How Businesses Can Educate and Connect with Buyers Through World Events [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 56]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy.

Mandy York
0:00:00
If you're worried about a potential upcoming recession, there is one thing that your marketing and sales team can do, and it is just to...

Alex Winter
0:00:09
Welcome back to Endless Customers, where we help you learn how to earn trust and win more business in the age of AI. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and today we are joined by Mandy York,

Alex Winter
0:00:17
who is a video and content trainer and co-chair at Impact Mandy. Welcome to the show.

Mandy York
0:00:32
Hey Alex, how are you doing?

Alex Winter
0:00:34
I'm doing good, I'm pumped to have you back on the show. How's everything with you, how are you doing?

Mandy York
0:00:38
All is well, all is well. We're having an excellent time over here, but we are heading into the fall, and so we have had lots of exciting things happening with clients as they do this time of year.

Alex Winter
0:00:52
Yes, it's an interesting time of year. Things are cooling off weather-wise, but maybe they're heating up business-wise. So let's get into the topic for today. We've got a lot to talk about. We're talking about educating your buyers, and there's a question here, because we talk about this a lot.

Alex Winter
0:01:06
Behind the scenes, Austin, you and I, the whole company, we talk a lot about educating your buyers, but I think a lot of our clients think they know how to educate them when it comes to products and services and different things like that, but there are other things that we also need to educate them on.

Alex Winter
0:01:20
So it's not just like, this is what we sell, here are our products, here's the basic stuff, which is obviously important, but there's layers to this and there's more ways to build trust. And I'd love to pick your brain

Alex Winter
0:01:31
and get your take on what those things are so that our audience can learn more about it.

Mandy York
0:01:35
Yeah, absolutely. So this is actually something that I get fired up about. We talk about educating the buyer and our clients are very, very good at it. That is what we coach and train on here. That is what we tee people up to do.

Mandy York
0:01:49
And they tend to do a really great job. And they tend to be really great experts at their own product or service, right? I think where it starts to fall apart though, for many of the clients that I'm working with right now, especially, is when we start talking about the industry as a whole. So in the last few weeks, we've had a couple of podcasts

Mandy York
0:02:10
that came out around like industry disrupting content. And we've been talking about, you know, how different events impact the world of business. And I think that's something that we need to kind of bring to the table and discuss as a They Ask, You Answer endless customers community, is how do you educate your buyer on your whole industry, and then what lenses should you be looking at that through?

Alex Winter
0:02:35
Okay, that makes sense. So let's dive into that more, because I'm curious what you mean by that. So when you talk about lenses and what you need to look at, the lenses through which you need to be looking

Alex Winter
0:02:43
at your business and at your content, what does that actually play out, and what should business leaders and marketing managers and people be looking at to just further that journey?

Mandy York
0:02:53
That's a good question. So think about the kind of headlines that we have been seeing come up lately. Over the last few weeks, there's been a lot of talk around the election, around the economy, around world events.

Mandy York
0:03:07
And not that I want to get into a big political discussion or anything in here today, but-

Alex Winter
0:03:11
You don't want to, really?

Mandy York
0:03:12
We can if you want to go there.

Alex Winter
0:03:14
That is not what this show is about, no. But it is important to discuss because listen, the election is coming up, these things are happening. There are world events that influence people's decision making that influence business. So it's important to at least think about these things

Alex Winter
0:03:29
and figure out how it's going to affect us moving forward.

Mandy York
0:03:32
Right, and your buyers, they have the internet too. Like they are also seeing these headlines, they're living them. They're feeling the squeeze of higher grocery prices, they are seeing the tech layoffs, they are, if we focus in on the economy for just a second, is, let's say that you have a product,

Mandy York
0:03:51
you have an expensive product. I work with a wonderful, lovely HVAC company right now, but a full HVAC, like a new HVAC system to put in your house is anywhere between 15 and $30,000. The duct work and all that. And so if I, as a consumer, they're B to C,

Mandy York
0:04:10
if I as a consumer am sitting here and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, well my grocery bill is just 500 bucks and the kids are going back to school so they need new school clothes and my job laid off people a few weeks ago so now I'm worried about that.

Mandy York
0:04:26
Am I really going to throw down $15,000 or $30,000 on a new HVAC system unless I have no other choice? And the answer to that is no. I mean, the regular common consumer is straight up not gonna do it. And so we as businesses have to start educating them

Mandy York
0:04:43
about the various options. And so the knee-jerk reaction is like, oh, we have this thing and it costs this much money and hey, you better buy it. And we're gonna sell this stuff to make them buy it. Which is great, except the market of people that can buy it

Mandy York
0:04:59
has gotten a lot smaller this year because of all that economic stuff. So are there lower cost options

Mandy York
0:05:06
that you could be pointing out to them?

Mandy York
0:05:08
Could you encourage trust by saying, hey, we know that things are tough right now in the economy and most of our customers are not gonna be buying this top of the line HVAC system. Here's a more budget-friendly option that you should look at.

Mandy York
0:05:22
You know, those things, they go a long way and I think a lot of our clients here at Impact, they lose sight of that because they're so focused on, oh, we're going to sell this thing that's gonna make all this money and blah, blah, blah. But are you really educating them

Mandy York
0:05:37
on all of the options that are available?

Alex Winter
0:05:40
Yeah, it makes so much sense when you say it that way. The psychology does play a big piece into it too and I think a lot of people forget about those large scale factors. So can we talk a little bit more about, you know, when you're talking about products and services

Alex Winter
0:05:52
and how you want people to buy, how can you get laser focus on getting people to remove those psychological factors and to really just feel like you're trustworthy and that they can feel confident in buying from you or talking to you

Alex Winter
0:06:04
or whatever the case may be.

Mandy York
0:06:06
Yeah, so another example for you. Everybody in the world has this kind of universal experience where you have tried to buy a car and you've ran into like the proverbial sleazy car salesman, right, and they use all these tactics that are designed to upsell you on various things,

Mandy York
0:06:26
to get you to buy a more expensive vehicle than you intended to, to get you to add on that extended warranty package that I'm not entirely sure what that does, to get you to put fancy air in the tires, you know, all of these different things.

Mandy York
0:06:37
And-

Alex Winter
0:06:38
You use nitrogen, not the regular stuff. Yeah.

Mandy York
0:06:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Mandy York
0:06:42
they've gotten me with that one before. But, I, you know, those things are kind of rooted from what I consider to be a bad place. They are trying to get more money out of a person. And although that may very well be the thing that we are all trying to do for the bottom line, I'm not going to pretend that we're not business people, but what I will say is if you

Mandy York
0:07:07
start approaching the content you're creating through the lens of, I want to help people. I want them to make the right choice so that they are happy about the choice six months after they've made it. I want them to feel like that I have helped them, not like I have sold to them.

Alex Winter
0:07:27
Right, or swindled them into things they didn't really necessarily need or want.

Mandy York
0:07:32
Right, right. And so, I think we've gotta take a step back and look at the impact that some of those sales tactics, educational tactics, you know, whatever, how those things influence people. Because when I've started this and I said, you know, think of the sleazy car salesman, everybody thought of one. You remember that guy. You remember what the nitrogen in the tires, you remember that stuff. And not in a good way. And we don't want that as business owners.

Mandy York
0:08:02
I don't want my HVAC companies, my roofing companies, or my SAS companies to be like, we've got all customers who, yeah, they bought from us one time and then they hated us after. I want somebody that maybe right now while the economy is tough,

Mandy York
0:08:16
they come to you and they buy a HVAC system refresh where you go in and clean the whole thing out and fancy it up and help that system last three or four more years. And then three or four years from now, they buy the $30,000 system from you.

Mandy York
0:08:32
And come to you every time that they have an emergency call and you have that repeat business long-term versus we trick them into buying a $20,000 HVAC unit today and then never hear from them again because they felt gross about it.

Mandy York
0:08:47
Yeah.

Alex Winter
0:08:48
Yeah, so for consumers, how can they avoid that? We always talk about on our end as marketers what we can do to push the ask to answer or to educate and how to get the stream of endless customers. But for consumers, what should they be looking at? You mentioned some of this, but what are some flags? I'm going off script here, so I'm putting you on the spot.

Alex Winter
0:09:08
If you're trying to get an HVAC system, which is a great example, but if you're shopping for anything, what are some signs from sales people or from marketing people that are good versus bad?

Mandy York
0:09:17
If you ever run into a salesperson and they are purposely avoiding showing you multiple options. Now sometimes there are not multiple options. Sometimes you just need the thing that you need. But if they are like, oh, if you're gonna be happy, you have to have this thing which is incredibly expensive. There's there's nothing else we can do

Mandy York
0:09:43
You know, they're not working with you if they're hiding any kind of information if anybody's ever given you a Like a 50 page long terms and conditions for for something. That's probably a red flag Why do we need that much information in legalese or whatever to cover a purchasing cost, if you're telling the truth. If you are shuffled around,

Mandy York
0:10:08
it shows that people are treating you as a dollar sign and not as a human. So if you've got salespeople missing meetings with you, or you called and nobody answered the phone, or.

Alex Winter
0:10:20
They're like handing you off to somebody else or something like that.

Mandy York
0:10:23
You're getting passed around to 10 different people in the office before anyone will speak to you. I want people to be on the lookout for businesses that care about them, because that's the currency that we need to be dealing in now, is not just money, but it's I give my business to people who treat me well.

Mandy York
0:10:42
And businesses, I believe, have an ethical responsibility to treat their customers well. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

Alex Winter
0:10:48
And that's, we've talked about this recently too and on the other side, with all the world events that we've been talking about and the psychology behind it, for sales folks, does that mean that they need to sell smaller, or does that mean that they need to be thinking about how to package things

Alex Winter
0:11:02
in a smaller way so that it's more bite-sized? I don't even know if I'm saying that right, but if you get what I'm saying, does that make sense? Like, yeah, because I can hear sales people being like, so it's too much money, so we need to sell them something that's less money, right?

Alex Winter
0:11:13
Yeah, but is that true?

Mandy York
0:11:37
No, not necessarily.

Mandy York
0:11:38
I'm gonna be careful with this. So, I think if you're solving something that people genuinely need, that solves a genuine pain point, that is the genuine right thing for that customer, fair enough.

Mandy York
0:11:54
I have a client who does luxury architecture, residential architecture. And one of the city of New York, and I'm a resident of a company called Luxury Architecture, Residential Architecture. And one of the things that they do is they build multi-generational homes. So, like homes with the idea that, for different cultures, that where grandparents,

Mandy York
0:12:21
parents, children, grandchildren would all be living under the same roof. So, there's like en-suites and, you know, all of these different things. cheap product whatsoever. They are a very, very boutique expensive firm. And I think what they are doing makes perfect sense. They're not trying to talk somebody like me into building a home like that. They are talking to people who are already saying, you know, I've got a special needs child that's going to live with me for the rest of my life. I've got elderly parents and I'm

Mandy York
0:12:51
not willing to put them in a nursing home and I'm looking to build something to keep them here in home with us. They are selling something that fits that need. Conversely, I would also say, though, I would rather see our clients sell 10 small things than sell zero big things. So if you are, if you are sitting in a space right now where you're not making sales, your sales rates are dropping, you feel it in your bones that that is from the economy

Mandy York
0:13:20
and all this world event stuff that we've been talking about. Maybe you're in home services, maybe you're in SaaS, you know, you're in consulting businesses. I want you to take a good deep breath and say, would I rather sell a small thing or no thing? And then make your choice.

Alex Winter
0:13:37
Yeah, and that might be a tough question, but I feel like the answer should be something is better than nothing, right?

Mandy York
0:13:43
Yeah.

Mandy York
0:13:43
And there's, I mean, you always bring them back later. When things clear up and people are less nervous, you bring them back later with that referral-based, earned-based business model that Marcus was talking about. That if they loved working with you and they didn't feel like you pressured them

Mandy York
0:13:59
into getting something they didn't need, they're gonna come back when they need something else.

Alex Winter
0:14:03
Yeah, so I know that you talk to a lot of companies, you got me thinking my wheels are spinning here, so I know you talk to a lot of companies, you work with a lot of different B2B, B2C, different industries all over the place. It's very multifaceted, but is there a way

Alex Winter
0:14:15
to broach other topics other than just the recession? How do you have some of these conversations when we talk about selling maybe smaller is better than nothing, or like how do you have these conversations and what does that kind of look like

Alex Winter
0:14:29
and maybe what are some other fears, worries, and doubts that people are hearing on the street?

Mandy York
0:14:33
Yeah, so I think about like immediate worries a lot. So whenever I sit down each week with a client, I think about locationally, where are they at, and what have I heard on the news about that location this week.

Mandy York
0:14:46
So a great example from this week was Hurricane Debbie hits Florida. If I've got a roofing person that has a business in Florida, the first thing I'm going to say is do we have content out about damage from Hurricane Debbie specifically? Is their content and education sitting there, whether that be written, video, podcast, whatever you made, do you have something live on that website right now that is helping your customers navigate the hurricane that

Mandy York
0:15:17
just hit? Are you talking to them about, you know, with roofing? Here's a great example of something small. Are we going to patch it, patch a few shingles and fix a few portions? Or are you going to try to push somebody whose house was just hit by a hurricane and is dealing with insurance claims in every direction, you're going to push them to buy a whole new roof and ten times more expensive material. You know, that information, it really comes to looking at the headlines in your area.

Mandy York
0:15:44
Is it hurricanes? Is it the climate in your area? Is it the economy? Is it something about global warming? Is it the election? Is it back to school?

Mandy York
0:15:54
Is it the holidays coming up? You know, how do each of those events impact your customer on a personal level, and then what are you doing to take care of your customer on a personal level?

Alex Winter
0:16:12
I love that, I absolutely love that. And it's gonna depend geographically where you are, but keeping your finger on the pulse is important, because you can be more proactive with your messaging and your content to help meet people where they are, and I love that, because that's what this is all about.

Alex Winter
0:16:27
How does that work? So you talked about roofing in a few different industries there that that made total sense, but what about for B2B companies, and for companies that maybe don't fix roofs and that maybe are in manufacturing

Alex Winter
0:16:39
or do things a little bit differently?

Mandy York
0:16:41
This is a good one, I love this question. So I've been running into this a lot. You know, if you work in, I mentioned SaaS, or if you work in payroll, you work in human resources, you do EOS training, you do all of these different things where you're selling to other businesses,

Mandy York
0:16:57
I want you to start thinking about the demographics. So earlier this week, I was speaking with an HCM company that does like benefits enrollment for other companies. They help them sign up for like Affordable Care Act stuff and they, you know, like set up employee benefits. And I asked him, have you talked to anybody in Gen Z lately?

Mandy York
0:17:18
Have you, you know, Gen Z is not children anymore. They're in the workforce. That makes me feel so old.

Alex Winter
0:17:25
I know, I know. You said that out loud and I was like, wait, what? But it's true. It's true, you're correct. And it's not just like recently, it's been that way for a few years now.

Alex Winter
0:17:34
So like, these are real working professionals, these are adults that are part of the system now. So are you addressing it and thinking about that? That's a really good question. What are people saying? Have they thought about it?

Mandy York
0:17:44
They haven't, because generally if you work in benefits and payroll, the businesses tend to trend older in that sector. But I was like, Gen Z doesn't care as much at all, even as millennials, Gen X, boomers, whatever, they don't care about parental leave as much as millennials

Mandy York
0:18:01
do, because a lot of Gen Z doesn't want kids. So why are we creating all this content targeted at new parents whenever, like, the new parent age people are not having kids? Why are we not making stuff about remote work benefits for? mental health benefits for You know all of these different things that are more pertinent to that specific demographic

Mandy York
0:18:34
So when we're talking b2b yes world events and all of the things but also start looking at your demographics to start looking at Who is your audience? How is it changing? Who are you actually talking to if you are writing content for a CEO, we can make some assumptions and we assume that person is older and they want to be spoken to in a certain way and that they have more years of experience under their belt. But if you're writing content that's supposed to go to frontline employees, you need to be writing content that's going to

Mandy York
0:19:06
connect with that audience instead.

Alex Winter
0:19:08
Yeah, so true. And it just goes back to the ask, you answer. You've got to meet people where they are. So you need to know, depending on what industry you're in, what geographic region you're in, what your personas are, so that you can really speak to them and meet them exactly where they are. Yeah.

Alex Winter
0:19:23
Yeah. So what would you say is the first step? Okay, like we have listeners, we have people watching, they're picking up what you're putting down, they're like, yes, I totally agree. Maybe there's some roofers down in Florida

Alex Winter
0:19:33
that are really pumped right now. I'm thinking of Dave and the guys at Roof Crafters. But what would you say to leaders and to business people that should be the first step towards implementing this or starting to practice what we're talking about?

Mandy York
0:19:46
Yeah, the first and most crucial thing that you can do is talk about this with your team. So take this podcast and wherever we're posting it and send it to your team. Send it to your marketing people, your sales people, you know, whoever, send it to them.

Mandy York
0:20:01
And say, hey, I want you to listen to Mandy go off for a little bit. And then I've put a 30 minute meeting on your calendar for next week. And once you sit down in that meeting, I want you guys to talk about things that are going on that impact your business,

Mandy York
0:20:14
impact your people that you are selling to, whatever those people are. And then the third thing that I haven't touched on a lot in here is find something that you are passionate about, that your team is passionate about. Because creating this kind of content is a whole lot easier

Mandy York
0:20:30
when the people writing it, filming it, distributing it, you know, whatever, are, they care about the topic. So this is a great time for that Gen Z videographer to shine. This is a really great time for those salespeople that remember the 08 recession.

Mandy York
0:20:46
It's their time to shine. Sit down and just rant together And and really tear apart these issues talk about how they impact you talk about how they impact your friends How they impact your choices? Because at the end of the day whatever choice you would make is not that dissimilar to the choice that your buyer would make or it shouldn't be if you understand your buyer and

Mandy York
0:21:05
Get in there have that discussion get those topic ideas down and then just go out and start creating that content. Go out and educate people from a place of caring and love and wanting to take care of people and wanting to have a better future for the world and all of that stuff and put it out there.

Mandy York
0:21:26
See what sticks.

Alex Winter
0:21:27
Yeah, that's really great advice and I definitely agree with you. I think everyone can commiserate around these feelings whether you're on the customer side or the employee or the leadership side because these are world events.

Alex Winter
0:21:39
These are things that everyone's worrying about, and it doesn't matter what political side of the equation you're on, or what's happening with this hurricane coming, or whatever the case may be, but these are things that affect everybody.

Alex Winter
0:21:49
So on some level, there is a commonality there that we all feel, so it's important to at least be mindful of those things, right? So could you share maybe a customer story or something where someone is just really dialed in with this but there's a leader or a team that you've worked with

Alex Winter
0:22:04
that like they acknowledge this and they're really good at practicing this on a daily basis.

Mandy York
0:22:08
All right, yeah, I will name drop AV Architects, actually. That's the firm that I was talking about earlier that builds multi-generational housing, among other things, they do lots of stuff, but that's one of the things that they do.

Alex Winter
0:22:21
I love that they do that, though, and I know culturally it might be different for certain cultures and it might be foreign for some of us Americans, but overall, with the way that the economy is going and the cost of living and house prices

Alex Winter
0:22:32
and just everything with inflation, it almost seems like they're in a really sweet spot right now.

Mandy York
0:22:38
Yeah, and they create tons of content around even just the day-to-day lives. So they sell in Northern Virginia. That's like their space, not far outside of D.C. And they write content about, you know, where's the best land for people that enjoy nature in this area? Where is the best place to build if you intend to be here and it's

Mandy York
0:23:01
going to be an ancestral home and people are going to live here for generations? You know, they put that kind of content out and it shows that they actually care and love and want their buyer to succeed and enjoy the home that they're in. And I think that that, back to my point earlier about like the passion that people have around the work that they do,

Mandy York
0:23:24
they are, you know, they live, they are a family ran business. They are a multi-generational family. It's mom and kids that are working in, mom, dad, and kids that are working in that business. And I think that shows in the way

Mandy York
0:23:39
that they take care of their people.

Alex Winter
0:23:41
Yeah, I hear that. And so this has got me thinking, that's a great example of positive ways to create content and to meet people where they are and to get them excited about learning more so that they can make a better decision.

Alex Winter
0:23:54
But what happens for business leaders and for marketing people and sales folks? Some of the topics that we've been talking about when we get into politics and certain pieces, they're, I mean, they're touchy subjects. I don't wanna, like, I'm going to flashbacks

Alex Winter
0:24:08
at Thanksgiving dinner, I don't wanna go there. But like, some of these topics can be sensitive. So how do you, what would you recommend for people to go around, about like, addressing these things in a way that is maybe unbiased or like a safe way of doing it

Alex Winter
0:24:20
that isn't gonna rustle too many feathers?

Mandy York
0:24:23
Yeah, that's really gonna come down to your business. So there are businesses that I work with that take a really strong, like their political identity is part of their business model. And that's valid.

Mandy York
0:24:35
They, you know, if that's the image that you want to put out, then do it, go for it. But I wouldn't be careful of the typical type of business. Don't go out there and be inflammatory. You can definitely just say, you know, hey, we too have been seeing lots of headlines about X, Y, and Z.

Mandy York
0:24:54
And while we don't feel that we're the experts on politics, the economy, the laws, whatever, global warming, like we're not the experts on that. We are the experts on how pain point affects customer.

Alex Winter
0:25:11
Yeah.

Mandy York
0:25:11
And pointing out, hey, I'm not an expert on that thing, but I want to talk to you, human to human, about what you can do with that information is super, super valuable.

Alex Winter
0:25:23
Human to human, yep, and it's knowing your audience, too. And I agree with certain businesses, if the political piece is part of their business model and that's part of their plan, then it's okay to do that. And if you're selling a random product that's a tangible material product,

Alex Winter
0:25:37
maybe don't tell people about all your political views. I don't know. Just saying it. Yeah, I don't know. What do I know? Anyways, this has been really insightful

Alex Winter
0:25:46
and I think it's been really eye-opening because again, like these are things that I know, but when we talk about it out loud and we're having this conversation, I feel like it sticks differently. It really does.

Alex Winter
0:25:56
Yeah. Any advice or any closing thoughts for our listeners out there?

Mandy York
0:26:00
Closing thought would be that kind of going back to what you said earlier, Alex, is we there's no perfect formula to all of these different components and understanding the psychology

Mandy York
0:26:13
of your buyer and the psychology of the modern day is a crucial skill in understanding how to market and sell products or services in this day and age.

Mandy York
0:26:28
And if you're falling behind on that or you're ignoring it, that's gonna catch up to you, and probably sooner than you think.

Alex Winter
0:26:36
Yeah, well said. Well, thank you for being on the show, Mandy. I love talking with you, it's great having you.

Mandy York
0:26:42
I love being here, you know I'll be back any time.

Alex Winter
0:26:45
You'll definitely be back, you're a regular. We're gonna have you back on the show constantly. We gotta check in with you, so thanks for taking the time. And for everybody out there watching and listening, this is Endless Customers. I'm Alex Winter. for everybody out there watching and listening, this is Endless Customers. I'm Alex Winter. We'll see you on the next episode.




Transcribed with Cockatoo