How to Use "Rock Star" status and a Service Mindset to win New Customers

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Something happened recently which points to the power of inbound marketing(making you a “rock star)and a service mindset. I’d like to share 3 lessons I learned — in hopes it helps you.

The three sales lessons are:

Let your signature file do the selling
Find a different way in
Serve – don’t sell

How I uncovered a great new opportunity for my company, Find New Customers.

SandHill.com is a publishing site that focus on software firms. They have published numerous articles for us on important B2B marketing topics too. This helps the technology firms that read SandHill.com to know of our expertise.

I visited Sandhill.com and noticed that a software firm had just acquired another. That’s a good Trigger Event and may indicate that the acquiring company is open to change. I looked up the contact on the press release (It was a public relations firm, not the company) and I sent a personalized email:

From: Jeff Ogden [mailto:jeff.ogden@findnewcustomers.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 10:31 AM
To: ABC company
Subject: Congrats on the acquisition of XYZ

Hi Nikki,

I saw this transaction at Sandhill.com – that (Your client) acquired (another software firm). I’ve written many articles on marketing topics for SandHill. I’m considered by many to be a top B2B marketing expert.

Can you please share my information with Al R and Paul S? We’d like to discuss (your client), especially in light of this new acquisition, and learn how Find New Customers might help.

Thanks Nikki. The links below share everything you might want to know.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor (@fearlesscomp)
President, Find New Customers “Demand Generation Made Simple”
Host of Mad Marketing TV
jeff.ogden@findnewcustomers.com
(516) 495-9350 office/mobile
(516) 717-3228 fax

View my About.me profile
Schedule meeting with me

Note that I did NOT offer to discuss Find New Customers! I said I wanted to discuss their company.

Notice how the customer centric approached worked. I quickly received a reply.

Hi Jeff,

I’m a colleague of Nikki’s and would be happy to set something up for you with a marketing executive at ABC company. I’m actually already familiar with your work! I understand you’d like to hear more about (our client) and how it finds new customers. Are there any other objectives of the discussion you have that I can share with (our client) before setting something up? Please let me know if you wanted to conduct an interview via email or if setting up a call would work best.

Thanks!
Alicia

While most salespeople jump at this, I was gentle. I offered to conduct the interview whichever way they prefer. I told them we start with a diagnosis.

Here’s the “rock star” analogy. I’d never heard of this firm or the PR firm, yet they know of Find New Customers! The moral: Keep publishing great content all the time.

The service mindset comes in in my reply. Do I want to conduct an interview by phone or email? I simply suggest that whatever they want to do is fine with me.

Let’s go back to our lessons learned:

Let your sigature file do the selling
Find an different way in
Serve – don’t sell

I have a superb signature file with good links – to my company, my blog and my about.me profile, so getting eyeballs on links is all I need. Again, here is my current signature file:

View my About.me profile
Schedule meeting with me

As for finding a different way in, I reached out via a Public Relations firm. PR firms are typically hired by a Chief Marketing Officer or Chief Executive Officer – so they are very well-connected. They are serial networkers too, so they are easy to reach. And by serving and not selling, they want to help you.

What do you think? Have you tried these approaches? How have they worked? We love comments and those who share.

How to Use “Rock Star” status and a Service Mindset to win New Customers

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