When Tony Robbins identified six basic human needs that drive our actions, he listed number four as Growth. I’ve taken his work on the importance of emotions and developed six Emotional Reputation Strategies. Six strategies that influence the buying decisions of your clients.

The six strategies are Certainty, Connection, Contribution, Growth, Significance and Variety. The fourth human need and Emotional Reputation Strategy is Growth.

Growth as a Human Need

Are you always pushing boundaries – your own and those set for you by other people? Are you independent and driven? Do you sometimes find it hard to connect with others, moving on quickly from relationships? If so, Growth could be the human need that motivates you most.

If Growth is your top human need, you are always striving to be better and learn more. You are very good at your job, but tend to move on as soon as you believe you’ve reached your full potential. Although your constant striving for improvement means you’ll never be bored, you can be a bit of a perfectionist, giving you high levels of stress in your life and work.

Is Growth your key motivator?

Growth as an Emotional Reputation Strategy

While there are six Emotional Reputation Strategies, most businesses will have just one that will really help them to attract their ideal clients.

When Growth is your Emotional Reputation Strategy, clients will work with you because they know that you can help either them or their business to grow. Many coaches work with clients who are looking for personal growth – they need help to move beyond the obstacles that are in their path, or they need support on their journey. They might be stuck and unable to see their own potential, so will work with a coach who can help them to develop their own skills and confidence.

Other coaches, as well as many consultants and mentors, help clients with the growth of their business. As a Marketing Consultant, I am often approached by potential clients who are struggling to grow their businesses. Sales Consultants can help their clients to grow too, by showing them how to convert more of their prospects into clients. Training companies can also help their clients to grow – both personally and in a business context.

Is Growth your business’s Emotional Reputation Strategy?

The Best Brand

My favorite example of a business using Growth as their Emotional Reputation Strategy is a company I’ve recently started working with, called Emotional Geography. Previously going by another name, this company had a catalogue of over 150 training courses that clients could choose from. Their courses covered a very diverse range of topics, from The Non-Sexist City (Gender Studies) and Couples Therapy based on traditional Psychology, to Connecting People (Theatre as an emotional bridge) to my personal favourite – Searching for Beauty (Clown Therapy and Self-Irony)! Can you see a link between any of those courses?

The link is actually the methodology used in all of the courses – a brilliantly clever technique called Emotional Mapping. The company thought that Variety (which I’ll write about in the December 2021 issue of Scribbles) was how they should promote their courses. The problem with offering 150 courses to your clients, with no visible link or theme, is that you just overwhelm them. Too much choice often leaves clients making no buying choice at all.

When I spent some time working with Emotional Geography we realised that their Emotional Reputation Strategy is actually Growth. Their most popular courses are ones that help their clients to grow. The company is reducing the list of courses, and focusing purely on the ones that make the lives of their clients better. If they don’t achieve that – otherwise known as growth – they’ll be removed from the catalogue. The course descriptions will be rewritten to show prospects how each course can help them or their business to grow. Its early days, but when Emotional Geography shared this new strategy with their trainers, there was unanimous buy in and support.

If you’d like to know more about Emotional Geography and how their courses can help you to grow, click here to email Ali Bagley or visit their Facebook page here.