You're Tied Up, Locked in a Dark Cupboard & the Only Way You Get Out …

tied-up
I was in a planning meeting, just before Christmas, with some of my colleagues in our marketing team and we were planning some campaigns that we have lined up for the first quarter this year.
One of the smartest members of that team was running through a particular multi-step campaign that she’d designed and mapped out and, as she talked us through it, she said, “…and the best way to send them out is email”. 
“Stop!” I exclaimed. 
“I want you to imagine, for a moment” I went on, “that you are tied up in a small, dark cupboard and outside the door is a very nasty man with a gun.
The only scenario in which you get out of that cupboard alive is if this campaign is a success. Given that situation, are you still going to send that campaign only via email?”
Of course, she retracted her assertion straightway and quickly saw the errors in her thinking.
Problem averted. 
But it’s a problem that manifests  itself every single day in millions of businesses across this country.
Business owners (let alone marketing teams) do the easiest, most straightforward thing for them to do, which is rarely the best from a customer or conversion perspective. Jeffrey Gitomer talks about “Doing the hard work that makes the selling easy” and this is a great example of that.
And most people, once it’s pointed out to them, are happy to do the hard work.
The tricky thing, it seems, is stopping your brain before it gets into ‘easy’ flow and to actually challenge the thinking that takes you down that path of least resistance in the first place.
It’s not that what you are planning to do is wrong, it’s just that it’s not the best it can be and that’s a problem.
For a long while now, one question that I found particularly helpful is, “What would the best in the world do?” 
It has so many uses. It doesn’t just apply to marketing, but also to operational rigour, customer service, etc.
Whatever you’re tackling in your business today could, almost certainly, be better served by you asking that question – and following through properly on the answer.
Most of us want our businesses to be seen as truly excellent at what we do – at which point that question becomes even more useful and helpful.
Of course, it requires clarity of thought and honesty, with ourselves, to answer it accurately – but that’s where your BGSM (Business Growth Support Manager) can help (if you’re PIA or Club 149 Members). But whether you get help or not, those two questions:
What would the best in the world do?
If you were tied up in a darkened room and the only way the man with the gun allowed you out was if this campaign performed….
….can be really helpful.
And it’s why, this month, they are the final words….