Welcome to part three of Sell the Why: Reasons to Believe.

​Last week we mapped our stakeholders, so now we know who needs to believe what in order to take the next step.​

Today we’re zooming in on building a library of proof for your own business, so those stakeholders say yes.

(if you’re more excited to build your Reasons to Believe for a client — OR if your stakeholders need a further-reaching shift in belief than you could demonstrate with your work alone — sit tight for next week’s email! we’ll go all the way into it)

For most small biz purposes, you don’t need an intensive peer-reviewed stat-sig study to show proof. What you need to show are outcomes.

And yet, here’s where people get tripped up: they confuse outcomes with deliverables.

Outcomes are NOT about how many pitch decks you cranked out, or how many hours you logged, or even how nifty that website design ended up being.

It’s definitely not about the clever process you used to deliver them.

Outcomes are about the effect your work has on the other end, what it means for the person and the business receiving it.

Ever helped someone move from before → after? You have outcomes.

the types of outcomes you already have

Outcomes can take the form of speed, clarity, relief, alignment, access, engagement.

Sometimes you can show them with numbers. Other times, a story does the job better.

I’d bet my favorite fidget toy you’re already sitting on more of the following than you think:

• hard numbers → revenue growth, % increases, time saved, conversion rates
• soft numbers → revisions cut in half, meetings shortened, hours freed
• momentum signals → launches sold out, waitlists filled, organic referrals
• user behavior → adoption, renewals, fewer support requests
• qualitative proof → user testimonials, client stories, DMs or Slack messages
• feelings → from overwhelm to relief, from confusion to clarity

Here’s a few homegrown examples from our own business to illustrate the difference between deliverables and outcomes.

make yourself an outcomes library

We use Notion for our library, but Miro is fine, or a spreadsheet, or pen & paper if you're really old school (I salute you!) — anything to get it out of your head and into a place where you can grab it later.

Gather up:

• Screenshots: Client Slack messages, DMs, "this worked!" emails, before/after product shots
• Quotes: Testimonials, offhand remarks on calls
• Stats: Launch numbers, engagement lifts, time saved, conversions

Focus on: what did this work mean for the business and the people running it?

The first time you do this, it can be a little painstaking. It’s a lot to go from nothing → building a whole library from your backlog.

SO: Build ongoing outcomes collection into your process.

Every time a client mentions what’s shifting, stick it into your library.

AND create an offboarding procedure after every project/client (and document it so you actually do it!!!). This can be lightweight!

The million dollar question to ask is “What’s different for you now compared to before?”

Then check back at 6 months, a year, even later.

Long-term outcomes are my favorite.

Don’t underestimate feelings as proof! Relief, clarity, confidence: these are real, all-the-way-to-the-bank outcomes when you can show how they matter.

Even if you truly don’t have much to pull from the past, you can start today. Track from here forward, and your future self will thank you.

Don’t worry yet about how to frame these outcomes (that’s coming in vol. 5!). For now, your only job is to collect.

where we’re going next

With your outcomes library started, you’re allllmost ready to fill in the stakeholder belief gaps you identified last time.

But sometimes your own numbers and stories aren’t enough, especially if you’re building RTBs for a client, or your stakeholders need proof beyond your desk.

That’s where we’re headed in vol. 4: how to dig up external proof.

And once you’ve gathered both your own and external proof, we’ll tackle vol. 5: how to make numbers make sense, translating raw stats into proof that actually lands with humans.

what’s coming up in this series

1. ​Sell the WHY: Outcomes are the proof that makes your positioning land​
2. ​Stakeholder mapping (today): Who needs to believe what, and how to talk to them​
3. Your own proof (today): How to show outcomes for your biz (even if you “don’t have numbers”)
4. External proof: How to dig up credible stats/research outside of your own desk
5. Make numbers make sense: How to translate raw data into human-friendly proof
6. ✨Free resource drop✨: Put it all together and grab our Reasons to Believe guide

🤓 Homework for eager beavers:

Start your outcomes library today. Add one hard number, one story, and one client quote. BOOM: A mini-library, just waiting to grow alongside you and your work.

Petons!

Janel

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Flying the Coop What would it look like to build a business that celebrated the complexity of the people inside it? ​ At Strange Birds, our lives and our business inform each other. We build structures that can flex and stretch with us as we grow. ​ Alfred's co-op, Jamgo cooperativa tecnológica, has been doing this for nearly 15 years, creating systems that hold complexity instead of running from it. ​ ​“When you start feeling stressed in Jamgo, you just raise your hand, and someone steps in to help.”​ ​ Listen to the episode

What I'm reading

​FUSÃO - Ixta Belfrage​

My SECOND most-anticipated cookbook drop this year is a new beaut from Ixta, this one leading me deep into the [untraditional] best of Brazil. Folks, I may have to reconcile my relationship with okra (send help????).