In my years helping large corporate customers, the biggest challenge that we solved was to pivot the team’s thinking around the specific problem and solution of a training program.
They literally had a hard time articulating what the point of the training was other than, “we want them to know or understand this information”.
I often also see this with the business owners we coach – they do a great job of calling out to an avatar with a problem, perhaps they have a model or a list of topics that they want to teach but they quickly get distracted with content and information instead of pinpointing the exact path their customers need to get to a solution.
Example #1: A company was having a quality problem with their golf clubs. Many units were returned because the heads were coming off the shaft of the club. A typical approach they used was to give everyone a generic training that taught everyone the history of why golf clubs are made a certain way, a general identification of the parts of a golf club, and maybe a overview or deep dive into the assembly process of the golf clubs.
When we came in to do a strategy session, we helped them uncover the root of the problem – which was entirely different than their assumption that people didn’t know or understand the importance of assembling the golf clubs correctly. Instead of a generic training for all, we were able to get very specific, which drove to an outcome to a solution that fixed the issue in a matter of days, not months or production cycles.
If this is your biggest challenge, you are among good company. Many fall into this trap and just create videos and put them in a video vault or membership site. You may have been taught that more is better or people need options so they can learn what they want – the opposite is actually true. Everyone is bombarded by information and content all day long – less is more at this point.
Example #2: A company that was having a very specific problem with equipment failing on a job site. They had just gotten a huge insurance premium adjustment because of the risk to life and equipment and they knew they needed to fix it. Their immediate solution was to re-vamp the training program they already had and add more testing to ensure people understood the procedures and process.
Once we were able to facilitate a strategy session with the right people from the team, we identified that the problem was very specific, very fixable and didn’t require a huge overhaul to complete. They were able to eliminate the risk and quickly reduce the thousands and thousands of dollars in insurance premiums and equipment damage.
So how do you know if you are on the right track?
1. Identify who the ideal avatar is or who needs your help.
If you are telling yourself that your solution can help everyone, it is most likely information or content-based. Be more specific in your audience – once you think you have got it – go deeper and be even more specific.
2. Identify the specific problem this avatar that matches your expertise
What is keeping them up at night? Where are they in their journey? Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced?
3. Make the solution measurable, tangible and ‘physical’.
Your ideal avatar needs to be able to see it, touch it, and specifically know they have reached the goal. A vague ‘you will know it when you see it’ or ‘reaching a new level of understanding or knowledge’ is not specific. Even if you feel like you solving a problem that is less measurable, go deeper into you can pick out something specific.
Example #3: One of my favorite quotes working with lots of companies large and small is when asked about the solution they would respond, “we will know it when we see it”. Really? How can you measure whether what you created worked? Or it is “hard to define a solution – we just want them to know the material”. Okay Alice – any path will take you there then.
If you just incorporate these three points into your business before you start creating videos, you will stop wasting time, energy and money creating something that won’t serve your audience. I don’t know about you, but when I am working with a coach or mentor, I want to know that I am on a fast track to results, not just a path to anywhere…
