This is a short article, but probably the most valuable so far.
Especially if you don’t have a huge budget, or a lot of time, but you need to make an impact with prospects.
Getting people to notice a company’s message and then invest their time or attention in it is difficult.
(And expensive. Let’s not forget expensive.)
But the “Hey, Notice Me And Pay Attention” approach is still everyone’s default.
Because it follows a logical inside-to-outside path:
- Choose what to tell those strangers
- Figure out how the best way to phrase it (optional, but recommended)
- Tell it, alongside the millions of others telling their thing
- When it still doesn’t work spend more money to say it more often, in more places, and louder
If you’ve used up most of your budget, or you want to jump to the better way, try this instead.
Re-tell people their own story, but now with you in it.
So, outside-in. Not inside-out.
- Write down the basics of their story**
- Figure out a version where you fit in
- Tell that version
You can re-tell people their own story, with you in it, in very few words…
Yes, finally, it is her turn.
But wait: I’m not going to sugarcoat this — getting people to pay attention while you talk to them ABOUT them always requires more thinking and imagination up front. But that’s cheap***.
Getting people to sit still while you talk about yourself is much harder, and always expensive.
Notes:
** either ask them questions, observe them, or have a facilitator do a workshop with certain employees
*** cheap yet somehow still rare (figure out how to invert that and you’re the first trillionaire)