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THIS WEEK
What Position Is Your Communication In?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Copywriting - What Position Is Your Communication In? |
Many small business communications suffer from the same flaw – they appear more interested in themselves than the customers. What do I mean? Let's take a typical website introduction.
"Welcome to the ABCD website. ABCD have proudly been in business since 1987. We are a family owned company that prides itself of the great service we provide."
It is all about ABCD and nothing about the customer!
Other companies seem aloof and do not connect with the customer.
"People select ABCD to provide XYZ services because of their superior customer service and attention to detail".
Neither of these examples generates many sales nor builds strong connections with their customers.
So what is wrong with these examples? They are coming from the wrong position. What do I mean? Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) created a useful model to help people think about where their communication was coming from and termed the model Perceptual Positions.
The position you adopt reflects the perspective you are coming from when you communicate – from your own perspective, the perspective of someone else or the perspective of an independent observer.
First position is all about me and what I am thinking and feeling. It is very self-absorbed and only focuses on what is important to me and my personal goals and objectives. First position does not make sales! This was the case in the first example website we talked about.
Second position is all about you. This is where you put yourself in the place of the other person and get in touch with their feelings and emotions. You gain an understanding of what is important to them and focus on their needs.
 Third position is the independent, impartial observer. In this position you observe the interactions as if you were a fly on the wall and have no emotional attachment to any particular outcome.
It is very similar to a commentator on a horse race – commenting on the process of the horses racing but with no stake in which horse actually wins. It is a very useful position but can be seen as cold and aloof. This was the situation in the second example website we discussed.
These positions describe most human interactions, as most healthy functioning people swap regularly between all three positions. However, the most powerful marketing position is second position – where you walk a mile in your customer's shoes.
This is where you connect at a very deep level with your customer. One of the most attractive things for any person is to be truly listened to and understood.
If your marketing is in second position your words and focus will solidly be on your customer. You will be identifying problems they may be experiencing, you may describe feelings they may be having and your services only exist as potential solutions to their particular problems.
You will have spent a significant amount of time getting inside the head of your customer – finding out what they think, what is important to them and their lives and what values they hold dear.
The word "you" will be liberally sprinkled through your copy, with at least a 3:1 ratio of focus of sentences on the customer compared to you and your business.
Later studies on NLP have identified a fourth position –which is where you communicate as part of a system for the good of the group. This position can be described as the "we" position as the language used is often "we are", "us" etc. Fourth position includes all three other positions.
One of the things that define fourth position is that it comes from finding the deep links that unite all members of the group or system.
Traditionally it has been hard to apply fourth position to sales and marketing, but the trend to being an active part of a social community either on-line or off-line and speaking as part of the group is an example of the marketing shift to fourth position.
So, now you have some homework. Go back and look at your marketing materials. Look at each sentence in your materials and tick off whether your words reflect 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th position.
If you don't have more 2nd and 4th position statements – you are not connecting as deeply with your customer as you need to do for maximum sales.
| HR Tip - Positioning With Your employees |
Perceptual positions and the ability to move between all four positions is a critical leadership skill.
If a meeting is getting stuck and going nowhere fast - you need to kick into third position and provide feedback to the group on the process you are observing between the team. Many team meetings are just a series of people taking turns to speak in their first position - "What's important to me". Eyes glaze over and boredom sets in as there is no bigger picture or shared understanding. If this happens to your meeting, change your position to change the focus of the meeting and reclaim the energy of the team.
If you are conducting performance reviews or recruitment interviews - you should start in third position when you describe the process the person can expect and then spend pretty much the rest of the time in second position before concluding in third position when you describe what happens next.
As a leader you can't neglect yourself. First position is critical for you to reflect and learn your personal lessons about projects, tasks or interactions during the day. If you don't take time to reflect, you will not grow.
Most of you know I am passionate about the internet as a brilliant tool for small business to market on the world stage. I have firm belief in learning from the best when it comes to anything - and this is especially true with internet marketing.
One of my favourite success stories is of my colleague Chris Elmore. Chris started out in the Qld Art Gallery as an attendant earning just $9 per hour. He had dreams of much more but his only skill was his passion for his guitar. So Chris stared Elmore Music - with online guitar lessons.
 The lessons themselves are brilliant - video, sound, clear instructions ... everything you could want or need to learn or improve your guitar playing.
But what was even more brilliant was how Chris went about setting up his e-business model to sell his online guitar lessons to the world.
In 2 years Chris sold $1.03 million of guitar lessons. Not bad for a former $9 an hour gallery attendant!
After much begging by people who wanted to learn how Chris did it, he has finally put together his blueprint of success available free if you email him. Just go to his website, pop in your name and email and Chris will send you a copy.
Chris is one of the genuinely good guys and deserves every bit of success he has achieved. Check out his story if you are even slightly interested in using the net to grow your business.
If you regularly read more than one blog then you need the latest tool from Google - Google Reader! In this post I look at Google Reader as part of the 30 Day Challenge pre-season and cover off some of the other great things Google Reader can do to help you streamline your business research and how to keep you current on your industry.
http://www.heartharmony.com.au/blog/
Testimonials - How to Get Great Ones
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's blog also included posts about business lessons from "Get Smart", seeing the beautiful in the ordinary and It's Performance Review Season Again.
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