I just bought a piece of online software called Weekdone. It's kind of expensive for what it is - it basically lets everyone on the team post their weekly plans, progress and problems and compiles it all into one email that I get.
It costs $50USD a month for up to ten users. It comes from a crew of cool young guys out of Estonia, of all places. They're typical IT developers from what I can gather - rather than getting up early Jason stayed up until 2 am to give me a call that worked in my time zone (I'm thinking early for Jason might be the crack of midday!).
But here's the thing - it solves a very specific problem for me. I've asked everyone on the team to send me an email each week telling me what they got done, and what they're planning to work on next. And right now I get some emails on Friday, some on Saturday, some on Sunday, and pretty often on Monday saying sorry Pete, forgot to send this last week. And then sometimes they don't get sent at all. It's all a bit painful.
$50 a month is a small price for me to pay to remove that pain.
I reckon there is a lesson in this for us as thought leaders. I know it sounds almost sacrilegious but I think we need to think smaller.
When you're at black belt, and you're thinking about your legacy works, think big. Until then, when you're designing your clusters and your offers to market, be easy to buy.
If your offer is too big, it suffers from:
Too good to be true. If your offer is going to improve productivity, engagement, revenue, culture and retention (especially if it's all from a two day engagement) I just don't believe you. I don't believe in silver bullets - so make the promise proportionate to the time, money and effort you need from me (me being the client).
Does my job. If I'm an HR manager, don't come to me with an offer that covers the whole HR function. You're not a partner if you do that, you're a threat. Remember that I need to like the story that I can tell myself about myself when I engage you. AND I need to be able to explain to my boss, board, finance manager et cetera why I'm engaging you. If that narrative is "I can't do my job so I need help", then I ain't buying.
Outside my budget. I have a certain amount I can spend without having to get approval. Let's start there. Makes it easy.
Think small. Be relevant. Don't sell your crusade. Solve a problem. Remove some pain.
Be easy to buy.
