What You Can Learn From Angry Misfit Geek on Unique Positioning and Conversion

Remember that inner geek you tried so hard to leave at home when you were in high school?
Or that angry misfit in you that was dying to come out but got stuffed back into the box every time you tried to blend in?
They may not be good for high school survival, but turns out there may be a thing or two we can learn from them to stand out and get more clients:
1. Channel Your Geek for Client Care & Acquisition
The cool ones pretend they don’t care. They pretend they’ve so many friends that they don’t give a crap about anyone.
The geek remembers everything and brings you exactly what you said you want for your birthday. Even if he had to do the uncool thing like, visiting 5 stores to track it down.
If you’re selling something more than a “commodity,” especially services of a highly personal nature such as coaching, healing or consulting, trust and relationship plays an important role in conversion. 
Your clients feel vulnerable in such relationships. They need to TRUST youenough to open up and work with you.
TRUST happens between one human being and another human being.
Trust cannot be automated.
Trust doesn’t happen when you isolate yourself on a pedestal and hoping this autoresponder or that funnel will get you a premium private client without lifting a finger. 

Someone who purchases a $17 ebook can very well turn into a $10k client, if you continue the conversation and build the relationship.
Building trust takes time and genuine interaction. Humanity.Vulnerability. Honesty.
Pay attention to people, faces and names across your mailing list, social media and customer list. E.g. Make your peeps feel warm and fuzzy by mentioning something they post on Facebook when you send them a personal note to check in.
Say hello to customers who purchased your digital products. Send them a personal email to see if they have question about your product and whether you can help with anything.
(Yeah, like, you actually copy and paste the email address, type something and hit send. People can tell automated email from personal email. Most appreciate a personal touch in this age of impersonal automation.)
Check in with potential clients you had conversations with in the past and mention specifics about those interactions. See how they’ve progressed since, and what you can do to help.
Keep tab on your correspondences. Take notes and GIVE A SHIT.
Some relationships are “slow cook.” Not all interactions need to end with a sale right away. Some one can become a client a year or two after an interaction if they leave the conversation with a good impression.
It’s people, not easy-bake oven.
Interact like a human being, not a drone clone sales funnel.
There’s no need to pretend you’re making 10,000 sales a month (if you aren’t) and you’re so damn busy that you can’t check in with your peeps like a human being (at least with a strategically selected handful.)
When your peeps reach out and know that they’re getting a response from the person they want an answer from, you lower the “barrier” erected by virtual interaction.
You build trust and relationship essential for them to further engage with you.
Take note on little things about past clients, potential clients, customers and “random” names on your list. Like all geeks worth her salt.
Mention these details in your correspondences. I use a simple spreadsheet to keep track. I search my email folders to make sure I get the facts straight. I give a shit about my peeps as people, not numbers.
Taking the time to give a crap is what sets YOU apart, not a sparkly sales funnel with a dozen of permutations on up-sell, down-sell and cross-sell.
2. Channel Your Angry Misfit for Unique Positioning
We often regurgitate what other people are already saying in our industry to make sure we’re not being offensive or controversial. That’s human instinct to blend in; to make sure we don’t get kicked out by our caveman tribe.
This isn’t good for marketing. You sound like everyone else and why would people want to buy your stuff or work with you?
Blending in doesn’t make economic sense. The more you sound like everyone else, the more you’d be treated as a “commodity” and the less price elasticity you can get.
You can’t define your positioning by just doing research either. Your positioning is uniquely YOU, and how can you define YOU just by looking at data – aka, other people’s world view?
I’ve seen people trying to define their positioning by drawing lines and plotting dots in quadrants, finding a gap and backing/squeezing themselves into it. Sounds very passive and reactive to me – what do you think?
Staying “straight and narrow” so you don’t stick out, or blending in with the cool crowd so you don’t get picked on can be good for high school survival.
But let’s get rid of that fear of being criticized now that we’ve our big boy/girl panties on.
When I help my clients who’ve struggled for years to nail their unique positioning, staying “level headed” often doesn’t work.
Really good stuff comes out of their mouth when I get them super riled up. (I can be so persistent about finding their Truth that they get annoyed and emotional. But they always thank me later ;))
When they throw caution into the wind and just tell me what piss them off – without worrying about putting what they say into marketing-kosher materials, we find the gems that define who they are and why they’re different.
Here’s ONE simple exercise to find your unique positioning without ~What riles you up about your industry?
~Why aren’t people who work with your competition aren’t getting results?
~What frustrate your peeps most about your industry and competition?
~What do you do differently that create results and avoid the frustrations?
(Some people are better at getting riled up when they speak. If that’s you, record your rant and then come back to it for the gems.)
Write down 5 – 10 titles for blog posts you’d write based on the stuff that came out of the brain dump… no fear, no doubt, no compromise.
Write them down as statements. Like they’re the truest truth for you.
Somewhere in there are your unique POVs.
Map those POVs back to the problem you solve and your ideal clients’ desired outcome… you get your unique positioning.