For the past four years I’ve been working with one of the country’s top digital marketing agencies.
Started as a marketing consultant talking with businesses. The goal is figuring out 1) what they need [SEO? PPC? Both?] and then 2) seeing if we’d be a good fit.
One of the most important parts of the conversation is after they figure out that the company is amazing at their job, and they’re starting to think about hiring us.
That’s when the real tough questions come out.
“I’m an underwater left handed goat herder. There’s nobody in the world like me, and I need to see that you’ve worked with 100 clients exactly like me.”
If you’ve been in sales *at all* you know this is about a 1% exaggeration. Questions like this happen WAY more than you’d think.
And this is where the mind reading comes in.
You can:
- take the question / comment at face value OR
- see through the question to the concern that they have that they’re trying to address with the best question they could come up with
In this case the question (have you worked with people like me?) is the result of their secret thought:
I don’t want to waste my time with someone who doesn’t understand my business, take my money, and waste my time getting me nothing in return.
THAT is the real concern & if you learn to see into their secret concerns and address those, then you’ll be rich.
How do you do that?
Well, that’s a story for another time.
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan
PS: I’m flying tomorrow morning. Do you have any podcast recommendations? I have a lot of time doing nothing on my hands, and I like to listen to cool stuff. Hit reply with your favorites.