Category: Sales | ProCO360

Jerry McGuire’s 4 Secrets to Differentiating – Part 4 – YOU HAD ME AT HELLO

The classic movie Jerry McGuire got me thinking about selling a service and I’m writing a 4-part blog post about it.

B2B service companies buy ads, sponsor events, network in chosen sectors, and develop their own programming to bring clients together. B2C companies buy ads and promote with their websites. These are all logical tactics – and they are what everyone does. Differentiating is the key to selling a service, and I think Jerry McGuire demonstrates how to break away and succeed at differentiating. Here are the 4 Secrets:

#1 “It’s a Mission Statement.” (see post)

#2 “Show me the money.” (see post)

#3 “Help me help you.”

The famous line spoken by Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) – she’d never lost her love or faith, even for a flawed Jerry McGuire. Be your client’s biggest fan. Promote them in social media, work hard for them, bring your best ideas and most importantly, do for them what you’d do for yourself knowing what you know. When they need something, or when you have a new product or service that you know is just what they need, they’ll listen. They’ll trust you are on their side. You’ll have them at hello.

SECRETS CONCLUSION: These 4 secrets are really hard to scale, which is why we need to decide who are our BEST clients and focus on them. When I focus these secrets on my best clients – it’s fun, not work – and when I compromise away from my BEST clients – wow, this level of attention feels like WORK – that’s how I know. The movie conclusion shows a top player attracted to Jerry McGuire – and we all know that his company will thrive.

Jerry McGuire’s 4 Secrets to Differentiating – Part 3 – Help Me Help You!

The classic movie Jerry McGuire got me thinking about selling a service and I’m writing a 4-part blog post about it.

#1 “It’s a Mission Statement.” (see post)

#2 “Show me the money.” (see post)

As Donald Miller says in his famous book, Building a Storybrand, effective marketing and positioning requires that the customer is the hero of their story and the seller is the expert guide. What do most companies do? The OPPOSITE: most begin sentences with WE. We do this, we do that. We are great because. Most service companies – companies that should be about the client, make the same mistake of talking about themselves: “We are big enough to… and small enough to…” or “Our people have a combined ## years of award-winning experience…” or “We are focused on our clients’ goals,” or “We are focused on relationships,” or, “Our people make us different.”

In the famous quote Jerry McGuire was emphatic about making Rod Tidwell the hero in his story. That’s what customers want.

Coming up next…

#4 “You had me at hello.”

Jerry McGuire’s 4 Secrets to Differentiating – Part 2 – SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!

Authentically align. Show you authentically care about what your customers care about (can’t fake this). The famous scene when Jerry McGuire shouts “SHOW ME THE MONEY” at the top of his lungs demonstrates that he gets what’s important to his client. If he hadn’t yelled it with unbridled enthusiasm, Rod Tidwell, Jerry’s only hope for a client, would have left him. I consider authentic alignment when I’m working with clients: if I were them (they?), knowing what I do about how my product service works, what decision would I make? And that’s what I say: “Mary, I’ve done this a hundred times* and for clients like you, in your situation and with your goals, I’ve made some recommendations that have really worked out well. Would you be opposed to hearing an example? Of course they say “no,” and then I proceed with integrity, generally successfully.

* This approach I learned from Oren Klaff in his book “Flip the Script.

** This approach I learned from Chris Voss in his book “Never Split the Difference – Negotiating As If Your Life Depends On It.

Search either of these authors on ProCO360 to learn more. I have a podcast episode with Chris Voss!

Jerry McGuire’s 4 Secrets to Differentiating – Part 1

The classic movie Jerry McGuire got me thinking about selling a service.

“It’s a Mission Statement.” Jerry McGuire created the memo that got him fired because he wanted to serve clients with attentive integrity. Not a memo, but a “mission statement,” he spoke out with a bold positioning about “fewer clients.” Simon Sinek is famous for his phrase, “People don’t care what you do, they care why you do it.” In the movie, Jerry’s approach with one client set him up as more attractive to the prestigious clients he could not have otherwise reached.

Coming up next…

“Show me the money.”
“Help me help you.”
“You had me at hello.”

Can Colorado’s Brand have a CAUSE?

This is a big question.

It came to me after my interview with Johnny Le Coq, founder and CEO of Fishpond. Patagonia is a products company that supports the environment. Athleta is a products company that supports the advancement of women. Both companies are examples of authentic and effective support for a cause that aligns with customers. Fishpond seems to go further – Fishpond seems to be coming very close to using sales of its products as a mechanism to support river conservation.

Image courtesy of the Fishpond website

Johnny: “Our brand has become a voice for the environment… It’s not what we sell that I’m most proud of – it’s what we stand for.” He means it.

That made me think about Colorado. Can Colorado have a CAUSE that ultimately becomes interwoven with our brand? That’s tough, but I think Colorado’s entrepreneurial community DOES – it STANDS FOR supporting opportunity for those who strive, collaborate, innovate, and mutually appreciate the rich lives that people wish to have in our great state.

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