In 2016, I was given an amazing opportunity to take ownership of a global community called Responsive.org.
After running my first ever business event early in the year, I decided to create my first business conference, Responsive Conference, 9 months later.
I’m a circus performer. I had never attended a business conference, not to mention produced one, so that first year of selling tickets to Responsive Conference was a madhouse.
That was also the same year that I started Robin’s Cafe, so any moments that were not spent behind the counter, or hiring and firing baristas, I was on the phone with everybody I could think of asking for advice.
This distinction is key: I wasn’t trying to sell tickets to the conference at first. Instead, I asked for advice.
Ask for advice
I brought 275 people to Responsive Conference 2016 by asking people for advice. It is really that simple. I turned to the founders of Responsive.org, everybody who had come to my free event earlier in the year, and everyone else I could think of.
When you ask for advice, you create the opportunity for excitement and support from people who might not otherwise be open to purchasing. People get enthusiastic about your cause, regardless of whether they’re interested in spending money – or attend my conference.
By asking for advice, you create advocates who want to see you succeed.
Practice telling your story
One of the things that making those hundreds, even thousands, of calls in the first months of Responsive Conference gave me was practice telling my story.
I was new to Responsive.org. By luck and good timing, I was able to bring together 150 people for a free event at the start of the year and there was a lot of interest in our topics. But I was no expert!
By asking everyone I could think of for advice, I got a lot of practice telling the story of the ecosystem and why I wanted to create Responsive Conference.
Build a network
When you are beginning to sell something new, you probably don’t have a network or a reputation. But what you lack in network you can make up for in short calls with strangers.
Ask everyone you talk to refer you to three other people. Quite quickly, the size of your network grows!
It takes time and effort to take calls with so many people, but you’ll also go from no contacts to hundreds of potential prospects in a very short time.
The final step is to ask
The final phase of this saga, once you have enough experience telling your story and have built out a network, is to begin selling. Change your pitch from “Will you give me advice?” to “Would you be interested in purchasing a ticket?”
Several months into asking for advice, I’d talked with hundreds of people and generated a list of prospects in the thousands.
It takes courage to ask people to purchase. You can’t hide behind the “I’m just learning how to do this” anymore.
The final step is to muster up the courage and ask, “Would you like to buy?”
A word on authenticity
This approach to learning how to sell something new only works if you are sincerely interested in what people have to say.
If you go into an “advice call” with the desire to sell, the other party will know and be turned off by the experience.
Be humble, stay curious, and look to learn.
Homework
If you don’t need to, I don’t recommend spending hundreds of hours on the phone with strangers asking for advice. That said, the practice of building a network is incredibly valuable. This is the same process I use anytime I’m starting a new business or exploring a new opportunity.
Your homework is to call one person in the next two days and ask them for advice. The rules are simple:
- It can’t be someone you normally turn to for advice.
- It can’t be a topic that you’ve asked for advice for previously.
- The advice you’re looking for can be business-related or personal, so long as it is real.
- At the end of the call, ask them if they would like to hear updates on your situation as it continues to evolve.
And just like that, you’ve landed your first advocate.
Until next week,
Robin
