I’m a big fan of the Matrix trilogy of movies.
In the first one, when Neo visits the “Oracle” she points to a sign above his head that says “Nosce te ipsum,” latin for “Know thyself.”
With that in mind, we return to yesterday’s question for PHCs in the Pro-Life Business Industry.
Question NUMERO UNO
What problem do you solve and for whom do you solve it?
If you are considering investing in your local Pregnancy Help Center, before you do, I recommend that you ask the Executive Director this question and pay careful attention to what they say.
If the answer does not have laser focus on the needs of the woman facing an unexpected pregnancy, then I suggest you reconsider your investment, or look for a different PHC to invest in.
Personally, I would take it even a step further, asking the Executive Director the following question:
“If you had only one opportunity to put a flyer in the hands of a woman who was seeking an abortion, and the only information you could put on the flyer was the headline in the following format…
“How to choose life for your baby and (the RESULT the woman in front of you DESIRES most in her life right now) without (the THING the woman in front of you FEARS the most about choosing life).”
…what words would your PHC put on that flyer?”
A PHC that can clearly state “women-centric” phrases between those parentheses is a PHC that has the possibility of being a successful competitor against the likes of Planned Parenthood.
For example, “How to choose life for your baby and still finish your college education and land your dream job without being thought of as an embarrassment by your parents.”
By the way, I’m not dialed in here on the specifics of what the words should be. I’m trying to point out what the focus should be.
Unfortunately, if you ask THAT question (the headline on a flyer question) to all the PHCs in your local community, you will get blank stares almost every time.
Why?
Because PHCs, in general, have a misplaced view of who they are, and what their PRIMARY purpose is.
They don’t really “know thyself.”
The Path to NOT Knowing Thyself
Here are my thoughts on why that is:
MISTAKE #1
From a macro view, I believe the reason the Pro-Life Business Industry (all the PHCs taken together) gets taken to the cleaners (from a market share perspective) by the Abortion Industry, is because those in the PLBI see their organizations as contained within the Pro-Life Movement (PLM).
MISTAKE #2
Mistake #1 leads to mission statements that focus on the same thing the PLM focuses on: ending abortion.
The problem with that is “ending abortion” is focused on the needs of the preborn baby, and the preborn baby is NOT the customer who will make the decision about which service to choose.
MISTAKE #3
Not focusing on the decision maker who will choose between competing services leads to building teams at PHCs staffed with the wrong skill sets.
Most PHCs are staffed with folks who have hearts for ministry, not folks who have proven skills at making a business successful in a very competitive market environment, skills such as: marketing and sales, operations, finance and accounting.
MISTAKE #4
PHCs are not staffed with “business builders,” so they don’t measure success in terms of “winning” against their competition (the abortion industry) as measured by market share, and are not held accountable by the board of directors for measurably proving that success.
So how do we correct those mistakes?
We’ll dive in to that next week.
Regards,
Brett
We’re Winning! Really? – Brett Attebery's Diary
[…] Business Industry. The problem is that because of MISTAKE #1 (see last week’s article here) – the belief by those in the Pro-Life Business Industry that their organizations are […]
We’re Winning! Really? – Brett Attebery's Diary
[…] Business Industry. The problem is that because of MISTAKE #1 (see last week’s article here) – the belief by those in the Pro-Life Business Industry that their organizations are […]