1.
Undercover Marketing:
speaking so clients hear you
Mary Ellen Bates
Reluctant-Entrepreneur.com
June 18, 2017

2.
Keys to Undercover Marketing
Focus on your clients, not your services
Be prepared to pivot
Listen more
Know your competition
Scare yourself regularly
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3.
Focus on your clients,
not your services
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4.
“What do you do?”
Clean houses
“I give you back your weekend”
Drive a truck
“Helping the world keep promises”
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5.
“What do you do?”
Financial planning
“Helping you make your future a reality”
AED salesperson
“I sell human jumper cables”
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6.
Features vs. benefits
Features:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
“Here are the parts. You put it together”
Benefits:
“We can make you rich, beautiful and shrink your
carbon footprint to zero”
“We enable better decisions”
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7.
Tell 3-sentence stories
The situation
What you delivered
The result
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8.
Tell 3-sentence stories
1. Describe the situation
One of our organization’s goals is to prepare
youth for today’s job market
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9.
Tell 3-sentence stories
2. What you delivered
Through a library workshop, 45 students learned
how to build and program a communications
robot for autistic kids
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10.
Tell 3-sentence stories
3. What was the result?
We partnered with a local company to hire the
students and build more robots
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11.
Create a brag-ologue
Keep a file of kudos, compliments, comments
Have anecdotes for “marketing moments”
Practice public speaking... really!
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12.
Be prepared to pivot
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13.
“But they just don’t get it!”
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14.
YOU need to change…
WHO
WHAT
HOW
WHEN
WHY
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15.
YOU need to change…
WHO you are talking with
Are they potential clients?
WHAT you say
Are you talking about THEIR concerns?
HOW you say it
Are you listening or just talking?
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16.
YOU need to change…
WHEN you say it
Are you consistently talking when they are paying
attention?
WHY you say it
Are you 100% focused on your clients’ outcome?
How does your client know?
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17.
Listen more
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18.
What do your clients value the most?
“I’m sure that they value ....”
How do you know?
Time for reality-check conversations!
reluctant-entrepreneur.com/resources
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19.
Reality-check conversations
Get past the obvious answer to the real value
Learn how clients describe their need
Become competition-proof!
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20.
Create opportunities to talk listen
Stop by their office
Chat when getting coffee
Invite yourself to staff meetings
Capture, share input from front-line staff
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21.
Conversation prompts
What’s keeping you from achieving your goals?
What happens when that need isn’t met?
Client does all the talking. You do all the
listening
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22.
Conversation prompts
For repeat clients:
How would you describe us to a colleague?
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23.
Your goals
To see the world through their eyes
To lose all your assumptions
To learn their words for their problems
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24.
What are your clients’ real needs?
What do they think they want?
What don’t they know to ask for?
What can’t they get anywhere else?
What could have the greatest impact?
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25.
Know your
competition
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26.
Who are your competitors?
Who competes with you for budget $?
Where else do your clients go?
Who or what could make your services
obsolete?
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27.
What is valued?
Do you know your organization’s strategic goals
for 2017?
Are you visibly contributing to those goals?
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28.
Are you frictionless?
How easy is it to find you?
How easy is it to talk with you?
How responsive do your clients say you are?
Have you asked them lately?
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29.
ASK for complaints
Did you get what you needed?____________
How easy was it to use?__________________
What would make it more useful?__________
What one change would you make to the
Information Center? ____________________
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30.
Scare yourself regularly
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31.
Purge your assumption buffers
What’s most valuable now?
What can we retire?
Who’s doing interesting things?
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32.
See yourself as indispensable
What are you to the bottom line?
Overhead to be controlled OR
Involved in accomplishing strategic goals
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33.
Finding the “value” dog whistle
“Libraries are great and they offer great ROI”
“We supported 85% of the successful grant
proposals this year”
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34.
When you describe yourself...
Is it a WHAT or HOW?
or is it a WHY?
“We provide research services” or
“We enable better decisions”
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35.
WHAT/HOW or WHY?
“Librarians are info experts” or
“We can show you what our competitors don’t
want you to see”
“Librarians are strategic partners” or
“We can find what you didn’t even know to ask
us for”
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36.
Then practice and refine!
Test out your description on everyone
Blank look? Try another approach
Goal: “Wow! I need you NOW!”
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37.
Be patient
Join the slow-marketing movement
It’s all about the networks
Building a 3-D profile takes time
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38.
Find Mary Ellen Bates at:
mbates@batesinfo.com
Twitter: @mebs
LinkedIn: maryellenbates
Facebook: maryellenbates
Reluctant–entrepreneur.com
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