Joe Greeley here, with Nimlok Minnesota
Here’s what’s on my mind – Are You Self-Centered?
Now, when you hear those words, what types of things pop into your head? Do you think, Oh, Carly Simon, You’re So Vain? Or do you think the person two cubes down from you constantly looks in the mirror all day making sure that their hair is perfect? Or is it a friend of yours that takes 40 selfies a day and posts them all on social media for you to see? I don’t know. For me, it’s more of a flashback. Sister Mary Ellen, actually, my fourth grade teacher, yelling at me: “Mr. Greeley, this is not all about you!” “Yeah, actually it is, Sister – I’m nine – it is all about me!” Oh well, needless to say, me and Sister Mary Ellen didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye that year.
What I’m really here to talk about, though – Is your exhibit self-centered, and the activities self-centered? Is everything you do about me – me – me? Is it about a sales pitch? Is it about features, is it about benefits?
Let’s use a real life example. A prospect comes and sees you at your exhibit. You’ve got this wonderful exhibit and it’s great. You got them there – job well done! However, they probably saw 2, 5,10 people before they got to you. Then after they leave you, they’re going to go see 2, 5, 10, 20 more people, right?
At the end of the day, they’re going to be 1) sore, 2) exhausted physically, mentally, and everything is going to start to meld together with the exception of the ones that stood out. And why did they stand out? Probably not the ones that did sales pitches and the ones that did features and benefits all day on why their flex capacitor T-Rex 4000-A is a better product and why they should have it. It’s the ones where they had an experience. It’s the ones that they enjoyed their time there. There was something specific to keep them there.
Our most successful clients, hands down, have this trait in common: they have 1) a planning session, but, 2) they have a seat at the table for their clients and prospects throughout that planning process. Everything that they do revolves around them, and it has to have a positive experience. So when they make decisions about a new graphic, a new something experiential, a new activity, and they’re thinking about all these different things, they want it to be memorable.
They want something, too, that their people can follow up in two weeks and the prospect says, “Oh yeah, I remember seeing you guys – I experienced this, or I did this,” or “I participated in this – it was fantastic! It was really memorable.” They might not say memorable, but they certainly remembered it.
This is a lot easier for a sales rep or one of your people to have this conversation versus “Oh, ya know, I don’t know, I saw a lot of people that a day, which one were you again? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah – you had the…oh, ok.” All of a sudden it’s kind of fuzzy, isn’t it? We want to really have you stand out.
So my challenge to you today is think about ways to engage your client different – something that’s going to be more memorable. It has to be about them, it can’t always be about you.
One of the most famous quotes, which I think applies here, is from Dale Carnegie; “You can make more friends in two months by being interested in others, than you can in two years by trying to get others interested in you.” Very, very powerful, and I think it applies to this situation.
Anyway, that’s what was on my mind today – let us know how we can help.
Thanks!
