Wouldn't it be great if we could get our customers and prospects (or our employees too) as engaged and interested in our business as they are when they're watching sport?

In this video I explore how we can learn from what makes people so engaged when they support a team or individual in sport, and how we can apply those same things to our own business.

 
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Video Transcript

Hi, it's Ian. I'm back from holiday and raring to go with another five-minute marketing tip. We've got the Olympics going on right now. Have you ever noticed just how much emotion, how much interest and engagement that sport tends to produce? Imagine if you could harness anywhere near that level of interest and engagement in your business from your customers, your prospects, and your employees, you would have incredible success. I'd like you to think about why it is that people get so interested, so engaged in sport, and then when we come back after the swoosh we'll talk about how you can apply that to your business. See you then.

Hi, welcome back. Some of the reasons that people get engaged and really interested and emotional about sport, are simply because of the spectacle, because of the unpredictability, I guess the joy of watching such great world class performances. But if we're honest, I think most of us will admit that we're more engaged and more interested in sport when we have some skin in the game ourselves, if we have a team or an individual that we're actively supporting in that competition rather than just watching the spectacle itself. The question is, what makes you support one team or one individual over another?

Well, often it's history. It's that it's your local hometown team that you grew up supporting, and that's then ingrained in you. Even long periods of time can pass. I left the North East of England 30 years ago, but I still support Newcastle United. I guess for me, it's a connection with my roots and with my family who all support the same team. Other reasons why we might support one team over another could be if they embody some of the things that we value. You might be watching the FA Cup Final for example, there could be two teams that you don't normally support playing in it, but you pick one team over another because they represent … well, they're really hard working and you appreciate that, or they're full of flair and creativity, or very sportsmanlike, or they work well as a team.

Often we'll click with a particular aspect of one team or an individual, and because it represents, or they represent some of the values that we like to think that we represent as well. Other times we might support an individual or a team just because they are really really good. We all I'm sure, cheered home Usain Bolt in the 100 meters simply because he's such a brilliant athlete. Of course it helps that he's running against a perceived villain in terms of Justin Gaitlin, an ex-drugs cheat. When there's a common enemy, a villain, that tends to make you support the other person. Also, we tend to like to support underdogs, which I guess Bolt was four years ago at the London Olympics, where he's just recovering from injury. Never really done a good time that year, it made his victory in the 100 meters even sweeter.

We like to see people overcome adversity too. People who've had a real struggle to get to where they have in sport. Like Mo Farah in the 10,000 meters this year, who actually falls down in the race, but still recovers to win. Other reasons we might support someone are simply that we like them. They're nice people. If you think of all those reasons, and I'm sure there are more as well, as to why people support particular teams or individuals and get so emotional and so engaged in a sport, you can try to apply those same things to your own business. For example, how can you be seen by your customers and prospects as their hometown team?

Well, it's unlikely to be just based on geography. For example, if you do consulting or some kind of service for small retail businesses, how can you be seen as representing them, of being the champion of small town businesses, or women in business, or something that's a core part of the identity of your ideal clients? Can you be seen to champion some of the things they value? Can you really stand up for ethics in business, for fair trading, for teamwork and creativity? If you can be seen to visibly stand for something that they value, again they're much more likely to support you.

Can you be the underdog somehow? Have you got a backstory that positions you as the underdog? Is there a common enemy? Can you position yourself as fighting against big business or bureaucracy or mediocrity in your particular industry? That again could help them support you. There are lots of ways you can look for. If you think about those different factors that you saw made people support sports teams, there's often at least one or two of those factors that apply to your business as well. You can then work those into your marketing. You can include them in your bio for example, on your website.

In many ways my hometown team is the team of people who are not naturals at marketing and sales, but still have to do it anyway. A lot of my clients and potential clients empathize with that perspective because that's the same position that they're in. I always try and include something about not being a natural salesperson in my bio, whether that's on my website or how people introduce me when I appear on a podcast or write an article for someone. More importantly, I include aspects of that in a lot of the stories I tell when I'm giving tips.

If I'm giving a sales tip, I won't just give a bog-standard sales tip that's in all the books. What I'll do, is I'll specifically focus on a sales tip that I found to be really useful as someone who wasn't a natural salesperson. I'll very often tell the story of how I first learned it, and how uncomfortable I was in sales situations. Again, it's building that empathy, it's helping people cheer me on because they feel that I'm a bit like them. I'm part of their hometown team. Again, you could do it with all those other aspects of being the underdog, fighting against adversity, representing something that they value, fighting against a common enemy.

Take those factors, think through what it is that would get your potential clients to cheer you on, to be a supporter of you because of those factors that are analogous with sport, and then build them into your marketing both in terms of your bios, the obvious one, but also in the stories you tell, the way you explain things, the tips that you give. Always relate them back, or whenever you can relate them back, to some of those factors. If you can just get a little bit of that emotion, that engagement, that support that sports teams or individuals in sports get, you will have huge success.

See you next week.