Lessons

Lesson Info

Move From Selling to Serving to Solving

There's one one piece of advice I have which I'm now seeing you know that we are that that I have built up a relative good following like we haven't linked in we have like thirty eight thousand people now in the photography business group and every so often somebody comes and says stop and then I think to myself this my group and paying for somebody to do this I moderated I'm response for the content I give a lot of free stuff away but for anybody and especially the greatest out there if you stay in that free mindset that you on ly one thing's for free and then you get mad at people when they make an offer because all you ever want is free what's going to happen to you is you are going to encounter on ly people that want free too is an energetic principal so if you find information that is valuable that has a tangible value to you where you go wow, that is really good don't just look for how much of the free stuff you can have but support that person that's putting something out that m...

eans something to you that resonates and learned that because then energetically you have the right to do the same thing with your stuff because then people will come to you so anybody who is in my tribe only one stuff for free gets chopped one chance when somebody says in my linked in group stop don't send me this I'm like you're out because I don't want to attract people to my business and my tribe that don't follow the same energetic principal said I do I am willing to pay for a great service I want somebody to be willing to pay me for it ray service if I provide a great service so especially in the creative industry we go out and we worry about overselling or what if we too expensive or what if we can qualify quantify our our price what's that customer going to say to us my friend allie alice morita prisco said to me imagine it like yes and no buttons all rights was a whole bunch of no buttons and at the very end is a yes button you have to press the no buttons to get to the yes, but and the more you press the no buttons that clearer your messages to the market this is who the proper customer is this is who resonates with me this is what works so that when they come to you and you you know now you having a whole different conversation because now it's not selling anymore because you've done all the vetting in the relationship building ahead of time jan you're nodding this's sound good to you because it mirrors my experience and it's and it's not even necessarily that I'm directly selling two people per se but that there's opportunity of clients that air coming to me and and opportunities to make sales or whatever and when you're being trude inauthentic to what your brand is and what you're creating in the world you say that's not it that's not it that's not it and you stay true to what it is that you are declaring yourself to be in your brand to be and not get sidetracked by by the possibility of making money or or take taking taking steps that are inauthentic to what it is that you're saying so it so in some ways it could go the other direction it's not just that they're telling you know it's that you say no no no no yes that's my client that's where I'm going and then you engage with power and you're not weighted down by all of the the sort of appropriate clients because you're serving them with half of your energy because you're in it for the money and how did they change for you from the first class to this now? Because we talked about this a lot with you and in the previous course so what was that shift for you that turned that the shift is giving right like toe have your your client come to you? You actually you make your choices you say you're yeses and you're in that yes because you're passionate about it and because it resonates with your purpose because that's what you're you're creating for your future and so when you when you do that, which is what I did I gave I gave, I gave I gave such that people god that I was committed to being that in the world I wasn't commit, I was wasn't committed to it giving me money or or anything like that, and what that does is is people the people listen to you from your commitment and they listen to you as an authority because they know that that's what you're passionate about and they know that that's what you will you will you will ring true with over and over again, and so I went out on and created opportunities large opportunities and threw my hat over the fence on impossible endeavors and became, you know, a leader of many, many people who are like I don't even see how that is possible, and I was herding cats like nobody's business and just ringing true over and over again, and at that point people were coming to me and saying, I want you to do x and I'm like no and I want you to do why no and just and and it was because I was just giving, giving, giving and being being being that my clients come to me nice nice okay, very good. So the idea is you know and this is about in the side from from the selling to serving to solving so this is is sort of the mind set shift we talk about is if I walk as a former rep with the portfolio into an ad agency and I do my go see high hears me here's the portfolio do you like it? All they really can say is yes or no right take my portfolio and then I may say, do you have any jobs coming up and they say maybe or yes or no and then I say, well, do you think that you could consider this for any one of those jobs than they all they can say again is like yes or no or maybe and then I can say, well, when what you like me to check back in with you I'm really come uncomfortable by now and they say, well, you know, don't call us we'll call you or they say, just leave me a prom a piece and we'll keep it and file when something appropriate comes up, you're done and this happens this is sort of the traditional way on how most artists are selling their wares, so what we're doing now is we sort of flipping this around so now we going and rethinking about who is this client and what is thiss clients problem so I go so far in my customer profiles where I know is it a woman? How old is she does she have kids why if she has kids she needs to be out of there by four forty five why she needs to pick up kids if it is a millennial who is twenty seven and most likely broke and underpaid in an entry level position he is a hipster he wants to be out I want to take him out to the places he cannot afford to go if it is a baby boomer we will meet for lunch so what is it that this particular customer you going after what is there what is what is it that makes them special if I take a busy mom off too and I ask you to go to lunch with me it's probably not going to happen not until it's the girl's night out when the relationship it has progressed way, way, way way further down and we have so that the girl relationship right with somebody who's following traditional methods who we want to do traditional meth methods so this is thie you know, in in the point number two where's that what what I know about them what do we know about them? So what do you guys know about john? What do you know about your client? Um I'm not really sure because uh I haven't sold enough of my fine art ok just to really know kind of what that market looks like ok so that's given its that's worked this trip so somebody who buys fine art based upon the graphic that I showed you earlier is either a what or what s so far they've all been baby boomers actually ok so what do you know about baby boomers um I guess a lot of our bride more fluent and love wilma that I've been dealing with have been retiring lately okay so they will buy fine art why um usually decorating their houses ok so if you know that then your approach is going to be what um I do this all the time well if somebody decorates the help their mind said is wow finally I have the time to go shopping to go looking what looks good I get to decorate um I came compare things um I can I can see if if what resonates with me I can now give back to the community you know it's not just like having to do x y or z but it's about feeling good living well so your sales pitch is not my do you like my pictures but the sales pitches when you look at my fine art pieces that air hanging in your house you will feel how specific relaxed inspired enthusiastic odd quiet peaceful because when we create an environment right you paint an emotion with your art that resonates with them so that every time they look at that piece that emotional reconnection occurs. So your conversation is not fine artist wanted by a picture of mine but is about what inspires you? What kind of art inspires you? Tell me more about that that's the conversation the conversation is always about tell me about this what's it have to feel like for you what have you seen where you stopped where you went like wow, I had a fine art photographer fine art painter a long, long time ago who did believe it or not smiley faces huge smiley face isis and he sold him for, like, five thousand dollars and I'm like seriously and he said to me you will not believe the response I get because my clients hang it sort of in the hallway so the first thing that they see when they come home is this huge smiley face and they can't help themselves but being a good mode what a great little value proposition that isthe so what is that for you right? What do we what is it that you trying to achieve but it has to be beyond the sale the end result that's the that's the solving off the problem what do they want at the very end you want to give it a shot? What is it for you uh, well, I'm kind of in between I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to be currently I'm a photo editor and if I continue down that path um I want to be like, a the creative lead, the photo editor for magazine website so my question to them would be, who is your client? You know what I zehr you trying to bring to your site to your magazine? Um here's what I can tio no, may I don't want to say that, um how can I help you get those eyes on the site on guy could do that by, um you're on the right path, he can be on the right path, so one way you could do it and these are just, you know, that's what I do, I just throw a few ideas around if they fit, if it if not, we'll find something else. But one of the one of the things I that get a lot of attention right now is anybody who knows about that generational shift. Anybody who knows about that in selling has by the pure nature, if you understanding what that is an automatic advantage and authorities status just depends on how hard you push it, I pushed this all the time because I want to sell to people like my daughter, I really do I think that they deserve a shot at it too I don't want to just deal with baby boomers you know and I want to work with everybody in between so if you because in the magazine was very tough right now tio to make that clear that there's a whole different other customer coming right like they're holding on so tight to what they used to have but they're not they're not as successful as they used to be so is the magazine business going away entirely so they kind of trying to stay safe for as long as they can but they know they need to change the complete paradox of what's going on so what I would do is that if I was you I would and this will be in the lead generation day very very helpful for you to learn about the white papers in the regeneration aspect of it on what what is the subject category that you can specialize on that you are now the authorities so when you go to them you said you don't say I'm a photo editor that's now doing x y or z but you say I'm specialized in bridging the generational divide in magazines because they have to appeal to this in this would you like me to tell you about how I do that oh please to tell me because they have not figured this out I bet. Okay. All right. So is, um stepford what do you think? You know? One thing I'm curious about is you were talking about these millennials, and I agree that there is a huge potential market, but just in terms of their evolution as a population, where are they right now in terms of disposable income? And so they're going to be people who purchased the will purchase a ton of stuff, but, you know, they aren't at the point where they're going to purchase a house reverses a car versus a cup or something like that. So where on that's, what a life cycle if you find them right now, actually, millennials are the leaders in the national real estate market right now, I'm a realtor um, so I'm a little bit outside of the it is a creative it's, very creative business, but, um, what we've found is that they're the ones buying the houses and they're the ones with a lot of money right now they're spending it, so just just answer your high on disposable income, so by the sheer numbers it will be it's a force to be reckoned with. So it just depends because they had the most well educated and the most knowledgeable generation ever to come on the market, what they don't have is sort of thes abundance and jobs that we were hoping that our kids we're going to have but what they do have is access to information and they're very smart, so I believe that we will see this huge shift coming in probably within the next five years I think we'll see this dramatically shift and who whoever is not on board getting this right now is going to lose big time, so this is the time but you really have to learn on howto connect with them all right? So that means there are no sales without a clear marketing message and there is a necessity for an authority or spurred status otherwise you're just another service provider and it's a hit and miss the people that are going to be making the money are the people that have that kind of authority status and the search is that somebody will do because it's all pure approval they're going to their peers and they're looking for that stamp of approval because if it's worked for fifty others and they don't care if there's like two bad reviews in there but if it's like forty eight good and awesome reviews, they're like yeah, whatever these two had a grudge it's much more real, so don't be afraid of that. You know it is all about that checking and testing so you must implement that in your business is the conversation takes place before the sale there is the transaction in the conversation continues after the sale which is also what's, dramatically changed because, see, we having a relationship. Jen and I are not going out only once. Jen and I are going out a couple of times, and jen came the first time, he warned, touched jenise back the second time. This conversation is going to continue much better, much stronger. What did jen do? Jin told everybody about this bye, because jen had a great experience. Now I'm telling everybody about jin, so we help each other so that's, sort of how this whole authority and experts status works.