I haven’t done a scientific study of this, but when interviewing new clients I’ve observed that their marketing ineffectiveness is almost always tied to this very common fear. Here are a few of the things I’ve heard over the past several years:
- I don’t want to come off as pushy
- Nobody is interested in hearing about my services
- Word-of-mouth is the only way to get more clients
- If I ask for referrals it will feel like I’m begging
- Marketing is a bother and an interruption to people
- People won’t want to listen to a talk I give
- No one will read what I write, so why bother?
If you could surmount this one obstacle, you’d attract more clients, earn more money and make the difference you’ve always wanted to make. In this two part article, I will give you ways to overcome this fear of rejection and become a master of your marketing.
In my work with clients over many years, I’ve discovered two effective approaches to overcoming the fear of rejection. They work especially well if you use them in tandem. They are “Talk the Walk,” and “Shift the Story.” Below I will share the essence of these approaches and how you can start to apply them immediately to overcome your fear of rejection.
Talk the Walk
When you talk about your services, nobody is interested in how your services work. Talking about the process bores people and bored people do not become clients. Your telling needs to be the language of results, solutions and outcomes. What do your clients GET from working with you (results-speak)? Share results they’ve experienced through success stories that came about as a consequence of your work with them. Your prospects do not need to know HOW you do what you do, but THAT you did it.
When you practice the art of results-speak you get a whole lot more attention and interest and much less rejection.
How do you put this into action? Next time you are in front of a prospect, first get attention with a powerful story of client results and then don’t tell one-single-thing-more-about-your-services. Nothing! Find out about the prospect instead. They say: “That sounds great, how does that work?” You say, “Well a number of things we do help clients achieve results. But first, can you tell me something you’ve always wanted to do and still haven’t done? (or whatever question would be appropriate to the service you offer).”
Then focus with unwavering intensity on this prospect. Learn about their dreams and desires. Ask about what stops them. Find out what they want in their life right now. And completely avoid talking about your services (other than dropping another success story or two). If you do this, a funny thing will happen. They’ll want to know even more about how your services can help them. This is when you use the third skill of marketing: asking.
“Ask what?” you say. Ask for permission to send them some information and to follow-up. If you’ve communicated a valuable result of your services, and then learned about them, you have earned the right to Ask.
And when a prospect is interested, they automatically want more information. “I have an article I wrote called, ‘How to Double Your Results in Half the Time.’ Can I send you a copy? Great, I’d like to get your take on it. Then can I follow up with you next week? I’d like to know more about that project we discussed.”
Asking means taking the initiative to further the conversation. And this conversation will consist of more relationship building you ultimately decide to work together. I call the combination of these three skills “Talk the Walk.”
By engaging in low-key but substantive marketing conversations you engage a prospect. They don’t feel pushed or manipulated. Instead, they find themselves drawn towards you. This in itself eliminates a large percentage of rejection.
Next time, I’ll talk about ‘Shift the Story’ and how that can lessen the sting of rejection.
What has been your experience about “talking the walk?” Do you have your own success stories or experiments in working this approach? Leave me a comment below.
Great insight. Practical too!
So true Monica.
The temptation is to give it all you’ve got 0 talk about yourself. Instead let the prospect talk about them self.
Nice post.
I agree, Andrew. A selling conversation, in order to be effective, MUST be about the problem your prospect needs solved, and then only then, the solution you provide becomes relevant. Thanks for posting!