Gift Wrapping You Up with a Bow

5 min reading time

I keep coming back to Journey #14 about Content Shock.

There’s just too much stimuli out there to play it safe. You have to break through.

So that’s what I encouraged my friend Bill Ort to do.

Selling Bill Ort

Bill Ort is a product – just as your catheter is a product. Bill provides a service – just as contract engineers provide a service.

Bill is an experienced medical device manufacturer who wants to serve your southern region.

Why?

Because Mrs. Ort says they’re moving to Austin, Texas, dammit. That’s why!

Bill asked for help: Do I know any medical device manufacturers that might need him, and would I help him update his resume. Of course I would.

On Not Playing It Safe

Everyone likes Bill: He’s an effective salesperson, customers trust him, and he does a mean Rodney Dangerfield impression.

I advised him, “Put it all out there. Don’t have people discover your wit only after they meet you in person. Let’s get that on paper, on that first impression.”

And he said okay.

And this is what we came up with.

Click for the full PDF

That wedding photo cracks me up so much. It screams, “I know how to have fun” and, in this context, isn’t that the kind of person you want to represent your brand?

Will it work? I don’t know. It’s not my career on the line. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JOKING! I’m joking!

Jeez.

Using Social Media to Share the Creativity

Good, bad, or indifferent, that resume breaks through the clutter. So we decided to share it where it would have the highest relevance: LinkedIn.

First, I added this post to my LinkedIn feed last night. We earned 233 views in the first 30 minutes.

Then I sent a group announcement to my all-but-forgotten Austin subgroup for the Medical Devices Group. It has a minuscule 177 membership but, hey, you never know and it’s certainly targeted enough.

The email subject line was, “Bill Ort is coming to Austin, dammit.“

In it, I asked subscribers the same question I ask you now.

Anyhow, I hope this works for Bill. And if you need a southern regional manager, I know a guy.

Joey, you’re disrespectful.

I haven’t told you a Beth story in a while. It’s kind of related.

In 2014, Beth mounted a semi-persuasive argument in favor of personal hygiene.

Me and Elliott in our robes.

“Joey, first of all, you’re disgusting. Second of all, when you take a video call on Skype, it’s disrespectful to your clients.

You’re sitting there with your feet up on your desk, you’re still in your pajamas, you’re wearing that blue robe, and you’ve got that electric blanket on your lap.”

I seriously considered this assertion before I rejected it.

“Beth, if someone doesn’t want to do business with me because I’m in my pajamas; he probably isn’t a good fit for me anyhow.”

“In fact,” I continue, “most of my best clients enjoy that I’m in my pajamas. They get a kick out of it. And when I actually do shower, they get a kick out of that too. They wonder what the special occasion is and where I’m going.”

So is working in pajamas disrespectful to clients?

Maybe.

To clarify, I always shower and shave when I visit a client site, oversee photography and video production, attend or speak at an industry event.

So there’s that.

Joking aside, being that comfortable and inviting clients into my life is part of my brand. For the people that like it, great. For those who don’t, that’s okay – and wouldn’t you want to know that right up front?

I would. It lets us be ourselves and do our best thinking.

So too with Bill.

Those who enjoy that wedding photo and enjoy that tone should definitely consider Bill for the job.

Those who enjoy Michelle’s tone over at https://leanRAQA.com should definitely consider her for the regulatory consulting job.

Implication for you and your business

Be yourself. Express yourself. You’re most interesting that way. And you’ll attract more attention than your fraidy-cat competitors who play it so safe that they just blah-blah-blah boring.

So boring.

You can do so much better.

So do it already!

Fast Round

Every Journey Ever. Yesterday I sent you a list of every Journey I’ve written, along with a descriptive sentence for each.

Brandon wrote back, “I’ve been looking at our past Sketchalytics posts and thinking, “Damn, I wish we could just start people out with all of these posts when they sign up.” If you don’t mind me borrowing this, I think I may use it for our new subscribers as well.

I told him and I’ll tell you now, Have at it. It’s all yours. Go and do the same.

A free consultation away from new business. At the bottom of that same “Every Journey” list, I wrote, “If you’re ready, schedule your one, free half-hour consultation with me.

And Nick wrote back, “Joe, after nearly 2 years of reviewing your material I may actually have a real need to set up a consultation.”

Implication #1 for your business: If you write and get nothing back, don’t assume “well, that was worthless.” It wasn’t. Nick was invisible to me for two years.

Implication #2 for your business: It took the words “free consultation” to prompt Nick to respond. Maybe try that, or include a calendar link in your email signature.

Lead scoring. I’m gonna keep saying it until you get a free Drip trial: Try Drip. (This is my affiliate link.)

Drip quietly awards subscriber points to those who open or click on emails. If I had checked, I would have found Nick among 67 Journey subscribers with a 100+ lead score.

If you had a lead system like that, what would you do with a list of 67 highly engaged subscribers.

Think about it and, gosh darnit, would you please try Drip already? I’m trying to help you here! ????