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who’s your canary?

mothership’s recent foray into the wonderful world of concept marketing recently got me thinking about the importance of…canaries.

simple idea, after all.

miners used to take a canary with them as a warning system against deadly gas buildup. if the canary died, then it was time to get out of the mine.

this concept in the realm of system administration, which the diva has written about many times before, involves choosing certain end-user & target machines to selectively deploy patches & updates to first. that way, if something goes ka-whacko, you haven’t dropped your whole organization.

thing is tho…

that’s only from a nuts & bolts, technical perspective.

but what about the critical aspects of a business that don’t involve, well…patching.

what about things like:

• messaging
• positioning
• negotiating

a bad patch might kick your business’ butt for an afternoon…

but a bad marketing plan or incorrect offering can hamstring your business for months, if not right out of business.

think of it this way.

how many times has your s.o. caught a glimpse of you as you were headed out the door & winced visibly, saying

uhhhh…you’re not actually gonna wear that, are you?

hands-up if you went on out the door without changing.

yeah…didn’t think so.

that’s the canary i’m talking about here.

someone who can check what it is you’re planning to say to your customers & prospects before you sound either like a total idiot…

or worst of all…

an arrogant, know-it-all, jargon-spouting snob who can’t be bothered to listen.

you might be surprised to learn how many times you come off that way, even when you think you are being your most helpful, considerate & conscientious.

in my experience, the very best canaries for this type of gut-check, quite frankly, don’t need even an ounce of technical knowledge, nor do they give a rat’s rear end about becoming technically proficient themselves.

truth of matter, you don’t want them to be either. you don’t want their own knowledge automatically filling in any gaps whatsoever.

you want them to be a tabula rasa, save for one thought…

why are you better than anyone else?

if you can’t answer that question for your canary without sounding like a jerk…

you definitely aren’t ready for customers yet.

|| posted by chris under business || comments (1) || ||