When I started Vector Firm, I was interested in making a nice living, not being constricted to the impulsive decisions of board members or bosses, and not traveling 150+ night a year. That was it. If I could do those three things, then I was happy.
Well, it worked. By year four, I had more business coming in than I could handle. I quickly learned how to qualify my prospective customers. More than half the time I’d say something like “I can do that, but there are others out there that can do it better than I can … and they’re probably less expensive.” I only took on work on which I could excel. My technique rarely worked. The more I pushed away clients, the more demand I received. It was very confusing. I never imagined being so fulfilled by a job. Every day I was on a high because of what I did for a living, the freedom I had, and the calls that just kept coming in! It was awesome.
Then we had our daughter. Then I held her. Then I wanted to retire and never stop holding her.
Plan B – I needed to scale so I didn’t have to work and travel so much. I wanted to grow the business and travel a whole lot less. I hired a marketing expert to create and grow a marketing deliverable. We created Vector Firm Sales Academy, and I created programs rather than reinventing the wheel for every client. Our inventory grew and now I could really put my foot on the gas. I could start selling aggressively again. I didn’t need to qualify as much anymore. I felt the familiar vein popping out of my neck with my competitive juices starting to flow. We can scale and I was going to grow this thing!
Then the phone stopped ringing. Not completely, but the demand wasn’t there like it was before. We were doing great work – much better than a few years earlier – but our close-ratio was decreasing. I couldn’t figure it out. Where did the demand go? I was stumped and a little bit worried.
One day in the middle of this slump, on a discovery call with a potential content marketing client, I learned an amazing lesson. I was in a bad mood and was getting frustrated with their president talking about all the new business they’re getting and how they can’t keep up. When I told him that the objective of our marketing program is to position our clients as subject matter experts in their entire eco-system, he bounced back with “That’s already us. Everyone knows us and knows that we’re the best.” I finally took a deep breath and said: “You know, I don’t think we’re a good fit. You seem to already have everything that we can offer so it would be a waste of your resources to hire us.” The next ten or twelve minutes were filled with him telling me how badly they need us to help them stay on top, and to keep ahead of those “young guys out there that know social media”. He practically begged me to give them a chance to be our client.
It wasn’t a technique. I wasn’t smarter than he was. I was pissed at his arrogance and wanted to get on with my day. I didn’t really care if we won the business or not and it didn’t seem like they needed us.
And that is the amazing lesson that I learned.
The less I care about winning new business, the more business I win. Don’t misinterpret my words. I care, but I’ve learned to turn off my competitive self and sincerely focus all of my energy to identifying the best solution for my client without concern for whether we win or not. The last eight words of the previous sentence differentiate my outlook from 99% of sales teaching.
Stop caring about winning and start caring about your client, and you’ll win more than ever. I’m not a psychologist, but I do know that sales are based on emotions. If you sincerely care about the well-being of your prospective client, they’ll sense that you care and will find a way to work with you. I had to do that in 2012 to 2014 because I was capped out … and it worked. I do that now because I know it works and it’s an addicting way to do business. When you sincerely care about providing the right solution for your clients without any regard for yourself, you’re more successful. Who doesn’t want that job?
Try it. This paradigm shift will change your life.
