Shiny Objects and Business Success
This is the time of year when very soon any email list you happen to be on magically comes alive. Or, even if you hear from them on a regular schedule, suddenly they fill your inbox. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber November are big promotion events. Sometimes any holiday or event will trigger a surge of promotional messaging. They’re all an opportunity to present deals to you to bring in a sudden flush of cash. You may even be trying to do some of the same yourself. It’s not a bad thing, it’s what marketing does.
There is a dark side, of course, to this promotion this time of year. Or, maybe you’ve hit a couple of conferences this year. That can feel much when you’re bombarded with lots of offers. The dark side isn’t that these exist, or that they may not be great deals. The dark side falls on the buyer’s end.
How many times have you purchased something or subscribed to some SAAS product and never used it. Back “in the day” we used to call this ‘shelfware’. Software that came in a box, with diskettes or CDs, that came home to roost on a shelf, waiting to solve all your problems. It may even have been installed, but then forgotten. I’ve calculated at times the tally of software that sat unused.
Today, we don’t wait for delivery of a package. We get to immediately login to a membership site or start paying monthly charges for a SAAS product. Out of site, out of mind, except if you’re logging it into your accounting system. Ouch!
I like to call these things shiny objects. Things that distract us in the moment and draw our attention away. Away from our focus.
These products and services usually promise the perfect answer to a problem or a dream. a new marketing tool… a service that takes it all off our plate… the one tool that will do everything we imagine… or a new coaching program or mastermind… It doesn’t matter.
Here’s the dark side… Are you actually going to put in place that tool, service, coaching, or mastermind to realize it’s value? Chances are the answer is No, you have too much to do already that isn’t getting done. What are you going to stop doing, to do that? Even more important, those things you’ll stop doing are the exact things you need to keep your focus on.
Do you already have more of these that you haven’t used yet? You most likely already have tools that you aren’t utilizing to their full potential. And, those resources will likely do most of what the new one will but you haven’t used it enough.
Hey, been there done that … and … I see my clients doing this A LOT. But, not the clients that are making real progress. They remain focused on the most important things that move their business forward. They’ll go looking for a solution when they’ve exhausted the resources they have. Anything else are distractions that will keep them from their goals.
There are so many things that become shiny objects to us. They may be software, a service, a conference, or any number of things. What they definitely are is a distraction from the laser focus we need in our business.
We must recognize the ‘one thing’ that is most important to move our business forward and focus on that. The shiny objects can promise us our dreams. So we must be sure they’re not a distraction from our ‘one thing’ and focus.
When a client asks for my advice on a particular product or service, I look to what their immediate goals are. Do they have a tool or service that is working or they haven’t been using that fills the same need? What are the pros and cons? If it’s a fit, then I look at where it fits in the plan and recommend scheduling the implementation. If it can’t fit in the scheduling, it’s not worth investing in. I try to keep the client on track with programs we’ve already laid out.
Sadly, a client’s strategy and marketing activity is easily thwarted by a “new direction” when distracted by a shiny object. There are too many shiny objects out there that can keep real action from happening.
See your shiny objects but keep your focus on the actions that will move you and your business ahead.