I never really understood Seth Godin, until now…
Seth Godin did a fabulous podcast on Akimbo last year called ‘shun the non-believers’ on how to respond to negative feedback on your products or services. In this podcast he talks about the fact that every product or service will have negative feedback, 1 star reviews etc. (and how you really should question a product that only has 5 star reviews…)
In this podcast he mentioned two really important points:
- Define your ideal audience, the people who you are making your products for. When these people complain about the product, LISTEN. Listen very carefully and make quality improvements. But for all the others…
- When people complain about your product or service and they are not part of your ideal audience, simply say “Thank you for checking out our product, I’m sorry it’s not for you”.
While I really enjoyed listening to this episode of the podcast (Seth has such a soothing voice, I’m sure it does something fabulous with your brain waves or something) I never quite understood what he meant, and was afraid to use this approach in business.
Until now…
“It is too detailed for a student or beginner IT graduate”
That was the feedback I received from a potential client after we completed a live demonstration of our Self Assessment Toolkits.
This filled me with so much joy!
Why, you may ask?
Well, because it means that while we fully stand behind our product and are super proud of the quality and value these self assessments offer to our ideal clients, it is not a product for everybody and I now was able to say: “ Thank you for checking out our Self Assessment Toolkits, I’m sorry it’s not for you”
After which we moved on to discuss what type of client really loves our products and sees the value of the Self Assessment for their careers and the betterment of the company they work for.
As a beginner in the industry you are most likely going to be overwhelmed by the 1000 questions in the Self Assessment questionnaire. You may not know how to approach this as you probably don’t know the answer to most of the questions. Or you feel out of your depth because you don’t know where to go and find the answers to these questions. You prefer to have the basic theory spoon fed to you in bitesize chunks.
And that is fair – but to be honest, there are a number of resources available to help you get a basic understanding on the subjects.
The Self Assessment toolkits are designed to help start the conversation about the subject, whether this is a new methodology, technology or approach to business. The questionnaires help with the identification of gaps in awareness and knowledge with the organisation.
Each business is different, has different goals and requirements based on their mission, vision and customer expectations.
That’s why management consultants, senior project management professionals, VPs and C-level executives love the self assessments and how these products help them to understand where to focus resources for improvement projects. When you need to make informed and educated decisions about the future of the department, team or company you can never have too much detail.
Want to know more about the Self Assessments and find out if they provide value to you? Book a live demo with me so I can show you exactly how it works.
Ivanka Menken