Selling Strategy From Design

How do you introducestrategy to clientswho come for you for design?Yes Emily Wright, are you here?I am.Yay, Emily.Hi look at that.Your patience is rewarded.Hi, good to see you.You too.OK I've talkedabout this before,so my answer willbe very, very clear.Are you ready?Yes are you ready?OK, here we go.The way that you do thisis you practice the artof embracing and then pivoting.So when somebodycomes to you and says,hey, we love your design, welove everything that you doand we want youto do x, y and z.You have to say thank you.I appreciate you comingto me for doing design,and I'd love nothing moreto do for you than dobrilliant design, whichI think you'll love,but I want to tell youthat I've incorporatednew things intomy business that'sreally helped my clients grow.Are you curious about this?Yeah, of course they are.So this is when youstart to ask thema few of those scaffoldingquestions about whotheir users are.They try to understanda problem worth solving.OK, so you can ask him.I want to spend the next2021, 30 minutes talkingto you about who yourcore customers areand the customers, thecustomers that you'dlike to have more of.Well, we can understand theirpain, points and challengesand why they buy it from others.We have a shot ofsolving that problem.You're ready to dance withme, they're like, yeah,let's do this, andthen you say, OK, fine.So here's the thing, sinceI'm asking you to do this,this first meeting is on me.The next meeting will beon you because typically Icharge $10,000 to do this.Like, wow, OK, so you'veanchored our high price, ok?You've anchored high price.You've assigned value to whatit is that you're about to doand you're giving them ataste and demonstratingstrategic thinking andnot telling them about it.So this is where I say show nottalk about like, just do it.OK, so you do a quick profilelike tell me about your revenuestreams, tell me whatthey represent to youand where we should be focusingour energy because I findthat I don't needfor you to tell mewhere the bull's eye is, justtell me which wall it's on.And I don't wantto make assumptionsabout this designsolving a problem that'snot worth solving.Right OK, is that clear?Yes and so I read that Istarted I'm 2/3 of the waythrough the third brandbook that you recommendedthe last time you did the sale.Mm-hmm And it's funny that yousay that because it was almost.Last time I start, I like kindof talked about it, you know,it was only yesterday.I was like, you know, weneed to make you the guide.I worded it better.I'm all hypothetical now, but.That makes sense,because when you put.Anyway, yeah, you'reable to really.How can you take this heroto where they want you to go?Is it really wherethey want to go?That's right.Now I'm reachingfor my bag here.Give me a second to pull it out.I'm reading Seth's new bookand at first, I didn't like it.I got to be honest you.I didn't like itbecause I thought,god, this is like a collectionof a bunch of essayshe's written, and hedoesn't respect my timeand intelligence.But I'm readingthis is marketing,and I got to tell you, thisis really fricking good.I've reread half thebook three times already.Oh, Wow.I'll show you because likeI highlight everythingat some point, I'mgoing to highlightevery word in thebook, and I thinkthat's note taking,Chris that's just tryingto highlight the whole book.So I want to tell you a littlebit about what's in this book.OK this book is let me sayhere, at least in America, it's$24 US retail, and Ibelieve you can buy iton Amazon for much cheaperthan that at least 30% up.This is marketing.It's a fairly smallbook in terms of size,but it's rather thick here.But I'll tell you why I likeit and why I didn't like itat the beginning, because itfelt like Seth was repeatingthings over and over again,which made the experience verydisjointed to me.However, it's not like that.It's like he's reallytrying to explain somethingto you that most peopleprobably just don't believe heand he's probably used totalking like this because.They're resistingthe resisting change.So let me tell you a coupleof key ideas in this book,he says that ourunderstanding of marketingneeds to be redefined, thatadvertising and marketing arenot the same things anymore.Advertising is aboutnoises, about mass audience,mass appeal, mass consumption,and his marketing is reallythe act of helping others.To solve their problems,it's a generous actof helping others solve theirproblems that are not yours.So he said advertising is I havea key and I look for a lock.He said marketingis looking for locksand inventing or fashioninga key to solve their problem.What you need toknow about this isthat we want to help otherpeople to help them becomemore of who they dream to be.Yes so there's a gapbetween where they areand where they want to be.And once we figure thatout through empathy,through observation, weinvent a solution for them.So your role inall of this stuffas the guide the mentoris to help your clientsfigure out the gap betweenwhere their clients areand where they want to be.So you're going to guidethem through that processand then you say tothem, your processis to help like you help themand they help their customers,that's how this works.So you're their mentorand then they'rethe mentor for their customers.It just keeps goingon like that, right?Everybody isn't runningaway from a problem.They're runningtowards a solution.So what we need to do is tofigure out what do these peopledream of becoming?What are their hopesand ambitions and fears?And then we try to designa solution for themand we can use thepower of design thinkingand execute it throughbeautifully crafted design.That's the vehicle in whichpeople come in contact with.But we need to do the hard workof thinking to the problem.Yeah OK.So it's an excellent book,I'm really loving it.Loving it.OK, so we are aging.We're going to help people,who else has read this book?This is marketing.I'm almost done with it.Yeah, it's good.It's great.OK, good.And I agree with youat the beginning,it was like you said,it's all before,says, I've read like allyour books, so the same day,but then it blowsmy mind at the end.OK, so I'm not quite atthe blow my mind part,but I'm still my mind is blown.Yeah, totally right.I'm a little pasthalfway and I'mgoing to power through therest, but I've reread it 3 timesthe first half.So that's I'm justlike, you know?And like everything, guys,I'm a knowledge vampire.I will suck all theknowledge from this bookand share it with you andteach you very openly.So if you don't readthe book, if youdon't have timeto read the book,if you can't afford thebook, I will do my bestto share it with you.And one day when youmake enough money,you're like, I'll buy the book.Not because you need to read it,but just to support the author.OK all right, Emily.That's the whole embrace andpivot embrace that they love,you appreciate themfor loving you.And then pivot hard.It's like, you know,I got this other thingthat I think couldreally help you.Do you want to do it?OK I'd like to add onething to that, Chris.Something I learnedfrom you, it'swhen you can offerstrategy as a value add.So like, I have a hard time.I'm a web developer.People come to me.They want web development.It's really hard for meto sell the strategy,mostly because Idon't sell strategy.So I feel kind of Idon't really feel veryconfident to sell them that.But I learned from youthat I can offer strategyas a value add, getthem start to getused to doing the strategy.And then the next timeI'll be able to sell itbecause I'll be confidentabout offering the strategy.I'll get to seetheir face light upwhen I share theseinsights with themand then I can on the nexttime or the third timeor whatever, I canjust sell it insteadof offering as a value add.Yeah, here's one thingI wish for all of you.Anthony, thank youfor chiming in.One thing I just notwhat I wanted to say,but you got to get a bettermic because you're comingin real, choppy and poppy.You'll hear this later.It's kind of not great audio.If anything, you guys, youall need an audio upgradebecause we connect withthe power of your voiceand the clarity of your tone.We need good mics.And if you do remote work,especially for who is it?Was it?It wasn't Anthony, it was Alex.I think Alex, with his remoteworkers telling everybodyto upgrade your AV gameright now because nothinggets in the way of usunderstanding each other, thena bad call.OK, we just need to do that.You can see you slowly,slowly but surely seeeverybody's videoquality in their game.Their lightinggame is improving,and that makes me superexcited because then you'reonly a half step awayfrom making content.But the thing I want toexpress to all of you guys,please, for all 54 of youguys that have sloggedthrough this twohour call with metoday is what I wantyou to understand.This is very powerful stuff, soget your mind ready for this.I want you to moveaway from the thingthat you make aswhat defines you.I want you all to sellclarity of thinking.And communication.And just by the way,we make websites, justby the way I do branding.That's what you want to do.You want to solvethe client's problem,so you need to get clarity,what is the problem that's worthsolving, aligning the keystakeholders, the decisionmakers, if you will, that thisis the problem worth solvingand 80% of the work hasbeen done at that point.And then you canrun like the flashand/or quicksilver, dependingon which universe you come from.Then you could run anexecute like a motherfer.That's when you want todo it, too many of usposition ourselves aroundthe things that we do.So then we're stuck competingagainst other makers,and that's where you'regoing to get slaughteredbecause the only thingthe difference youfrom somebody else in theclient side now is price.But here's the cool part.Nobody thinks like you.So when you in your brand,there is no competitionand then you can justraise your rates.So Anthony, I want youto start doing that.What you're talkingabout is scaffolding.You're bridging yourselfto the next evolutionof who you're going to be andthe kind of work that you do.So I'm all for you doingit for free or value.Add the first time so youcan build up the confidenceand you can have practice.But I would saywithin two or threeiterations of that timeto charge for it all.And be prepared to get alot of no's, because that'swhat happens whenyou change, it meansthat the no is an affirmationthat you've changed.Therefore, the people that youtalk to have to change as well.Very rarely do thepeople you workwith today will follow youalong this journey of becomingthe new you.They want to hold on to the old.They have differentsets of values,so the person who madethe purchasing decisionto hire the old you isstuck in that world.So eventually.I'm sorry to say this, butyou don't have time for themanymore.You have to moveon to people whohave a more expansivedefinition of who you areand who you can be when youfind those people love them.Take care of them.Give them amazingcustomer servicebecause you can go veryfar with these people.