Weakly Formed, Strongly Held

“We live in an era of weakly-formed, strongly-held opinions.”

• Carey Nieuwhof, founding pastor, Connexus Church, in a Tweet on October 5, 2022

Carey’s a pastor, yet a lot of what he writes could be taught in B-School…

Buyers are ever more informed, and whether their opinions are spot-on or “weakly formed and strongly held” – it’s never been more important to honor relationships over transactions.

The temptation is to “tell through” the story. But we have to be careful about using our own weakly formed, strongly held positions to challenge anyone with whom we’d be better served by a productive exchange of ideas. Remember, long-time subscribers: Ideas are the currency of Difference Makers.

A market pullback is evident. Extended sales cycles, price, and margin pressure—we could go on for multiple paragraphs to describe what’s happening in our businesses. Even high-growth companies are exercising caution.

In times like these, many companies will become transactional at the expense of what sustains them: being relatable and relational. They will double-down on their own weakly formed, strongly held opinions.

Instead, triple down on asking questions and seeking to understand. Getting to the why and the “why behind the why.” If our outcomes depend on Clients buying Widget One — let’s make sure Widget One solves a real problem they face, especially if we help them identify that problem. And if a Widget One transaction helps us but not them, let’s be relationally aware enough to find a better way to solve their problem before we ask them to care about ours.