What Assumptions are you making which are true and not true?
Feb 14, 2024
How often do we as salespeople or solopreneurs make assumptions about our business based upon.
The Past
Our Beliefs
What we have always done
What's that old saying about insanity….’doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result’. I know I am guilty of this from time to time. It is likely most of us are in a similar boat.
An honest question to ask of ourselves is how much justice are we doing for our business by defaulting to what feels comfortable and convenient? Adherence to these assumptions and treating them as ‘perpetual truths.’
If you desire a different result, you need to do something different.
In life, things work until they stop working. It is at this point when we are compelled to re-examine what is going on and perhaps make some changes. This is not a given. It will only happen when the pain of the current situation becomes unbearable.
Even if we do persist with re-examination, the uncertainty and unease drive us back to what is comfortable. So often we return to where we don’t want to be because it’s too hard!!
Are your assumptions about your business or territory true?
· How do you know them to be true?
· Have you validated their truth?
· What if they were not true?
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Why we Default to What we have Always done?
Thanks to our reptilian brain, we are wired to avoid pain and protect ourselves to the tune of 70% (as neuroscience suggests). The conscious realisation that we are doing something incorrectly and or getting an undesirable result can be crushing.
It can make us vulnerable, insecure and we are looking down the barrel of a lot more work owing to change.
This (development) work can be avoided by listening to our ego. This keeps us doing the same thing over and over with the expectation of a different result because it is;
Easier
More convenient
Aligns with our Ego.
In the spirit of First Principles Thinking, let's go deeper…
We often believe.
“I know my business”.
“I know my customers”.
“I know my market”.
“I know what my customers believe and more importantly why”.
“This is what I have always done, and it is correct”.
Do you? I mean, do you really? Are you on the money about the core of your business or do you believe you are?
· Emailing the same variation of an email repeatedly requesting access.
Maybe this customer is too busy to read emails
· Seeing the 80% of customer who write 20% of our business (easier to see)
The Alternative: What could we do differently?
Taking a knife to our assumptions and beliefs. Dissect them for a greater understanding of the key fundamental questions using:
Truth / Honesty
Curiosity
Proven validation
….within an Ego friendly approach. Ego is here to protect us from pain and suffering however sometimes, our ego goes too far and behaves like an overbearing & over protective parent.
First principles thinking is an approach to understanding our business. It is the process of using what we know to be true to solve problems and shape strategy.
It involves an honest and truthful approach to the dynamics you operate in. The results/outcomes may not be what you want however they are your reality to shape and change for a better future.
The preface question to this is ‘do you really want to achieve your targets, growth etc? Are you prepared to ride the ebbs and flows of the process?
You may even know deep down that you are going after the wrong market. Maybe you have a sinking feeling your messaging is wrong. Perhaps you have a gut feeling that your customers beliefs (which determine behaviour) are misaligned to the belief your strategy was predicated upon.
First Principles using a Physics approach to thinking. It is approaching a problem or strategy by boiling stuff down to what we are confident is to be true. It is the truest form which we know to be true and serves as a base which we reason up from.
It is asking ‘why xyz happens’ and being curious to ask more 'why's' until we arrive at the source and there are no more why’s to answer.
Children have an inbuilt First Principles approach to goal achievement. An example could be:
Child: “Can I play on my iPad”
Parent: “No”
Child: “Why not”
Parent “Because I said so”.
Child: “Well why”
Parent “Dinner is soon”
Child “So, how is that a problem”.
Parent “We have to start getting ready for dinner”.
Child “It will only be for a short time”.
Parent “You are always on your iPad; you spend too much time on it”.
Aha….so that is the real reason. It just took a little bit of time to get there.
The curiosity we have as children is great because it is playful, deductive, and honest. The older we get and the more ‘societal conditioning’ we adopt, the less playful, deductive and honest we get. Life, beliefs and circumstances change us sometimes for the worse.
That ‘lightness and curiosity’ we as children had would serve us now. We just have to find him or her again within.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
The Ladder of Inference
The Ladder of Inference is a tool which lends itself in part to First Principles Thinking.
This tool is a step-by-step approach to decision making where you begin at the bottom and work your way to the top. You begin with understanding the current reality and facts which eventually drive actions.
I say this’ in part’ because the premise of the ladder is to partake in an evolving Q&A discussion to help you arrive at the core. They eventually lead to customer beliefs which ultimately drive behaviour.
Your customers values are somewhat set. If you can influence your customers belief, you can influence your customer sales.
How First Principle’s Thinking can Help you with your sales
Operating from First Principles is about breaking a challenge / opportunity down into parts and understanding how one affects the other.
Your goal is to go from current solution to desired solution.
As a process: an approach looks like:
Identifying your problem & your current assumptions: its time to get truthful.
· What are the assumptions you hold?
· Why do you hold them?
· Are they true? Have they been tested & measured for accuracy?
Breaking problem down into fundamental elements, processes, people, flows, history asking powerful questions.
· Dig deep to unearth what sits at the base of each assumption.
· Who/what factors are relevant here?
Actively question each assumption you have.
· Ask why until you arrive at the core (as a child would)
Create new solutions by building up.
· Now that you have a greater understanding of what is true, begin to construct a solution by building back up to where you are now and the measures you can take to achieve a new result.
· The G.R.O.W model may be a useful framework here.
Test Measure
· Validate the accuracy of the new approach by cross check your conclusion against these truths.
First Principles thinking does not remove need for improvement. It is designed to improve things by asking yourself questions you may not have done before and being incredibly pragmatic and honest.
It takes courage and fortitude.
It is your choice what you do with the findings. You can file them away in an obscure folder within your computer or you start to play with it, get curious about how things could be.
I wish you the very be best and happy playing!!
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