The Power of a Successful Jab
In all likelihood you and your team have had that long conversation inside your conference room — why aren’t we gaining traction within the brewing market?
With the brewing industry expanding so rapidly, there are a lot of companies having this exact same conversation. You might have a product or service that could easily save brewers hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. You might help them cut back on energy costs or save on vital brewing resources.
Regardless of what you do, you have to be certain that you’re not the first company to contact a brewery and tell them you can save them money in this or that way. For a lot of business owners it’s vital to decide if saving money is actually worth it in the long run. By this time brewers all around the world have heard horror stories of a brewery cutting corners, finding cheaper equipment or supplies, only to either have to replace it sooner or the company dissolving and repairs becoming unavailable.
It’s a scary world out there for a lot of our readers, but what you must keep in mind is that you can’t simply lock down even the first client on the first call or email. You have to begin with a jab.
Gary Vaynerchuk, the owner of VaynerMedia, author and social media expert, wrote a book titled Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Like many of Vaynerchuk’s books, it revolves around social media strategy. However, the concept behind the Jab is instrumental in sales for every company looking to grow.
People are continually being sold. Every day someone is pitching something that can make their life better. Heck, I woke up to two emails about sales management services and saw another couple in my Facebook newsfeed. Additionally, I had a few emails from Amazon notifying me of similar purchases users made that were closely related to things I had recently purchased.
We are constantly being sold. But, in today’s society a lot of sales and marketing departments have forgotten that all business is relationship based. The close, or Right Hook in this scenario, doesn’t happen as often without first building a relationship. Sure, life is a series of bell curves and some sales are closed immediately with no relationship being established. However, the biggest sales for companies come from strong relationships.
Relationships begin with the first Jab. This isn’t a sale or even a discussion of what you do. It could simply be courtesy call: “We’ve been doing research on breweries of your size as we are working on solutions to assist in (blank) operations. Do you have a few minutes to talk about your brewery?”
What person doesn’t want to talk about their business? If you’re in a small company, you probably have sat for hours listening to your owner talk about the business, why it was developed and your mission. People love talking about themselves. In this initial Jab, don’t talk about what your company does. Simply making an effort to learn more about your potential clients will set you apart from the rest of the businesses calling them this week.
The initial Jab is the first step in building strong relationships and assisting in closing new clients. While this will become easier as your grow in the industry, spend more time in marketing, the early days of just getting to know someone will go a long way as you prepare for that Right Hook.
– Tyler Montgomery, Owner/Publisher: Tyler@TheBrewerMagazine.com
