Early in my career, the need for continuous education of clients was impressed upon me. Since then, I’ve seen over and over and over yet again that there definitely is a need for continual client education.
And, internal, company/employer education as well.
In many ways, you can substitute selling when you’re talking about educating.
The need to educate or sell clients should be pretty evident. Clients need to have some understanding of what we’re doing for them and why. Yes, results need to be there. However, it’s clients’ understanding and eventual solid trust in us that produce long-term relationships and will keep clients from looking elsewhere for our expertise.
As with clients, there is the same need to educate internally — whether you work in-house or for an agency.
Of course, we need to educate down the chain — that is people we supervise and those new to the company. A smart sales manager for a former client said his job was to train his people so they could replace him. He was definitely a guy on his way up.
Equally important is the need to educate or sell up the chain. You know why a certain course of action needs to be taken, but don’t assume those who supervise you and higher up know. (Another benefit to educating up is that is helps those higher up in the chain to know the what and why of your role, responsibilities and the value you offer.)
But how? How to you justify a proposal, a new direction, a new approach?
Here are some ways to educate and sell your case:
- Hard-core ROI. Whether you show actual numbers or a percent change, real numbers that show what your employer or client can expect are easy to understand.
- Non-specific expectation. Okay, you don’t have hard-core numbers or percentages. You, however, can say that what you recommend should produce a significant, notable, slight, moderate — or other descriptive term — increase or decrease.
- Case studies. Other companies or examples of what you propose that were successful. It’ll help your employer or client visualize what you propose by seeing successful outcomes of similar work.
- Studies. Show that the best in class, successful, industry leaders or big companies are doing what you propose.
The first two items are good if you have prior experience in what you propose. The second two are for those proposals, etc., that you don’t have a lot of prior experience in but know — I mean know – it’s the right thing to do. So, you borrow from others’ positive experiences.
What other ways can we educate and sell ideas and ourselves?
– Mike
