“We’re not going to take your money.”

Yesterday afternoon we did our little song-and-dance for some prospective clients.

Within three minutes, I told them I had no interest in working for them … that I wasn’t going to ask them for any money.

Now, about this time in Hazzard County, advertising sales managers reading this think I’m one of the biggest idiots on the face of the planet, that I committed what they term ‘marketing malpractice,’ that you always … always … ask for the sale.

And to those booger-eating weasels I say:

You’re the exact reason most small and medium-sized business owners hate us.

You know nothing about this couple – our prospective clients – yet you’re certain they must buy something from you to help them.

Nah, it’s helps you.

All I knew before I met them was that they had a successful small-business in a small northern Missouri town, and they had just recently opened a second in Columbia.  They had calculated their ad budget to be $3,000, and they wanted help.

So, I helped them … I asked them lots of questions … I found their moments of animation – the stories that cause their eyebrows to raise and their body position to change as they passionately describe what they love about what they do.

Then, we talked about the power of stories and strategy and how each type of media ‘works’ if you tell the right, sticky story, but ultimately it’s a matter of how they get the most and best use of their money.
And I could do all this … because I told them right away that I wasn’t trying to sell them anything … not as an ice-breaker … not as some stomach-turning technique … but simply because I meant it.

And they could tell right away that I did from the tone in my voice and the look in my eye … and then we could all relax and listen to each other because, right away, I shot the big pink elephant in the room.

There’s an unspoken thing that happens throughout sales presentations … the prospect knows you want something from them … do you know they know?

Can you anticipate it up-front?  Can you get them to trust that you have their best interest at heart?

You can’t do it with tricks.  You can’t shoot the big pink elephant with a toy gun.

But you can teach … you can listen … you can offer up what’s in your client’s best interest even when it’s not seemingly in yours.

Then you’ll begin earning a living based on what you know … not what you do.

Yesterday afternoon, we did our little song-and-dance for some prospective clients.

Within three minutes, I told them I had no interest in working for them … that I wasn’t going to ask them for any money.

Within an hour, I’d given them a free copy of Roy Williams’ Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads and loaned them my copy of Thomas Petzinger’s The New Pioneers.  We gave them the address to our blog and to Wizard Academy, and I gave them my phone number and urged them to call me anytime.

Within two hours, they remarked how caught off-guard they were by what they’d just been through … that they had so much to think about … and that it was really unlike any other sales presentation they’d ever seen.

And within three hours, I’d gone home to see my wife and baby boy most proud to be in advertising … even though more than a few advertising sales managers would have reprimanded me for not asking for the sale.

I wonder how they looked their children in the eye last night?

My new friends – Brooke and Allen Goans – own and operate Originals Paper Art at 23 S. Eighth Street in Columbia.  Their phone number’s 875-0071.  If you want to hear someone passionately tell you a neat story about why letter-writing rules, go talk with Brooke.

You’ll be glad you visited with her.   I am.