to understand organisations develop a culture that is difficult to change.  Even though the culture may negative, it becomes hard to change because everyone has invested in it.

So, if you are part of an organisation, consider the possibility you need to make deep changes if it is to be a viable player in the marketplace.

Patterns of Behaviour

Most of us practice patterns of behaviour we find difficult to change.  If you use a common personality test such as Myers-Briggs or the Enneagram, you will find out more about your own strengths and weaknesses.

These tests are not determinative in the sense they are saying you cannot change your behaviour.  What they do is show you how you work effectively.  You can achieve anything you wish; what is important is how you set about it.  A method that works for a different personality type, may not work for you.

Learning from Failure

Of course, it is important to learn from failure.  You can’t avoid failure, it’s built into what you do.  Use it as a learning opportunity.

Above all, ask how you can monetise your failures or the lessons you learn from them.  Your prospects may struggle with similar issues and your experience could be helpful.

This is particularly true for recurring problems, deeply embedded in the behaviour of a person or organisation.  Sometimes it takes time to understand the nature of a problem and how to approach it.

If you can hold a mirror to someone’s behaviour, help them to see a new way forward, then you are acting as a coach or consultant.  This role is crucial to many businesses and may be a possibility for yours.

How have you managed repeated failure?

0 Failure and How to Keep Going

Failure is a set back and often hurts, not just financially.  To some degree you get used to it.  It is perhaps best not to become too used to it because if you make a habit of failure, complacency is perhaps not the right response (see my post next Wednesday).

But if this is your first failure, how do you handle it?

Review Your Failure

First, ask yourself: Why did this happen?  Here are some possible answers, not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Learn the Lessons

I’ve already referred to this in the list of possible causes.  Spend time considering what the lessons actually are.  Sometimes there’s more than one lesson.  What happened and what steps did you take to prevent it?  Were they effective?  If not, why not?

How you respond to them depends on exactly what the problem was.  If it was bad management, then usually it is possible to learn from it and try again, somewhat wiser.  Sometimes though, it is because you have an offer that is not viable.  This can be difficult.

Imagine an author whose manuscript is rejected.  The manuscript could be awful and the rejection perfectly rational.  The author may not agree but is it because they are over-rating their own work or because it is so innovative, publishers cannot see its worth?  There are stories of the latter.

Now apply that to your own offer.  You believe in it but is rejection because it doesn’t fit your market or because you are not marketing it appropriately?  Do you need to scrap it and start over, re-package it or market it differently?  Or any combination thereof?

This can become frustrating, so perhaps a way forward is to use failure creatively.  Is there some way you can build the lessons into your business and monetise them?  If it is possible many people encounter the same problem, you may be able to offer a solution.

Move on

Don’t dwell on it.  If you become risk averse, you will find endless tasks to carry out short of actively marketing your business.  You have had a setback, a setback that could have improved your offer.  So, get back in the driving seat and drive!

This doesn’t mean you forget it; all experience is valuable and you may be able to draw on it at some stage in the future.  Business can be frustrating, especially if you keep making the same mistakes.  So, we’ll look at that next time.

Please share stories of failure and your creative response to it.

0 How to Respond to Feedback

The first thing to say is you are lucky if you receive feedback, really lucky!  Most people don’t care enough about what you are doing, to offer even negative feedback.  Those offering malicious feedback will think twice because if they are right you are doomed anyway and if wrong, it could be embarrassing!

So, welcome feedback and be gracious about it.  Even if the feedback is negative, chances are it is well-intentioned and if the word gets out you jump down peoples’ throats when unhappy with their feedback, the chances are you’ll soon never receive any.

Express Gratitude

Be grateful for the feedback, whether positive or negative.  Express your gratitude and ask if you can quote it as a testimonial in whole or in part.  Can you attribute it, mentioning their name and business name?  You can ask for a photo or even a video of their comments.  In other words, treat it as you would a testimonial, until you know otherwise.

You can find more information about how to manage testimonials  elsewhere in this blog.  You need a strategy to gather them and they will not always be positive or even well-written but the chances are even the most negative will include something positive.  If someone has taken the trouble to write something negative, the chances are they think you’re worth the comment.

Address the Feedback

Let’s assume the feedback is negative.  Much of what follows can be similar if the feedback is positive.

Read the comments and make sure you understand them.  Make yourself read them carefully.  I often find my first impression is far worse than the feedback really is.  What are they actually saying?  Often there is something constructive and valuable in what they have written.

Ask yourself, whether the comments are valid and if so what action you can take.  Remember, sometimes people offer you a solution.  Approach this with caution.  They may say something like, “I don’t find your website helpful, why don’t you do this instead  …”

It is really important to work out what the problem is first.  Don’t assume their solution is the right one.  Even if it is the right solution, the chances are once you understand the problem, you can improve on it.

Sometimes, you may need a conversation to check out your interpretation of their comments.  If so, you may not need to respond further because you have shown you have taken their intervention seriously.

If you make changes, reply to the person who provided the feedback.  Tell them what you have done in response to it.

If they find you take a positive approach, they are likely to feel able to provide future feedback and may recommend you to others.

Finally, don’t overdo it.  Be professional about your response and once you have replied, drop it and move on.

Going Public

Sometimes you will receive feedback in a public arena.  This is very common on social media.  Let’s leave aside vexatious comments (don’t feed the trolls) and consider sincere comments that invite a response.

The difference here is people may have already seen the comment and so you need to respond in a way that shows publicly you have taken it seriously.

Thank the commenter in public.  Ask questions of clarification if you need to and then deal with the comment.  Be brief, professional and prompt.

Sometimes people have a legitimate concern although it is peripheral to your business.  Simply, apologise and promise to bear their concern in mind in the future.  If you sound sincere, the chances are you will hear no more about it.

Have you any examples of responses to feedback that backfired?  What happened and how did you deal with it?

0 Handling Success

Success can be just as stressful as rejection.  With success you can contemplate the joys of delivering a service to a new client but it is actually a great responsibility. So, take time to take stock and decide your strategy.

Celebration

Celebration is painful for those of us who don’t naturally take to having fun at the drop of a hat.  But taking time to pause and take stock after winning a big client is never a bad idea.  Some of my best ideas come at times of repose.  By all means take a note-book to your celebrations.  A notebook is a brilliant aid to forgetting.  Just jot down a legible and coherent note and then forget it until you’re back at your desk.

Keeping Track

If you have lots of clients, consider customer relations management (CRM).  There are several well-known packages that offer you everything you need.  Perhaps you won’t need a full CRM system when you start but bear it in mind for later.

There are other tools you can use to ease your journey.  Use Office tools, email service providers, etc to organise during the early stages of your business.  As your business grows you will need more help and you can take it on as you need it.

Don’t forget you may need a Personal Assistant as your business grows.  They handle matters like CRM and free you to pay attention to your clients.

Be Generous

Finally, don’t forget to over-deliver.  Bonuses can be a good way to build a relationship with your clients.  Sometimes you can offer opportunities that also help you out.  You know you can work together and so it is natural to invite participation in relevant activities where you can help each other out.

Besides that there are many other products and services you can offer beyond what you contracted to deliver.

However, be aware you may find it difficult to manage many spontaneous bonus activities.  Better to schedule in a few unannounced bonuses, so you can add them into your routine.

How do you celebrate business success?

0 Re-Enchanting the Urban Environment

I suppose this is a dilemma for me, although I don’t see it that way.  I am still a community development worker at heart and subscribe to its values despite making my way in the conventional business world.  This Wednesday I was involved in three activities that related to campaigning for the Urban Environment.

After a business breakfast, where I promoted my Facebook Live campaign, described in last Friday’s post and my webinar about the local economy, I spoke at the Urban Theology Unit (UTU).

Re-Enchantment of Dark Holy Ground

I’ve been a Trustee of UTU for many years and the meeting was an introduction to the new director’s recently published book.  The book is “Re-enchanting the Activist: Spirituality and Social Change” by Keith Hebden (affiliate link).  I haven’t read it yet and I will review it as soon as I have.  They asked me to comment on the book; no mean feat given that I hadn’t read it!

I spoke about my experience in Cleveland County during the 1980s, a time of overwhelming unemployment.  The discovery by long-term unemployed of the dark face of God and that many were living on Dark Holy Ground.  Sometimes empowerment comes from the darkest of places.  This contrasts with self-help approaches that sometimes seem relentlessly cheery.

I’m sure the experience most people have of being highly sceptical or even cynical about just about everything, including marketing campaigns and political campaigns.  Many people are seriously disenchanted although this does not always lead them to choosing the right people to follow.

Save Sheffield’s Trees

After that I joined a demonstration outside the Town Hall before the council meeting, after the early morning tree removal on Rustlings Road earlier in the month.  I’ve known that road for all of my life and it was a beautiful road before the forced removal of 11 trees, most of which had earned a reprieve from the Council’s tree panel.

It involved 22 police officers knocking on doors at 4.30 in the morning, to ask people to remove their cars.

The Council has entered a 25 year PFI contract with a contractor that sees trees as an obstacle to maintaining roads and pavements.  It seems this contract overrides democratic accountability.  This takes us to the nub of the tensions we all feel about business.

Few people would argue that business is essential to community.  Everyone needs income and businesses need lots of people with money to spend.  If we build public spaces, then business is necessary.  But it is not sufficient.

Public spaces are where people interact and trees are an essential part of those spaces.  As soon as we allow specious arguments about efficiency to tear down what makes our spaces humane, we are losing track of the purpose of our lives.  And it seems there are some businesses that power this destructive tendency.  Most business owners have little problem with the idea that as citizens they are accountable democratically.  But it seems size and power clouds judgement for some business owners and politicians.

This is why I and many other Sheffielders have joined STAG (Sheffield Tree Action Groups).  You can join on their Facebook page; follow the link and click on join.

Proposal to Convert the Sheffield’s Central Library into a 5-Star Hotel

Sheffield Central Library, Surrey Street. © Copyright Chris Downer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Then I met up with Billal Jamal from the Public Speaking Academy (affiliate link).   He suggested we use Facebook Live to conduct an impromptu Vox Pop about the proposals to convert Sheffield’s Central Library into a 5-star hotel.  The building houses several libraries and the Graves Art Gallery.  The paintings and indeed the art deco building were gifts to the city; contributed by JG Graves, a prominent business man in the early twentieth century.

If you follow the link you will find the video at the top of my Facebook page.  It is about 15 minutes.  Billal worked with me to ask people to take part, whilst I interviewed them.  Billal took the opportunity to show me the power of Facebook Live as a campaigning tool.  It is equally effective for promotion of business and for campaigning.  It may be an effective approach to helping people’s views to be heard.  One problem many campaigning groups face is they end up talking to each other.  Facebook Live is a splendid to hear what people are saying.

Julian Dobson in “How to Save Our Town Centres: A Radical Agenda for the Future of High Streets” (affiliate link) devotes a whole chapter to libraries.  They are an important part of the public space.  And note I specifically asked about the value to business in the city centre.  Perhaps business is a threat because the proposal is to hand the building over to a private enterprise?  It does not necessarily follow that all the businesses in the city centre would benefit from such a change.

Sign up to the Sheffield Central Library Action Group, if you wish to support the campaign for the library.

Still a Development Worker at Heart?

Billal later suggested that perhaps I am still a development worker at heart.  It could be argued that I am unlikely to accept the business thing, speaking their language and following their ways.

Except that is not really what I am about.  I am seeking a new standard where business finds its place at the heart of society.  Business people are members of our families, they are friends from school and university.  They are also some seriously delusional billionaires who really believe the world owes them increasing wealth and power.

We have to find a way to direct the entrepreneurial vision away from self-realisation and towards an ethic of the common good.  After all, it is well-known  our relationships form the selves we seek to develop.

Where Individualism leads to isolation from the world, it is bound to become morbid.  Precisely the tragic consequences Keith Hebden describes in his book.

How do you experience tension between business and community?

0 Handling Rejection

Rejection takes many forms and it’s always worth taking stock when it happens.  Why does it happen?  Well, yes it might be your fault.  But it is rarely entirely the fault of one person.  The best thing you can do is uncover the reasons for the rejection and work out how to mitigate them in the future.

Whatever is rejected, eg a grant for a community project, financial backing for a business proposition, an offer made to an apparently warm prospect; you need to review your approach, make changes and try again.

In this post I shall review some of the reasons for rejection.  In later posts, I shall take a closer look at the impact of failure on individuals and of repeated failure on organisations.

Most Things Don’t Work

Over thirty years in community development, I can testify to this.  I have had my successes but in the main, most things you try, do not work out.

Yes, there are stories of someone who comes up with a new idea, launches it and to everyone’s surprise it works first time!  This is very rare.  People who achieve this often share their story and so there seems to be a lot of success about.  There isn’t; most things fail.

Usually success follows repeated attempts and periods of being stuck.  If you fail and persist, you have to dig deeper but will also have a better understanding of what you are trying to do.  The longer you keep going, the more likely you are to stumble upon an approach that works.

If it’s not working, change your approach!

So, the message is, keep going.  Every failure is a step on the road to success.  With one exception.

Don’t keep doing the same thing, if it doesn’t work.  I was recently asked to organise a meeting, even though I knew the timescale was too short to publicise it properly and bring people in.  I went ahead against my better judgement.  No-one turned up.

Let’s pause and consider this for a moment.  I’m sure it was a bad idea to run it so soon.  Is it possible my pessimism contributed to its failure?  Maybe I would have done better had I put my heart and soul into pushing the meeting.

I don’t know.  But I do know the reasons for failure are multi-factorial.  If I’d had time to market it properly, maybe my attitude would still have undermined numbers.  And maybe the event itself was not attractive.

But here’s a thought.  How can you turn a failure to your advantage?  Is it possible we miss opportunities because we focus on the immediate failure and so do not see the bigger picture?

Failure to Close

Failure to close plagues the lives of many people starting out in business.  We do  not know how to bring a business conversation to a satisfactory close.

There are two positive ways to close.  On yes and on no.

A yes, so long as it is a real yes, is clearly cause for celebration.  It comes at the end of a complex sequence of actions and sometimes we make a mistake (or several).  If we don’t know what works we’re working in the dark.  There are plenty of guides about how to close.  Use Daniel Pink’s book “To Sell is Human“, as a thorough starting point.

A no, means you need to see the bigger picture.  This might be a “no for now” or a no forever.  Whichever it is, can this person support you in other ways?  Will they sign up to your list, recommend you to others, write a testimonial?  I have found it incredibly difficult to get even these results primarily because I forget to ask (another example of failure to close!)

Bad Clients

I’m afraid some clients misbehave.  It goes with the territory.  The first thing to remember is, if you don’t feel comfortable, don’t take them on.

Misbehaviour has many manifestations.  It might range from saying yes and not meaning it, just so they can get out of the room or perhaps changing their mind and failing to tell you or apologise.  Others simply cannot work with you.  They are forever seeking insights from other practitioners and throwing their (not necessarily good) advice in your face.  Or they just misbehave.  After one particular client, I decided if a client can’t conduct themselves respectfully I will end our contract.

What to Do

Bad client behaviour is not your fault.  Sadly, some people simply lack the social skills they need to conduct business properly.  If you are a client and not happy, then say so.  I have just done this with someone who is supporting me.  I’ve written to point out a weakness in their approach.  I haven’t ranted or demanded my money back or even blamed them.  All you need to say is, I followed your advice and this happened, can we discuss it?  After all, how do I know it was not my fault?  Blaming others for our own failings is a common human response to failure.

Do be aware of one other thing.  If you negotiate a contract with an organisation, you may find you are not working with the person who agreed the contract.  You don’t know if the person who manages the contract agrees with it and you may not know what internal struggles are taking place in the organisation.  This possibility may be worth discussing at the time you agree the contract.

I’m sure I haven’t discussed all the reasons for failure.  What are your stories of failure?  What have you found can go disastrously wrong?