Show notes
I've been having conversations over the past couple of weeks about this very topic of creating certainty in uncertain times. So much of it boils down to the specific steps I can put in place in my business. Reach out to the right people, say the right things, in the right order, consistently. That will not only improve your confidence in yourself. It will improve their confidence in you and their certainty that you can do the job for them.
David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing creating certainty in uncertain times. Welcome back, Kevin.
Kevin: Great to see you again, David. Wow, uncertain times. There's an understatement of the year, huh?
David: Yeah. There's been so much discussion on the forums and inside the social media groups and everything like that. A lot of people are uncertain about a lot of things, and that does not generally bode well for businesses.
Kevin: No, no, it definitely doesn't. So what does it really mean to create certainty? When everything around you feels unstable.
David: Yeah. We had talked in a previous podcast about our circles of influence. Like the things we can control and the things we can't. It really does circle back in a lot of ways to this.
When we talk about creating certainty, we can only ever do that within the realms that we control. We can create certainty in specific aspects of our business.
So when we're talking about things like tariffs, which obviously is a big topic these days, a lot of our clients are in the promotional products industry, and a lot of that product tends to come from overseas. Much of it is coming from China.
So in those situations, we're not able to create certainty with that, right? That's not within our sphere of influence. So what we can do and what our clients can do is to look at the specific things we can create certainty around.
Can we identify suppliers who are can provide products for us that are not impacted by that?
Can we look at more domestic suppliers? What are the specific things we can do to create a level of certainty for our customers? Something our competitors might not be able to provide?
Kevin: And I think there's a level of authenticity too that has to go with it, right? Because certainty you can sort of project certainty. but you don't want to pretend to have all the answers when you don't. So how do you balance that?
David: Yeah, you can't really fake certain, well, I guess you can fake certainty.
Kevin: You can try. Yeah,
David: You can pretend you're certain, but I'm not really talking about that.
I think there's certainly an air of confidence that you want to be able to convey to your clients, and sometimes when you're conveying confidence, you may still not be certain about things.
But in this conversation, I'd like to look at, okay, what are the things that we can do? What can we be certain of? You know, are we certain that we can help our clients? And if so, how are we certain that we can help our clients?
What are the things that we know that we can do that will help them? And if it's about sourcing things that are more in line with exactly what they're looking for, trying to get around the obstacles for our clients.
If we're certain we can do those types of things. Just identifying the very specific steps that we can take, what can we be certain about, and then focus on those things.
Kevin: You mentioned that, a lot of our listeners are in the promotional product space. There's still a lot of uncertainty that's coming our way. A lot of flipping and flopping going on with tariffs and whatnot. What do you recommend businesses do to sort of like help prep?
David: Well, first thing you should do is recognize that your clients are not unaware of this. Like they are aware of the fact that this stuff's going on.
Kevin: Right.
David: And I've talked to a lot of business owners recently who are just really concerned, what am I going to tell my customers? And I'm like, well, your customers, they know that this is not, your issue is not your fault.
So, where we have to focus our attention is on the levers that we can pull, the buttons that we can push, what are the things that we can do that will allow them to get the result they're looking for?
Because ultimately, regardless of what industry you're in, it's usually not about the products you're selling, it's about the result that your customers are looking to get.
So when you're able to have conversations with your customers about what they're looking to accomplish, what they're looking to have happen in their business, what end result they're looking to get from using your products, get them focused back on that, and then see if you can create the ROI that they're looking for based on the options that are available today.
Because when I talk about creating certainty, I don't mean pretending things aren't happening. I'm not saying we argue with what's actually going on.
I'm saying that we look at what's happening and we say, alright, what are the steps that I can take as a business owner or as a sales person to help my client to get the result they're looking for, regardless of the fact that all these things are happening. Because they're happening, there's no way around that.
So we look at the things that we can do and we focus on that, and we focus on conveying that. Because if they don't know, that we're able to help them in ways that other people aren't, then they're not going to be able to choose us.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: And I can virtually guarantee you that most businesses are not taking the time to educate their clients about what they're doing, to continue to create a positive experience for them.
Kevin: That's a really good point. Communicating with your clients during these times can put you above other people that aren't doing that makes you look a little more professional For sure.
How much of an impact does this idea of certainty do you think have on the buyer's decision of whether to purchase a product or not?
David: Well, I think the certainty and the confidence go together. The more confident you are in communicating to your clients, the more faith they're going to have in you.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: And again, I'm not talking about faking it, pretending, "oh yeah, hey, I can do it." And there are people...
Kevin: We can get anything!
David: Yeah. You can spot that a mile away. Most people can. It's like, oh, okay. I don't buy into this. Right, right. I'm not talking about fake certainty or any of that. I'm basically saying that if you're able to communicate with people honestly.
Let them know, okay, look, everybody knows what's going on in the market in terms of the tariffs and everything like that. There's no way we can get around that. But here are a few things that I was thinking...
And if you were to have 2, 3, 4 things that convey to them that you've actually thought about it, you've come up with a few things that can help them and you can get their feedback on it.
So if you talk to 'em about how do you feel about domestically made products, they'll tell you. Yeah okay. Well, I was thinking that too. You know, of course it's generally likely to be a little more expensive, but if the quality's better, and then you have those conversations.
And then you'll have some clients who say, I'm just not going to pay that much for that particular kind of product. Then you look at what your options are, and you might not be able to help those people right now, but you'll know.
And I think that's really the big thing, because one of the major problems that a lot of distributors have when things are uncertain is they get scared and they hide and they don't communicate and they don't sell anything and then they blame the economy.
Right? And that is not a good combination of actions.
Kevin: No, definitely not. You've mentioned like educating your clients, we've all seen those emails that pop through that are so over the top, that are like "tariff proof" or " we've got it covered" or "we can do that." How do you recommend people handle their messaging?
Because you don't want to overdo it. You don't want to oversell it, 'cause then you start to look, like you said, like you're lying about it.
How do you balance building that trust, building that certainty with kind of reeling it back a little bit and being realistic.
David: Yeah. I think it goes to what I was saying earlier. You've gotta be honest about it. You've gotta be just absolutely truthful in what you are able to do and how you're able to do it.
The how is important as well, because when people make overblown claims in ads or in texts or in emails or whatever it is that they're doing. If it's overblown, people are going to question it.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: And so one of the things that you want to make sure you're doing is having a why attached to it and a how attached to it.
It's like, yes, here's how we're getting around tariff issues for our clients. We've got a three step program for addressing this issue. Right? And then you outline what those three steps are.
You say, if you'd like to know more, give me a call on this number or reply back to this email. So you get the people who are interested enough to reply back, and then you're entering into conversations, which is the whole goal, right?
The goal of any outbound marketing that you do is to get people engaged with you.
So when you're able to do that on a consistent basis, you have those conversations, you explain what it is that you're doing and how you're doing it. You'll get feedback from that.
And if the feedback that you get is yeah, your first one, that sounds right. The second one, I'm not sure about, the third one, that sounds pretty good too.
Then when you get off the phone with that person, you say, okay,