Why on earth would I exclaim give it away for free is a secret to success? Because apparently today, I am the odd man out. Not really. Here’s why.
Once we humans got over the shiny object internet syndrome, (say twenty-five years ago) we were left with the ‘holy shit, look at all the stuff we can find’ syndrome. Which then morphed into, ‘I do not need a formal education, I can learn online. I do not need formal experts, I can find everything online. I do not need help, everything is online. I am the expert. Because it is all ONLINE.’
Today, almost everything is online, education for education’s sake is commodity based, teachers are not needed to the same extent they once were and the universities are struggling to keep up. Simultaneously, many, many professional organizations are stressed to re-invent themselves to handle the new realities. The changes all around are immense.
Then The Wild West that sprung up ON THE INTERNET – the selling, often charlatan, programs of learning, and quite frankly, the whole way of packaging, selling and procuring information and professional talents has permanently changed.
Add in the minor issue that we consumers have been besieged with — free this, free that and now expect something for nothing, are downright suspicious about things like ‘give me your email and get a free audit or checklist’ … You get the picture. There is a ton of noise. It is hard to stand out and stand apart.
I have been standing out (or maybe standing apart) for a long time. Having watched and studied some very talented individuals from around the world, I have long been a woman who refused to play the standard white male game and stumbled more times than I care to count. Why? because I do do a few things differently with the knowledge I carry in my head.
Free. Yep, Free.
One biggie is I give a lot of it away for free. I can hear so many of you scream. FREE? Are you nuts?
Listen, except for social media (which is nothing more than a shiny pencil), pretty much everything we know about business, has not changed in the last fifty years.
So if you want to learn the secret to ANYTHING, you simply need to Google it. Then you only need follow the information you found. And anyone who is anyone will tell you that the real secret sauce that anyone who is anyone carries around is the twenty or thirty years it took them to become an overnight success. Yup. It is their experience that matters.
In other words, a plumber can tell you all about the parts to put in, the welding to do and the conditions you need to make perfect. And you can find all that exact information on the internet with beautifully shot videos and step by step photos. However, when you actually attempt to do the plumbing job yourself, the result, for the vast majority of us, will not be anything close to the pictures and videos. For one simple reason. You do not have the twenty or thirty years experience the plumber has. And your final results will clearly show that!
The Why of My Free.
No matter who I come in contact with, I give away all kinds of generous and free advice. Three tips. Solid stuff that will make them money somewhere in their operation. As long as they execute. People are always impressed that I am so generous or blonde or stupid. Here’s why:
- How can people understand who I am and what I offer if I do not first offer something of real value and demonstrate some of the depth of how I can help with their problems?
- How can people get a quick assessment of whether I am a trustworthy person?
- I am selling my experience. My ability to save them time. My ability to make them money. My ability to change their thinking. I am NOT selling knowledge and education.
- I know for a fact that 95% of the folks I come in contact with will NOT follow my advice to the letter. (Statistics show that only 5% WILL.)
- Of the remaining 5%, most will NEED my experience to make it work well.
- I can always sell my education packaged as part of my experience knowledge to someone else at another time.
- I am very careful about the parts I give away. There are parts of my offering that are recycled through blogs, speeches, conversations, private notes and that are always free. There are other parts of my offering that are never offered for free.
- It takes a good seven nudges to a potential to make one sale. One note with three tips is only one out of those seven nudges. One out of those SEVEN nudges. I like to make my nudges impactful. Each one of those seven nudges must count. Because when I play, I play to win.
Does it always work? No. Do they always thank me? No. Do they always refer me? No. Have I been taken advantage of? Yes! Did I learn from that? Yes. That is why I limit everything to three.
I fully acknowledge there are no guarantees. Business is built on trust. I believe it is important to take the first step. Sales is all about building relationships. Sales is most definitely very much like dating and I found a way to make kissing all those damn frogs enjoyable.
I have always done business with people who put me first, given me free stuff/free help before I was their customer. They stood out from the pack. I never forgot them and when I had the chance, I joined forces with them.
I like to think I model my business approach after the best of the footsteps that went before me. That is why I say. Give it away for free!
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To your success!
