"If I can help even one of you be more successful," says the speaker standing in front of a crowd of 400 people," then I've done my job."
It's amazing how often people say that. "If I can help just one..." That seems like a very low standard. Just one? Why not 10? or 100? or 300? Or as many as possible?
How many people would feel confident if their child's third grade teacher said, "if I can help just one student be successful, then I've done my job." What about the other 33 kids in the class? It's acceptable to aim for everyone and miss a few. There is no great value, however, in aiming for a few and being satisfied when you get them.
Providing value in the world means that the things you say and the things you do have the power to help many more than one person or one company. If what you do provides value to the vast minority, then you're either talking to the wrong audience or setting your goals too low. Whatever the cause, something has to change.
I have known many small and medium sized businesses who seem very successful from the outside. They make good money and they have lovely offices. They seem to be riding high and are quite satisfied with what they've built. Upon closer inspection, however, you'll find that all that fancy Herman Miller furniture is basically being paid for by a single client. If a company has an "anchor" client or a sugar daddy or whatever else we want to call it...then what they have is a client, not a business. A business offers something of value to more than one.
It's totally acceptable to have a big client, even a dominant client, but a company is just not stable if its entire existence depends on one single piece of business. Either the goals need to be raised or a new strategy needs to be employed. Whatever the course of action, an organization only offers value to the world if more than one can say what they do is valuable...and then be willing to pay for it.
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Although I agree that actually shooting for just ONE person is setting the bar pretty low, on the other hand one should be realistic that when starting with their WHY, some people in the audience will connect outright, some people will definitely not connect outright, and the rest are "on the fence".
So don't shoot for one, yes, but also don't shoot for all. When those who get your WHY step forward then focus everything on them.
My two cents...
Posted by: Greg Williamson | 04/04/2010 at 11:22 AM
Cogent point. Reliance one anchor client is all-too-common in the interactive marketing and advertising industry, too.
Posted by: Marketingclique | 04/01/2010 at 02:31 PM