Hi! It's Marie! It's Q & A Tuesday time!
Q: And, I have to say today I'm really excited about this question. This is actually something
that wasn't in our original bank of questions. Someone just sent it in and it was so good
that my team's like, "Oh, my God! This one's so juicy, I have to answer it!" So it's from
Hannah and Hannah writes:
"I've recently set up a graphic design business and have a few clients but there are a number
of people I want to work with because I believe their current solutions just aren't working
for them, and I believe I can provide something better." We like that confidence, Hannah!
"These are businesses I don't currently have contact with so it would be a cold call business
pitch. How can I go about pointing out what I see to be the problems with what they do
to create the opportunity to discuss what I could do for them without me sounding like
I'm undermining them or their current choices?
I'm concerned that if I don't approach this in the right way, they'll be left saying,
"Who the hell is she?" We've never even met and she's asking for a rebranding job by slagging
off on her current business. Why would we ever work with her?" Many thanks for your
time. I live for Marie's insightful posts. They keep me on my feet every week!" Well,
thank you so much for that!
A: But this is an awesome question. First of all, Hannah what I love about what you're
proposing here is even the framework. You're not waiting for businesses to come to you.
You're proactively looking for you know, who's out there in the world that I can do great
work for and how do I get them to be my clients. So we got some really clear steps for you
to take today.
The first step is you want to do some research, first on a business level. So go to their
website, check out their About page. Look at the company history. Look at what their
products are, their services, who are their clients. You want to find out about their
price points. Learn everything that you can about the companies that you want to get their
business. Right, because the first step to really connecting with someone is to really
understand who they are and what they do in the world.
Okay so, here's what you want to do next, you want to research them on a personal level.
So check out their Facebook page. Look at their Twitter profile, see if you can get
a feel for what they talk about and what they're interested in. So look for any common connection
points. For example, I always have a certain affection for people that are from New Jersey
because I'm from New Jersey. So maybe you guys are from the same state or take a look
at what they listen to in terms of music. Maybe you guys are both Lady Gaga fans, who
knows! The point is you want to look for some genuine connection points.
So step two is all about engagement, right? So once you've done all this research, now
you want to go back to social media and you want actually start to connect with them.
So you can jump into the Twitter conversation, maybe you can retweet something that they've
posted out. You can leave a comment on their blog or even put some kind of message or post
on their wall on Facebook. The point is you just want to start to engage, you want to
connect.
Use that research that you did in step one to just genuinely show that you're interested
in who they are and what they're creating in the world. Don't make too much of it. Think
about it like you're in a cocktail party. You want to find something genuine that you
can share or something that you can connect with but again, don't make it a big deal.
Just have fun and connect!
Okay, so step three and this one is really important. This is the one that no one else
does, you want to "wow" their pants off! Yes, wow their pants off. I said it. So what does
that mean, that means if you are looking at these companies and you're like, " God, I
could do this so much better. I can see how their logo could be better." Or whatever is
happening in that creative gorgeous brain of yours, just start doing it. Right, you
want to walk your walk.
I don't care if you say you can do all this great work, I want you to show me the results.
This happened to me recently actually. Someone came up to me, they said, "I really want to
work with you. I want to work with your business and this woman had so much confidence, she
literally dove in and started fixing things. She did it with a lot of respect, of course
but she won my business because she just started doing it, right?
She didn't ask me for my credit card number. She didn't pitch me with a long proposal.
She showed me results and I actually had to chase her down after two weeks, and I said,
"I have to start paying you. You're doing so much. You're helping me get so many results.
Let's get something in place." So I would highly suggest that you use your creativity
and just do the work for free. Wow their pants off! Send them some possibilities. Send them
options and if you've done the first two steps and you add on this third one, it's really
going to be hard for them to resist giving you the business.
So first, Hannah thank you so much for asking this question. This is awesome and please
do let us know how it goes. I would love to hear how you've taken action on this and also
what the results were. So thank you so much for watching another Q & A Tuesday and I'll
talk to you again soon.