Break The Rules And Be More Approachable

I’ve had my pair of Vibram FiveFingers Classics for a few days now, and I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had because of these shoes alone. I’ll be the first to admit that these shoes are different—but not too different. They are just different enough to make me seem more approachable and give people a reason to start speaking to me.

I didn’t get these shoes for the purpose of starting conversations, I wanted to see if they were more comfortable on my flat feet than conventional shoes. My friend at Organic Jar said they are the most comfortable shoes he’s had on his flat feet, and after the short break-in period, I can tell you that I love them.

But all these conversations got me thinking: what if we purposely broke convention by adding a new look or offering a unique service that was outside the industry standard as a way to get people talking about our business?

There are plenty of examples of  businesses that have combined unconventional ideas to help spread the word, some even building them into their business model. Think about how uniquely amazing it was when Priceline first offered to give you their costs as well as their competitors, or how much GoDaddy.com’s first Super Bowl ad skyrocketed its sales and awareness (they’ve since way overplayed the “sexy” in my opinion).

The fact is that if you’re doing business as usual, there’s nothing for anyone to talk about. Awhile back I wrote that my jeweler pays for the parking tickets his customers receive while in his store. I found that remarkable, so I told everyone about it, and I wrote about it on my blog (the store is Hand’s Jewelers in Iowa City—I didn’t mention their name in the original piece because I said something negative about another business, and I didn’t want to cause them to lose customers).

So what can you do that people may not expect? Perhaps you can offer a complimentary 10 minute massage from a professional masseuse for waiting patrons (even if it’s just on a random day once a month). Or perhaps you can donate a small percentage of your profits each month to a different charity and have your clients vote for the charity on your website.

As a business owner or marketer, you must get people interested and get them talking. How are you accomplishing this now?

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2 Comments Tagged as: approachability, communication, conversation, differentiation

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