From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
It was one of those mornings, our coffee machine had broken (to be fair it was very well used and abused, especially by our Head of Operations) and our IT/techno guru who doubles as the go-to expert for all things that involve electricity, plugs and buttons (not the business shirt kind) was nowhere to be found.
Panic, chaos and mayhem ensued!
At 9.30 she stumbled in with a wild look on her face, blood pulsing through her veins and her hair clearly pushed back in a hurry. Concerned we crowded round her, what was wrong? With a short stop for a breath, she told us all about it - this new game that had kept her up all night, was incredible, she simply could not leave it (nor stop talking about it clearly as we tried often to pull away and return to our desks!), but, it got us thinking… Are we to be active or passive in our business?
In game design, there is this notion of a ‘lean-back’ or a ‘lean-forward’ experience. According to gamers, TV is a lean-back experience (lean-back and let it all wash over you), but with console gaming, it really does depend on the game. According to our friend in IT, there are many console games that simply grab your attention and don’t let go.
And so as a business leader, ask yourself - how are you going to approach your business and most importantly, your sales? Are you going to allow life to wash over you or are you going to actively dictate how people will ‘feel’ about your product and their association with your Brand? Are you building a lean-back or a lean-forward business?
So (deep breath) we are now going to destroy all your thoughts of sales.
Sales is different from Marketing. There, we’ve said it. Cat out of the bag. Sales is where you sell 10 widgets to a Customer ‘A’ and we consider this ‘Lean-Back’. The sign ‘OPEN’ is on the window. Job done.
Marketing is far more powerful where Customer A is going to buy 10 widgets and you make totally sure they buy from you. They don’t realize it, but you made that choice for them. That is ‘Lean-Forward’.
Sales is what we have been trying to get you away from, Marketing is where we need you to be in order to drive your businesses to greater heights and is wrapped around the Buyer’s Journey, something we have explained in detail here. But there is so much more than just getting your message out in that format.
We have had a number of questions about our Buyer’s Journey blogs especially around if it is good for all businesses or just for the incredible ‘save the world’ type businesses such as Temie’s (wow, did we crack open the bubbly when you were named the Cartier Sub-Saharan African Laureate this month - Temie - again, many congratulations!) or Christelle’s.
In the words of the one and only Barack Obama, “Yes You Can!”, just use your superpower Empathy to recognize the pain and then use your products to solve it.
If shoes - “Are your feet tired, unloved, in need of some ‘me’ time?” (what you are saying to your customers there is:- “Are you tired, unloved and in need of some ‘me’ time”).
If handbags - Is there a dress that is unloved and unused because there is no bag to go with it?…
Let’s look at a more complex one:
If you are Pumza Ndlotyeni, founder of Gebane Engineering Services in South Africa (who came with us to London to participate in our Startup Night Africa London event), how do you sell highly technical Electrical Substation Construction services? Look to the pain your buyer is feeling. Here’s a hypothetical example: I am a UK company building a complex commercial operation in Africa miles form any major town. I cannot get any help out of the local Government, but I must have a Substation up and running NOW!
Message from our inspirational Lioness Pumza?
Problem: “Setting up a commercial operation in deep rural Africa?”
Pain: “Frustrated by the lack of information, help or activity from local Government?”
Transformation: “You need to solve this before anything else can happen therefore you must be losing millions of US$ each day/week/month in delays”
…and then you are onto the Buyer’s Journey! (What if I could tell you that I can deliver and build within a week to the international standard (x) and have done this numerous times…etc etc)
AT ALL TIMES BE AUTHENTIC, let us say that again:
AT ALL TIMES BE AUTHENTIC, as people see through fakes and nothing destroys a Brand or Business faster than a loss of trust, but your product does make someone feel better, stronger, fitter, happier, something that is associated with a feeling. Your product is made well, it does bring value and is something that will make a difference. That message is so powerful. You are simply allowing them to see this.
So believe us when we say that every potential customer can be taken on the Buyer’s Journey for any product, but we are not here to go over old ground so let’s actually to look at…
How you build strength into your brand.
It is time for you to go out there and create promoters of your brand and the easiest people to do that? People who have already invested in you, who have already bought your shoes, handbag, or already used you as a procurement specialist (such as the inspirational Eugenia Langa, founder of Nweba in Mozambique (also came with us to Startup Night Africa London) and know that you do deliver, that you do as you say, that your product is good value, that it is made well - these are your greatest voice.
This is YOUR brand, it means something to YOU, now make it mean something to EVERYONE.
A small amount of time spent with your old customers will create promoters of your product, believers in your brand and the ultimate, a strong and loyal following who will automatically bring others in.
In addition to this, to turbo charge your new relationships, spend a bit of time ‘onboarding’ your new customers, explaining the manufacturing process and throw in something different: “Thank you for your beautiful purchase, your feet/soul/mind will thank you (Buyer’s Journey). I haven’t seen you here before, can I send you a fun video we made of the complex (subtext: see what value you are getting?) manufacturing process? What’s your email?”
A small amount of time spent at this moment with your customer will create promoters of your product, believers in your brand and a loyalty that money simply cannot buy. AND you now have their email which brings us onto another blog we shall do later, on why the whole world is now so obsessed with Data and why you simply cannot miss out or (a Cardinal Sin) give it away to a 3rd party that is sniffing around your business like a pack of Hyenas, and believe us when we say - they laugh like that too as they pick up any scraps of information they can.
You have 4 choices for your ‘sales’:
Do nothing other than put the ‘We are open’ sign up in your window. (Comatose Lean-Back)
Go out there and sell - which is like standing in a street wearing a Sandwich Board saying “Buy my widgets”. (Lean-Back, and not cool)
Use Marketing — “If you are going to buy widgets, you are going to buy mine because I have told you to (through the Buyer’s Journey). (Lean-Forward)
Invest time in your biggest believers, your customers and they will do the Marketing for you. (Lean-Forward, but think Lewis Hamilton doing 200mph down a straight)
All great companies from the beginnings of Ford Motor Company, to the super slick Apple (both use 3 and 4 exclusively) have recognised this:
At the end of the day, it always comes down to word-of-mouth organic spread (e.g. kids in Nigeria who get so upset if they are given a shirt that did not have the Ruff n’ Tumble logo), it comes down to brand, it comes down to building a product that people love (by telling them why they must love it and then showing them through your great product), it comes down to connection.
And that, Lionesses, is the one thought that must go through your mind this evening when you go to sleep. Believe us when we say, tomorrow morning you will jump out of bed full in the knowledge of what you want and have to do. Connect.
To break into the exclusive 100 Lioness Club (it’s actually not a club but a celebration) you firstly and obviously have to offer value because business is never about cost and all about value, but then you have to tap into people’s feelings because ‘Value’ is linked to emotions. This is why Empathy is so powerful.
As the inspirational Maya Angelou said:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Now there’s a Lioness!
Emotions drive decisions, your logic then justifies those decisions.
Who needs 100 pairs of shoes?
Your emotions go “Hell yeah!” and your logical brain goes:
“You Go Girl! - oh, and don’t we have a blue polka dot dress that those would go fabulously well with…”.
Stay safe.