Maverick and Company

The point of marketing is to make the kind of connections with potential customers that will remove the potential and put money in your bank account. Unfortunately, most marketing also gets caught up in what we call The Pretty Problem. When people write or talk in front of someone they want to impress, they have the unfortunate tendency to focus primarily on sounding smart. They use bigger words, they abuse clichés and they turn to jargon to make simple points sound more sophisticated. They focus on putting up pretty websites with flash graphics and crisp pictures of serious, yet friendly looking people in crisp white shirts at clean brown conference tables. They make it pretty.

But PRETTY isn’t what makes marketing effective. Visually, I imagine The Pretty Problem as a RED ROSE. All over the internet and in hundreds of thousands of unread brochures, you’ll find RED ROSES. You’ll find pretty graphics and big words and talk of taking things to the NEXT LEVEL with EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERIVICE and HIGH INTERITY. You’ll find people talking about organizational dynamics, cultural initiatives and integrated blah, blah, blah. It’s a LOT of RED ROSES.

As people focus on sounding smart/looking pretty, they tend toward the safest, least offensive, most used, most common, most general descriptions and language. They lean toward the clichés and jargon. They think they sound smart and many of the sites do look pretty. You end up with another RED ROSE in a sea of RED ROSES. The problem is, aside from being disgustingly boring, it’s a ridiculously ineffective way to attract new customers. Your clients work with YOU presumably because they LIKE something about you and how you do business. If you look like a RED ROSE in a sea of other RED ROSES, how will new clients ever find you?

New marketing is all about knowing which qualities and characteristics your clients like/love about you and AMPLIFYING those qualities and characteristics. It’s about making yourself EASY TO RECOGNIZE. If you’re a BLUE FISH, it’s about being a BLUE FISH. If you’re funny…be funny. Uptight? Traditional? Downright Anal? Your materials and communication style need to reflect that so the clients who love it about you can tell that YOU are the one they’ve been looking for. When you put YOU on loudspeaker, you make yourself easier to find. You separate yourself from the pack…not based on vague (and absurd) promises of better customer service, but based on differences that are both REAL & DESIRABLE to YOUR CLIENTS. When YOU be YOU, you’ll stand out to new clients like a BLUE FISH in a sea of RED ROSES. And THAT is the kind of connection that takes the potential out of potential client and puts money in your bank account.

If you’re looking for help figuring out what your BLUE FISH characteristics are, and how to put them on loudspeaker, contact us today. We currently have 3 OPENINGS for one-to-one projects and will have another small group session starting in early August. We’re rebuilding the website to, God help us, make it both prettier AND more Blue Fish compliant so time and space in our programs is limited. If you’re interested please send an email with “BLUE FISH” in the title and we’ll send you a quick questionnaire to help you figure out if our programs might be for you. Please send requests to info@maverickandcompany.com

We all want to be remembered so we can be referred.  We want to stand out in their memory.  But the smartest way to do this is to first focus on fitting in. Ever notice that there are certain people you just click with?  Certain people who seem to like you and you seem to like them, almost from the get go?  There are some people on this planet that you don’t have to work hard to connect with.

These are what I call your Blue Fish people.  There is something about them, something about you, that just goes together.  When you find these people they tend to stand out in your memory…almost like a Blue Fish in a sea of Red Roses.

If you want to stand out, be remembered and get referred, I recommend you start by seeking out the people who you have that click with…your Blue Fish people.  It’ll be easy to connect with them.  It’ll be easier for them to remember you.  And because you do have that friendly connection, they’re more likely to refer you.  AND because their connections are probably a lot like them, their connections are likely to be more Blue Fish people, people you will naturally connect with as well. Don’t try to impress everyone.

Don’t try to be remembered by everyone.  And CERTAINLY do not seek referrals from everyone.  Find your Blue Fish people, the places where you fit in.  It is there you are most able to Stand Out and reap the rewards of doing so.

Remember, even though people may be spending more carefully, plenty of them are still SPENDING.  One of the best ways to make sure the people who SHOULD become your clients actually BECOME your clients is to get smarter about referrals. Most people think that if they do a good job and know enough people, they’ll get referrals.  But you know lots of great people that you may have NEVER given a referral to.  While I can’t teach you every secret about getting more referrals right here, I can let you in on one of the simplest, MOST EFFECTIVE secrets for REFERRAL RESULTS.

STORIES For a very long time human beings communicated and remembered information primarily through stories.  And even now with our books and directories and our Google, the number one way people transmit and REMEMBER information is through STORIES. This is important because if you want referrals, people will have to remember you and what you do.  STORIES can quickly and easily make you memorable, likable, and trustworthy.  Perhaps even more importantly, a good story can make it SUPER EASY to refer you.

A Quick Case Study: THE MORTGAGE GUY A mortgage guy I know once asked me to take a quick peak at his marketing materials.  I started by asking him to tell me what 3 things he’d want people to know and remember him for in the referral process.  He, like many of you, was trying to let customers know he had integrity.  Unfortunately, that word, by itself, doesn’t work very well.  When pushed, he gave me the perfect example of how he has integrity.  He told me the following story: “This couple came to me for a second mortgage.  I spent a couple of hours with them, looking at their entire financial picture.  In the end, it didn’t really make sense for them to take out a second mortgage and I told them so.” This STORY is brilliant.  He can tell his referral sources to talk about his integrity but in one simple, fast story he can make sure they know it.  More importantly, it’s an easy story for them to tell to potential referrals.  When you make it EASY for people to refer to you, you DRAMATICALLY increase the odds of them doing so.

BONUS ROUND: For those of you who want to go past being a rock star and become a referral ninja, look at some simple edits I taught him. “A few months ago one of my clients referred her sister to me. They were a really nice couple who wanted to take out a second mortgage.  I sat down with them and talked to them about their overall financial picture–that’s important to do because a house is most people’s single biggest financial investment.  I spent a couple of hours with them and ultimately recommended they NOT take out the second mortgage.  I showed them some other options that made more sense for them.  So I actually didn’t make any money working with them but I believe in looking out for people.  That’s the way my dad did it and I think it’s one of the reasons people do refer me.  They know I’ll do the right thing with their people.”

The reality is that both of these examples work just fine.  Remember, your goal here is to train people to refer you AND make it easy for them to do that.  So I added some specific elements.

1. Be specific where you can.  If Mary referred you, talk about Mary.  It humanizes you and adds credibility.  Obviously a mortgage broker has to protect confidentiality but he can talk about a sister.
2. If your story includes a referral, make sure you say so.  It helps train people to think of you as someone people REFER frequently.
3. Add an extra nugget.  The focus of this story is that this particular mortgage guy will give up a deal for himself if it’s the right thing to do for the client.  We added a couple of extra nuggets.  You don’t want to tell a 20 minute story.  Simple is important.  But a couple extra QUICK nuggets put some very important ideas into the story.  Our first one is that he spent time looking at their entire financial picture.  Lots of mortgage guys might not do that.  It’s something that is different about him.  Second, we added the piece about his dad.  It’s TRUE, it humanizes him and helps people know that he’s from the old school, a highly desirable quality, especially in this industry.
4. Reinforce why people refer you.  At the end, we wrap it all up and bottom line it for people.  He’s a good person to refer because he not only says he’ll take care of people, he does it–EVEN WHEN it means he’ll lose a deal. Odds are YOU will remember this story. You might even tell it to someone else.  You might even want to refer someone you know to this broker (Jeff Aronheim)

What stories are you giving your fan club about you?

The MAVERICK GUIDE to GETTING MORE REFERRALS is being pre-sold at a HUGE DISCOUNT right now.  It’ll be out on April 15th.  Order your copy today and start working  A LOT smarter.  Your network likes you and knows people who should work with you.  Do you know how to connect the dots so their REFERRALS become YOUR CLIENTS?  For more information and to pre-order visit www.maverickandcompany.com and go to the CLASSES & BOOKS tab–get ‘em while they’re hot.

Many of you may be landing here because you saw my recent post to one of the more interesting conversations in the world of real estate online.  (To read the entire conversation, visit http://www.webinknow.com/2008/10/top-10-ideas-fo.html )

You’ll find some additional information on CLIENT ENGLISH, and other ideas in past blogs here.  Let me just add a few things… For years we’ve all been focused on SALES (directly reaching out to clients) and MARKETING (sending out “stuff” so that clients will reach out to us.)  A lot of the old paradigms are based on persuasion and manipluation…MAKING people buy thru elaborate techniques and sophisticated methodologies.  I am more and more convinced that the death of this old model of generating business is fast approaching.

While SALES and MARKETING won’t ever go away, it is DEFINITELY time to make them the servants of a new philosophy. After working with several hundred individual business owners and service providers, I am convinced that the smartest among us have stumbled upon a new model that we should all be working hard to understand and take advantage of.  While the language I’m about to present isn’t perfect, essentially I think the next 100 years will be less about SALES and MARKETING and more about STRATEGY and MESSAGING.

The world we sell our services in is profoundly different than when the techniques of SALES and MARKETING were developed.  Our clients are more savvy.  They have an unprecedented level of access to information.  It’s time to adapt to the world we now live in–and doing so will require more than a facebook page and a blog.

STRATEGY is about intelligently and creatively selecting from the myriad of ways we COULD connect with new business and picking the smartest methods for US and our CLIENTS.  It’s about giving up techniques to persuade and manipulate and focusing on making it easier for clients to buy, accelerating the natural processes that occur before they hire us.

MESSAGING is about learning to speak the language of our clients:  CLIENT ENGLISH.  Learning to think as they do, to understand and articulate back their problems and our solution in the language THEY are familiar with.  Learning to send out signals that they understand and are LOOKING FOR to tell them who to buy from, work with, etc. Social Media these days is seen as a magic formula for EVERYONE to get new clients, which is massively stupid.  As a tool, inside the context of a STRATEGIC plan, and one that helps you deliver smart MESSAGES, social medial is BRILLIANT.  As a magic formula, it’s a waste of webpages.

Look for more posts with more details in coming days.  You’re also welcome to agree or fight with me.  It’ll be a combination of conversations and ideas that eventually produces the best strategies for us all.  (We’re in the process of updating the site so please forgive the parts that aren’t pretty.)  Cheers to David Scott (www.WebInkNow.com) for his initial writing, Matt Gentire (Director of PR and Brand Communications at Century 21 Real Estate LLC) for inquiring in the first place and of course, Matt Dollinger (www.TheYouFactor.com) for his original thoughts to me and for not being smarter than the army of people who think a twitter account and a youtube video are magic formulas for generating clients.  (While this may be true for some, it’s mostly an impossibility for most people.)

You probably think you speak the same language as your clients.  You may have spent hundreds or thousands on pretty brochures or a snazzy website or on ads in the paper.  Yet you find yourself frustrated with lukewarm referrals and less than snazzy sales.  One possible culprit…YOU.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.  Many people make the mistake you may currently be making.  As we become experts in our profession, as we read more and learn more and study more, we become afflicted with THE CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE (muah ah ah ah.)

The Curse of Knowledge is explained brilliantly in the book “Made to Stick” by Chip & Dan Heath.  Essentially, it is the problem that occurs when you know a bit too much.  You view things with an expert’s eyes.  You’re able to see subtleties and distinctions that most people can’t.  You’re the interior designer who sees burnt ochre while the rest of us see a red wall.Worse, when you write emails, brochures and websites, when you talk at meetings, you probably make a second deadly mistake…you try to sound smart.  We all do it.  It’s the main reason I always try to get verbal testimonials that I can write out and send to clients for their approval.

Whenever people write things, whenever they speak in front of a group they want to impress, they tend to try to sound smart.  (This affliction is known as the Impulse to Impress.) Unfortunately, marketing is not about sounding smart.When you combine the Curse of Knowledge with the Impulse to Impress you get a particularly deadly combination.  You get blank looks and missed opportunities. You get good clients who walk away from the burnt ochre because they really just wanted a red wall.It can be very challenging to set aside the Curse of Knowledge and the Impulse to Impress but effective marketing requires it.  Think about your customers and the way they talk about their problems, your solution and you.  Then talk to them in the language they speak.  It’s not about dumbing down your message.  It’s about communicating effectively in the language THEY speak and understand best.  I call it Client English.  And providers who speak it are always more successful than people who sound smart but don’t really say anything.What’s your version of the “burnt ochre” mistake?  How can you translate your expertise into “red” for the people trying to hire you?