My son is going to start playing t-ball this spring. It’s for 4 and 5 year olds – so they don’t keep score. They don’t track hits, errors, runs, etc. Which makes perfect sense since the point of t-ball is to learn the basics: where to stand, what it’s like when the ball is in play, what base to run to, etc. Keeping score, playing to win – these just get in the way of the purpose of t-ball.

Meanwhile, my favorite baseball team (sorry Tigers – you’re my five year old’s favorite team) the Chicago White Sox are 10-16, and only one game out of last place in their division – a division where they were expected to compete for first. The problem is their hitting. How do I know this? Well thanks to the Sun-Times and their kick-ass stats team, I know that the Sox haven’t “scored in the first three innings in 12 of the last 13 games and has scratched out all of 41 runs in the last 17 games.” Why does this matter? Because it’s the White Sox job to play AND WIN games. The owners of the team have invested substantial money in the manager, coaches and players with the purpose of winning.

So what exactly does this have to do with business? Well ask yourself – is the purpose of your business to win it all (i.e. achieve success) or is the purpose of your business to improve your skills (i.e. learn something)? Your investors and I hope you know the answer – it’s to win – to achieve success. So if you’re planning on winning – you better keep score – and not just wins and losses – but all the little stats that create wins and losses. The wins and losses follow from things like how many runs a particular pitcher gives up – and the batting average of the hitters. The success (wins, or money) follows from good work (hits, strike outs, or a fiercly effective email campaign).

Seems simple right? Except it isn’t. I’ve given advice to dozens of startups and very few of them know how many visitors their websites are getting. Few of them know how their average customer would rate them on a scale of one to ten. Ask yourself – how many emails did you send out? How many people opened them? How many visited your website? Etc. Etc. Etc. If you’re not paying attention to these fundamentals, you can’t improve your number of wins. You become a victim to your actions – not the master of your actions. This can be damned ugly. If you’re in the majors – pay attention to the score and learn how to make informed decisions to improve the score.

Are you playing in the major leagues or playing t-ball?

Here’s a quick way to tell the difference – have you been given money for your effort? Are you getting paid? I pay for my son to play t-ball – if he learns to hit – awesome. If he doesn’t at least he’ll have fun. Paul Konerko from the Sox? He gets $12,000,000 a year. He better get some hits. You should too.

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I just read a funny article: 6 Giant Blind Spots In Every Movie Alien’s Invasion Strategy

While reading the article, it occurred to me that the article’s advice to would be alien invaders also contained some interesting ideas that would be helpful to first time startup entrepreneurs.  With all apologies to the article’s author, S. Peter Davis, here are my 6 lessons startup entrepreneurs can learn from alien invasions.

6 Lessons Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Alien Invasions

#6. Wear something – i.e. the basic basics will save your bacon.

Davis makes the point that a lot of alien invaders make the mistake of failing to wear clothes – thus making them susceptible to our local germs, or even things like water (recall the aliens in Signs).  When you think about it, wearing clothes is one of the most basic things we do.  It’s pretty straightforward – not complex at all – and failing to do it costs the aliens their whole invasion.

Lesson #6: Focus on the basic basics.
There are desperately simple things that are so basic they’re basic.  The basic basics if you will.  I’ve seen lots of first time entrepreneurs fail to do these basic basics. Simple things like:

• spell checking documents (seriously fucking spell check your fucking documents)
• having contact information in your signature block
• having an effective to-do list
• planning out your day (or at least portions thereof)

The list goes on and on.  The common denominator: simple, basic stuff.  Failing to focus on the basic basics can cost you big time.  Ask yourself, am I spending time focusing on executing the basics – like putting on clothes.

#5. Do your research – on everyone.

In alien invasion movies, the alien’s lack of basic research on the place they’re invading leads to catastrophic failure (like checking out if the planet they’re invading is covered 75% by something which will destroy you – like water).

Lesson #5: Research your attack

It’s damn hard to be successful in sales without doing your client research.  Client research comes down to more basic basics:  planning what you’re going to say BEFORE you call a client taking notes during client phone calls defining objectives and outcomes before you meet with clients (are you trying to understand their needs or close the deal – you better have done one before the other).
Simple fundamental research can prevent massive failure.

#4. Don’t Attack America First
The aliens can’t seem to resist taking on Uncle Sam first – on the theory that planets are like prisons and the best way to survive prison is to find the biggest guy and kick his ass.  Trust me, this doesn’t work in prison. The biggest guy will kick your ass – twice just to prove his point.

Lesson #4: Take on the little guys before the big guys.

If there are a few major potential clients who’d absolutely make your company crazy successful – you might want to practice on a few smaller less important clients first.  Work the kinks out where the stakes are low.  That being said – you can’t duck the big dog forever and when it’s time to face the champ – go for it.  Just be prepared.

#3.  Don’t Wait for a Counterattack

Every alien invasion movie features a big old pause where the aliens – having almost completely beaten us into submission – take a break and wait for our next move. This never works out.  Given enough time, the humans come up with something crafty – like glasses of water.

Lesson 3: Define the next move and take it.

I’ve seen first time entrepreneurs end a sales call, whether that’s a meeting or a phone call, and they think things have gone great. Then we talk:

Izzo: So how’d the call go?

Entrepreneur : Great, they love us.

Izzo: So what happens next?

Entrepreneur:  They’re going to think about it and get back to us.

Izzo: So what exactly are they thinking about?

Entrepreneur: I don’t know.

Izzo: So when are they going to get back to us.

Entrepreneur: I don’t know.

Izzo: I bet you’re still waiting for that girl from high school to give you a call back on that prom date aren’t you.

Know exactly what the next move is, when it’s going to happen, and take the lead in making it happen.  That client who’s “thinking about it” isn’t going to call back – neither is that girl in high school.

#2. Call for Backup

Having had their initial attack force defeated, the aliens tuck their tail between their legs and call it a day.  When really, having thoroughly softened us up – and having been exposed to our big winning move – they should come back next week and REALLY invade.

Lesson #2: Don’t go it alone.

Even if you’ve planned the phone call, practiced with other clients, and are prepared to set the next move – have you practiced? Have you talked to anyone about your plan? Somebody who doesn’t work for you and therefore feel obligated to blow sunshine where it doesn’t belong?
You have resources all around you – mentors, former teachers, former bosses, even the Starbucks barista – who’d be willing to look at your pitch, practice the sales call, or just give you feedback on your clothing choice.  Great entrepreneurs, indeed great people, are NOT brilliant loners – they are resource optimizers.  They take whatever resources are around and use them for maximum effect. Gates had Ballmer.  Jobs had Woz.  Bandit had Snowman.  Call for backup.

#1. Exhaust your Alternatives.

The aliens always seem to want our stuff (water, gold, unobtainium- something).  Except most all of those things are available on other planets which are not populated with angry little hominids who have thousands of nuclear weapons.

Lesson #1: You have options.

Entrepreneurship is all about overcoming obstacles – finding the why not where others see the can’t.  As a first time entrepreneur you can’t stop at your first defeat – or your fiftieth.  Figure it out make adjustments.  Make radical changes.  Can’t sell your product? Have you tried giving it away?  Can’t do that? Have you tried giving it away? Can’t do that? Have you found somebody else who wants it (i.e. changed your target market)?

Remember – only you can prevent alien invasions – and poor execution on your business. I’m off to have a glass of water.

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The Myth of Calling the Shots

One of the reasons I initially got into entrepreneurship was that I wanted to “call the shots.”  This is one of the most common reasons people cite for getting into entrepreneurship.  Being the boss.  Calling the shots.  Making the decisions.  It’s compelling.  And it’s almost completely false.  It’s one of the great myths of entrepreneurship (one of the others is ‘setting your own schedule’ – but that’s for another time).

Here’s why it’s a myth: you don’t call the shots – the market calls the shots.  While you get to make decisions, those decisions can’t be made in a vacuum.  Well they can be, but then you’re in business NFL – Not For Long.  I come across so many entrepreneurs who see entrepreneurship as one giant path of constant self-aggrandizement.  They see success as following their instinct and trusting in their singular vision. And that’s just plain stupid.  Your business needs to serve a need – its needs to connect with what the client wants.  And if you make it all about what you want – and your need to make decisions – you’re putting yourself first.  It’s not about you – it’s about the client.

Here’s another reason it’s a myth: you should surround yourself with smart people.  Better yet smarter people.  If you insist on making all the decisions – you’re closing yourself off from the advice and support of these people.  Or you’ve surrounded yourself with yes men and/or idiots.

When you think you’ll call the shots you’re subscribing to the view of entrepreneurs being brilliant geniuses ensconced in their ivory towers handing down brilliance from on-high.  If you look at really successful entrepreneurs, they are connectors. They form partnerships, they bring resources together, and they listen to clients.  What they don’t do is engage in the relentless arrogance of thinking it’s about calling the shots.

In my own experience, discovering this myth was one of the more painful realizations of running my own business.  It stinks to realize that it’s not about you and your brilliant ideas.  It’s about putting yourself out of the picture and focusing on the client.

Any other myths you’ve seen busted?

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I’ve helped several people put together business plans.  The business plan I put together for my comedy club was used as a sample form in a book on business plans.  Theoretically, I know something about business plans.  I’ve seen some bad ones.  The worst ones I’ve seen tend to be bad for one of these reasons.

3 Reasons Why Business Plans Fail

1. Filling in the Blank

There are plenty of software packages and business plan templates out there on the tubes of the Internet.  While they can give you  bit of structure when you’re completely lost and on your own – they can also have you focusing on issues which make little sense if any.  A business plan that’s intended for venture capitalists or other serious investors needs to have an exit strategy – a plan for cashing out the investors.  If you’re putting together  a business plan for a small business or some business that you want to build and grow – you don’t need an exit strategy.  Your exit strategy is filing for bankruptcy and moving back to your parent’s basement.  Don’t fill in the blanks if you don’t understand the blanks.

2. Failure to you know, plan

Want to create a bad business plan – don’t use it to detail what you’ll actually do, use it to provide a 10,000 foot view of something you need to have microscopic insight into.  This tends to be compounded by the fill-in-the-blank approach, where a business has a ‘marketing plan’ consisting of ‘generating great word of mouth, building the brand and engaging in social media.’  I’m reminded of a stand-up comic who asked an audience member what he did for a living.  The guy in the audience said “Nothing” to which the comedian replied “Then how do you know when you’re done?”  If your plan is that vague, how do you know when you’re doing it?

3. A Plan for World Domination

Not every business is going to be successful.  And yet every bad business plan seems to not only promise success, but promises the kind of success that results in each investor ending up with enough money to buy their own island and flood it with enough filthy lucre to sink the damned thing.  Project a reasonable growth arc and realize you’re not going to turn a web design company into the second coming of the Roman empire.

Avoid these common mistakes and keep your business plan alive. 

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Mark Kramer of Kramer Communications has a great article on Forbes, The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking.  In the article, Mark (we’re not really on a first name basis) details some of his experiences acting as an Interim CEO of a couple of magazines in Philadelphia. It’s a really great article, and all of his questions are dead on.  The implicit assumption of his article is that people started asking these questions at some point, and then stopped.  In my work with and study of small startups, it seems these questions don’t get asked initially.  If they did the business may never have started, or certainly would have started smarter with a better chance of succeeding.

The questions he brings up cut to the core matters I address at Bizdom U, (as well as in my saucy presentation at TEDx).

The Three Questions You Should Start Asking

Kramer’s first three questions (I’m rephrasing slightly) are:

• What is your purpose for existing?
• Who is your target customer?
• Why does anyone need what you’re selling?

I’m going to take these one at a time.

What is your purpose for existing?

First-time startup entrepreneurs often confuse their business’s purpose in existing with what the entrepreneur hopes to gain from the business.  To use a technical term, this is a Big Ass Mistake.  Your business’s purpose is most assuredly to help customers satisfy a need – not to bring you personal, spiritual, or emotional fulfillment.  If you think that’s why YOUR BUSINESS exists, you’re mistaking your purpose in life (fulfillment) with your business’s purpose (satisfying customers).  Confuse this at your own peril.  If you keep this straight, you’ll keep your business focused on the customer and helping the customer.

Who is your target customer?

You can’t help people, or more appropriately satisfy customers, if you don’t know who they are and what their needs are.  It’s a struggle, but you’ve got to disavow yourself of the notion that your business will appeal to everybody (or some equally ridiculously large subset of everybody).  It can’t, it won’t, and it shouldn’t.  It will appeal to certain people with common demographics or psychographics and those are the people you need to have in mind and help.

Why does anyone need what you’re selling?

Get out, talk to customers.  In person.  Face to face.  It’s uncomfortable in the digital age, but it will give you deep insight into what clients really want and how to best give it to them.  Mark nails it when he says “I have rarely seen a company fail if management literally spoke to customers and gave them what they want.”

A bonus word to educators, consultants, incubators, etc.

If you’re in the position where you’re advising someone on starting up a business, make sure you’re encouraging your advisees to ask these questions.  Push them on these questions.  Hard.  Really hard.  The kind of hard that leaves a bruise.  That hard.  We do no service to people if, in the interest of protecting their feelings, we are not blunt, direct and honest in questioning whether they’ve plumbed the depths of these questions and come up with honest answers.  In my opinion, this is the great failing of entrepreneurial education, consultation, advising and incubation: the unwillingness to give honest feedback to someone and tell them their idea (as currently formulated and researched) is most assuredly crap.  In the interest of being kind, and not ‘crushing someone’s dream’ we let them blindly soldier forward to their doom.  If I see someone running headlong toward the edge of a building, I’m not going to encourage them.  I’m not going to try and support them in their dream of flying.  I’m going to yell “Hey, asshole, you can’t fly!” We all need to be willing to be that direct and blunt.

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My friend, the incomparable Margaret Hicks, has started her own business giving tours of Chicago.

A Smart Idea for a Business

It’s really a great idea for a lifestyle business.  It leverages her knowledge (she’s trained as a docent, and has done tours for other companies) and her skills (she’s funny, engaging, and smart without being smarmy).  It also leverages the natural resources available in Chicago (interesting sites, stories, and an abundant tourist population) all of which she can access at basically zero cost.  Zero cost natural resources? That’s the type of thing business dreams are made of.

A clever idea to raise money for your startup

Margaret’s really gone from being a smart cookie, to being a whole tray of steaming hot cookies made by your Nana with her fund raising strategy.  She’s having a “Help Me Build My Business” party.  For $20 her guests will get booze, beer and great food (her husband is a pro grade cook).  I was so enamored of the business idea and the fund raising idea that I kicked in $50.  And I can’t even make the party!

Why this is a clever idea

I’m a big fan of bootstrapping, but also calling in all your resources.  By having this party, she’s calling in her resources in a fun way that won’t burn out those resources.  It’s the Girl Scout Cookie Principle:  ask people for small favors and give them something great in return and you can tap those people again and again. Girl Scout Cookies raise funds for the Girl Scouts without tapping out the resource (all those aunts, uncles and people at work).  Why doesn’t it tap them out? Simple, they get a benefit above and beyond the ‘donative’ benefit and the incremental hit is so small they barely notice.  Do you remember how much you spent on Girl Scout Cookies this year? I don’t, except when I tuck my gut into the car, and next year I’ll get hit up by the same tiny Trumps for cookies and willingly fork over my moolah.  Brilliant.

It also taps into the Kid Rock Marketing Method: relentlessly promote your product to whoever will listen – particularly if those people express positive interest in the product.  If you went up to Kid Rock after one of his early shows and told him you liked his music, he’d thank you and ask you if you were coming to the next show.  If you were, he’d ask if you were bringing anyone.  If you were, he’d ask if you wanted to sell T-shirts (giving you a T-shirt in return).  Obnoxious – hell yeah.  But that’s because we live in a world where self promotion is frowned on.  Are you starting a business? Do you want it to survive, succeed and possibly grow? Are you telling people about your business?  If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, why are you answering “no” to the third question? Networking is as much about getting the word out as it is about asking for stuff.  Start getting the word out.

Margaret’s doing a great job of conceiving this business, funding it, and getting the word out to her potential supporters and evangelists in one swell foop. Check it out at ChicagoElevated.com.

Have any clever fund raising ideas? Ever been sucked up into someone else’s promotion efforts? Ever sold a Kid Rock T-Shirt? Chime in on the comments.

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We had the pleasure of taking the current team of Bizdom entrepreneurs (whom I am calling Team Hammer Pants, since they can’t come up with a team name of their own) to Big Communications, to meet with Lisa Stern, the Founder.

Lisa gave a great overview of the founding story of Big, as well as a description of their culture.  I could easily write a dozen entries on Lisa and Big (hell, I could write one just on how great their offices are – they are absolutely beautiful), but I want to focus on 3 Big takeaways from their story and culture.

3 Big Ideas from Big Communications

1. The business you find success in may not be the one you start in.

Big originally started purely doing video production.  Now they handle communications for health care companies.  This isn’t to say your initial idea is unimportant and therefore unworthy of proper research.  Rather, the lesson here is that you’ve got to follow the natural wave of your business and fish where the fish are – build on the success you earn, rather than the success you wish you had.

2. Passion means emotional investment in what you do.

This was a point I tried to emphasize at my TEDx presentation.  It’s not about doing what you love, but rather loving what you do.  I’ve heard lots of people talk about ‘passion’ and seen people confuse obstinacy and unfounded pride with passion. Having passion doesn’t mean that you can magically will something to happen.  Instead, it means bringing an emotional investment to what you do – finding the love in what you do.  When I asked Lisa what she’s currently passionate about she said “I’m really passionate about how we staff projects.”  Trust me, no one says “When I grow up, I want to staff projects!”  But she’s found the interest and passion in that task, and that’s a beautiful thing.

3. Vision is about having a goal you’re moving towards

Another great insight into an oft-cited entrepreneurial trait: vision.  Vision isn’t about having a grandiose vision about what success will look like (yachts or being on Oprah), but rather about having a very specific goal you’re moving towards.

Bonus idea: Not really a bonus idea, but rather a combination of the final two, and it’s this – any old passion or vision won’t do.  You’ve got to have a specific type of passion and vision to be a successful entrepreneur.  I meet a lot of people who are very emotional (what they think is ‘passionate’) and have a well defined vision for themselves (usually of them on a yacht with Oprah), who think as a result they’re entrepreneurs.  I can give you a well defined vision of what I’d do if I won the lottery (it wouldn’t be Oprah or a yacht), but that doesn’t mean I’m going to win it.  I’m extremely passionate about fantasy football, but that doesn’t mean I should make a career out of it.

What do you think? Will any old vision or passion do? Or do you need something more?

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If you had a business partner, would you want them to be truthful with you or bullshit you?  If you’re in the “bullshit me, please” camp, let me know – I’ve got a great lead on a Florida swamp land investment.  If you’re in the “just tell me the truth” camp, then you’re probably like 90% of most people – and unlike 75% of the pitches I’ve seen recently.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone who’s asking you for an investment – who’s essentially asking you to become their partner, will start the relationship with an unhealthy dose of bullshit.  These snake oil salesmen act as if somehow, after the relationship is entered into, the bullshit won’t be revealed and stink up the whole deal.  Some people assume ‘fake it, ’til you make it’ is the rule to apply here. Trust me, if your ‘beta ready software’ turns out to be a sketch on the back of a bar coaster, your partner will not appreciate your moxie and aggressiveness.  And shame on you if you’re reaction to this is to claim ‘caveat emptor‘ or expect your partner should’ve caught your BS during due diligence.

3 sure signs you’re bullshitting in your pitch

1. Abuse of the royal we.

Back when I was a lawyer starting my own law practice, there were lawyers I knew who advised me to call it “Daniel A. Izzo & Associates” on the theory that it’d make my practice seem more established (on the subtheory that the fax machine was an associate of mine).  I did not follow this advice.  I was a solo practitioner.  I didn’t want to misrepresent this with a lie, however acceptable or commonplace.  I hear lots of entrepreneurs saying “We” in their pitches when they really mean “I” or “me.”  Look, if you’re a one man show, you’re a one man show.  You aren’t a “we”, you are a “me.”

2. CEO, President and Founder.

I find that most of the pitch-stage or development-stage entrepreneurs I come across, don’t really know what ‘CEO’ stands for, much less what one does.  If the company consists of you.  Or you and your three buddies, you don’t really need a CEO.  You don’t really need titles at all.  If you call yourself ‘CEO’ you’re just revealing your immaturity.  You might as well call yourself “Superman Lightning McQueen” which is what my son calls himself when he’s playing superheroes.  It has an equal basis in fact.

3. “In development” or “in process”

This one’s a bit more gray, but I often find it is used as a replacement for “I don’t know”.  For example, saying “Our business model is still in development” when you mean “I’m still figuring it out.”  ”In development” implies someone is off somewhere working on it, not that you’re still noodling it over.

Honesty is the best policy.

Yes, I seriously wrote that.  Honesty is the best policy.  People invest in people (whether that investment is time, money or other valuable resources.)   When you engage in these bits of puffery, you reveal yourself as a bullshitter, and a pretty sloppy one at that.  Don’t do it.

Have any stories of people who overrepresent themselves or other examples of signs of BS? Share them in the comments.

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While looking for a good definition of a scalable business I came across two great articles.

First, from Sacred Cow Dung, a wonderful explanation with killer graphs.

Then, from Briefing.com, a great explanation.  No graphs, but a brilliant quote:

“Many Internet business models didn’t pass basic tests of credibility. For example, sites with pure advertising models are usually unable to answer the most basic question about growth: how big can you get? The reason is that growth is entirely dependent upon increased page views, either by more users, or more pages, offset by declining ad rates.

Both have upper limits and most companies with advertising models have fixed costs exceeding current revenues. When you try to compute how many page views a pure advertising model needs to generate just to cover fixed costs, it is usually baffling.“

That’s my emphasis added, but the article makes a great point.  The only way to scale an advertising based model is to increase the number of page views.  This naturally has an upper limit, and that upper limit is probably much more shocking than you realize.  I think we delude ourselves when we hear about someone making ‘millions’ off a blog, and think that’s really a business model.  It’s a hobby, possibly a lucrative one, but a business? Probably not.

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On June 15, 2009, I gave a presentation as part of the National Summit.  Here are my lecture notes, as well as the PowerPoint.  Both are a bit unpolished, but you get the general idea.

“I’d like to talk to you today about taking an idea and turning it into a business.

Ideas are like elbows, almost everyone has at least one.  There are a lot of personality traits and behaviors that can help a person with a business idea undergo a personal transformation or growth and become an entrepreneur – an actual executor of that idea.  I’m not here to talk about that today.  I’m assuming that if you made it this far into my spiel that you’re already the kind of person capable of starting an enterprise.  What I’d like to focus on in the next 15-30 minutes are the very specific and deliberate actions you can take to shepherd your idea and turn it into a business.

In a nutshell here’s the key: To turn an idea into a  business you need to refine the idea until it becomes a product or service that is so inherently attractive to users that they’ll change their behavior and use your product or service.  And you need to do this all in a way that brings in more money that it burns up.  Thanks for coming, enjoy the rest of the conference. But seriously, it is that simple, but in the simple lies the complex, so let’s break this down.

I very deliberately break this into two parts.  I do that because here’s the problem most people face.  They mix all this up together and try and eat the entire sub sandwich in one bite.  There are two components: what the business is, and how it makes money.  When you cross the streams, you lose focus.  And brilliance in one of these areas won’t cure utter stupidity in the other.  But when we let ourselves think of this as one undifferentiated mass, we can delude ourselves into thinking we’ve got a great business, when maybe all we have is a clever idea that’ll never make a profit, or a clever way of making a profit that’s attached to a product or service no reasonable person would ever want to use.

Refining the idea is what I want to talk about.  Figuring out revenue and costs is extremely important, and a vital area for innovation.  The business model end of things is a matter of marketing, sales, and being clever about costs.  I want to talk about Refining Ideas.

You need to research to refine your ideas and the first thing you should do is GET OFF THE COMPUTER.  Look, I’m no technophobe, but at some point the thinking became, if it’s not on Google, it doesn’t exist.  Computers are supposed to make us smarter, not us more stupider make.

The most important thing you can do is Talk to People, better yet, Listen to People. Get out of your office, get away from the desk and talk to people.  Have actual conversations with people.  Preferably face to face, so you can sense the whole conversation.

Talk about what? WOOD BEFORE SCREWS. You’ve got some sort of idea for something.  You saw some sort of problem, or opportunity.  Something you noticed or experienced triggered this idea of yours.  The person who invented the screw had wood that needed to be held together.  Put your idea aside and get back to the wood.  Talk to other people who might have this problem, and confirm that they’ve got the problem.  Go deep on the problem, before you even begin to talk about your solution.  People want SOLVING NOT SOLUTIONS.  Your initial idea can change wildly because what you may have discovered in that initial a-ha moment isn’t a solution, but a deep problem that needs solving.  And maybe your ‘a-ha’ solution isn’t a good solution.  Good solutions achieve the ends sought, they resolve the problem fully and directly Without identifying the problem on a deep level you can’t know if your solution fits, much less if its a good fit, or what you’re really hoping for, a fit that is so good it motivates changes in people’s behavior. So RESEARCH THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE SOLUTION

CONTEXT IS KING.  Talk to the people who have the problem about everything that surrounds the problem.  What’s their mental state before and after solving the problem.  What solutions do they employ now? You want to understand everything around the moment where the problem occurs and is resolved.

It’s inside that context that you’re solution needs to operate.  YOURE NOT TRAINING MONKEYS TO RIDE BICYCLES.  You take the customer as you find them.  Can try and change their purchasing behavior, but woe if you’re trying to change the context. CHANGE IS SCARY.  You’ve got to find out where the customer is at to move them to where you might want them to be.  TALK TO OTHER CONTEXT PROVIDERS.  See who else is solving the problem or providing context to the problem.  They will have insights you and the client both lack.

So, identify the PROBLEM, the CONTEXT and CHANGE their behavior.  How do you do that? REFINE THE IDEA SO THAT IT PROVOKES CHANGE.  How? Well the problem and context will help you understand the customer’s feelings and motivations, and you need to craft your idea to have the greatest appeal to their feelings and motivations.  You do that and you end up with a BETTER TARGETED CLIENT DRIVEN IDEA.  A better idea than the one that led you down this path.  Once you’ve got that PULL ‘EM, CLOSE ‘EM, KEEP COSTS DOWN and make a PROFIT.  Better yet, make VALUE.”

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