If the only reason you want to connect with me is because you have a sales pitch to unleash, I hope you’re selling a commodity.

Most of us make scores of commodity type purchasing decisions regularly — from toothpaste and soap to phones and computers — and we become experts at filtering the pitches.

When in need of a commodity, we either tune in or memory calls up relevant marketing messages; we may factor some combination of personal experience, brand equity and pricing data, and make the purchasing decision.

When timing isn’t right or the need not acute, most of us become relatively adept at postponing or tuning out the steady flow of requests, inquiries or pitches.

Playing A Numbers Game?

Those selling soap or phones understand the way their market behaves, and counter with frequency and creative branding, sprinkled with efforts to heighten felt need. Some combination of market size, frequent visibility, time and message determine the degree of their effectiveness. 

You may want to call it by some other name; but if you’re indiscriminately collecting names this week for use in next week’s mass-produced pitch, you’ve chosen to compete in a crowded and noisy marketplace.

On The Other Hand

If you seek to connect with me because you have an understanding of the challenges or opportunities I face, and you believe you can help, you have the makings of a different marketing and sales approach — one that, when executed properly, will immediately differentiate you.

For decades our prospective clients have been telling us — they hire service providers they believe they can trust. As our last post suggested, this is ultimately about believing that, at every turn, you have your client’s best interest at heart.

This is the essence of trusted advisor status.

A Bridge To Trust

A bridge isn’t built overnight, or in one or two conversations. But invest in developing a relationship based on the belief that you only act in the best interest of your prospect or client, and you’ve moved into rare air.

The blueprint? Be about the client; not about you.

This is, admittedly, easier said than done. But figure out a way for your marketing and sales efforts to deliver value — even today, in the midst of Covid-19 — and you change the face of your efforts.

Delivering legitimate value — something your prospect / market defines as helpful versus a one-size-fits-all mass-produced mailing that might as well be a copy of something the competition is distributing — requires learning what the prospective client will find valuable.

Translation: like the market has been telling us — invest in understanding the business of your target.

Building Blocks For Today’s Reality

Practically speaking, there are four things to apply to your Covid-19 marketing and sales efforts.

1. Do some Smart Targeting. Identify five specific targets to connect with this week — one per day. (If your schedule allows, make this two or three or five a day. The point is to be strategic. You can’t do this today with your list of 1000.)

2. Identify Business Drivers. Spend thirty-to-sixty minutes each morning researching your target of the day. (Again, spend more time here if your schedule permits.) Search newsletters, blogs, industry sites and content produced by your target and relevant competitors for common themes that provide insights into challenges or opportunities. Keep an eye out for consequential change.

3. Get Personal. Develop communication designed specifically for your target-of-the-day, and do two things:

    • Spotlight what you suspect to be a current need or issue based on what you’ve learned about your target’s business; and,
    • tee-up a complimentary follow up conversation for the express purpose of exploring the above. (or any other issue that is causing them sleepless nights). Making this conversation complimentary underscores your desire to provide value in an uncertain moment.

4. Follow Up. Of course, your communication should provide contact information. In addition (and especially in the case of existing clients), the “tee-up” noted above should include a follow up call from you two or three days hence.  When you make this call, remember the purpose: to see if you can find a way to contribute value. And if at first you don’t connect, try again.

The Consequence of Trust

It won’t happen overnight. But go to your market intent on building trust (versus selling a phone today) and you will have reinvented your business development efforts.

It is a frequently invoked label; but you know you’ve attained trusted advisor status when you are invited into the most strategic conversations.

Those who have cultivated trust are in meetings today — albeit a Zoom meeting in most cases — collaborating on solutions, and shaping what the market will look like when businesses begin to emerge from Covid-19.

A side bar: if you are among the group believing that understanding the law or compliance issues related to your market is the same as — to borrow the consultant-speak — understanding what keeps your prospect / client up at night, you may earn a measure of your target’s trust; but you are almost certainly leaving the most rewarding strategic opportunities for your competitors.

Finally, in acknowledgement of the fact that talking about it is not the same as actually doing the work, and in the spirit of wanting to provide value where possible, I have blocked Thursday afternoon for the next four weeks in order to offer a complimentary 30-minute conversation with anyone wanting to discuss marketing, business development and sales. No sales pitches. Just an effort to contribute where we can. Use the contact info here, or shoot me a note at eric@ericfletcherconsulting.com.