Believe in your "products"

You are the CEO of your own business. We may get paid by an organisation, but we are really in the business of “us”. Everything that you produce is of your design and making.

How well we do each day is dependent on a number of factors.

Do you do all that you can every day? Or are there certain areas that you could improve on?

Do you believe in yourself? If you don’t think you can do something then you have already given yourself permission to fail. But if you tell yourself that you can and you will, then anything is possible. Remember learning to walk? Of course not, you were too busy having fun. But no one told you you couldn’t because you had fallen on your well padded backsides a few times did they? No, you kept trying. It’s only as we’ve gotten older we start to believe other people when they tell us that we can’t do something.

Do you believe in what you are trying to “sell” : Selling can be to the other members of your organisation (internal clients) or to the general public and other organisations (external clients). Remember we all have to sell something even if it is only an abstract concept.

For example a few of my readers are in the business of “selling” a better way of doing something to the organisations they work for. They have a particularly hard job because what they are selling is multi-fold, they are selling their expertise, they are selling the concept that a particular piece of software (which they may or may not have had a hand in choosing) that can help their organisation manage their documents and records in a better, more efficient way (and in doing so ensure that their organisation is compliant with the various pieces of legislation). The reason this is problematic is that they are doing it to an unresponsive “market” – “we’ve always done it this way, why should we change”.

So you can imagine – if these people do not believe in what they are trying to sell (either product, process or self) then they are hardly going to convince their “market” that it is worth spending time, effort or money on is it?

The problem with dissonance

You may believe that you are a good person, honourable and will do the best by your clients. However, you also know that the “product” that you are trying to flog is not as good as the marketing hype that has been assigned to it. You know that the engine is a bit dodgy, you may have also noticed the tell tale signs of a traffic accident, but you fail to tell the prospective buyer. The insurance policy you’ve been tasked to sell has more hidden clauses than a pre-nuptial agreement, and the fees associated with the repayments to the bank are glossed over. Would you be happy to hand in an assignment that you didn’t write?

Am I saying that you should be honest about all your dealings? Surely there is a time when you can tell a white lie or two?

Well the answer to both is yes. It is important to be honest with your business dealings, and you do that by admitting that the software has a few glitches. It does some things much better than the old piece of software, but the developers still haven’t gotten their head around a particular process. But you can turn this to your advantage by asking those people who dissent to work with you to create a better solution than if you had kept quiet and allowed them to grumble about it behind your back. It means admitting that the car has seen better days, but you have a report from the mechanic that says…. It means admitting what is included in the price of the insurance and whether or not they would like the additional pieces. As we said yesterday, would you be happy to sell “it” to yourself?

But what did I mean by it was all right to occasionally tell a white lie. Well imagine that you are going to face a new set of clients. You’re not feeling particularly well due to some kind of over indulgence from the night before. You can admit that you are hung over, or you can greet your clients with a smile and reply when asked the question “how are you” with the comment “I’m well thank you, and how are you?”

If you have never considered yourself to be a product before, now is the time to do so. Then you can decide whether or not your “product” needs some additional features, and if so, which ones are you willing to develop.


 
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