When a spark of insight stops you in your tracks, suddenly the important stuff you’ve been struggling to process suddenly all makes sense. You feel lit up and get an urge to take action.
Ask yourself how often this actually happens and it's probably nowhere near as much as you’d like it to. But it's the outcome we want when we take a break from whatever we're working on to take in some new information. And every time we're rolling the dice, asking ourselves the question (as I'm sure you are now), ‘Is this going to be worth my precious time?’
Let there be light
The thing is we all crave lightbulb moments. They give us renewed energy to keep going. To make things happen. It’s why we spend so much time learning. Reading blogs, watching videos, listening to podcasts. And we so feel cheated if we get nothing useful that can take us forward. The irony is despite being able to access so much more insight than ever before, I find myself more and more disappointed. The problem is there is just too much. And it’s getting harder to find the nuggets hidden in this wall of noise.
On the flip side, your ability to consistently provide lightbulb moments is key to standing out as a specialist. The more subject matter expertise you and your organisation can offer, the more revenue opportunities you'll be able to create. This is the real currency of the digital age.
Whether you’re doing a presentation, creating a piece of marketing content or even interviewing for a new job, giving your audience one or two sparks of insight will seriously swing things in your favour. Yes, it’s obvious. So why don’t we do it more often? Three reasons:
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It’s hard to be different (a lot of lightbulbs have already been switched on)
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We’ve forgotten that we need to do it
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We’re trying to be too clever (keep it simple and get to the point)
The secret to creating more lightbulb moments
So how can you spark more of those elusive epiphanies in others? The secret lies in accepting that moments of clarity DON’T come from showing customers what their life could be like. The vast majority of thought leadership is focused (wrongly) on pushing new trends or demonstrating the art of the possible. In other words, what the seller would like the buyer to think is important. But this does nothing to challenge what your customers are focused on today and as a result they are unlikely to deviate from their current path.
Research led by Brent Adamson at the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner) launched way back in 2014, revealed that thought leadership does nothing more than get people to think you’re smart. They found the only way to create that spark is to make people believe that, despite all of their own learning, they’ve missed something critical to achieving their current priorities and improving business performance. This could be one of three missed opportunities - firstly to reduce cost, secondly to make money and thirdly to minimise risk.
Most entrepreneurs who’ve created groundbreaking products or services had their 'aha' moment because of something that was missing from the present, not from a vision of the future. Like Nick Woodman, the GoPro founder who went surfing and realised he couldn’t take pictures of himself. Or Ingvar Kampard, the Ikea founder who couldn’t fit a table in his car, which meant he had to remove the legs.
You’ve got to break it, before you can shape it
Think really hard about your company’s content or your own sales pitch. Are you focusing on telling customers what they should be doing or getting them to think differently about what they are doing? Most people focus on the former. And their customers’ reaction is one of apathy. “Yeah, I get it. Can’t argue. That’s what we could be doing in future, but right now we’re okay as we are. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to act.”
However, if you can positively and constructively challenge your customers’ current approach, and can do so with real impact, their reaction maybe more like this, “Oh my god. You’re right. How could we have missed this? We need to address this right now. Can you help?”
The bottom line is action only happens when the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change. This tipping point normally occurs as a result of a lightbulb moment. It’s either the dawning realisation that we can and should do something in a better way or that we’ve finally found the missing piece in the jigsaw.
Around eight years ago, I had a lightbulb moment with Marketing Technology. It had long been heralded as the future of B2B marketing. 'Get improved buyer analytics, more from social media... yadda yadda, yadda'. But it was not until a client I'd been working with was feeling the pain of managing different channels and needed a systematic approach to convert more prospects, that I realised there had to be a better way to manage all this. It became apparent that martech could solve these current, very real issues so we were compelled to take action.
In summary, lightbulb moments come from focusing on the present not the future. This means you need accurate insights into your customers’ current priorities and how they think their world works. You need the expertise to identify what maybe missing or stopping them delivering these priorities. And you need to be prepared to positively challenge their thinking, using logic and evidence to back up your claims.
Adamson at the Corporate Executive Board wraps it up nicely:
Don't teach. Unteach.
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