Lessons for the Entrepreneur and other Rebel Forces
Would you rather have a relationship with 100 people who love and adore you or 10,000 people who say they like you? This might sound like a rhetorical question. However, it’s one you and I may be subconsciously answering every day, especially if you own/run a business or side hustle. Additionally, you may be putting your money and effort in the least productive place. Ask yourself these questions and think about it for a few seconds:
How much time do I spend on social media trying to get my posts and comments “liked” by other people?
How is the time I spend on such efforts influencing my bottom line?
Here at SoulSalt, Inc., we made an effort to answer these questions ourselves. In particular, we followed up on the second question and did some research. Here’s what we learned:
During a recent promotion, we offered a sample of our work to people within our network and to those who follow us on social media. We had 160 people sign up for the promotion. Of these 160 individuals, 60% said they found out about the promotion via our e-mail list. 20% said they learned about it from social media. Another 20% learned about it directly from Lyn (either in conversation, from a coaching session or listening to her present at an event). This simple example clearly shows that 80% of our participants came through direct contact with us. These are the individuals that say they “love” us enough to do more than just follow our social media posts.
Here’s one way to visually communicate what we’re trying to say here:
We, at SoulSalt, are not the only ones thinking this way. Chances are, if you’re successful at your work, you prescribe to this notion as well. In fact, a few years ago, I was sitting in my office chatting with serial entrepreneur Jason Bangerter. Jason is a co-founder of such local companies as Struck, NUVI and Rentler. Jason was sharing the good news that Rentler had passed the milestone of a half-million users. As we tipped our hats to this huge accomplishment, Jason spoke through a sideways grin and said, “But here’s the deal. I’d rather have 100 people love Rentler than 1,000 people who like it. Only those who love your product have the power to evangelize for you.”
Jason is spot on. There is no more surefire way to build momentum in the market than to harness the power of Customer Evangelism (a.k.a. Monster Loyalty). The first place to start in building an army of people who love you and what you do enough to evangelize for you is to offer a remarkable product or service.
In order to claim that you have this remarkability factor, I suggest you take a quick audit. See if you can answer “yes” to all three of these questions:
Have I built a company around a key customer (not around your internal structure)?
Does my business consistently solve a problem or challenge for my key customer?
Does my business consistently support my key customer to obtain a desired aspiration or outcome?
If you can answer “yes” to all three questions, you’ve most likely designed a business that organically attracts evangelism to sprout up from the grassroots and bloom all over the place. You gotta love that!