Newsletter #7: Can’t make sales solving the wrong problem

Not too long ago, I spoke to a prospect on the phone. A good prospect too—she came to me through a referral and is with a company I’d love to work with. I’ll call her Esmeralda to make the rest of this story flow.

Esmeralda had a corporate newsletter problem. Some of the big clients thought it wasn’t up to snuff but that’s as detailed as the feedback went. We had a nice long chat about her mandate, what the corporate newsletter is, what it needs to do and about how it’s produced internally.

She asked me for some help. Can I look at the writing, some recent edits and how it goes out to clients? Tell her if the writing is bad. I said sure and she’d have my feedback by Friday.

You might be thinking, cha-ching! Easy pickings—of course Esmeralda’s problem could be solved by my writing services, which I would heartily recommend.

But that’s not what my analysis pointed to.

The writing was a mix—one feature was excellent, another feature was fine. Not as good or strategic as my work, but it wasn’t scaring away the Fortune 500.

The design was an issue. A little too much going on, not as reader-friendly as it should be and some brand alignment issues. There were also challenges with the newsletter production process.

I had to tell Esmeralda that making writing changes wouldn’t help if she didn’t solve the design and process issues first.

Bye-bye cha-ching, right?

Maybe.

Maybe not. Let me explain.

I spent more than a decade working in a continuous improvement environment, where the focus is on solving a problem where it starts on the production line, not four steps down.

Plus, I spent almost a decade working with executives as an administrator, as a note-taker in a weekly strategy meeting and as a ghostwriter. I saw the danger yes-men and yes-women present for executives. I’m no loud mouth but I speak up if I see a collision coming.

It would’ve been easy to tell executive Esmeralda that I could solve all her newsletter problems, if she’d just sign on the dotted line.

That might’ve landed me one assignment before Esmeralda realized I wasn’t tending to her best interests.

Then where would we be? Back to square one, except Esmeralda would have a bitter taste in her mouth and I’d have trouble sleeping at night.

I don’t know what the future holds for me and Esmeralda. But I’ve got a good feeling. [And a follow-up plan.]

If you suspect you’re solving the wrong problem at work or at home, I suggest mapping out the process and asking a few pointed questions. You’ll have to make the flowchart yourself but let me provide the questions.

Here are the four questions I pondered as I created recommendations for Esmeralda:

• What problem are we trying to solve?

• What are we trying to accomplish?

• What feedback do we have?

• What’s the quality of that feedback?

Until next time, keep on truckin’,

Andrea

**********The quote of the month**********

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

— Winston Churchill

**********Marketing tip of the month**********

Is your Facebook marketing driving traffic to your website?

Jim Harmer runs Improve Photography and has over 600,000 followers on Facebook. He used to spend lots of time on Facebook marketing but noticed an alarming trend: Facebook sending less and less traffic to his website. In the last couple years, less than 2% of his website traffic comes from Facebook.

Maybe that’s just Jim.

But I encourage you to look at your web stats, how much traffic Facebook is bringing you and how many resources (time, money) you’re spending on Facebook for your business.

No harm in painting a clear picture for yourself, right?

Source: Income School YouTube (In a few of these videos but I can’t remember which one! Oops!)

**********Good vibes**********

Thunderstruck, bluegrass style

Finnish band, Steve'n'Seagulls, took AC/DC’s classic song Thunderstruck—a song my uncle and I bonded over in the 90s—and made a speedy bluegrass version. If you dare, it’s on YouTube here.

**********My 60-second commercial**********
I'm an executive ghostwriter, specializing in benefits, leadership coaching, corporate wellness and employee assistance programs (EAPs).

I work with executives and executive coaches who have big hearts, are driven to help others and never open a conversation they're not willing to close.

My clients are straightforward, ambitious, humble, hilarious and I never have to wonder what they're thinking because they say what they mean and mean what they say.

If you're a tough-love executive or executive coach who would benefit from the kind of work I do, please get in touch:

andrea@redsailwriters.com | 647-502-3187 | ca.linkedin.com/in/andreabassett

Let's talk about these thought leadership projects in 2021:

• Newsletters | White papers + e-books | Ghostwritten articles

• Workbooks to supplement corporate training

• Business book ghostwriting (fall 2021, early 2022)