Sept. 21, 2025
How to Claim Your Unique Value in the Marketplace
On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you in saying out loud that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best? The best. If you said 10, congratulations. You are in great shape on that front. But if your response was an 8 or below. Or if you didn't even answer, but instead said, well, “best” compared to what, or to whom? Or some other equivocation, then there are some questions to explore. If you're a Nonprofit leader who strives for excellence and who's looking to...
On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you in saying out loud that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best? The best.
If you said 10, congratulations. You are in great shape on that front. But if your response was an 8 or below. Or if you didn't even answer, but instead said, well, “best” compared to what, or to whom? Or some other equivocation, then there are some questions to explore.
If you're a Nonprofit leader who strives for excellence and who's looking to make a powerful impact in the world, I am confident that there's at least one aspect of the work that you do, the solution you provide, the impact you make, that is the best. That makes you unique in the marketplace.
But a lot of Nonprofit leaders have some resistance to making those claims out loud, especially with money and policy decisionmakers.
In this week’s episode, we get into how you can fully own that, in ways that are truly effective.
In this episode, we share:
- What the decisionmaker hears when you hold back from saying your stuff is the best
- How to identify and address the source(s) of your reluctance/resistance to making the claim that your stuff is “best in class”
- Practical questions to help you clarify exactly what sets you apart and makes you “best in class”
- How to strategically define the problem you solve, to reflect the aspects of your work and impact that are exceptional
- The most dangerous pitfall in defining the problem, and how to avoid it
- How to assert your “best in class” claim without naming or creating problems with others who are in your arena
- How to frame your results as an answer to the most common decisionmaker worries about money
- The one link you must make for the decisionmaker to help them get to yes
Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast. Thanks!!
WEBVTT
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to claim your unique value in the marketplace.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode, because I have a really important question I want to ask you.
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Here goes.
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Scale of one to 10, how comfortable are you in saying that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best?
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The best.
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If you said 10, congratulations, you are in great shape.
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You can probably skip ahead to the part of this episode that's about messaging around that.
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But if your response was any of the following, if it was an eight or below, or if you didn't even answer, but instead said, well, best compared to what or to whom.
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Or some other equivocation, then this episode is 100% for you.
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I'm assuming that if you're a regular listener here, you are not a leader who's comfortable just hanging out in the middle of the pack.
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That you're not okay with your services being just, okay, your impact being just okay.
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I know there are nonprofits that fit that description, that are not interested in being exceptional, but merely competent.
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Those folks don't tend to come looking for me.
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So already by the fact that you're here, you've shown me that you're a leader who strives for excellence and who's looking to make a powerful impact in the world.
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Because of that, I also know that there's at least one aspect of the work that you do, the solution you provide, the impact you make, that is the best.
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That makes you unique in the marketplace.
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What we're gonna talk about today is how you can fully own that in ways that are truly effective.
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I find that a lot of Nonprofit leaders, when I encourage them to identify what about their work and their impact and their unique solution is truly the best there is.
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So that you can then go out and sell that to decision makers.
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There's a lot of resistance to that.
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I hear things like, I don't know if we can go out there and say we're the best.
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That feels a little aggressive.
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That doesn't feel quite right.
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While I generally appreciate humility, it is not helping you when you're looking to sell decision makers on your solution.
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But it's not just about that.
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The reluctance to claim best in class often goes deeper than simple humility.
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There are several things we have to look at here.
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Number one, this is not about you personally.
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That's a different conversation.
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This is about the work you do and the impact it makes in the world.
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Number two, the real core message you're going to be conveying is why your approach or your unique secret sauce is the best, most effective solution to a problem that the decision maker believes they have.
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A problem that is causing them pain.
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That may or may not be the problem that you think of as the one that you solve.
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Because the way we all tend to describe the problem we solve is in terms of the problem that the people we serve are experiencing.
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Almost always, the problems experienced by the people you serve are not the problems that the decision maker is experiencing.
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The decision maker is experiencing a different set of problems and pain points.
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And when you're selling your stuff to a decision maker, you're speaking to both sets of problems.
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But if you can't explain why something about what you do is the best, most effective solution to the decision maker's problem.
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Then you have a problem.
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So let's talk about all the things that claiming to be the best or most effective is not.
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The purpose of claiming best in class on any given aspect of what you do, is not to thump your chest and have a big ego trip and say, look at me.
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I'm the best.
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That is not the point.
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It's not saying that you are better than everyone else at everything.
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And it's not saying that you are better than everyone else in the context of personal superiority or any other sort of intrinsic value kinds of judgments.
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You're not saying you're a better person.
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You're not saying your organization is a better organization, although it might be.
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It might be better in terms of how efficiently it's run, how strongly guided it is by mission, vision, and values and so forth.
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That might be true.
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But that's not the claim you're making.
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So we have to get really granular about the context in which we are claiming to be the best and most effective.
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Once you get clarity about the granular pieces of that, it gets easier to make the statement: this is the best, the most effective.
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But if you just can't bring yourself to say that, we have to look at why.
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The first question I will ask you, or you can ask yourself.
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Is it because your services, your solution, your work, your impacts are really just mediocre, middle of the pack.
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Nothing exceptional here.
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Is that really true?
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I sincerely doubt it.
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Another way to look at that is if somebody else said that to you about your services or your impact.
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I'm guessing you'd bristle at that.
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You'd defend.
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You'd say, no, our stuff is amazing.
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What are you talking about?
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So if it's not that, what is it?
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If you know that your services, solution and impact are in some way exceptional and therefore the best or most effective way to solve a particular problem, what's in the way of saying so?
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Now it could be some of our old friends.
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Some of our constant companions,.
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It could be a fear of what someone else will think about us if we say something like that.
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It could be that we're worried about what another organization would do or say or feel if they heard us saying we were the best, and then that means they're not and they suck, maybe Could be any of that stuff.
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Often when I talk with Nonprofit leaders about this, those are the kinds of things that are bubbling around in the back of their mind.
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So we wanna be clear about what we are and aren't doing here.
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We are not commenting on anybody else's stuff.
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We're not talking about them.
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Why would we be talking about them?
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We're talking to a decision maker about why our stuff is awesome, why our organization and the work we do, and the impact we create is the best and therefore worthy of their top investment.
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Others are irrelevant in this conversation.
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They are free to make their own case to that decision maker.
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And because no two organizations are exactly alike in any way, no two sets of services are exactly alike.
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They're going to have their own unique value propositions that they will be bringing to the decision maker.
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And presumably, as long as they didn't say anything bad about you or denigrate your work in any way.
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That if they were claiming the value of their particular secret sauce, that's their job to do.
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It's all of your jobs to do.
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And you and the organization down the street can both be making claims about your unique value proposition in the work that you do.
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Now, if you're really so tightly and closely aligned in your work and your impact and your solution, it's very possible that you'll be partnering with them in approaching decision makers, and that's great.
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Then that just doubles the ability to make that exceptional claim.
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Now for-profit competitors are a little bit of a different story, but you still aren't gonna talk about them directly.
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Instead, you're gonna point out the differences in impact and why you're able to get the best results, to solve the problem most thoroughly.
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Because you solve the whole problem.
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And those for-profit competitors, in the interest of scale and keeping costs down, by definition have to cut corners somewhere.
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And so their results aren't as good.
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You don't have to name anybody by name.
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You can just talk about, the only way to do this cheaper is if you don't solve the whole problem.
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There's not some magic formula that lets you deliver the quality of outcomes and impact that you deliver, and do it for half the price.
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That formula doesn't exist.
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And so if you're buying the cheaper thing, you're getting a cheaper product.
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You're getting outcomes of a lower quality, which in the end are just gonna wind up costing you more.
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So think a little more deeply about what might you say that would set somebody else off.
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Generally speaking, most Nonprofit leaders I know are pretty darn diplomatic with their language.
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Often to the point that makes me a little nuts and I want them to be more bold.
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But most Nonprofit leaders don't go around making claims that they can't back up.
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You certainly never wanna do that.
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You wanna be someone whose word is absolute integrity.
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And that if you make a claim of being the best or most effective, or most cost effective solution to a particular problem, that you can back that up.
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And that you're ready to do that and happy to do that.
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And we're gonna expect that of everybody else around you.
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So all that to say, take a hard look at what is in the way of saying your solution is the best.
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And if it's some internal stuff, that's work we just have to do.
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To take that apart.
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To look for the underlying beliefs that are giving us discomfort with that about what does it mean if we say this thing or what will people think, or whatever it is we're worried about.
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We have to take that apart and take a good look at it and rebut that with what we know is actually true.
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Interrogate those unhelpful beliefs and replace them with beliefs that are more true and that actually serve us more effectively.
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That's work we all have to constantly be doing when we discover that there is something inside that is holding us back from doing a thing that we know will help us.
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Beyond that internal work, some things that can help you get out of this reluctance resistance, is that you can take an objective look at what's true about your impact.
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What do your impact data tell you?
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What do your client surveys tell you?
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What do your ROI data tell you?
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Write all of that down.
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And reference that when you're doing that internal work as well.
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But write it down, and then identify all the things that are unique about your approach, your combination of services, your level of personalization of services.
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All the things that you do that are essentially your secret sauce.
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What are all of the things in there that cause your client outcomes, your client satisfaction, your ROI to be exceptional in some way?
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How do you make that happen?
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What is it that you do that others don't that makes that difference?
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Prove the case to yourself first before you go and try to prove it to the decision maker.
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Another question to ask yourself is, what are we the most proud of about what we do?
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What lights us up about the impact we make?
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Those kinds of questions will help you do two things.
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One, they'll help you get to the practical answer to the question of what makes you exceptional.
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But it will also reconnect you on a deep level with the passion and pride you feel for the work that you do and the results it creates.
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It's from that place that you want to create your messaging.
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And make your claims of being the best or most effective solution to a specific piece of the problem.
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And that's the other thing.
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One of the tricks for this is to shape your definition of the problem or the parameters of the problem, to reflect the aspects of your work and impact that are exceptional.
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Don't use a problem definition that doesn't showcase that.
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Let me give you a couple of examples.
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If your unique approach to your workforce development services results in your clients successfully sticking with the longer career path process that's necessary for them to move from where they are now to a place where they are earning a family sustaining wage.
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You wanna define the problem in a way that makes your approach the best solution.
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The worst thing you can do is overgeneralize the problem you solve or oversimplify the problem you solve.
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In this case the problem you solve for your clients is that, even though they're already working really hard, they don't have what they need in order to earn a family sustaining wage.
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And there's a lot in the way of them getting there.
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What you do is you are able to consistently take someone with a lot of things in the way and help them get past those things.
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And get to the place where they actually have that family sustaining wage.
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If the decision maker is busy thinking that the problem is just unemployment and the person needs a job, that's not what you're exceptional at.
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If you solve a high level problem, don't get sucked in to trying to say you're the best at solving the lowest common denominator of that problem.
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Not having a job, that's a relatively simple problem.
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Not having all the pieces in place to be able to earn a family sustaining wage is a much more complex problem.
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And that's what you solve.
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Similarly, if you have a complex nutrition solution that's aimed at helping people with complex health conditions.
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You're not just feeding people.
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You're solving a complex health issue with a nutrition response.
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But if the decision maker doesn't grasp the difference, they're unlikely to value your work and impact appropriately.
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A lot of times when you solve a complex problem with a high level solution that aims for ambitious outcomes.
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That really move the needle for not only the client but the community.
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Sometimes you have to educate decision makers about the difference.
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You have to help them understand that the problem ain't as simple as they think it is.
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And that you're really good at solving the complicated problem so that it stays solved.
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And that has a much higher value than solving the simpler problem.
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You have to educate them to elevate their understanding of the problem and its complexity.
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And then you tie that complexity to one of the decision makers pain points.
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Now you'll have to research your individual decision makers' particular pain points.
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But some general pain points that are almost always present for most decision makers is something to do with money.
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They're worried about constrained resources or they're concerned that a solution will quote cost too much unquote.
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With the right messaging, you can actually use your sophisticated solution to a complex problem as an answer to their worries about money.
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Because when you apply your sophisticated solution, the problem gets solved at its root and it stays solved.
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Therefore it stops costing more money over time.
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The initial investment is higher, but the result is that the problem goes away permanently.
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Versus if you do the low level intervention, the simpler solution, you've solved part of the problem for now.
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But it will almost certainly recur if they only get a bandaid solution to the simple aspect of their problem.
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So in that situation, you might say that your approach is the best, most effective way to reduce costs over time, to reduce the long-term cost of this problem, to eliminate the recurring cost of this problem.
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You could phrase it a number of different ways, but that's the essential concept.
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Fundamentally, the goal here is to find the context in which it is true that your services, your solution, your approach, your unique secret sauce is the best, most effective way to solve a particular problem.
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Ideally, you want to be able to talk about how it's the best way to solve the particular problem that the client experiences and a particular problem that the decision maker is focused on that is one of their pain points.
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Bottom line, saying you're the best, most effective at anything is contextual.
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It's not a chest thumping brag.
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It's not a blanket statement about all things.
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It's a messaging strategy to help a decision maker make a decision.
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Because they wanna solve the problem that's causing them pain.
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They want that problem gone, but they don't know how to solve it.
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If they did, it wouldn't be a pain point anymore.
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So they're in the place of, I have this problem, I have this headache, I need a solution, I need a cure.
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But I don't know what the best solution is.
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And if you come to them and say, well, I've got a solution, but you know it, it might not be best, it might not be the most appropriate.
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I don't know.
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Maybe somebody else's solution is better.
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I wouldn't want to go too far and say that our solution is the best, but we could definitely help you with your problem.
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Now, I know you wouldn't say it in those words.
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But anytime you hold back on your claim of being the best, most effective solution for the thing that is vexing them, that is what decision maker's gonna hear.
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And if you're the decision maker, are you inspired to buy that solution?
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The person selling it to you isn't even sure that it's really that great.
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And here's the other thing I will guarantee you.
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Somebody else in your space who does not have your resistance to saying this, to making this claim, is gonna come in there and say, I have the solution for your problem.
00:19:49.153 --> 00:19:50.173
It's gonna fix it.
00:19:50.384 --> 00:19:52.844
It is the best, most effective solution.
00:19:53.114 --> 00:19:56.503
And the decision maker is gonna be like, awesome.
00:19:56.923 --> 00:19:58.183
Thank God you're here.
00:19:58.183 --> 00:20:02.634
I've been looking for a solution and I just keep hearing from people who can't promise me anything.
00:20:02.844 --> 00:20:05.124
They're like, well, maybe it'll help, maybe it won't.
00:20:05.544 --> 00:20:06.804
Thank God you're here now.
00:20:06.804 --> 00:20:09.203
You brought me something you can prove will work.
00:20:09.413 --> 00:20:09.983
Great.
00:20:10.253 --> 00:20:11.784
I'm buying that.
00:20:12.611 --> 00:20:13.480
Bottom line.
00:20:13.540 --> 00:20:19.000
This is about messaging and helping a decision maker make the right decision.
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:26.911
Your job is to provide the clearest possible link between their pain points and the results you produce.
00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:35.740
To show them that your solution is the best, most effective, most cost effective solution for their problem.
00:20:36.423 --> 00:20:39.064
To do that, you have to believe that is true.
00:20:39.614 --> 00:20:42.019
And you have to be able to show them how it's true.
00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:49.278
Whether that's with stories, with data, with testimonials or case studies from other decision makers, or all of the above.
00:20:49.845 --> 00:20:56.115
When you do that, saying yes to what you're selling becomes easy for that decision maker.
00:20:56.835 --> 00:20:57.825
And that helps you.
00:20:58.305 --> 00:20:59.234
It helps them.
00:20:59.654 --> 00:21:01.154
And it helps the people you serve.
00:21:01.994 --> 00:21:03.105
Everybody wins.
00:21:03.605 --> 00:21:08.704
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
00:00:02.930 --> 00:00:08.869
In today's episode, we share how to claim your unique value in the marketplace.
00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:10.369
So stay tuned.
00:00:16.524 --> 00:00:25.434
If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
00:00:26.065 --> 00:00:39.054
I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
00:00:52.284 --> 00:00:55.075
Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
00:00:58.255 --> 00:01:01.284
Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
00:01:06.861 --> 00:01:07.578
Hey there folks.
00:01:07.578 --> 00:01:10.608
Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode, because I have a really important question I want to ask you.
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Here goes.
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Scale of one to 10, how comfortable are you in saying that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best?
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The best.
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If you said 10, congratulations, you are in great shape.
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You can probably skip ahead to the part of this episode that's about messaging around that.
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But if your response was any of the following, if it was an eight or below, or if you didn't even answer, but instead said, well, best compared to what or to whom.
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Or some other equivocation, then this episode is 100% for you.
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I'm assuming that if you're a regular listener here, you are not a leader who's comfortable just hanging out in the middle of the pack.
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That you're not okay with your services being just, okay, your impact being just okay.
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I know there are nonprofits that fit that description, that are not interested in being exceptional, but merely competent.
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Those folks don't tend to come looking for me.
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So already by the fact that you're here, you've shown me that you're a leader who strives for excellence and who's looking to make a powerful impact in the world.
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Because of that, I also know that there's at least one aspect of the work that you do, the solution you provide, the impact you make, that is the best.
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That makes you unique in the marketplace.
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What we're gonna talk about today is how you can fully own that in ways that are truly effective.
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I find that a lot of Nonprofit leaders, when I encourage them to identify what about their work and their impact and their unique solution is truly the best there is.
00:03:06.561 --> 00:03:09.591
So that you can then go out and sell that to decision makers.
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There's a lot of resistance to that.
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I hear things like, I don't know if we can go out there and say we're the best.
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That feels a little aggressive.
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That doesn't feel quite right.
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While I generally appreciate humility, it is not helping you when you're looking to sell decision makers on your solution.
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But it's not just about that.
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The reluctance to claim best in class often goes deeper than simple humility.
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There are several things we have to look at here.
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Number one, this is not about you personally.
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That's a different conversation.
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This is about the work you do and the impact it makes in the world.
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Number two, the real core message you're going to be conveying is why your approach or your unique secret sauce is the best, most effective solution to a problem that the decision maker believes they have.
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A problem that is causing them pain.
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That may or may not be the problem that you think of as the one that you solve.
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Because the way we all tend to describe the problem we solve is in terms of the problem that the people we serve are experiencing.
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Almost always, the problems experienced by the people you serve are not the problems that the decision maker is experiencing.
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The decision maker is experiencing a different set of problems and pain points.
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And when you're selling your stuff to a decision maker, you're speaking to both sets of problems.
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But if you can't explain why something about what you do is the best, most effective solution to the decision maker's problem.
00:04:51.773 --> 00:04:53.122
Then you have a problem.
00:04:53.961 --> 00:05:00.874
So let's talk about all the things that claiming to be the best or most effective is not.
00:05:01.374 --> 00:05:11.713
The purpose of claiming best in class on any given aspect of what you do, is not to thump your chest and have a big ego trip and say, look at me.
00:05:11.713 --> 00:05:12.973
I'm the best.
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That is not the point.
00:05:15.853 --> 00:05:21.314
It's not saying that you are better than everyone else at everything.
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And it's not saying that you are better than everyone else in the context of personal superiority or any other sort of intrinsic value kinds of judgments.
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You're not saying you're a better person.
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You're not saying your organization is a better organization, although it might be.
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It might be better in terms of how efficiently it's run, how strongly guided it is by mission, vision, and values and so forth.
00:05:48.603 --> 00:05:49.894
That might be true.
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But that's not the claim you're making.
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So we have to get really granular about the context in which we are claiming to be the best and most effective.
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Once you get clarity about the granular pieces of that, it gets easier to make the statement: this is the best, the most effective.
00:06:12.817 --> 00:06:18.557
But if you just can't bring yourself to say that, we have to look at why.
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The first question I will ask you, or you can ask yourself.
00:06:23.307 --> 00:06:32.122
Is it because your services, your solution, your work, your impacts are really just mediocre, middle of the pack.
00:06:32.541 --> 00:06:33.831
Nothing exceptional here.
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Is that really true?
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I sincerely doubt it.
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Another way to look at that is if somebody else said that to you about your services or your impact.
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I'm guessing you'd bristle at that.
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You'd defend.
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You'd say, no, our stuff is amazing.
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What are you talking about?
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So if it's not that, what is it?
00:06:56.822 --> 00:07:09.607
If you know that your services, solution and impact are in some way exceptional and therefore the best or most effective way to solve a particular problem, what's in the way of saying so?
00:07:10.312 --> 00:07:12.632
Now it could be some of our old friends.
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Some of our constant companions,.
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It could be a fear of what someone else will think about us if we say something like that.
00:07:20.357 --> 00:07:34.074
It could be that we're worried about what another organization would do or say or feel if they heard us saying we were the best, and then that means they're not and they suck, maybe Could be any of that stuff.
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Often when I talk with Nonprofit leaders about this, those are the kinds of things that are bubbling around in the back of their mind.
00:07:41.091 --> 00:07:43.762
So we wanna be clear about what we are and aren't doing here.
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We are not commenting on anybody else's stuff.
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We're not talking about them.
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Why would we be talking about them?
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We're talking to a decision maker about why our stuff is awesome, why our organization and the work we do, and the impact we create is the best and therefore worthy of their top investment.
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Others are irrelevant in this conversation.
00:08:05.915 --> 00:08:08.884
They are free to make their own case to that decision maker.
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And because no two organizations are exactly alike in any way, no two sets of services are exactly alike.
00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:25.019
They're going to have their own unique value propositions that they will be bringing to the decision maker.
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And presumably, as long as they didn't say anything bad about you or denigrate your work in any way.
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That if they were claiming the value of their particular secret sauce, that's their job to do.
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It's all of your jobs to do.
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And you and the organization down the street can both be making claims about your unique value proposition in the work that you do.
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Now, if you're really so tightly and closely aligned in your work and your impact and your solution, it's very possible that you'll be partnering with them in approaching decision makers, and that's great.
00:09:00.921 --> 00:09:05.135
Then that just doubles the ability to make that exceptional claim.
00:09:05.789 --> 00:09:13.059
Now for-profit competitors are a little bit of a different story, but you still aren't gonna talk about them directly.
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Instead, you're gonna point out the differences in impact and why you're able to get the best results, to solve the problem most thoroughly.
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Because you solve the whole problem.
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And those for-profit competitors, in the interest of scale and keeping costs down, by definition have to cut corners somewhere.
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And so their results aren't as good.
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You don't have to name anybody by name.
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You can just talk about, the only way to do this cheaper is if you don't solve the whole problem.
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There's not some magic formula that lets you deliver the quality of outcomes and impact that you deliver, and do it for half the price.
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That formula doesn't exist.
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And so if you're buying the cheaper thing, you're getting a cheaper product.
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You're getting outcomes of a lower quality, which in the end are just gonna wind up costing you more.
00:10:10.913 --> 00:10:18.952
So think a little more deeply about what might you say that would set somebody else off.
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Generally speaking, most Nonprofit leaders I know are pretty darn diplomatic with their language.
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Often to the point that makes me a little nuts and I want them to be more bold.
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But most Nonprofit leaders don't go around making claims that they can't back up.
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You certainly never wanna do that.
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You wanna be someone whose word is absolute integrity.
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And that if you make a claim of being the best or most effective, or most cost effective solution to a particular problem, that you can back that up.
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And that you're ready to do that and happy to do that.
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And we're gonna expect that of everybody else around you.
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So all that to say, take a hard look at what is in the way of saying your solution is the best.
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And if it's some internal stuff, that's work we just have to do.
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To take that apart.
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To look for the underlying beliefs that are giving us discomfort with that about what does it mean if we say this thing or what will people think, or whatever it is we're worried about.
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We have to take that apart and take a good look at it and rebut that with what we know is actually true.
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Interrogate those unhelpful beliefs and replace them with beliefs that are more true and that actually serve us more effectively.
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That's work we all have to constantly be doing when we discover that there is something inside that is holding us back from doing a thing that we know will help us.
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Beyond that internal work, some things that can help you get out of this reluctance resistance, is that you can take an objective look at what's true about your impact.
00:12:00.508 --> 00:12:02.758
What do your impact data tell you?
00:12:03.508 --> 00:12:05.337
What do your client surveys tell you?
00:12:05.727 --> 00:12:07.857
What do your ROI data tell you?
00:12:08.687 --> 00:12:10.222
Write all of that down.
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And reference that when you're doing that internal work as well.
00:12:15.186 --> 00:12:25.765
But write it down, and then identify all the things that are unique about your approach, your combination of services, your level of personalization of services.
00:12:26.265 --> 00:12:30.216
All the things that you do that are essentially your secret sauce.
00:12:30.785 --> 00:12:40.296
What are all of the things in there that cause your client outcomes, your client satisfaction, your ROI to be exceptional in some way?
00:12:40.936 --> 00:12:42.225
How do you make that happen?
00:12:42.225 --> 00:12:46.020
What is it that you do that others don't that makes that difference?
00:12:46.878 --> 00:12:52.248
Prove the case to yourself first before you go and try to prove it to the decision maker.
00:12:53.051 --> 00:12:58.119
Another question to ask yourself is, what are we the most proud of about what we do?
00:12:58.928 --> 00:13:01.298
What lights us up about the impact we make?
00:13:01.808 --> 00:13:04.989
Those kinds of questions will help you do two things.
00:13:05.408 --> 00:13:10.418
One, they'll help you get to the practical answer to the question of what makes you exceptional.
00:13:11.019 --> 00:13:20.318
But it will also reconnect you on a deep level with the passion and pride you feel for the work that you do and the results it creates.
00:13:20.964 --> 00:13:24.364
It's from that place that you want to create your messaging.
00:13:24.739 --> 00:13:30.551
And make your claims of being the best or most effective solution to a specific piece of the problem.
00:13:31.327 --> 00:13:32.528
And that's the other thing.
00:13:33.110 --> 00:13:44.461
One of the tricks for this is to shape your definition of the problem or the parameters of the problem, to reflect the aspects of your work and impact that are exceptional.
00:13:45.346 --> 00:13:49.517
Don't use a problem definition that doesn't showcase that.
00:13:50.336 --> 00:13:52.317
Let me give you a couple of examples.
00:13:52.817 --> 00:14:08.386
If your unique approach to your workforce development services results in your clients successfully sticking with the longer career path process that's necessary for them to move from where they are now to a place where they are earning a family sustaining wage.
00:14:08.808 --> 00:14:14.298
You wanna define the problem in a way that makes your approach the best solution.
00:14:14.927 --> 00:14:21.975
The worst thing you can do is overgeneralize the problem you solve or oversimplify the problem you solve.
00:14:22.475 --> 00:14:33.414
In this case the problem you solve for your clients is that, even though they're already working really hard, they don't have what they need in order to earn a family sustaining wage.
00:14:33.751 --> 00:14:36.331
And there's a lot in the way of them getting there.
00:14:36.924 --> 00:14:43.965
What you do is you are able to consistently take someone with a lot of things in the way and help them get past those things.
00:14:44.264 --> 00:14:48.375
And get to the place where they actually have that family sustaining wage.
00:14:48.826 --> 00:14:57.846
If the decision maker is busy thinking that the problem is just unemployment and the person needs a job, that's not what you're exceptional at.
00:14:58.346 --> 00:15:06.769
If you solve a high level problem, don't get sucked in to trying to say you're the best at solving the lowest common denominator of that problem.
00:15:07.609 --> 00:15:10.308
Not having a job, that's a relatively simple problem.
00:15:10.808 --> 00:15:17.048
Not having all the pieces in place to be able to earn a family sustaining wage is a much more complex problem.
00:15:17.499 --> 00:15:18.788
And that's what you solve.
00:15:19.533 --> 00:15:26.133
Similarly, if you have a complex nutrition solution that's aimed at helping people with complex health conditions.
00:15:26.547 --> 00:15:28.225
You're not just feeding people.
00:15:28.797 --> 00:15:32.486
You're solving a complex health issue with a nutrition response.
00:15:32.787 --> 00:15:40.605
But if the decision maker doesn't grasp the difference, they're unlikely to value your work and impact appropriately.
00:15:41.365 --> 00:15:48.475
A lot of times when you solve a complex problem with a high level solution that aims for ambitious outcomes.
00:15:48.745 --> 00:15:52.705
That really move the needle for not only the client but the community.
00:15:53.205 --> 00:15:56.595
Sometimes you have to educate decision makers about the difference.
00:15:57.134 --> 00:16:02.306
You have to help them understand that the problem ain't as simple as they think it is.
00:16:02.816 --> 00:16:08.546
And that you're really good at solving the complicated problem so that it stays solved.
00:16:09.115 --> 00:16:13.255
And that has a much higher value than solving the simpler problem.
00:16:13.956 --> 00:16:18.546
You have to educate them to elevate their understanding of the problem and its complexity.
00:16:18.846 --> 00:16:24.306
And then you tie that complexity to one of the decision makers pain points.
00:16:24.952 --> 00:16:29.903
Now you'll have to research your individual decision makers' particular pain points.
00:16:30.452 --> 00:16:36.952
But some general pain points that are almost always present for most decision makers is something to do with money.
00:16:37.458 --> 00:16:43.849
They're worried about constrained resources or they're concerned that a solution will quote cost too much unquote.
00:16:44.349 --> 00:16:52.989
With the right messaging, you can actually use your sophisticated solution to a complex problem as an answer to their worries about money.
00:16:53.538 --> 00:17:00.859
Because when you apply your sophisticated solution, the problem gets solved at its root and it stays solved.
00:17:01.368 --> 00:17:05.087
Therefore it stops costing more money over time.
00:17:05.723 --> 00:17:11.344
The initial investment is higher, but the result is that the problem goes away permanently.
00:17:12.083 --> 00:17:19.103
Versus if you do the low level intervention, the simpler solution, you've solved part of the problem for now.
00:17:19.613 --> 00:17:26.182
But it will almost certainly recur if they only get a bandaid solution to the simple aspect of their problem.
00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:39.670
So in that situation, you might say that your approach is the best, most effective way to reduce costs over time, to reduce the long-term cost of this problem, to eliminate the recurring cost of this problem.
00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:43.359
You could phrase it a number of different ways, but that's the essential concept.
00:17:44.257 --> 00:17:59.856
Fundamentally, the goal here is to find the context in which it is true that your services, your solution, your approach, your unique secret sauce is the best, most effective way to solve a particular problem.
00:18:00.356 --> 00:18:13.707
Ideally, you want to be able to talk about how it's the best way to solve the particular problem that the client experiences and a particular problem that the decision maker is focused on that is one of their pain points.
00:18:14.207 --> 00:18:20.537
Bottom line, saying you're the best, most effective at anything is contextual.
00:18:21.196 --> 00:18:23.626
It's not a chest thumping brag.
00:18:23.866 --> 00:18:27.626
It's not a blanket statement about all things.
00:18:28.166 --> 00:18:33.057
It's a messaging strategy to help a decision maker make a decision.
00:18:33.557 --> 00:18:37.146
Because they wanna solve the problem that's causing them pain.
00:18:37.866 --> 00:18:41.527
They want that problem gone, but they don't know how to solve it.
00:18:41.886 --> 00:18:44.786
If they did, it wouldn't be a pain point anymore.
00:18:45.566 --> 00:18:51.481
So they're in the place of, I have this problem, I have this headache, I need a solution, I need a cure.
00:18:52.182 --> 00:18:54.162
But I don't know what the best solution is.
00:18:54.662 --> 00:19:02.218
And if you come to them and say, well, I've got a solution, but you know it, it might not be best, it might not be the most appropriate.
00:19:02.228 --> 00:19:02.587
I don't know.
00:19:02.587 --> 00:19:04.627
Maybe somebody else's solution is better.
00:19:05.048 --> 00:19:10.498
I wouldn't want to go too far and say that our solution is the best, but we could definitely help you with your problem.
00:19:11.101 --> 00:19:13.951
Now, I know you wouldn't say it in those words.
00:19:14.165 --> 00:19:25.003
But anytime you hold back on your claim of being the best, most effective solution for the thing that is vexing them, that is what decision maker's gonna hear.
00:19:25.503 --> 00:19:29.884
And if you're the decision maker, are you inspired to buy that solution?
00:19:30.384 --> 00:19:33.713
The person selling it to you isn't even sure that it's really that great.
00:19:34.439 --> 00:19:36.949
And here's the other thing I will guarantee you.
00:19:37.681 --> 00:19:49.064
Somebody else in your space who does not have your resistance to saying this, to making this claim, is gonna come in there and say, I have the solution for your problem.
00:19:49.153 --> 00:19:50.173
It's gonna fix it.
00:19:50.384 --> 00:19:52.844
It is the best, most effective solution.
00:19:53.114 --> 00:19:56.503
And the decision maker is gonna be like, awesome.
00:19:56.923 --> 00:19:58.183
Thank God you're here.
00:19:58.183 --> 00:20:02.634
I've been looking for a solution and I just keep hearing from people who can't promise me anything.
00:20:02.844 --> 00:20:05.124
They're like, well, maybe it'll help, maybe it won't.
00:20:05.544 --> 00:20:06.804
Thank God you're here now.
00:20:06.804 --> 00:20:09.203
You brought me something you can prove will work.
00:20:09.413 --> 00:20:09.983
Great.
00:20:10.253 --> 00:20:11.784
I'm buying that.
00:20:12.611 --> 00:20:13.480
Bottom line.
00:20:13.540 --> 00:20:19.000
This is about messaging and helping a decision maker make the right decision.
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:26.911
Your job is to provide the clearest possible link between their pain points and the results you produce.
00:20:27.549 --> 00:20:35.740
To show them that your solution is the best, most effective, most cost effective solution for their problem.
00:20:36.423 --> 00:20:39.064
To do that, you have to believe that is true.
00:20:39.614 --> 00:20:42.019
And you have to be able to show them how it's true.
00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:49.278
Whether that's with stories, with data, with testimonials or case studies from other decision makers, or all of the above.
00:20:49.845 --> 00:20:56.115
When you do that, saying yes to what you're selling becomes easy for that decision maker.
00:20:56.835 --> 00:20:57.825
And that helps you.
00:20:58.305 --> 00:20:59.234
It helps them.
00:20:59.654 --> 00:21:01.154
And it helps the people you serve.
00:21:01.994 --> 00:21:03.105
Everybody wins.
00:21:03.605 --> 00:21:08.704
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
