Strategic Discipline Blog

What’s a single word that captures the feeling your customer gets when you’ve completed your work with them?  At the Phoenix Growth Summit, Todd Klein “Built to Change” offered a couple of examples to help us understand the critical nature of capturing this feeling in a single word.

He asked a business owner who helps businesses sell their business what was that single word that captures the feeling customers get when working with him.  His answer: Self confidence.  At the critical moment when they need to make a decision about selling their business they are now equipped with the self-confidence on whether to move forward or not.

He asked a painter the same questions.  The painter’s answer was “optimistic.”  When he’s finished painting their home the homeowners look at their home more optimistically. 

Why is this so important?  Too often we forget that our customers purchase decision is ultimately made on emotions.  We forget what drives their decision and fail to understand the fulfillment our product or service provides.  What’s the emotional fulfillment our product or service offers?   When you capture the universality of your business in a single word you have the ability to provide real clarity, internal and external, to what your communication should be.  It provides consistency to your message. It reminds you of the critical emotion your business satisfies.

So what is the single word that captures the universality of your business?  What word describes the feeling that customers receive when utilizing your product or services?

Klein offered some words to consider:  freedom, discipline, self-confidence, optimistic, momentum, empowered, clarity, fun, relief, adventure, easy and fun.

What’s your word?

How willing are you to blow things up and start over in your business?   In your planning process, how deep to you go in getting input from your employees?   If you were fired tomorrow, who on your team would you want to take with you?  Finally is your business guilty of thinking too small?  One of my clients has taken these Built for Change ideas and asked his executive team to contribute with what he calls “The Next Small Thing.”  We’ll explore all of these in coming blogs.