When I was about 10 years old, my family had a horse named Tequila “Tiki” Sunrise. She was our first horse, and it was Tiki that taught us the true definition of “green broke.” For my non-horse people out there, this essentially means the horse is JUST beginning to allow riders. Bottom line: First-time horse owners DO NOT need a “green broke” horse.
In addition to some “riding issues” (Try getting her to stop eating grass and actually walk!), she was also not super compliant when you needed her to come to you. And, if you’ve never run after a horse you’re trying to catch, well… it’s a losing battle.
So, I came up with some stealth little horse-catching hacks that have served me very very well in business. But before I get there, let me give you the headline:
The BEST lesson Tiki taught me was this:
Anything you feel like you need to chase is
1) poorly trained 2) running away from you,
and 3) hard to catch.
Not good. Especially in business. So, when I hear business owners talking about “chasing down leads” I shudder. I — sometimes virtually, sometimes in person — grab them by their shoulders, look them in the eye and BEG them to stop.
It is far better to generate demand than to chase leads. If you’re thinking, “No $hit, Michelle,” stay with me. It is far better to GENERATE DEMAND than to chase leads.
Generating demand is critical to building a steady stream of potential clients. But, how do we do that?
To be sure, a lot of my members and my clients use some media to generate demand. While it’s not necessary, nothing says PAY ATTENTION TO THIS ONE quite like an impressive reel of national media mentions. Media will not make the sale for you, but it will help separate you from the pack.
Fabienne and I — recently — at ICON15.
You generate demand by FIRST raising your flag. You have to let people know who you are, who you serve and which problem(s) you solve. NEXT, you must eliminate any perception of neediness. Even starting out… you’ve got to INTERVIEW and CHOOSE clients. Turn away those LEAST suited to you. Trust me, they’ll talk. 13 years ago, i was turned away by Fabienne. (It was a great decision for both of us, but stung at the time. NOW, i get it.) FINALLY, you’ve got to be willing to use content marketing in order to lubricate the sales process.
Using published content to help your prospects ease into the sales conversation generates not only demand, but respect, and curiosity. It elevates your profile, shortens sales cycles and preps your best clients to say YES!! So, if you’re not blogging, or writing for an industry journal in your niche or holding monthly educational events (online or off)… you should be.
Back to Tiki…. I learned that if she — much like a prospect– felt like I was going to chase her, she ran away. However, if I feigned purpose… if I showed her a carrot I had in my hand and then nonchalantly walked away from her…. well, she’d come after ME.
Did you catch that “value bomb?” I showed Tiki that I had something SHE wanted…. and then, just kept doing my thing. Once I caught her attention and generated demand… all I had to do was wait for her to chase ME down.
Effective sales and marketing works very much the same way. (By the way, did you already read my article about 3 Ways to make sales LESS AWKWARD? You can find it here, in the Los Angeles Business Journal.
