Being in sales is hard. Asking for someones business doesn’t come naturally to most people. It feels like you are imposing, or there is some sort of imbalance, especially if the consumer didn’t come to you first. I had a conversation with Tobe Brockner from Vsquared Creative about this and he reminded me of something important. It’s ok to ask. Especially if it is coming from a pure place. Find the entire episode on the None of My Business Podcast on iTunes.
Matt: So how do you think people should be using social? Kind of circling back to your first thought, instead of using it for just pushing out advertising or stuff like that, what do you think is the proper way for people to best optimize their use of all this social media that we have in front of us?
Tobe: Well, this reminds me of that old, a joke that Steve Martin used to doing stand up when he would say, “If you want to become a millionaire, step one is get a million dollars”. Social is the same way.
10:56 You need to be social. It’s not an ad platform. I mean we literally have seen clients, prospective clients, and I look their facebook feed and their status updates are mentioning this ad for 10 percent off your next visit. And it makes me cringe and the way they word it and they’re literally just treating it as an ad feed.
So I would start by figuring out who your market is, what your messaging needs to be, what stories do you want to tell about your business, about your industry. Even more so, what pain points you’re trying to solve. I think if you approach it that way, from what pain points are these people that I’m trying to reach, what are they really suffering from? What are they going through and suffering from? Even if it is trying to decide on which restaurant you want to? Create content that solves that pain point. But the point is you want to be social. You want to put out content that is relevant, that’s useful, that’s informational, that’s educational, that’s going to help someone make their day better, entertain them, inform them, educate them, and do more than just try to sell them something.
Matt: 12:22 Putting all this content out and telling stories and all that stuff’s really important because it can humanize you as a business owner and it can really connect you with your audience. If and when I do this, I want to position myself as the the authority of insurance professionals in the valley so that when anybody has a question about insurance or is ready to make a shift, that I try to be top of mind for that.
Are there there any rules as far as putting all this content out and then, and then going for the ask? Asking for their business? How do you do that without seeming cliché. Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a whole book on this called “Jab, Jab, Jab, right hook” where it was just give, give, give information, and then eventually go for the big ask. So what’s your take on trying to find the nuances to ask for someone’s business without being too sales-y?
Tobe: 13:30 Yeah. Well there’s always a fine line and a balance that you have to walk. But I’ve long felt that as long as you really are delivering the value to someone and you’re doing this consistently and you’re bringing more to the table than what you’re taking, that, in and of itself entitles you to ask. And I think we forget that. I think a lot of times we just forget that we have a right to ask other people for their business. I mean, that’s what we’re doing and that’s what they’re doing. That’s why they’re in business, to make money and to feed their families and to make the mortgage payments. And I think we shy away from that and we’re timid because of that. And I think a lot of times the ones who are the most timid about asking are the ones who are the most insecure about the value that they’re delivering.
14:17 They don’t feel like they’ve been delivering enough value. So when they go to ask, they feel uncomfortable or they feel like because they’ve given so much that if they turn around and ask, they’re going to be seen as that sort of sneaky sales person. I’m only doing this to get the sale. People are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Their intuition is a lot deeper than we give them credit for. If your intent is coming from a pure place and you really are doing it because you care about people because, you care about the relationship with your prospects and customers, they are gonna feel that. They’re going to get it. Not everybody will, some will take advantage of you. That’s more about them than it is about you. I think we just have to remind ourselves that we’ve earned the right to ask.
Links
None of my Business on ITunes.
On Android use Podcast Addict and search for “None of my Business”