Outwith is a term meaning outside or beyond, and is, they say, less used outwith Scotland than within it.
On this website it has the additional nuance of getting out of your own viewpoint and assumptions and trying to stand with others and understand how they see things - thinking outside your own box.
Applying "The Outwith Principle" to business helps us put our own agenda in the background and to consider with empathy what customers think they need and to see if what we have to offer can deliver a solution.
A business which follows the Outwith method is no longer focussed on itself, aiming to break into the customer's world to coerce a sale; it stands where the customer is, looking at life from that perspective, helping people meet their challenges.
Because an Outwith business is working "with" rather than "on" others it seeks to do the very best possible for its customers and clients at a price which is utterly fair to both sides.
The Outwith Website seeks to support people who are working on their own. Although our resources and services are for everyone, our primary aim is to bring into a mutually supportive on-line community those who feel isolated by geography, social factors or personal circumstances.
The Yowsie! website » has a short introduction to on-line marketing which includes this explanation of the "Outwith Principle":
"I explained it perfectly clearly but the idiots didn't understand."
No. It may have been clear to the speaker but it clearly wasn't clear to the audience! And that is not a failure on their part but on his. He was so focused on what he wanted to say that he didn't consider what they needed to hear. And, undeniably, he didn't make every effort required to make sure that they had got the message.
The responsibility for successful communication is always with the communicator.
To get any message across you have to start where the hearer is. You have to see how the world looks from his perspective. This requires some effort on your part to research and understand your prospective audience.
The objective is to get inside the other person's situation and, standing WITH them, to look OUT from there. Or, and this is very difficult but even more important, to get OUTSIDE your own situation and try to see how things appear to someone looking IN.
When you do, it is now his concerns and needs that are driving you, not the other way around. The focus is no longer on your need to sell your product or service but on the prospect's need for solutions to his problems.
The first staggering conclusion may be that he has no need at all to hear what you have to say. That realisation has done you a favour, leaving you free to move on and direct your effort more usefully somewhere else.
A fuller understanding of prospects' needs may reveal that what you are offering isn't really what they require. Although your first reaction will be frustration, you will very quickly realise that you are going to be much more successful if you can adapt and offer what people actually need.
If you work hard at this and are very lucky you may realise that there are a number of things that you unconsciously take for granted which simply are not obvious to people without experience of your product or service and therefore need explaining or highlighting.
Following The Outwith Principle will lead you to target those people who really want what you are selling. You are now talking with empathy about what they perceive as their problems and offering a solution. You are no longer outside, trying to break in and persuade them to buy: you are inside, with them, helping them meet their challenges.
