Goal-setting and language

Yesterday I said we should delegate outcomes over processes, and I used this as an example: “We want to increase the proportion of repeat business from 50% to 75% by the middle of next year.”

It’s a worthy goal, but it doesn’t exactly give you goose bumps, does it?

If we want to enlist people’s help to do something important, we should try and give them something to get enthusiastic about.

What if we said: “Right now, after dealing with us, half of all our customers go away and they never come back. What are we doing to them?

“This can’t go on, so we’re going to get so good that once they try us, customers stay with us forever.”

A goal expressed as a numerical abstraction will rarely move people, even if it’s a great idea.

But framed as an appeal to common sense and universal emotions like pride, it will do most of the persuading for you.