Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who bought a half hour of my time using the Tech Talk option on the Casual Marketer site. This person had an idea they wanted to run past me for their online business and they were looking for some perspective. Those sessions are really good for that, so for $150 that’s exceptional value.
The process is pretty simple:
– You pay your session
– I send you an email to get a brain dump from you on what you want to discuss
– We agree a half an hour time slot to chat on Skype
– I send you an email a few days later with my thoughts
This individual did a really nice job of sending me a comprehensive and well thought out brain dump. She understood where her business was at the moment, the problems she was having and then put forward a few options she was toying with to fix it.
Like I said, the brain dump itself was pretty good, but there were some worrying things about her direction that I knew we could talk about. I made some notes for the conversation and sent her an email to coordinate a time to talk.
The conversation last night was interesting for sure. I dug a bit deeper on the problems to see how real they were and truthfully, she’d nailed those – she knew her current business was in a bit of trouble through no fault of her own, it was just a market issue.
What jumped out at me though was how incongruent her potential next steps were with where she was in her business. It was like someone who had a fruit stand that had a bit of downturn because fruit prices had gone up deciding to start a shoe store because people who come to her fruit stand have feet.
It literally made no sense. Even when I played it back to her, it made absolutely zero sense to her either. I wouldn’t say she was desperate or anything, she just looked at the problem in a way that led her to an answer that didn’t make sense.
We spent the rest of our time talking about the value of being congruent with your audience and not jerking their attention around all the time. Congruence in marketing and in your business more generally are hugely important and something you should be striving for.
I actually talk about congruence a fair bit because I think it’s that important. Things need to logically flow from one stage to the next that takes your customer on a journey with you.
I like to think of marketing like telling a story. There’s an arc and your characters follow a path that unveils the story to your reader and brings them along for the ride. People buy into congruence, it makes them feel safe and comfortable. It establishes trust.
When people know what to expect from you, it makes it easy for them to take the next step in your relationship which is buying from you.