Can We Be ‘THERE’ Successfully Despite What’s Changed?

Since established common methods aren’t necessarily optimal, monitoring product & condition changes is important.

Analysis Example: (Result) was optimal when (positive condition) because (products & efforts) created & maintained (benefit) but it was disrupted by (negative cause). (Upgraded products & methods) can eliminate (negative effect) & make (upgraded benefit) practical. Recreating (original benefit) wouldn’t overcome (current condition).

Changing conditions disrupt effective practices making product & method updates necessary. Best practices sustain functional hope & beliefs about influencing current conditions. Insights come from cause & effect observations plus developing theories. People might theorize nothing is better than effects they’ve created.

Analogy: Since chemical compounds vary in reactivity, people might interpret reactions as maximums. Catalysts can increase positives & decrease negative effects. Your advantage offers should bring catalytic effects for expanding benefits into advantages &/or reducing deficiencies.

I’m still emphasizing importance of people’s ‘THERE’. Though a goal (there) might seem unachievable or ordinary, retailers should avoid assumptions.

Example: People didn’t understand why I (teenager) wanted to be a he-man. I never wanted a huge physique. I didn’t want to be scrawny. He-man bodies were possible, so I figured a few inches of muscle should be easy. I was frustrated until I learned each inch required hours of exercise. I had some knowledge (exercise instructions) without catalytic tips about diet, repetitions & rest. Each incremental inch was a temporarily motivational ‘THERE’ which became an unsatisfactory ‘HERE’ because my long-term ‘THERE’ seemed out-of-reach. I was frustrated by minimal increments until I learned other requirements. I realized combining increments & adjustments could get me ‘THERE’ but I didn’t have specifics. I didn’t get enough information from manufacturers’ equipment exercise charts.

Integrate your store into customers' lives with specific guidance toward success & encouragement to set more goals.

Back to Bears

I’m using an analogy to avoid stereotypes & sensitive issues. It may seem lame, but hopefully isn’t offensive. Please adapt this with your understanding of customers’ self-perceptions, needs & opportunities.

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter explored Success Delusion starting with: "The bear was about to clamp onto an unsuspecting airborne salmon jumping upstream. [UNUM’s] headline read: YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE THE BEAR. WE’D LIKE TO SUGGEST YOU’RE THE SALMON."

Bears plod ahead without apparent knowledge-based plots. For biologists to help without interfering, they’d need answers before offering options. Do bears habitually go to rivers remembering they’ve eaten fish or notice fish while drinking water? Do bears intentionally hibernate or become sleepy after eating? Some fish parts aren't digestible so survival isn't assured by consuming numbers of fish. How do bears know if they've eaten enough pounds? If bears benefit more from fish eggs, how do they identify females?

How Can Customers Most Effectively Define Plus Fulfill Desires, Needs & Intentions?

Subconscious minds operate habitually when trying to increase or decrease feelings. Bad habits form when negative effects aren’t APPARENT. Cause & effect theories might lead to using incompatible products & methods.

Incompatibilities are apparent AFTER negative effects start. By persevering based on theories (magic thinking), people might waste resources because they believe any product versions bring desired effects. If people accept reality too late, they might not have resources for productive actions.

Discounters push cheap products which may be enough for people who identify & temporarily settle issues. Help customers compare methods & product quality to desires, needs, expectations & obstacles. Determine what can be prevented or repaired by analyzing which causes & effects started problems.

As an optimization specialist, offer attractive options to appeal to people expecting high-quality benefits. Which personalization options are practical? Personalization promises thorough benefits plus pride fulfillment, so people have extra incentive to invest for long-term quality.

Though pride & confidence are intangible, you can motivate people to build & preserve those as benefits. Stress can increase if intangible benefits fade, so ask questions to understand what could & should affect customers' goals. People want benefits of certainty from the best sources so explain how you’ll help avoid losses &/or create benefits.

Best Versions of Better

In Good to Great, Jim Collins’s first Hedgehog Concept circle is what you can be best at. Explain why your offers are the best options for specific results. To create best results for your business & customers, develop a category of options & optimize the best options for specific customers’ lives.

Hedgehog Concept genetic encoding is ONE success criterion. Salmon & bears have major problems despite genetic fitness for natural conditions but humans change nature. Anthropomorphized salmon could be more successful with help defining threats & obstacles plus opportunities to advance.

Be your category opportunity authority by helping people recognize plus use effective, efficient implementation resources. People might perceive positive indicators as total successes while disregarding negative evidence. Confirmation biases seem to indicate familiar things added up to previous success.

Analogy: People notice 7+4+9=20 is still valid without realizing -8 is emerging & changing conditions. Maybe people had the best genetic encoding closely fitting positive factors until negatives reached level -8. Or people might try imitating successful practitioners whose genetics were optimal for other goals.

Bears might return to the same river & semi-submerged logs. It’s not a good combination as wet, rotten logs become weaker & fish-eating bears become heavier.

Consumers might be so eager to fulfill passions, they might not think about combining resources to overcome emerging conditional forces. Emerging forces can erode resources plus hamper or stop efforts.

Since success encoding isn’t automatic, define importance of concepts (examples: normal, results & high-quality).

Your Hedgehog Concept best at, passion & economic engine can be adjusted based on niche members’ passions.

Customer Integration strategies connect resources to fulfill customers’ needs/desires. Customer Integration tactics integrate results & benefits into people’s lives. Your Hedgehog Concept differentiates your store by optimizing those results & benefits into advantage offers.

How does your Hedgehog Concept fit local consumers’ conditions & marketplace gaps?

What can you uniquely offer to fulfill needs better than competitors? Competitors might have the same suppliers as you or stock generically similar products. Without your help, people might try inferior products for general problem categories.

Position your store based on how you apply knowledge to products & needs. Use your knowledge to help customers diagnose problems plus evaluate products & tasks to develop precise solutions.

Product comparisons (different ingredients & specifications) won’t always indicate how to get the best results. Some customers need somebody to ask the right questions & make suggestions.

People might plan ahead without anticipating changes including product availability & compatibility. Since completion can be incremental or delayed, do customers’ goals, resources & methods fit past, current plus emerging conditions? People might combine modernity with tradition, example: Family recipes, inherited bake-ware & new ovens might be incompatible.

For your Customer Integration Hedgehog Concept, be the best at bridging gaps & protecting vulnerabilities in local people’s conditions. How do competitors’ weaknesses & vulnerabilities leave consumers’ vulnerabilities unprotected? Do competitors offer high-quality products for filling those gaps or just short-term or partial solutions?

Explain how short-term or partial solutions cost more because excess maintenance & remediation require more resources. Explain how you fill or prevent gaps better.

Motivate Customers with Your Passion

The second Hedgehog Concept circle is what you’re deeply passionate about. When your enthusiasm connects with customers’ priorities, customers can emotionally feel & logically notice your understanding. Discounters are passionate about profits more than quality, so customers might be frustrated because products fail too soon to fulfill passions.

Offer Example: ‘Your desire for (benefit) might be passionate or mild interest. Invest money, time & energy into top-quality. If you sink resources into cheap products & ineffective methods, you’ll have more stress & less enjoyment. (Store) customizes kits based on your satisfaction standards for (benefit).’

Biologists say hibernation is more than sleeping, so bears need nutrients from salmon. Bears are well-equipped for land-based foraging.

Bears hold slimy, wiggling fish while enduring fast-flowing rivers plus walking between & on slippery rocks. Despite wounds & miserable conditions, bears need many fish over the course of multiple days.

Whether bears eagerly gorge on fish or just satiate hunger, biologists might encourage bears with effective methods or nutrition information. Anthropomorphized bears might complain, “Our sprained knees make fishing harder.” Biologists could yell, “Those bears have problems too. If you don’t eat enough fish, things will be worse!”

If frustrated people quit, what can you offer to inspire high enough interest to encourage customers to reach for higher fulfillment?

Offer top-quality inventory, motivation & guidance to attract customers to you as a subject authority. Offer knowledge for evaluating product specifications plus quality &/or interpreting problem or opportunity indications. Motivated people might proceed if they recognize problems or opportunities, plus have necessary skills. Skillful people can advance when they’re motivated to learn information & buy products.

Success depends on boosting people’s motivation, knowledge & skill levels. Your advantage offers should motivate people to perceive, pay attention to, believe & prioritize your offers.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2022 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

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