
Do you ever have to try persuade busy people that they could benefit from your help?
It just so happened that this was the common theme at our January peer coaching taster. Purely a coincidence, since we all bring our own live topics that we want help thinking through.
If you're a consultant you might call it marketing.
If you work within an organisation you might call it people management.
If you're a parent, you might call it trying to get your kid's attention while they are watching TV ;-)
Whatever you call it, we probably all have to find a way to persuade busy people to listen to us. During this blog I'm going to call it 'selling' for shorthand.
And with people getting busier, available time seeming to shrink and information seemingly blossoming, it's getting harder.
I thought I would share some of the insights we arrived at during our coaching sessions in case they are useful to you:
Sow seeds lightly: given that people are so busy, even the most well crafted, generous offer of help can fall on stony ground. How much of the time do you just skip over emails without reading them? So rather than taking it personally, we arrived at the conclusion that it's better to feel confident in your offer, know that the person may read it and come to you in the future and move on to reach others, some of whom may be more receptive.
Act like an ecosystem: if 'selling' really isn't your thing, know your strengths and seek out fellow collaborators. In the natural world, creatures evolve to avoid direct competition because it's ultimately unproductive. Similarly, we can look to those around us to find those with complementary skills or offers. Do you know someone who is in touch with your busy audience for a different reason - could you ask them to include your offer in their communications? See what you could do for them in return. If you're a consultant this could look like an explicit agreement to cross-sell.
The power of video:Â in the era of Tiktok we know well by now that people are much more likely to engage with video or failing that audio content. But what if we can't stand the thought of recording ourselves? How do we get over that hurdle? Of course, it's always a choice to not. But if you're up for the challenge, we came up with the following ways to support ourselves:
baby steps - do the easiest video first
make space in your diary on a day of the week where you can concentrate and create
prep what you are going to say - write scripts and consider a teleprompter
experiment with platforms like Loom that make the whole thing like a game
consider only using audio
How about you? Have you found any hacks that help you reach busy people with your offer? Join the conversation by posting a comment below.
With love,
Becky
ps if you like the sound of peer coaching and want to have a go, join our February community session - with two dates available to choose from this time - here's the link
Comentários