What a near death experience taught me about marketing

I was back home at the weekend and went out for a pint with one of my mates.

Whilst I was waiting for him to arrive I bumped into a lad I had spoken to since I was at school.

Although we hadn’t spoken in 30+ years it was like we’d just finished school the previous week.

And Lindsay, the lad I’d bumped into, was just like I remembered him from school with one big difference…

He stopped giving a single fuck about what anyone thought of him.

Back in school, he was like everyone else, maybe a bit more direct than most but pretty much your average 18 year old.

Then he nearly died.

And having been hanging around death's door, watching his life fall apart he had decided life was too short to do anything else.

There were a couple of points in the conversation that caused me to pause and think.

And having to reflect in the moment about what he’d said was a little uncomfortable and later made me think more about what he’d said.

But it was refreshing to be forced to have to think and reflect.

The whole evening was a great reminder to how to approach marketing.

Because few people say what they think…

Think what they say…

Or even do what they say…so if you behave like this why do you think clients/leads are any different?

Now, before you think I’m being a prick and having a go at you, I’m not.

We’re all the same.

We all hide our thoughts, motivations, and intentions…even from ourselves.

I read about a great example of hidden motivations in Rory Sutherland’s “Alchemy” (You should read it).

Where after an hour of chatting about his book-buying habits the young lad came clean and said -

“I don’t like reading novels all that much but I find that If you’ve read a few Ian McEwan novels you can pull a better class of girl” 

Your leads and clients will hide their true motivations from you unless you probe hard to find them.

Take weight loss as an example.

Like the young guy’s reading habits, any guy who denies that they want to lose weight to be more attractive to their partner/prospective partner is lying.

You know this is a big reason for wanting to lose weight.

They know it’s a big reason why they want to lose weight.

So you need to tell them that you know that wanting to look good naked is a big reason for wanting to lose weight.

Address this in your messaging and you stand out from the crowd.

Now, this isn’t the sole motivation but it is a BIG one.

And, depending on the age, they can include - 

Not wanting to be the fat dad at the school gate.

Wanting to look like the guy who’s got his shit together at work.

Personal rebranding as they move from school into the real world…and the list goes on.

Your job is to dig past the superficial reasons and talk about ALL the deep-seated motivations in your content. 

It might take an hour to get there but having a conversation with your clients is well worth your time.

So, stop farting about and tell the uncomfortable truths.

Show them you understand their “real” why.

When you demonstrate that you get them at a deeper level you’ll lighthouse in the sea of grey that is social media.

Later

Colin