Don't Beg. A 6 Step Guide on How to Get Your First Big 'YES'
Instagram: @seasonalfriend
Well, why not?
If you cannot earn a client, why not just beg and get going?
With so many possibilities in your head, there you are. Sitting with a long list of services that you truly believe would change the world. You can’t help but doubt yourself.
You think you need an email list.
Or a blank check to kickstart your career from your family. Or a feature on a famous blog.
You want them all and you want them as a favour.
And of course, you plan on paying back when the right time comes. But nobody can see that right time coming for you, including yourself.
The question is how can you persuade someone to do you a favour.
If you don’t know how to get Yes’s, you’d fail. Simple.
You need enough Yes’s in your life, so your business succeeds. So many of us struggle at getting Yes’s.
To fight that struggle, we need to learn the art of persuasion.
The book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is a classic on the subject. It outlines the number of scientifically proven ways to influence people.
It’s not magic. Or a mysterious act. It’s not even about putting on a silk robe to cut a deck of cards in front of an audience.
It is just plain new school Science.
What follows is a six-step guide on how to turn No’s into Yes’s, and earn clients.
Give them what to think about
We consistently ask people to think about our ideas. Despite knowing that they already have enough to think about.
They don’t want to think about your idea. No problem. Do it for them.
The best way around this annoyance is to outline for them what they should think about.
Explain how your service will benefit their brand, and offer sufficient examples, instead of expecting them to look them up.
Be clear and concise about what you’re offering and support it with reasons.
Most importantly, lay out what they should do next and why.
If you do these step right, pitching them wouldn’t feel like asking them for a favour. Instead, it’ll be more like advising.
The idea is to think it through everything.
Forest Fire. Not Bon Fire.
The comfort zone approach says ‘start small.’ Setting small fires over a long period, before you get the entire forest to burn. Before you go viral.
Starting small seems like a smart approach but that’s an illusion.
Instead, you should focus on one big ‘Yes.’ You should go out to find one big forest and see how you can light it up.
Bigger the forest, heavier the smoke, better the reach.
It’s a terrible metaphor to suggest that you can use some help from a famous blogger or a convincing leader or a celebrity customer, to give you a push. So after the first big ‘Yes,’ following Yes’s can fly in easy.
Once you set the fire in a big enough forest, it automatically spirals you up.
Of course, it would take you a lot of work in the beginning to find a big Yes, but in a long run, it is far less work.
Jog Before You Sprint
It might sound conflicting to the last step, but no. Here we’re talking about how one should start asking a small estate before asking for the entire forest.
We’re trying to reduce the risk for the person who is offering you help. Map the hits and flops and then plan the next step, and let the result speak for itself.
And if it turns out well, ask for more. And more. It’s not being greedy. It’s being smart.
For eg., if you are approaching a popular blog to get featured, start by pitching a single story, and if that gets a yes, send an outline, and then write the full draft.
If that goes well, go all in and pitch more ideas.
The idea is to first obtain a single yes, proving your worth and then asking for more, a progressive level of commitment.
If we follow this approach, the chances of getting a ‘Yes’ tremendously improves.
Create Urgency
The traditional artificial way of creating urgency is outdated. We all have seen a 30% discount banner on our favourite websites. How the sale is limited to the first 100 subscribers. That’s total BS. We all know that.
2 weeks later the brand still has the same banner, looking for its first 100 subscribers.
These cheap stunts cost the brands our trust, and ultimately the sale.
But there is a smarter way to do this. Let’s say you want to give away a supplement for free. Then you should make it available for a limited period and then start charging a small fee when the window is closed. And make sure your window is real.
Of course, a set of potential clients would miss the opportunity. But it’s better than keeping the boundaries open.
If you’re offering anything of value, it should be you who should dictate the timeline.
Gain Leverage
Gary Vaynerchuck has been screaming his leverage theory for a decade now. It’s simple. If you want people to listen to you, you need to give them something of the value first. And not just once. Or twice.
The ratio is not 1:1. or 1:2.
Probably the right ratio is 1:10. Yes.
You need to give people value over and over again, until one day you have enough leverage to ask your audience out for a sale.
It’s not about putting them under a guilt spell. Or scrubbing them first so they would scrub you back.
This is about the act of generosity so overwhelming your audience can’t say no.
If you want one good product review, solve ten issues that worth feedback.
It’s a ton of leg work, but that’s the price of gaining leverage.
Show Your Purpose, Not a Goal
Imagine two non-profit brands asking for a donation. One is asking for your help to continue their services in the public sector. Another one is fighting to secure their editorial independence in journalism.
Which one would you donate to? The latter, right?
And leave about a small token. With a purposeful banner like that, people may even offer a higher level of support. At least I would.
That’s the power of showing your purpose instead of the goal.
This step is most useful while picking subjects for your brand. Instead of working on another listicle, you should take a stand on an issue related to your brand and have an opinion piece filled with logic and passion.
This is how you move away from selling a product to transforming the lives of people.
Once you hop out of a sale pitch to a purposeful movement, people feel grateful just for having the opportunity to help you spread the word.
Once you have a purpose, you don’t beg people for their help. You lead them to where you want to go. And if the goal is worthy enough, people follow you.
It’s not about making your business bigger and more profitable.
It’s about falling in love with something worth getting up for every day.
If you have something like that, you can turn mountains every Monday morning.
And if you don’t.
Well.. what are you doing here anyway?
Have a question or want help with your content marketing? You can directly message me to get in touch. Seasonal Friend helps small businesses in creating useful content — the kind that helps businesses reach their goals.