Selectivity Pays Off. How Many People Are You Saying No To Through Your Speech?
I mentioned yesterday that Iām advocating towards talking directly to your user. Thatās no news but Iāll see what I can add to go one (or maybe more) level deeper, give some more value.
Assuming the idea speaks for itself, my input would be on why that matters. Much like anything I write, I think itās about the mindset. And Iām not saying that in a āmotivational speakerā way, not in a āengineer your life to be a masterpieceā or whatever kind of bullshit.
Itās about the mindset for this very reason: because of school, university and what not ā the educational system in general ā we have a tendency to look for how-to lists. Or for a step by step guide. Even if youāre a dropout, this still applies. Things around you are built by people who have been through the educational system ā thatās statistically speaking.
It will affect you, whether you like it or not. But hereās the problem with it: when you follow a step-by-step, thereās no reasoning behind it. Sometimes it happens ā which is when an epiphany occurs.
āYouāre rambling Daniel, what are you talking about?ā
Say the usual film scene where a guy asks for advice from the alpha guy on how to attract a woman. The āstudentā asks āWhat can I say to her to attract her? Whatās a pick-up line?ā
The problem is that āa pick-up lineā is a consumable. A short-term patch, not a fix to the problem. So once the pick-up line works (or not), then itās back to the studentās non-experienced way of doing things. Once he used the pick-up line, itās back to whatever heās doing wrong thatās unattractive.
Why? Because itās his mindset thatās not fixed. Indeed, itās the long-term shot to work on your mindset.
The point of this parallel?
When one reads āWrite directly to your userā or āDo A/B testingā or whatever some successful guy said, maybe itās time to look at the reasoning behind it. Because otherwise, weāre just like the helpless guy trying to attract a woman whoās only failing in the next second.
And hereās where I really get into my point today: the reasoning behind āwrite directly to your userā. Itās simple: selectivity. Now, when itās put out, you might not agree with it. The natural tendency to serve everyone might kick in. Why would I be selective?
āWhy would I say no to potential customers?ā
It leads back to questions like why would I spend time doing non-scalable things such as getting in touch 1-on-1 with my users?
The answer to both selectivity and non-scalable things is the same: impact. When youāre being selective, the impact is at least tenfold. If not more ā thatās up to you.
Motivational folks would pack this concept up with some catchy rhyming quote like āfocus is pocusā ā I really forgot what that quote used to be but I promise it was both rhyming and rememberable.
But motivational folks wonāt spend the time to explain the thinking behind doing that because it doesnāt align with what they sell. Which is why what Iām writing right now is not for the masses, for the public ā it wonāt get you off your chair. In fact, itās very likely it might be a hit, depending on much youāre opposing the āI donāt want to serve everyoneā idea.
If youāre never saying no, your yes is pretty much worthless. And that applies to business, customers, users, clients etc. as well ā whether theyāre paying people or not.
Practical examples
Remember the wealth management platform example given yesterday? Thatās not something millennials are likely to use. So not only theyād refrain from putting up emojis and ācoolā terms but theyād use what the young ones would call boring and dull.
Assets, ROI, wealth are from the same family. Investment, product expertise, financial goals.
If, on the other hand, youāre doing something for millennials like the Puggerfly was meant to be, then you might be into emojis, gen-Z slang, a lot of acronyms and what not. Moreover, Three (the mobile carrier) is pretty much oriented towards them. Their plans offer unlimited bingeing on Netflix, Snapchat etc.
Speaking of them, hereās how the screen time analysis of a gen-Z iPhone user looks like, should you be interested.
Mind you, thatās a weekly average. It wasnāt just a random day where the young person was rather lazy and preferred staying on her/his phone.
The Tinder for Muslim people will talk differently than the actual Tinder. First one is called Minder by the way ā in itself, because they are so focused, theyāve forced themselves to speak directly to their audience ā which I think is a good thing.
About Ch Daniel
I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. Weāre building a credo around this belief.
If Iāve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube (same content but in video)
Iāve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times ā check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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Illustration Credits: MichaÅ Sawtyruk, Niceshit Studio