Ethan Davidson molds ideas into reality! He is the President of Beratek Industries, a Co-Founder in FliteBrite, and just launched Conduit Direct Group. If you’ve ever wanted to manufacture a new product, you’ll want to sip on this delicious discussion.
Ethan talks through product design, materials, prototyping, and manufacturability. We also discuss the lasting value of transparency, role clarity, execution in sales, and remaining friends at all cost. Cheers!
Kaylee Williams is a sales savant and an empathetic venture capitalist dedicated to accelerating fellow founders. As the Investment Director at InnoVenture Iowa, she manages a $30M public fund focused on investing in early stage companies throughout Iowa, with applications for this year’s $100K InnoVenture Challenge now open!
Together, we chat about hiking in the Appalachians, raising capital, and filling the sales funnel to keep entrepreneurs building in the wild. As Kaylee reminds us with her closing canyoneering story, we are all capable of so much more, so push yourself into positions where the only way out, is through.
“Please walk.” <wait 5 seconds>
“Please walk!” <repeat endlessly>
At the swimming pool, how many times does a lifeguard remind children to walk and why is it so hard for kids to slow down, even when they’ve slipped in the past? Let’s write through why repetitive reminders may be needed to motivate awareness, action, and steadfastness.
The first thing that comes to mind, is how hard it is to get anyone to do anything. Motion requires force, we don’t know what we don’t know, and if action calls for commitment (time, obedience, money, etc.), movement is even harder to inspire.
When we think through the lens of marketing and sales, an easy start is clarity. Does messaging and calls to action immediately resonate with your smallest viable audience?
When it’s time for action, sequencing comes to mind. Conciseness allows first impressions to be more impactful, with connected content to guide newcomers toward more natural action(s).
Lastly, I wish repetition wasn’t a part of the equation, but it’s loud out there! Attention is hard to earn and even harder to maintain. Endless reminders can be annoying, but systems thinking and a strategic cadence ensure more positive encounters supported by lasting clarity. Thoughtful repetition also catches fresh awareness along the way.
Along with helping to connect with an audience, these motivators are important for anything that involves rotating participation as well. Succession can bring healthy revitalization to teams, organizations, and communities, but without clarity, fresh energy can be misguided. If information is not sequenced, the weight of too much information may feel unnecessarily daunting and once again, friendly reminders maintain momentum without a slip or fall.
I was catching a quick nap on a recent flight.
All the sudden, our flight attendant broke the peaceful silence. Not to share a friendly update for passengers, but to rattle off a forced sales pitch for their branded credit card. Ouch.
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Attention is hard to earn.
If you have it, don’t waste it.
Now, let’s imagine an alternate scenario. Instead of an unwanted interruption followed by an impersonal script that makes most think less of the brand treating us like prisoners instead of customers, what if the same offer felt more like a gift? Like a special surprise? Something that makes you feel appreciated!
For example, how would you feel if you were told that you were selected to receive a free adult beverage or tasty snack, paired with the exact same credit card application?
Whether you decided to apply or not, the complementary surprise was just to say thanks for being a valued customer! This personalized presentation would naturally snag the attention of nearby passengers. As word of mouth amplifies interest, similar offers could be made for those willing to complete a credit card application.
That’s just a thought exercise, but we’ve all sat in situations where we were part of a captive audience. Whether by choice or not, there’s a fine line and a big difference between an experience that adds or detracts from an experience after the sale.
How do you treat your existing customers? Do they only get attention when there’s issues or you have more to sell? Perhaps there’s untapped creativity that could inspire more lasting joy by letting go?
To spark fresh creativity, consider a quest to delight customers in unexpected ways. Giveaways (without obligation) are an easy way to see how existing customers may react. Impromptu phone calls, handwritten notes, and basically any gesture that shows you care, will naturally retains better customers as well.
As this thoughtfulness is felt within your customer’s experience, more true fans will stick with your team because they care as much as you do. This translates into customer retention, because true fans take pride in staying connected. They have more patience when issues arise and get excited to share your charming work with others.
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“Once you wow an audience, the same trick may not work anymore.” -Seth Godin, Free Prize Inside
I’ve embarked on a campaign to cure my seasonal allergies. Trying to understand the details of this immunotherapy reminds me how clarity effects confidence.
With allergy shots that require weekly visits for the first several months, then monthly visits for 2-5 years, you’d think there would be a sharp collection of resources to highlight treatment options, insurance codes linked to cost of care, and benefits/risk comparisons.
Proactively investing in your health is hard enough. Feeling like you’re taking a gamble without clarity on how a long-term effort may (or may not) come together, makes it way harder. I understand that healthcare is complex because everyone’s body and health habits are different, but there’s seemingly enough commonality to allow for a solid base of standardization, paired with different options and disclaimers to keep the variables in focus. Wish me luck, but this decision-making process has been cloaked in fog.
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“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. Work, family, health, friends, and spirit. And you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends, and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.” –Bryan Dyson
As we look through the lens of entrepreneurship, delivering fearless clarity may put you on the hook and will turn some prospects away, but it adds efficiency to the sales process and leads to more satisfaction from better customers.
This does not mean we simplify everything. Simplification is polarizing, so delivering confidence through clarity is more about sequencing. Try delivering less information to ensure clarity, then support a well communicated slowness with connected resources to meet a prospect’s specific needs. This sequenced effort gives people what they need, when they need it. When everyone feels informed, confidence increases and the opportunity for more lasting collaboration is refined.