Tag Archives: effective growth leaders

Four reasons people do not buy your product or service

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I was reading through some posts in our mentoring support forum the other day.   I saw a comment from Mike Harris.  (Mike was the CEO who launched First Direct banking, he went on to transform Mercury Telecoms, then created the EGG bank and started up and sold Garlik, the personal internet security firm).

For reference, here is Mike talking about value propositions at our recent EGL event

Mike Harris CEO First direct at EGL event

Insight from Mike Harris

In the forum post he made an observation about why corporate deals and negotiations can fail at the last hurdle.  Mike highlighted that when corporate deals fail this is usually for a number of reasons.

  1. The value proposition isn’t strong enough for the corporate
  2. The value proposition hasn’t been communicated effectively to or within the corporate
  3. They don’t believe you can deliver
  4. They don’t believe the economics

I was struck immediately by the parallels between this thinking and what EGL does for our clients.  Mike’s thinking can be converted to help you in your approach to creating products and services that customers want to buy.

How to convert this thinking to action in your business?

Mike’s comment does not only apply to corporate deals, it explains why people buy from you or not. For those of you thinking about your products and services and your position and value in the market, you can take each of these points and turn them into an insight about why people DO NOT buy from you.  You can translate this into the four reasons people do not buy from you.

  1. The value proposition isn’t strong enough for them ( your product or service does not solve their problem)
  2. The value proposition hasn’t been communicated effectively to them (they don’t think your product or service will solve their problem)
  3. They don’t believe you can deliver (not sure you have the ability or resources to solve their problem)
  4. They believe thay can get something else good enough for a lower price (someone else can solve their problem)

Have a think about a prospect or consumer that did not buy your product or service and identify which of these thoughts might have been true for them?  This should lead you to an action that will help you win the customer next time around.

MADE festival – business leaders can learn from entrepreneurs

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MADE festival entrepreneursLast week I spent two days at the MADE festival for entrepreneurs, which promised a lot and managed to exceed that promise.  And by a large margin.

You could tell that even the leading politicians who spoke, Vince Cable and Michael Fallon, were quite taken aback by the energy of the event.  And they go to a lot of events.   The Duke of York also gave a ringing endorsement and much encouragement as well.

So in my mission to understand what works and what is not effective, I have reflected on what happened and why so many people left the event fired up and so excited to have been there.  There were numerous tweest on the day after of people complaining of withdrawl symptoms!

This comment from Michael Hayman brings it home how good it was.

I walked out onto stage to open the festival, and I have never felt such an overwhelming sense of positive energy and palpable hope. It made me think that entrepreneurs are a tribe. It’s about mindset,

First the promise from MADE was big

What can you do in 48 hours? Come to MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival – a two-day masterclass in building a Great British business. From panel discussions and exhibitions to fringe events and quick-fire speaker slots, MADE is the country’s biggest and most inspiring festival of entrepreneurship.

“If you’re not at MADE, you’re never going to be MADE. You need to be there.” Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones CBE

Described as “the Davos for entrepreneurs”, the festival brings together 3,000 guests with 35 high-profile speakers in venues across the city of Sheffield.

Be inspired by Britain’s top entrepreneurs. Network with your peers. Discover how to turn your vision into a world beater. Share insider tips on cracking global markets. Learn how to super-charge growth.

This video conjures up the mood and the pace.  The music was used as a signature throughout the event and had a powerful effect.

Pretty bold stuff  Why did it work so well?

There a number of features of the format that helped Continue reading →

Why are your colleagues not convinced about your plan for growth?

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Whilst your brands and products have been growing steadily you know this is not good enough to accomplish the business long term goals. So you are looking for new ideas to step up and accelerate your growth. As a result, you have spotted an opportunity for your brand or business to get more growth.

It becomes obvious to you that the business should pursue this opportunity. If you don’t, you know the business could get left behind. So you come up with a plan to capitalise on it.
You do your research and planning and may even hire some great agencies or others to help you. Together you come up with growth initiatives that will work. You have done your homework; you have great numbers to support the plan. But when you pitch it to the business, some colleagues are not convinced. They seem a little sceptical. Some seem enthusiastic but don’t really get behind it.

Then even after you have convinced the board, you find you struggle to get the product development or the operations or the sales teams fired up to deliver it.  Why does this happen, Continue reading →