I found some interesting contrasts in business advice today that I initially took as conflicting advice. However, after pondering it a bit, I realized that the advice compliments, not conflicts.
The two, initially appearing, conflicting messages:
- “Know your numbers.” Marcus Lemonis
- “Messages communicated through numbers seldom stick with people.” Blue Ocean Strategy
Know Your Numbers
You must know your numbers as a business owner and/or operator. It is the only way you will be able to identify any issues within your business and make plans for your business's future. Yet, many of us start running a business without the faintest clue about our numbers. It is a very common (and ultimately costly) mistake in business.
Need help figuring out where to begin? You can start by finding information online (tons of free resources exist). You can use tools like ChatGPT to help you get started - check out this AI Quick Tips blog post. Or you can hire a financial expert to set up your books and even keep them on to manage them.
Don’t Persuade With Numbers
Mauborgne and Kim discuss a few hurdles an organization must overcome when implementing their Blue Ocean Strategy. One of them is breaking through the cognitive hurdle of trying to get your stakeholders to buy into and support your strategic change.
For those of us who approach problems with logic instead of emotion, we may attempt to persuade others with data, such as the business’ numbers. However, as the Blue Ocean Strategy mentioned, this is ineffective because numbers can be manipulated, misleading, or misinterpreted.
“Messages communicated through numbers seldom stick with people.” We are emotional beings and tend to be influenced by what we see and feel - “seeing is believing,” as the saying goes. Gladwell talks about the concept of The Stickiness Factor in The Tipping Point, in which numbers alone aren’t sticky—they don’t have a lasting impact on people’s memory or emotions. Instead, messages presented in a vivid, memorable way are more likely to stick.
In Influence, Cialdini shows through the value of reciprocity that we are more likely influenced when we feel we have been given something of value first - this can be a hands-on experience, a compelling story, or even being shown that our knowledge is valued.
Have a big project or strategy change in which you need your staff, board, and investors to support? Don’t drone on about this number or that data set. Instead, find a creative way to show the issue at hand so they can experience why your proposed solution is worth the effort of change, and then engage them throughout the process and show them their knowledge is valuable.
Main Takeaway
Know your numbers, but don’t attempt to persuade others to make changes with those numbers. Both are valuable, just in different ways. While they may appear to conflict on the surface, they actually build on each other.
Ponder This
- Have you ever struggled to convince someone using data alone? What could you have done differently to make your message more memorable?
- How can you balance using data and storytelling in your business presentations?
- When was the last time a hands-on experience or compelling story changed your mind?
Books
- Blue Ocean Strategy - Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim
- The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
- Influence - Robert Cialdini
- Business Learning (online) - Marcus Lemonis
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