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Will it help...
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A conversation with your prospect. Maybe was referred to you. Maybe found out about you some other way. And you ask: "Will it help if I send you these? (your docs, slide deck, presentation, technical info, etc.)" Your Yes/No question gives them no alternative. If they wanna be polite, all you'll hear is "Yes" (a fake Yes). You'll get excited because you got it. Now, you got your foot in the door and it's only a matter of time before the big purchase comes. You convinced them. Just a matter of time. And you wait, and keep waiting. Here's what happened: their only way out of the conversation was a Yes. They didn't want to hurt your feelings. And everybody left the conversation with no guilt nor hurt. But what if you asked for their permission to find out what would actually help them? It could be you —in the ideal fit. It could be saying No to them. It could be something for free. It could be referring them to your competitor. For all of it you need to listen. Not to respond. To understand. What if you shift your question to "How could I help you get to ______?" |
Rod Aparicio
Get one tip, question, or belief-challenge that just might change the way you market, to help your customers buy. A *daily* email for b2b founders on improving your business —without the bullshit.
The more you run will not necessarily get you farther. The more effort you put, the more complex you make things (either for yourself or for your customers), the more it costs you to build something, the more time to learn something. Your customers don't care. It might be a nice-to-know, but they don't care. You could very well be in a hamster wheel. What is it that you might need to do less of?
"The best marketing is a product people want to talk about." Nope. The best marketing is helping your customers. Helping them in such a way that they will LOVE to pay you what you ask for and they'll say "Thank you" at the end of it.
That something seems like a big potential win can be mistaken with an opportunity. Without assessing properly the trade-offs, the implications of pursuing it, the motivations behind, all you'll get is a fun way to get off your actual goals. Then what seemed like an opportunity was, indeed, a distraction*. * Opportunity v Distraction - The Business of Authority