Today we are talking about your team. So what I mean by that is your staff or your team that can answer phone calls, your delivery drivers, your service technicians, your sales people, your ones that take orders that stand behind the counter, absolutely anyone, even yourself if you visit customers.
Anyone who has anything to do with a touch point, with a client or a potential client, is involved here. Because if you can give them the information, or if you give them bucket loads of information to help those potential customers become customers. Then why wouldn’t you?
So for instance, you can have products videos, you could have eBooks, you could have leaflets. There are numerous other things, some of the most powerful are case studies which is just in effect a long winded testimonial and feedbacks.
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They each explain how your product has helped someone else fix their problems, has helped solved their problems, has helped improve their business, their life, whatever. Case studies are incredibly powerful.
You Can Create Case Studies
Now if you’ve got customers, you can create case studies. Just think, if your, if you have sales reps for instance, if they visit clients.
How about when they are talking about things and a client brings, a potential one, brings up an objection or something, or a question. How about pulling out their eye patterns.
Saying, ‘Tell you what, I’ve got a video about that, from another client. Let me quickly show you this.’ Now if you had made that in advance, it’s a simple case of make it once, use it many times.
Now imagine on an ongoing process, you can decide to create one of these things, once a week or once every two weeks.
Over a period of 10 weeks, 6 months, you are going to have a lot of data. When somebody phones up, speaks on the phone, have a chat with somebody, a chat with a potential client, they can offer to email them a leaflet, a link to a video, a message, a list of this, a list of that.
Or an explanation of how something works. It’s not just about that.
How Does it Work?
How about creating information about how everything works. So someone wants to know about your blue widget, say, ‘For an actual fact, we’ve got a video that probably best explains that, can I send you the link or let me show you, I’ve got it on iPad.’
Now this is not going to be a 10, 15 minute explanation. It’s going to be something quick, it’s the equivalent of in the old day, he’s our pack of brochures. He’s our handbook, that’s boring.
People, yeah okay go to an exhibition, give out loads and loads and loads of leaflets. But how about giving out leaflets with links, the videos.
How about showing videos that, so in your exhibition, how about having a big TV in background that constantly plays the loop of customers, explaining of case studies, of uses, of how it’s used of real life.
This is the information age, and if you can empower your team, so that every possible which way, they have informative content to give out, or to show.
And that’s, that’s important. That content has to be informative. This is not all about, this is not me, me, me, me. We are wonderful, we are the best, we are that.
This is how we, how this product, how this service can solve your problem. This is put into customer’s words, in their language. They are only interested in what it will do for them. So show them, it’s as simple as that.
And this stuff is free to produce. I am recording this podcast with an iPhone. Standing in my garden, why can’t you do that? It’s easy, what’s the tools. I actually, I’m using microphone but look, can you see, it’s just pinned on me. That’s it.
These things are twenty pounds, thirty dollars. Get them on amazon. And if you got another excuse, yeah got a tripod. It’s another 10 pounds. Woopie. And that’s it. That’s all you need to do to do this.
You can do it and explain, and like I said, once you’ve done it once, it’s done. Now you’re going to think, oh but won’t be very professional. Well hey you are not fizzers, spending you know tens of thousands producing slick videos that customers don’t believe.
You are you, you are normal everyday customer, they are normal everyday people. They want it to be believable. They want it to be raw, unedited. They want it to be helpful.
So anything that is overly slick, just lose it because once it becomes slick, it becomes salesy. Once it becomes salesy, along with slick, it becomes not quite as trustworthy as real.
So for instance, these videos, they are never edited. They might have a bit on the beginning, a bit overlap, but there’s no editing. I don’t shoot them again. They are as they are. It’s the way to do it.
This is why YouTube and reality TV, everything is different these days. Apply that to marketing. This is what people want. Trust me.
I may not be a doctor but this really is the way of the world. Real life. Social media. Reality. Reviews from real people.
The customers in control. Just give it to them straight. But give them as much information. Make it available to everybody. Speak to your customers.
Drive Time Podcast
Today is Thursday and that means it is time for a drive time podcast. Today is a good one. If you ask me of my list of books you should read for a business, to learn and to think about how your business can develop. Number 2 is a book called ‘Built to Sell’ by gentleman called John Warrillow.
Well for podcast, he has Built to Sell radio, and it is presented by John Warrillow himself. He’s really really smart guy. It’s every week, as far as I can tell.
Like every seven days. Generally between 40 minutes, 50 minutes. But it is good stuff. It is great, I strongly recommend.
Tomorrow is our Friday interview series and In our Ones to Watch, I have a fantastic e-commerce expert. We’ve got Chloe Thomas.
She has written numerous books. Got new book out at the moment. I strongly recommend you listen to everything she says. I’ll be back with you soon.
