The gentle art of persuasion

In most networking groups ‘sales’ is almost a dirty word.  However, sales is the lifeblood of every business - no sales = no money!  The problem is nobody likes being sold to, but that doesn’t stop us wanting to buy stuff!

If you look at the traditional sales funnel, it starts with something free, then gradually educates the people who have identified they’re interested in that free material. The process upgrades them to become paying customers, first of a small item, then for the higher priced products or services.

This is persuasion and is based on the premise that they’ve already said they have an interest so more of the same kind of material may also be useful and interesting.

People buy from people they like

This is why email nurturing works well.  If your emails are conversational, interesting (dare I say, fun?) and offer useful tips as well as any promotions, people will get to know and like you.

This is why networking works too - people buy from the people they’ve got to know over many meetings.  They’re also happy to refer them as they feel they know them and trust them.

People buy from people like them

This doesn’t mean we all need to be clones of each other; it does mean that you need to be on the same wave-length.  You don’t have to be someone you’re not, authenticity and transparency are very important in the process of building trust, but you do have to have empathy for the people you want to do business with.

I’ve done a lot of training over the course of my career and I always adjust my language to the audience.  So, if I’m talking to people working on a production line I would use more casual language and phrases than the more formal approach I use in the boardroom.

This is all part of the first stage of a sales process - building rapport.

Credibility rules

In most sales situations people will not buy from anyone they don’t have confidence in.  It’s not hard to generate that - without boasting about your achievements.  Talking about the work you’ve done with other clients, the results they’ve achieved, the money they’ve saved, the companies you’ve worked with all contribute to this.

It’s why networking works so well - a referral comes with credibility already well past first base.  If you’re starting from scratch then you need to lay this foundation before moving forwards.

Credibility is why your website should feature testimonials.  Third party validation is always more powerful than anything you may say yourself.  It’s the reason some companies feature their client list too.

There is more than one reason to ask questions

Part of any sales process is asking questions - which works really well when you’re face-to-face, because it helps you to understand your potential client’s situation.  However, it also works when you’re operating in digital mode.  

If you really know your target market well, you already know what their issues and challenges are.  Asking questions relating to these, even in an email, reminds them of the pain they’re suffering and gives them a push in the right direction.

Using this foundation makes the actual sale much easier as it ends up changing the process around so that the potential customer is deciding to buy, rather than being sold to. 

Get in the media!

The days of writing a monthly press release have moved on and there are far more ways to get noticed in the media than struggling to find a good subject for a press release that will engage editors.

Like publishing, the media has moved into a much more diverse range of platforms.  Now you don’t need to beg editors to publish your content, not only can you publish it yourself, but there are so many other ways to get visibility.

1: Online journals

Most industries have publications that are only digital.  Many of these publish articles daily, so they are always looking for material.  You don’t need a ‘big story’, you do need a wealth of knowledge and experience to put together a really good article.  

2: Local radio

Get to know the local radio stations.  Ideally you want to talk to the programme producers, but on very small stations this may be the actual presenter.  Again, they’re always looking for interesting material.  If they don’t have a business section already, suggest it and round up your network to fill a regular slot.

3: Podcasts

Find out who the most listened to podcasts are in your target market.  Contact the hosts and ask if they’d be interested in a chat.  Getting featured on podcasts is a great way to gain credibility.  Podcasts tend to be casual and conversational, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a clear subject to talk around or the audience lose focus - and interest.

4: Clubhouse

The new boy on the block for social interaction.  Currently only available on Mac devices, but should be coming for Androids later in the year, this is a step beyond podcasting.  It’s an audio platform where you can host a ‘room’ and talk about your pet subject, interview other experts, have discussions or Q&A sessions.  The difference between Clubhouse and a podcast is that it’s live and interactive.

5: Live streaming

You’ve probably heard of Facebook Live - and LinkedIn has the same facility.  This allows you to do a live broadcast on their platform and interact with those who are watching live.  The plus is that the live broadcast is saved and appears on your feed as a recording that people can watch later.  If you really want to do this well, a service like Streamyard allows you to record and then ‘live stream’ into multiple platforms, this means you can respond to comments personally live, which is difficult if you’re actually broadcasting live at the same time.

A little advice …

Don’t wing it with any of these strategies.  Preparation makes you look professional.  Have topics ready, if you’re running a Q&A session, have some questions prepared in case people are slow to step up.  

If you’re looking for invitations to radio programmes, podcasts or pitching articles to online journals have your subjects and a summary prepared before you make contact.

A short professional bio with your headshot and a 1-2 paragraph overview of your expertise, experience, background is also a useful thing to have to hand.

Getting into the media isn’t as difficult as it might look - it just takes a little planning and consistency.

How attached is your newsletter?

When you create a newsletter the means of delivery matters.  It’s rare for newsletters to be produced as a physical paper production today for all kinds of reasons, not least the environmental impact.  That means most emails are delivered digitally.

The question is do you create a smart pdf document or put the content directly into an email?  

It’s possible to create a pdf document using either Word or a desk-top publishing application.  This can then either be attached to an email and/or loaded onto the website for people to view.

I’m not a fan of pdf newsletters for a number of reasons:

1. To access them your reader has to actively do something - more clicks required = fewer readers.  People are astonishingly lazy!
2. If they’re on your website, that means even more clicks.  Also a pdf does nothing for your SEO as search engines don’t read pdf files.
3. There’s a danger of laying out a pdf more like a newspaper with articles alongside each other, making it easy for the reader to miss key information as they scroll down whatever they started reading.  Also columns don’t work on a screen.  The smaller the screen the harder they are to manage!
4. When was the last time you tried to read an A4 sized pdf on your smartphone?  I rest my case!

The most popular way to deliver newsletters is to subscribe to one of the many email marketing platforms like MailChimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, Mailer Lite, Get Response, or something similar.  Some of these have a free option, but it’s very much a case of you pay for what you get and the paid version has more facilities and tools to use.  If you’re serious about your marketing it’s worth the few dollars (and it usually IS dollars) a month they cost.

The advantages of using these platforms are:

• They have templates that make your newsletter look professional
• You can set up a template to reuse over and over so your newsletter has a consistent look and feel
• It’s usually easy to create a flexible layout to include separate items, snippets, images and forms
• You don’t risk getting your email address disabled for spam as these platforms are set up to send high volumes of mail (whereas your own email client will quickly get flagged as spamming if you send a multiple recipient list)
• Your message is instantly visible when someone opens the email so no barriers between your message and your reader.
• The platform 

Some of these providers also have the option to add tags so that, if the reader clicks a specific link in the email they are automatically moved to a different list where they’ll receive more relevant information.

So the moral of this tale is don’t attach your newsletter - deliver it. 

‘I love it when a plan comes together’

I have fond memories of the A-Team and this favourite saying of their leader, Hannibal Smith.  Maybe it’s because I’m a left-brain systems freak - so I love a good plan.

Content marketing brings together the creative right brain and the analytical left brain.  Creativity to generate interesting content and analysis of the best time and place to post it.  So our social media plans are a joy to behold with lots of coloured cells, content, links and images.  It allows us to be creative and keep things organised at the same time.

If you’re putting together a social media plan these are the elements we include.

Dates 

Having the dates column fixed on the left allows us to can scan all the different social platforms and see what the mix is for that day across them.

Times of day 

Ideal posting times can vary from platform to platform depending on when your target audience for that platform are most likely to be browsing.  If you’re not sure try posting at different times of day and see when you get the most response and engagement on each platform.

Content 

We use content categories to ensure there’s a mix of content covering different types of post, we use three main categories with sub-headings in each.

• Corporate: relating directly to the company products or services, testimonials 
• Influencer: opinion, shared news items/blogs/articles, tips, advice
• General: quotations, thought for the day, anything amusing, thoughtful or randomly interesting.

A good mix if you’re posting once a day might be 2-3 x Corporate, 3-4 x Influencer, 1-2 x general.

Some people have a theme each week or regular weekly features - e.g. Wednesday Wisdom, Friday Feeling, Monday Madness, This Week’s Hot Tip, etc.

It’s important to understand the difference between sales and promotion.  Sales pitches tend to turn people off, with the possible occasional exception of a limited time special offer (better still if there’s a coupon code for a discount for your social audience).

Links

Where possible add a link to the source for news items or blogs/articles you’re commenting on.  

Images 

Graphics and photos get more attention than text only, and video trumps a still image.  This doesn’t mean you need to post a video every day, but get comfortable with a platform such as Canva to give your images a professional finish.  If you’re posting on Instagram or Pinterest an image is essential - or you have no post.

Get in the groove

Instead of creating your posts on a daily basis, do at least a week at a time.  This allows you to get into the groove of finding and creating content, which takes far less time than doing this on a day-to-day basis.  It also means you get a better overview of the whole week, which is useful when you’re working around a theme and saves reinventing the wheel.

Organise your images

When you’re creating images organise them into folders - Products/Services, Testimonials, Quotations, etc.  Some of these can be reused - very, very few people will scroll down over the last few weeks posts to check if you’ve used an image before.

Schedule your planning

Allocate time in your diary each week to do the social media plan.  Make sure you allow time to create the images and upload/schedule your posts too.  If different people work on the plan, it’s important to ensure everyone knows when they can add their contributions so duplication doesn’t happen.

Go ahead! Put your social media together and you’ll can channel the A-Team’s quote ‘I love it when a plan comes together’!