How to get hired to sew more
The world is busy. In my world, patterns are everything, and I've noticed that acquiring new customers requires that you disrupt their patterns first.
I see one pattern every day - business cards. I think humans abuse them so I don’t use them.
People often think these little pieces of card stock will do the heavy lifting for them. They pass them out like crazy without so much as trying to have a conversation first, and rarely provide value. Those who could level up your business however, aren’t so reachable.
So how are you supposed to bridge the gap?
If you’ve ever asked me for one, odds are, you actually sent a text to ‘Krystal Douglas - Nashville tailor’ the very next day. In my industry, connection is invaluable, but business cards are worthless... why?
My intuition says our mobile devices are the toll booths to customer acquisition - not business cards. I believe people lean on those little cards to do the heavy lifting for them, and rather than forging real, meaningful connections with those they’d like to work with in the future, they exchange cards and give themselves a networking gold star. Both parties move on with their lives because neither party solidified who they were - after all, it's on their business card!
It’s really sad to me - although there’s a handshake, it lacks human connection. So instead of this charade (which rarely leads to ANY interaction), I say “I don’t do business cards.”
The blank stare I get confirms that I’ve successfully disrupted their pattern, and I dance a little bit on the inside.
“Let me put my info in your phone so you have it- I’m going to save my name and ‘Nashville tailor’ next to it just in case you forget my name you can search that and find me.”
I actually don’t ask for their info - I won’t need to. Fortune always favors the bold, and let’s be real, the odds that my number/email was going to get entered into their phone off a business card were slim to none. In the countless times I’ve done this to a prospective client or vendor, only twice has the person not sent a text the next day, which, in 2019, essentially means I’ve sealed the deal on that connection.
Track record: It’s worked on CEOs of internationally-renowned luxury brands, designers I’ve always wanted to work with, military branches, some of the world’s most well-known fashion stylists, and a few cute guys. All of which I’ve done business with as an SMB - a humble sewing company in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sometimes all you need to forge real connections with the next level up is to drop the bravado, be a little bolder, and stop acting like a rockstar in terms of giving out your phone number. What you need is intimacy and empathy for being the solution to other people’s problems - not a business card that makes you seem more legit.
To me, if phones are the toll booth, and they go everywhere with you, I want to already be in there - not floating around a desk drawer next to the extra staples and post-its. Checking texts and emails on your phone is intimate, it’s a habit you’re already conditioned to understand, and since I did the heavy lifting for you by putting myself in there- you can’t help but already feel like working with me is easy. After all, you've just got to send a text, right?
Theres no substitute for true, meaningful connection with someone you’d like to do business with. In the end, you have to do the work- especially when it’s uncomfortable. No matter how you do it, the only way you can change customer acquisition in the macro is by disrupting people’s patterns.
If you’ve been in business 5 years or more, its time to assess why your acquisition patterns are the way they are. Customer acquisition has changed and it’s up to you to evolve with it, or in the least, disrupt the pattern so that you can control the toll roads that lead back to your business.
