I just identified, over the past few weeks, a fatal flaw with my marketing plan.  I haven’t been living my story as The Introverted Entrepreneur.  Ever since I started creating this brand name, I’ve been keeping myself busy going to lots of networking meetings, introducing myself cold to strangers, calling people on the telephone, and even leading new groups.  All the things that, in other words, introverts hate doing.

This is a serious mistake because I’ve run the risk of intimidating people to my approach.  It is imperative that I be successful in a way that any introvert can duplicate.  Success by itself, in other words, isn’t enough.

But it finally dawned on me after about the 20th person made the same comment, that my approach just wasn’t working.  The comment was – “But Dave, you’re not an introvert.”  In other words, I had alienated my audience by creating the impression that I couldn’t relate to them or understand them – because I wasn’t one of them!

But, there’s still time to correct the mistake.  From now on, when I walk into rooms filled with strangers, I will attract them to come talk to me.  If it’s awkward and uncomfortable, I’ll stand in the corner and talk to no one.  After all, I won’t be any worse off than if I just hadn’t gone!

How consistently do you stick to your story?  What do you tell the world that you stand for?  Do your day-to-day actions reflect this?

I always hated it when my extraverted sales managers told me, “Don’t ever pre-judge anyone.” No, I’m not prejudiced against anyone, but I knew what was always coming next. “Just pick up the phone and call them!” Or, “You never know until you ask!” Something along those lines. Now, looking back on the last couple of months, I agree with the problem, but certainly not the solution.

I agree that pre-judging doesn’t make sense. One thing that I’ve learned in my life is that there’s no accounting for what’s going on in someone else’s head. Hell, sometimes I can’t make any sense of what’s going on in MY head. But that doesn’t mean you have to be obtuse and ignore the obvious. While it’s certainly true that some of the most unlikely prospects could one day become your best customers, certainly there are less painful ways of finding out than what traditional sales organizations will recommend to you.

Pre-judging is emotional, and it’s based on assumptions. Pre-judging screens out the wrong people. Pre-qualifying, on the other hand, is factual, and is based on direct measurable observations. When you qualify or disqualify a prospect, you can walk away feeling good about what you found either way.

Instead of trying to sell everyone, instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping for some of it to stick, and instead of calling all of your friends and relatives, hoping for their answering machines to pick up, reciting some God-awful sales script, and holding your breath, why not put some effort into coming up with a tactful question to ask? Better yet, how about a fun question to ask? How about coming up with a question that will pique the interest of a good prospect, and get a “sounds great; good luck with that” out of a bad one?

Here’s a little tip. Try going to a leads group to try out your qualifying question. Those places are full of people who don’t mind being sold to, and who probably won’t remember you if they see you again. A great place to try out the effectiveness of a sales question. More on this in later weeks.

One of the things I’m realizing, especially looking back on this week’s events, is that authenticity is a key trait of all successful businesspeople. While this applies equally to everyone, I think it is more apparent in the case of an introverted entrepreneur (my example will show why).

I got a phone call from a classic annoying salesman earlier this week. He was selling something called the Jaguar Marketing system, and from looking at their web site, it looks like a great place to throw away $4000 and get absolutely nothing in return. If you have time to kill, take a look at www.superbsystem.com, but don’t expect anything good. (See my earlier blog post about systems; this sort of thing is exactly what I was warning you about.) Now I’m convinced that their “turn-key marketing system” is utterly worthless, but that’s not what this is about.

The guy who tried to sell me this system was a classical introvert, which you could tell by hearing his voice. He repeatedly got nervous on the phone, stuttering over and over while he was talking. I could also tell that he was reading from a script, just like his bosses trained him to. He then asked me to “hold on one second” while he then connected his boss on a 3-way call, which I’m sure he was also trained to do. He talked over me, didn’t ask any questions about what my needs were (except that he came right out and asked how much money I was currently making per month). Suffice to say, it didn’t work.

What’s my point? My point is that this still happens all the time. Extravert managers teach the cookie-cutter approach, and for an introvert, it simply isn’t authentic. Granted, this guy was particularly obnoxious, but you have to understand how sales training looks for the newbie introvert. You’re told that “this is what works” and that you have to just “get over it” whenever you have apprehensions about offending someone. See, the hard part for me to accept is that earlier on in my career, when I made those first few sales calls, I must have sounded just like this guy. It sure would explain some of the hostile looks and unreturned phone calls.

So, if you’re willing to be yourself, you at least have a chance at getting your foot in the door. If you pretend to be someone else, you’re not going to fool anyone. Chew on that awhile.

Hi everyone; my apologies for the delayed posting.

I just went to a communication course this weekend, and I got a deeper understanding of how listening works. Pay attention to this; it has a lot of implications for those of us who would rather not make phone calls.

Now, note that I am not about to tell you to start making cold calls. I maintain that calling your friends to sell them something is a bad idea. I also maintain what I said in my very first post; if you have lost contact with a member of your warm market, the thing to do is call them up and just say hi.

That being said, remember what I wrote about your warm market list a few posts ago. As you’re writing down a list of names, think of how each person could benefit from your product or service, and think of who they might know. But then, stop there. Just be aware of these things before you call them. DON’T call them with an agenda.

So, here’s the good news. What you’re going to do is say, “Hi, how are you,” or something along those lines, and then just shut up. Odds are, they’ll start talking. The object of the game is to get them to keep talking until they run out of things to say. Then, ask a question about something they just said. Try to pick something that they seemed interested in. Then, you’ll probably get them started again and they’ll talk for awhile longer.

The beauty of this approach is that you don’t have to have anything figured out before you call them! It makes life a lot easier. Also, you won’t have to bring up your business, because most likely they’ll ask you about it.

That’s all for now. I still have some posts coming about how to create your message, and I’ll just close by saying that if you focus your energy on listening, the whole process becomes a lot easier.

You know the drill. Extraverts spread their message by talking to as many people as possible. They will tell you that it’s a “numbers game.” They’ll tell you that you have to talk to anybody and everybody about your product or service. They’ll tell you that the way to be successful is to prospect X number of people, and as a result, X number of people will set appointments, out of X appointments, you will get X number of sales, X referrals, X re-orders, so on and so forth.

And, they’re right. (HA! I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming!)

We all play a numbers game, true. But, here’s where my philosophy differs. When it’s time to call up your uncle Rudy to sell him something, and it’s the first time you’ve called him in four years, it’s natural to feel a bit uncomfortable. When you’re fidgeting with your phone, trying to put off calling anybody, your extraverted sales manager will gladly tell you to just suck it up and call them. You go through with it, you read your awful script, you hang up the phone, and try to convince yourself that it wasn’t that bad. Just do it 19 more times, and you’re done for the day! Enough of those phone calls, and somebody will actually buy something! And they will.

So yes, it’s a numbers game, but I’ve decided to tweak the formula a tad.
1. E-mail X number of people to ask how they’re doing.
2. X number of them will respond.
3. X number of the responses will ask what you’re doing these days. To these people, tell them a brief 3-4 sentence summary of what you’re doing. Then, back to the conversation.
4. For every X people that ask what you’ve been doing, X of them will express a desire to know more. Ask some qualifying questions and find out if they’re serious and interested. Then, go back to talking about something not related to your business. X of these will get a solid idea of what you do and will approach you about doing business.
5. For anyone who doesn’t reply to the e-mails, wait 1-2 weeks and then call them. Do steps 2-4.

I think you’ll find that my numbers game is a lot more fun to play. Also, take another look at your names list after having read my formula. Does it still look as scary? I’ll bet it doesn’t!

We still need to work on your message, your qualifying questions, and your follow-up. Stay tuned!