How to write a business list.
It’s no secret that I am sceptical about lists. Top tips for this, ten ways to achieve that, five things your mother didn’t tell you about men. 20 ways with your new sarong! They so often promise much and deliver very little, at least to the reader.
“Lists operate as a sort of comfort blanket, offering us a false sense of safety and protection in the folds of their familiar structures and the reassuring feel of their bullety rhythms.”
If you look closely you’ll see that nearly all lists follow a basic set of rules, and once you’ve got the rules sorted you can let go of your blanky and face your uncertainty. You might feel stripped of the comfort of false reassurances but you’ll know what you have to achieve to make a difference to your commercial success.
Most lists aren’t in fact written with a customer in mind – they are marketing tools, designed to promote an action in you, one that will, of course, benefit the lister.
Your daily activity must focus on the hopes, dreams and requirements of your customers. Whatever your business is, you are in the business of delivering a fantastic customer experience. So before you read or write another bloody list – spend 10 minutes with a clear, sharp focus on your customer.
Write down three things your customers are telling you they want and three products, services, processes or actions you can promote in your business that will deliver your customers the experience they crave.
You have now written a business list that will help you win more customers, deepen customer loyalty, support you to engage your colleagues and help you identify what you need to do next to achieve your business plans.
(If you don’t know what your customers want – stop reading this immediately and go and find out. Resist the temptation to find a list of 10 things to ask your customers today. Just get on the phone, onto the shop floor, into the factory, out into your office or the street and ask them.)
“There is do or not do. There is no read a list and think about it some more.”
With apologies to the great Jedi master Yoda.
