Leads are great but conversion is better

On Monday 18 March 2013 I went to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-street Band live at the Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park.

The band was exceptional, Bruce was “on fire” and the whole experience made me feel alive and connected – both with the band and the audience around me.

On the way home from the concert I reflected about the warm fuzzy feeling the experience gave me. There was a tone of authentic trust and connection that, for me, resonated long after the final bow.

To provide a little back story: my husband and I could only afford to purchase tickets for seats directly behind the stage and we were a little apprehensive before we got to the venue that we wouldn’t enjoy the concert. We imagined having to face a tall wall or at best the backsides of the musicians and Bruce. Not so bad, some might say.

We were pleasantly surprised, then, on the night of the concert, to discover there wasn’t a wall at the back of the stage at all. And being quite close to the front, we felt Bruce was close enough to touch… well his backside, at least.

The concert began and Bruce, a super-fit senior “worked” the stage. In fact, he regularly walked into and sang amongst his adoring fans. He also made a conscious effort to turn around regularly and acknowledge the audience behind him. Us!

At times I felt like he looked directly into my eyes, connected with me solely. It made me feel like he saw only me out of thousands of other people. Now I know this makes me sound like a stalker-fan but I’m far from it. I enjoy his music and respect him as a musician but I don’t swoon over a celebrity. At the end of the day, they’re ordinary people, like you and me. The difference is they have a talent and a passion that we as a society have put a value on.

I believe Bruce made a concerted effort that night to truly connect with each person at the concert and I believe that each person regardless of where they sat in that large arena felt the same connection I did. To me, it was evident that Bruce had made a conscious decision to ensure he evoked this feeling in his audience.

The other element that resonated with me about the concert was trust, particularly when Bruce walked away from the stage and his security guards and walked into the crowd. People rushed up to touch him and shake his hand. He stepped up on to a ledge and fell back into the crowd. Propped up by his fans, he continued to sing — horizontal — at the mercy of strangers. The beautiful act came when Bruce, at the opposite end of the stage, as he swam on the current of hands, was delivered safely to the shore of his stage,  just in time to be vertical again for the climax of the song.

It was a lovely moment of trust and connection. To me, this act spoke a silent question of Bruce asking of his audience: “If I trust you to treat me well, can I show you that I will repay this trust by putting my safety literally in your hands?” We, the audience demonstrated our thanks and connection to him by honouring that trust with a resounding “Yes.” And thank you for trusting us.

This act of asking, trust and connection reminded me of another musician. Check out Amanda Palmer’s TED Talk at this YouTube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g

Palmer starts her presentation by quietly walking onto the stage. She stands on a box and holds out a flower in street-performer style. This is a nice lead to introduce herself and inform the audience that before she was the highly popular Dresden Dolls singer she worked for five years as a street performer. She shows slides of herself and her fans to proceed through a timeline of her efforts to make her music free to the consumer.

She consistently links back her experience of engaging with her audience with the days of working as a street performer as a touching synergy of performing and being paid for it directly in real time by asking the audience to donate money, their homes, resources and food to assist her to continue playing, recording and distributing her music independent of a music label.

In particular, Palmer asked — through social media – and received more than $1 million from approximately 25,000 fans (crowd surfing) to independently record and produce an album.

During her TED talk, it was evident that Palmer had the audience hooked – even perhaps those not used to the alternative style of content – because she was confident, clear, endearing and presented fresh content with flair.

So the take away for me this week is to trust, connect, and ask. If you have a connection, have built a rapport of trust, in other words a lead, maybe it’s time to just ASK for the sale. These terms are big in sales: ASK, CONVERT, CLOSE.

The difference here is you’re not asking for someone to put their hand into their wallet then walking away. You’re asking your customer to interact with you, to join you in the journey that your service or product evokes and because you are engaging with the right buyer/target market, then the conversion of a lead to a sale should be mutually beneficial, natural and organic. It should be the second last piece in the puzzle. I say second-last because the relationship shouldn’t end unless the consumer asks it to.

Make sure you honour your relationship by providing after-care service. Ask your customer how they have used your product, follow-up, show you care and your trust, connection and courage to ask will be rewarded with true brand ambassadors, word-of-mouth advertising, relationship longevity and a meaningful, quality reputation.

And then make sure you celebrate with Bruce, Amanda and your customers!