Following is the video transcript for your reference:
What’s up, guys? I just got off of a Zoom sales call with our Director of Business Development. It was a good call. I think we’ll wind up getting the deal, and a question came up. He was doing his part, and I was kind of jumping in with my part of the meeting, and he was like “Is it more important to be liked? We always hear know, like, trust. People only want to do business with people they know, like, and trust, or is it more important to be respected?”
The reason it came up was because this potential client clearly had some issues with their website with their SEO strategy. They’ve been waiting for five or six months to have a new website done. My Director of Business Development was kind soft playing it. He was like “Hey, once the website’s done, I know you’ve invested a lot of time, once it’s done then maybe we can talk about doing things.”
I was kind of a little bit more abrasive with the situation. I was like “Look, you’ve been waiting six months for something that should only take six weeks, and your website is really the critical place where all of your stuff happens, right? If your website’s not good, then it’s not going to convert, and all of the other marketing you do is kind of a waste of time and energy.” The sales guy’s feedback was like “Man, that was maybe a little too abrasive. He might have felt offended by that, or he might have felt like you were pushing him.”
It kind of leads to that question is it more important to be liked or trusted? My opinion is as internet marketing consultants, as agency owners, we have to be respected, right? We have to be able to come to the table and say, “Look, here’s what you’re doing now. Here’s where there’s room for improvement. Here’s how we can help.”
And so they can like you a lot. If you’re really friendly and bubbly, “Oh, that was a nice person. I like that person,” but if they don’t respect what you can bring to the table, if they don’t respect the value that you can bring, they’re not going to do business with you.
My opinion, yes, it’s important to be liked, but it’s far more important to be respected and to bring good ideas and good strategies and really draw a strong distinction between where they’re at right now and what you can do to help bring them to the next level.
Love to hear from you guys on this in comments. More important to be liked or trusted? I know there’s different opinions on this, but I’d love to hear what you guys think. So, that’s it for now. Liked or trusted? My thought is more important to be respected. Talk to you later.
