Basketball and Booklets

It doesn't matter if you are a basketball fan or not to understand what I'm about to share with you. Stay with me here for a moment and you'll see why. I do happen to enjoy attending college hoops games here in San Diego, and last night's game was one surprise after another. My guys have had a pretty good season. You couldn't tell that from last night's game at all. The were not in the lead a single time, and got worse as the night went on.

The singular reason for this was that the other team strategically played completely differently than my team. Now, my interest in basketball does not go to following statistics or even knowing much about the rules and who fouled who and why. My interest is much more in some of the amazing stunts, the action, the overall results, the experience of being at the game.

The visiting team had an uncanny ability to come out of nowhere to take the ball from the home team, one after another after another. My guys didn't know what hit them, and seemed to wilt the more this happened.

And this has what to do with booklets, you're asking? Well, you have been doing business a certain way, and your clients and prospects have been doing business a certain way, just like each of the teams last night who play a certain way that's different from each other.

Your ways of doing business may be the same as each other, or one of you is coming out of nowhere doing business completely differently than the other. This may be the first that your prospects and clients have ever heard about the idea of using booklets or any other information products to promote their business. They may have been using other things imprinted with their company info, or they may have only been buying space advertising or some other form of promotion. You come out of nowhere with booklets, audios, card decks.

Like last night's game, your client could crumble under the new-ness of this approach, or they could rise to the challenge of doing things differently. Had my guys had more time to get used to the visiting team's style, I'm guessing they could have adapted and thrived. Same thing with your prospects and clients. They may be able to quickly adapt to the ideas you're presenting, it may take them awhile, or they may crumble and that's the end of them for you. Keep this in mind next time you are starting your dealings with a group that has no background in what you are presenting. In fact, you may even want to bring this basketball game analogy into your conversation with them!

Until next time,
Paulette - curious to see what my team does in the 2 remaining home games of the season
www.tipsbooklets.com