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The RIGHT way to sell your ideas

Posted byIan Brodie on August 3rd, 2017.

Yesterday I explored a simple truth.

90% of the time your potential clients aren't interested in hearing how great you are because they're not currently looking to hire anyone.

But pretty much all the time they are open to new ideas and insights that will help their business or life.

That's why there are so many business magazines, blogs, podcasts and youtube channels out there. It's probably why you subscribed to get emails from me, even if you haven't bought anything from me yet.

So if we focus on sharing and promoting our valuable ideas, our potential clients will be much more likely to pay attention and take action.

But it's not a matter of just “sharing good stuff” and expecting clients to come knocking on your door. That simply doesn't work.

Probably the most commonly used definition of content marketing is that if we “deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”

Really?

I don't know about you, but I don't “reward” people with my business. I give my business to the people I think will do the best job for me. Like everyone else, I look at WIIFM.

Now sure, if I've got good content from someone it's going to make me see them in a positive light. It'll influence my decision a bit, no doubt. But I'm not going to blindly reward them with my business just because they've shared valuable information with me.

That's like asking your best friend to extract your painful tooth, just because you like him. Not gonna happen.

If you want your ideas to sell for you then you need to be way more strategic about which ideas and content you use. You need to make sure that they're both valuable and influence the buying decisions of your potential clients in your favour.

So what kind of ideas work to influence buying decisions?

Well, ultimately, the factors that influence your specific client's decision-making are unique to you. So if you sit down with a pen and paper and get focused on the clients you know best, you can come up with a shortlist of things they need to “know and feel” to be ready to work with you.

For example, if knowing that you had relevant industry experience was a critical decision-making factor for your clients then you'd want to make sure that some of the ideas you shared were rich with those industry insights.

Generally speaking though, there are three big criteria you need to make sure your biggest, most prominent ideas meet.

Firstly (and I hope this goes without saying) they need to be valuable to your ideal clients. And that value needs to be immediately obvious.

This is what's going to get them to pay attention when you speak, write or otherwise share your ideas.

Secondly, your ideas need to be unique.

Far too much content on the web is simply a rehashing of the same old material your clients have already seen time and time again. If your ideas seem to be the same ones that all your competitors are sharing too – why would a client want to pay attention and ultimately work with you instead of them?

It doesn't matter how great or valuable your ideas, if they aren't unique then they won't influence your clients to hire you.

Now your ideas don't necessarily have to be unique to the world. They just have to be unique in the eyes of your client. They have to stand out from the other things they see and hear (eg from your competitors). That's a slightly less daunting task.

So, for example, you could take an emerging idea from a different business sector or discipline and adapt it and tailor it for your clients. Or you could combine multiple ideas from other fields into your own model.

The third criteria is that your ideas need to be disruptive.

If all your ideas are simply minor improvements on what your clients are already doing then they'll nod their heads in agreement with you, but they won't hire you.

They'll like you and tell you you're doing great work. But if they're already doing 80% of what you recommend, they won't go to the time and expense of hiring an external person to help them improve. They'll try to get better incrementally.

So out of all the ideas swirling around in your head and all the information you could share with potential clients, focus on the ones that are the most:

• Valuable to your clients
• Unique and different to everything else they're hearing
• Disruptive and challenging to their status quo

By sharing those ideas, rather than just adding to the overload of “meh” content out there in the world you'll be doing your clients a great service, and you'll be influencing them so that they're much more likely to hire you.

Win – win.

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This simple technique can transform your sales

Posted byIan Brodie on August 2nd, 2017.

That's a bold claim I know, – but bear with me.

You see, the way we've all been taught to market and sell is, I believe, fundamentally flawed. At least for people like you and me.

I'm sure you've read books and articles and been on courses where you're encouraged to come up with a “killer” elevator pitch. Or an irresistible USP. Or been told by people who seem rather too comfortable at self-promotion that you need to “blow your own trumpet because no one else will”.

And there's nothing wrong with any of these things. But their impact is limited because they only work in one small part of your client's buying journey.

They're all about selling yourself. Making it clear why you're a better choice to work with than the other folks they're considering.

That's great when the client is indeed considering who to work with.

But for 90% or more of the time, they're not.

Most of the time people aren't on the lookout for a new supplier. Their ears don't prick up when they hear yet another clever elevator pitch (they're far more likely to roll their eyes instead). 

And they don't click through with anticipation if they see an advert promoting a business. 

Those things are only of interest at the very end of their buying journey when they're in decision mode. Most of the time they're not. They're only vaguely aware of a problem they have. Or they're in the early stages of exploring it and figuring out what to do.

Trying to convince people that you're the right solution is way too premature when they haven't even figured out what kind of problem they have yet.

It's not that your message is bad or wrong. It's just that they're not interested in it at all.

So what are they interested in 90% of the time? What do they notice and pay attention to when they're scrolling through social media, reading a magazine or watching a presentation?

Great ideas.

Most people are open to, and often on the lookout for practical ideas, insights and tips that can improve their business or life.

Think about the last few times you clicked on a link in Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't because you were enticed by the thought of discovering why one potential supplier is better than another. 

Chances are you clicked on a link to see a useful tip or idea you thought might be helpful and interesting. (Often it's the interesting bit that gets us to click, but the helpful bit that gets us to stay).

So if what makes us and our clients prick up our ears, lean in and pay attention is valuable and interesting ideas, don't you think that's what you should focus on communicating? Not your USP, elevator pitch or other methods of selling yourself?

Of course, eventually, clients need to know how you're different and better than your competitors. And how you're a great fit to solve the problem they have.

But actually, if you start your relationship with them by sharing valuable ideas and you keep on doing it, they'll pick up all that stuff about why you're different and better and a great fit anyway. There won't be such a formal A vs B selection because they'll already have decided they want to work with you.

Don't sell yourself. “Sell” your ideas.

Sell your ideas, and your ideas will sell you.

It will transform the way you sell and the results you get.

Now that's not to say that any old ideas will do. We're not talking about just churning out content in the hope people will like it.

We're talking about a very specific approach and a very specific type of content.

More on that tomorrow.

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Madonna was right about this

Posted byIan Brodie on July 30th, 2017.

Remember the 80s?

Crazy hairspray-enabled haircuts, clothes that looked like you'd bought them at a charity shop. 

And Madonna's first UK #1: Get Into the Groove. 

It's great advice for marketing too. Find something that works for you (not just copying what works for other people). Then stick with it. Get good at it. Get into your own little groove with it.

For me, email marketing has long been my “groove”. Video and live webinars have worked well too. I try a bunch of stuff and when I find something that works well and I enjoy, I stick with it.

For my wife Kathy, virtual summits are her groove. We thought it seemed like an interesting idea and a decent fit for her market. Tried it. It worked brilliantly. She's kept going at it. 

So much so that she's now being asked to run them for others.

The point of a groove is that you need to get good at something to get results from it. Just flitting between different marketing techniques trying to find the very best one dooms you to never getting good at any of them.

Far better to get great at the #2, #3 or #5 one. Doesn't really matter.

What's important is that you get great at something and get into a groove.

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It’s amazing what you can achieve when…

Posted byIan Brodie on July 23rd, 2017.

Back in my days with Gemini Consulting, I remember being regularly staggered at just how much some of our junior consultants were able to achieve.

I used to always think “there's no way I could have done that at their age” (I think the same with my kids these days too and their early forays into business and entrepreneurship).

I discussed it once with another experienced colleague and she said something I'll never forget:

“It's amazing what you can achieve when you don't realise it's impossible”.

She was absolutely right.

Thanks to the good old Dunning-Kruger effect, the more experience and expertise you have, the more grey areas, subtleties and potential problems you see.

Those with less knowledge are sometimes able to achieve more because they're less tentative. They go “all in” because they don't see the potential risks we do. And that commitment gives them a better chance of succeeding. 

Of course, it also opens them up to more catastrophic failures too. That's why we experienced consultants kept an eye on the more junior ones :)  

Anyway, my point is that you're very often more capable than you think. That challenging task you think is just too difficult is probably within your reach.

I'm risk averse, the idea of going “all in” on something that might not work is too scary for me.so I always avoid putting all my eggs in one basket. if something I'm trying might not work, I make sure it's not the only thing I'm doing in that area so if it fails, it won't cripple me.

Instead, I used a “portfolio” approach to trying out new things. I make sure I'm also doing a few “tried and tested” things in a similar area to the new one I'm trying out.

For example, when I first tried out Facebook Ads, I didn't stop my other lead generation activities. I made time by reducing the amount of face to face networking I was doing as that was my lowest ROI activity at the time. But I kept going with my blogging, doing presentations and joint venture webinars as I knew they would keep working for me reliably.

I went “all in” on Facebook Ads. I wasn't tentative. I didn't keep second guessing what I was doing. I went as fast as I could – but only with a quarter of my time.

Safe in the knowledge that if it all went belly up I had my other approaches to fall back on.

And when it started working really well it became one of the core lead generation activities I do (replacing joint venture webinars) and freeing up a slot for me to try some other new things.

Next time you're thinking of doing something but are worried it won't work, take a similar “portfolio” approach. Dedicate enough time to it to do it properly. But make sure you have other things going on in case it doesn't work out.

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If you feel it…

Posted byIan Brodie on July 16th, 2017.

…find a way to say it.

I first heard that from Mahan Khalsa in his excellent book “Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play” (which despite its title is actually about selling consultancy services).

In all honesty, I'm not the bravest of people in my interactions with others. I hate conflict and I try to avoid it.

But I've found that Mahan's technique works time and time again.

If you're feeling something is a bit off, get it out in the open. Find a way to say it (tactfully).

Usually a phrase like “You know, I get the feeling that you're not 100% certain about this deal” or “hmmm, I picking up the feeling that you've still got some reservations, is that right?” will work.

Then pause. Wait for them to answer. Give them some space.

Often it'll turn out your fears were mistaken.

But sometimes those gentle words are enough to get the other person to tell you what they're worried about but didn't want to say.  

If there's a genuine concern, far better to get it out on the table and address it than leave it festering away beneath the surface. Because at some point, it will come up.

And the later you leave it, the bigger an issue it will seem because the other person has been stewing away over it.

It's tough to deliberately force issues out into the open. Much easier to hope that if you plough ahead they'll go away.

But I've been around the block enough now to know those issues never go away.

So if you feel it, find a way to say it.

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This bears repeating…

Posted byIan Brodie on July 9th, 2017.

A while ago I shared a quote from the prescient 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill who said:

“It is hardly possible to overrate the value…of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar…Such communication has always been, and is particularly in the present age one of the primary sources of progress.”

So as I write this email (bearing in mind you're probably getting it in your inbox a good while after I write it) I'm stuck in the airport terminal in Newark after the weather and various screw-ups by United Airlines have left me waiting desperately to get home a day or so later than planned. A first-world problem, I realise.

Anyway, sitting whiling away the hours with a few beers, I end up chatting to Vito for no other reason than he recognised my accent as British. 

We talked about many things, as travellers stuck somewhere they don't really want to be often do. Vito runs the export business of an Italian food manufacturer so is on the road quite often to the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan. 

And as I headed away from the bar to type this email before (hopefully) boarding, I realised that Vito is just like so many travellers I've met over the years: open minded and tolerant. 

It doesn't matter what your background, what kind or problems you've had or challenges you've faced, meeting other people from other cultures is incontrovertibly a good thing.

And the same applies to anyone with different ideas from you. rather than shutting off our social media feeds so we only hear voices we agree with, the voices that do us good are the voices we don't agree with. No matter what side of the political or any other spectrum we're from, “meeting” people different from us makes us better.

How are you making sure you're meeting different people?

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The biggest deal I ever lost

Posted byIan Brodie on July 5th, 2017.

Right before I left the world of big consulting it was my job to win a big deal for my organisation.

Frankly, I can't remember exactly how much it was worth, but it was many, many millions.

We lost.

Nobody blamed me, but the truth is we really should have won.

We were the incumbent. We'd worked with the client in the function that put out the bid for many years. Our people knew their people. They knew we could get results.

But we fell into a huge trap. One I should have spotted.

We focused all our energy on the past. We talked to them about the great relationship we had. How we understood them. How we knew how to make change happen in their organisation. 

Our opponents, apparently, focused on the future. They created a vision of the results the client would get after the project. They demonstrated deep expertise in the specialist area. 

We talked about the future too, and we demonstrated out expertise. But it was all secondary to the message that we were the safe bet because we'd worked with them before and we understood how to get results in their organisation.

And to be fair, that was the message our key contacts in the client organisation told us would work. 

What we missed was that this work was different to our old work. Much more focused on one specialist area. New people were involved in the decision making. New people we didn't speak to enough as we thought they were just junior compared to our senior contacts.

They were junior, but they were the ones who drove the decision since it was their area. Our senior contacts deferred to them in the end.

And although all our great work in the past didn't count for nothing, it was the vision of the future our competitors painted that carried the day.

Looking back now – and with the benefit of having seen the research on the impact of great service and performance on future business – it's easy to see where we went wrong.

Back then I was mystified. I couldn't understand how we had the senior people all on our side and we were doing all the great things that had kept them hiring us year after year.

Yet for this crucial project, they hired an outsider.

If you haven't read my article from yesterday on what really drives growth with big clients, you really should check it out. It'll clarify why sometimes great service and track record wins, and why sometimes it doesn't (and what you need instead):