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Don’t Tell, Demonstrate
By Robert Skrob | October 26, 2011
Imagine teaching someone how to use a hammer—in writing. You could explain where to hold the hammer, how to hold the nail and how to swing the hammer to strike the nail. But to someone who’s never seen or used a hammer before, will any of it make sense? Is he going to hold a nail in one hand and swing the hammer with the other if he has never seen how it works?
It’s a lot easier to demonstrate how hammering a nail works than trying to explain it. When someone sees it in action,he instantly understands, even if he doesn’t yet have the skill to do it himself. At least he can see how it works and know it is possible to get it to work. Either way, he is a lot closer to having the confidence to swing a hammer toward a nail pinched between two of his fingers.
As info-marketers, we often find ourselves in situations where we are explaining things that appear simple to us but are difficult for our customers to visualize—or even to believe are true.
And so we learn elements of persuasion. Ways to make our arguments believed. To be convincing. Yet all of this falls short of proof.
During a coaching call with me, an info-marketer was trying to decide which niche to pursue. While he’d been working within a certain niche for years, he was curious about marketing to other niches, wondering if they mighthold better opportunities. But in those new niches, he didn’t have any success stories.
In his current niche, this info-marketer had his own success story along with those of two other people he’d been working with. For an info-marketer, stories that prove what you say actually works are essential. When considering which niche you should pursue,having case examples that prove what you say is an important factor. I recommended to this particular info-marketer that he stay in his current niche and use the stories he already had to build his business.
In newsletters, during coaching calls and in your products, it’s essential to include case studies, success stories or examples from people who are applying what you teach and generating results. Think of it this way, your new customer is going through your product, feeling resistance within himself as he tries to implement what you teach. Plus, he may also be getting resistance from his family, employees and others. What do you do? More teaching? No, more teaching won’t help. You have to demonstrate. Show him what works by showing examples of it working for others. This proves your teaching works and helps him refute his spouse, his employees and his own self-doubt. You are building his confidence, which will greatly speed up his implementation.
Another great benefit to case studies is they keep your newsletters new and interesting, even though you are demonstrating the same principles over and over. Each example is as different as the customer you profile. Readers enjoy the story, and they enjoy seeing the results.
My formula for creating case studies is simple. I start with an interview, and then provide the interview transcript to a writer to create the written case study.
Here are some interview questions to try. As you read the questions, replace the words “info-marketing process” with the name of your product or coaching program:
- What’s your background? How did you get started doing what you are doing now?
- How did you discover [info-marketing process]?
- What did you think of it when you first saw it?
- How did you get started implementing [info-marketing process]?
- What has changed in your life since you discovered [info-marketing process]?
- What advice do you have for someone else who has just discovered [info-marketing process] and is deciding whether or not to try it?
I conduct these interviews personally. It gives me a chance to provide my members with a small amount of free coaching and some ideas for them to try, plus I can explore something interesting by asking follow-up questions.
Once I have a good interview recorded, I provide the recording to a writer. For a journalist or a writer, taking this type of interview and turning it into a compelling case study is relatively easy. Because of the state of the newspaper industry today, you can easily find good writers. You should be able to find one for your project with a Craigslist ad or by posting your job on Elance. com.
Once you have these case studies, you can use them in monthly newsletters, pull them together into books to give to prospects or include them in products to illustrate particular lessons your members got particularly right.
Use demonstrations, capture case studies everywhere you can and teach through examples rather than relying only on lectures.
What do you think? Do you have any examples of stories that prove your customers get results from what you teach? Or do you disagree and have a better way? Visit the page Don’t Tell, Demonstrate, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to leave me a comment. I read every comment and reply when appropriate.
Best wishes,
Robert Skrob
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