Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, defined a first principle as “the first basis from which a thing is known.” Reasoning from first principles is one of the most effective strategies you can use to break down complicated problems and is used by many great thinkers including military strategist John Boyd and entrepreneur Elon Musk.
How can first principles thinking help you to acquire more clients?
Let’s start with an example…
If someone makes a statement like “Cars are expensive to manufacture” and you ask them “why”, they might respond with something like “…well, cars have complex motors and electronics like reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems all of which are costly to make. To add to that, companies like Ford and Tesla spend hundred of millions on car manufacturing every year. Therefore, that is why cars are expensive to manufacture.”.
This is an example of reasoning by analogy, where we actively make a comparison between something that we already know, to another thing, for the purpose of explanation or clarification. The downfall of reasoning by analogy is that it can prevent you from making clear, innovation and profitable decisions in your business over the long run.
If we reason by first principles and “think like a scientist”, we return with a very different answer… with first principles thinking, we break a situation down to its core pieces and then put them all back together in a more effective way. A first principle approach to our earlier statement “Cars are expensive to manufacture” would have us start with the core underlying components of a car; four wheels, two axles and a motor.
From there, we would then ask “How much does it cost to purchase four wheels (any wheels), two axles and a motor (Gasoline, diesel, electric, solar, vegetable oil) and have some automotive technicians assemble it all?”. Answer: A few thousand dollars. Is a few thousand dollars for a car considered expensive for the average person? Most would answer “No”.
This is the process of first principles thinking in a nutshell. Here we’ve deconstructed the situation into it’s fundamentals, bypassing the high prices of the car manufacturing industry and created a more effective solution.
Now, let’s apply this to your business…
If someone makes the statement “it’s difficult to acquire new clients and contracts for my business” and you ask them “why”, they’ll more than likely response with something like “well, I spent hours and hours of writing blog posts, hitting people-up on LinkedIn, sending hundreds of emails, re-designing my website and I haven’t gotten one measly client. Therefore, getting new clients for my business are hard!” Again, this is the sub-optimal process of reasoning by analogy.
If we reason by first principles, we take a different approach…
As yourself, what does getting a new client involve? What does it mean by definition? Securing a new client involves a person (the buyer), agreeing to your contract or paying for your service or product.
How do we get someone to agree to our contract or pay for our service or product? The answer is we need to put forward our offer to someone who has a painful problem that our service or product helps them solve and who has the financial resources and authority to make a purchasing decision. To achieve this, we need to have a; highly qualified sales appointment.
Now, you’re are in a powerful position…
You now know that ‘one thing’ which if you were to give your complete and undivided attention, will make the greatest impact on your business and revenue growth.
If you are interested in generating more highly qualified sales appointments and securing more contracts, setup a call with me today by visiting my website: