Do you know the “prescription” for effectiveness?

Here’s a “secret” in business….

If you’re hitting the goals, clients rarely want to dig deep into the details.

But if you’re not, they will ask questions.

Just because we can get super finely detailed in digital marketing doesn’t mean we should. Prior to surgery, do you really want to know the fine details of the procedure?

It shouldn’t matter if it works, right?

Our friend Rich Castellano is a plastic surgeon and author of The Smile Prescription. We asked him for his thoughts:

“My highest recommendation for personal efficiency in relationships is relentlessly pursue what will make the other party ‘smile’ more.

If you get the job done, why would clients need to know the details?

In a business relationship, you approach a business transaction with a pain point: low yield on Facebook, unable to monetize on social, or in my case, people want to look and feel their best.

When clients walk out of our offices with a BIG SMILE on their face, we know that we did our job. If we are unable to make them smile, then we still have more work to do.

Effectiveness is all about the end result – creating the BEST customer service experience by analyzing and quantifying what makes your client smile more! When you are better at this than your competitors, your business will rise to the top.”

See the point?

Client gratification and project success is measured by the ends, not the means. The “prescription” for effectiveness is empathy.

Identify what’s preventing the client from smiling– then optimize to smiles.

Clients rarely need to know the nitty-gritty if your decision making is effective and you’re efficient too.

But consider the difference between effectiveness vs. efficiency.

If efficiency is the speed of an airplane, effectiveness is its direction– it’s only a matter of degrees between having a successful flight and going off course and crashing.

This is why effectiveness is the prerequisite. While you don’t want to inundate your clients with too much information (dense, frequent updates), it’s important not to go silent either.

We’ve learned there are two instances where clients will ask questions:

1. If their stats are tanking.
2. If we’ve gone too long without providing them with updates.

The best way to avoid both of these is by using the 9 triangles pairing of MAA/CID:

Even though internet marketing may appear mechanical, your judgment call is important and overrides robotic precision. What do you think is most important in terms of performance and optimization actions to take next?

Do you have any other business “secrets” to be more effective? Let me know in the comments below.