Elevator Sociology

We don’t like to talk to each other. We don’t like to be near each other. We don’t even like to look at people we don’t know. Having visited Europe a time or two, I’m convinced this is an American problem.

I ride an elevator at least 6 times a day (so you can call me an expert in this particular field). We get on and pray for the doors to begin closing before someone else can get on and spoil our solo ride. Assuming someone does join us, we whip out our smart phones and pretend we have something pressing to tend to on a 3-inch screen that’s preventing us from looking up and accidentally stumbling across eye contact. If we have yet to purchase our smart phones, we stare at the floor number as it changes…fascinating.

Riddle me this: how on earth do we expect to meet prospective clients (the “elevator” pitch is presently suffering a slow death for reasons stated above), expand our network and learn something new if we’re unwilling to look up and smile standing 2 feet from someone we don’t know?

We all have a safe place now. It’s in front of a notebook or smart phone screen. That’s how we interact. Problem with that:
You can’t gain trust (I mean partnership trust) without a handshake and a face-to-face conversation. You just can’t.

We all put on our face when we know we’re encountering an individual we perceive to be important or one we know can help us out in some way. Someone once said that the way you treat the receptionist is as important as the way you treat the CMO. I happen to think that it’s just the right thing to do, but even if you don’t believe that, do it for the aforementioned reasons. As soon as you leave the building, a smart CMO is going to go straight to the receptionist and talk about you.

Every conversation is one worth having…even for 10 seconds on an elevator.

Edit: Seth Simonds just started an interesting discussion on his blog around the next step: actually generating responses and turning these interactions into relationships. I highly encourage checking it out.

Agency New Biz: Just Be Yourselves

Just be yourselves. William Wallace couldn’t have given us more powerful words to apply to our new business efforts when close rates are just scary low. I read the books and the blog posts offering bulleted and numbered lists of tactics that are “guaranteed” to increase your new business. Perhaps that’s all I’m doing as well, but this is just so important, and it isn’t something that only works for individuals with a certain skillset (exerting unprecedented confidence and differentiating your agency through a captivating pitch isn’t within every salesperson’s comfort zone).

Here’s something we can all do. Be yourself. Be genuine. Don’t come into a meeting with an outlined presentation. In an age when companies want to work with people (not corporations) more than ever, it’s your job to gain their trust. Condemn me for hating on the “great facilitator”, but I’d stay the heck away from Powerpoint. Clicking through a presentation takes the attention off of the individual and puts it on a screen, probably displaying a beautiful arrangement of your capabilities. It may be like taking away your security blanket, but if you understand that your job is to make someone trust you in 30 minutes to an hour, you want the focus to be on you.

Be honest about what you don’t do well. Seriously. Make a point to tell your prospective client that you don’t do something well. Even if you’re a full-service agency, you’re not everything to everyone. If you claim to be, grab the whiteboard and rethink it.

Here comes the cliche part. I even worked it out with some alliteration to make it easier to remember.

Connection
Contribution
Candor

Your mission: establish trust in 30 min to 1 hour. Establish a connection – if you’re a good salesperson, you understand how to read a room. Find something to talk about that has nothing to do with the task at hand. Communicate your contribution – prospective clients may give you their business if they’re impressed with your capabilities; I’d bet you’re even more likely to get their business if you can communicate how working with your agency would directly benefit them. Show candor – be honest and genuine. This is where your “what we don’t do” comes in. Have you ever had a waiter tell you that something wasn’t very good on the menu? When they tell you that something is good, I’ll bet you take it a little more seriously.

This isn’t applicable to every scenario, but I think it is applicable to the majority. There are also a number of ways to establish trust in your agency before the big meeting. I’ll discuss this in a later post (hint: humanize your brand).