Vernon Foster II’s Guide to Impactful Content

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Vernon, thanks for joining us today.

How are you doing, Kwame? Glad to be here.

Doing great. Yeah, man, we're glad to have you. So how about you get us started by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Yeah. So my discipline has evolved over the years. I say, over the last close to a decade now my focus has been on content and specifically video and audio and leveraging content in a way that facilitates the sale. Right. Builds trust, builds that bridge between you and the prospect. And yeah, it's been a great run. Currently, I am the founder and CEO of a company called Visible Demand, where we help B2B clients just leverage these assets and these tools to be able to facilitate the sale and facilitate the growth of the relationships.

Yeah, this is great for the listeners out there. Some of you might be saying, but I'm not in sales. Wait, don't leave yet. Because the tools that we're going to talk about today can be used in any type of situation where it's either a negotiation or persuasive encounter. You're a leader trying to get people on board. I think the more creative you are about how you can use content, the more persuasive you'll be. So it's going to be cool to see how it applies in sales and how it applies more broadly as well, because I don't think enough people think about it strategically as part of the negotiation process. Let's pretend like we don't know anything about this. When you're talking about creating content as part of an overall persuasive strategy, what are we talking about?

Yeah, I think the fundamental basis is really to understand what the pain and the problem of your customer and what they're Experiencing. And through that, if you can understand the pain and you can understand the problem, hopefully, ideally, your product is the solution. And from there, it's really helping the clients understand that if they're not problem aware, helping them become problem aware and then solution aware. So I know that may be very high level, but we can break it down into play by play. But that's the bedrock. Right. That's the fundamental thing that we're trying to do with our content here.

Gotcha. And correct me if I'm wrong on this, Vernon, So what we're talking about is getting the prospect to a point where they understand, increase their problem awareness and their solution awareness. But it's sounding like we are not trying to close a deal via content.

No, you're really just trying to facilitate building a relationship. Right. As you know, Kwame, as most people know, we buy from people that we know like and trust. So if you. If you step back and you think about it, it's like, what. What kind of content can I create to facilitate that relationship? Well, it may be just, you know, reaching out and connecting in the. In a different format. Right. It could be a video. Right. You could use a tool like Vidyard, which I love. I know you use that as well, but by just recording a quick message once you connect with somebody on LinkedIn and say, hey, my name is Vernon. It was nice meeting you, Kwame. Would love to chat with you sometime. I saw that you. It looks like you're working with XYZ clients. I have a few people in my network I'd love to introduce you to and just leave it at that. Really short, really to the point. So really, it's. You want people to become. And this may sound weird, but like, you. You want people to almost be chummy and friendly with you. Right. Because those are gonna be the people that refer you. Those are the people that are gonna feel like you're having a beer at the bar with them or you're on the golf course. Right. That's the type of level of relationship that you want to almost lead with. Right. You wouldn't just lead with asking for the sale. Right. If you're going to a friend. Right. You would lead with being of service and being of value. So that's how you have to think about your content.

Yeah, this is great. Let's think really broadly and then narrow it down again when you're thinking about content, we talked about video. What are some of the things that fall under the content bucket for the purposes of this conversation?

Yeah. So in Terms of different formats. You could use video, you could use podcasts, which you've done really well with over the years. Kwame, you could do courses. LinkedIn is really good for this. LinkedIn has an option for you to be able to do courses. I believe this is something that you've explored as well. And then virtual workshops and webinars. That may sound overwhelming. I know one of the things when we talk to clients, they're like, well, where do I start? There's so many different moving pieces, there's so many different stakeholders. And I tell everybody to start where you're at. What's the, what's the thing that you have, that you have access to right now that is the least path of resistance, right? Because if it's difficult, if it's this overwhelming thing, if you have to put together this massive marketing plan, if you have to take it up to the board of directors and all of these people, it's just never going to get done.

Right.

You're creating bureaucracy where you need momentum. So I would say start where you're at. I love LinkedIn because it's free and pretty much one of the most popular, well known professional networks. So you could literally start by posting on LinkedIn. You can take the most commonly asked questions, I call it the answer simple questions method, the ASQ method. And you can just answer simple questions that some of your people in your industry are struggling with. You can make them problem aware and solution aware at the same time by answering those simple questions. That's a really simple, easy method that anybody can use. It doesn't cost any money out of the marketing budget. You don't have to go and talk to the CEO or the higher ups in the marketing department. You can literally just post on your LinkedIn and add value to people in your market.

Yeah, 100%. And you're honing in on one of those things that I see people do all the time. You have a strategy that can be simple and then you over complicate it in order to not do it. And I think a lot of times really the procrastination, the over complication of the process, I think that is just fear masquerading in intellectualism. So we say, all right, I need to do this, I need to come up with a strategy. I should talk to these six people. After I talk to those six people, I'm like, I have seven more that I need to talk to before I implement this strategy. And then it's eight months down the line and you're like, see I knew it wouldn't work. So you didn't do anything. You just sat there and thought for a long time. So, yeah, you have to take action. And I know in my experience it's been. It's challenging and there's going to be some awkwardness built in, but you have to start taking those shots and building those reps, because that's how you get better. You get better through taking action.

100% agree.

Let's think about the easiest way to get started. Let's use a sales example. I'm in sales and I say, all right, Vernon, I'm following you. How should I get started? What is the simplest thing that I can do to start implementing this strategy?

If you're in sales, there's a really awesome. And let's say, let's just back a step up, right? Because I don't want to assume that people are comfortable on video. Let's just say audio or typing or the written word is more preferable to most people than that, because a lot of people have confidence issues and things that they need to build up before they can even be on camera. So you could take something as simple as your iPhone, if you have an iPhone or any kind of phone, really. You have this thing called Voice Notes. So you could open the Voice Notes app, literally open it on your phone and just record a three, four minute message and just sharing some of the highlights, some of the things that you feel like your prospect would get value out of. Maybe there's new trend coming down the pipeline that they don't see. Maybe there's a new widget or there's a new application that they can use. Right. Maybe it's just how to have a productive morning. Everybody struggles with productivity at some point on their journey and their career or their work or managing a team, and you just lead with that value. So I would bundle that up and that's something that's actually. You could streamline it and send it to multiple prospects. And just as a gift. Hey, I just recorded this audio nugget for you. Not really a podcast, but not really an audiobook. Kind of somewhere in between, Right. And I just wanted to just put this in your inbox. You can post it on Google Drive, if you have Google Drive, or I think in Microsoft One Cloud, and you can basically just drop that link to them and send that to them in an email. Now, the cool thing about that, Kwame, is what did you just do right then? Not only did you stand out from every other prospect that's going to be Sending cold pitches to this prospect. You just elevated your status from not just someone who's just selling, Right. You just almost elevated your status of that relationship to closer to a friend. Right? You've just led with value with something that may not even be related to your product or service. Right. It may actually take them by surprise and they may go, wow, what the heck? Like, this guy actually cares about me. So it's so counterintuitive that we overlook it, but that's a very simple strategy that anyone. It doesn't matter if you're in sales. It doesn't matter if you're at the entry level. That's something that you could send that to your CEO. And how is that going to improve the relationship with your boss or your CEO or your direct superior? So that's something that anybody could do just with having an iPhone or any kind of smartphone and an email account.

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Yeah, definitely. And one of the things that people don't know that you can do that's really powerful with LinkedIn is if you have the mobile app, you can send voice messages. It cuts you off at one minute, but it's something that catches people off guard because number one, they're not expecting to hear your voice. And number two, especially if they only use the desktop, they're like, how did you do that? This is magic. So it catches them off guard in a number of different ways. But yeah, I like this and I like the simplicity because you're triggering what in psychology would call the mere exposure effect, where just because you are introduced to a stimulus multiple times, you start to like the stimulus more. As long, of course, as the stimulus is not awful, as long as it's neutral or somewhat positive, it makes you like the person more. So you're creating more touch points and more personal touch points as well. So you're getting to know the person as a person.

Exactly.

Not just as a trans transactional business colleague, where it's like, all right, we're going to be one and done. And that's type of it.

Exactly. And nobody wants to be treated like a transaction. Right. If you think about all the times you were at the negotiation table or all the times that you. The recent times where you've bought anything, likely it's been something that's emotional. We buy based on emotion. We don't like to admit that, but we buy based on emotion. But there was something that made you. There was a feeling. Right. Not just the solution to your problem. All things equal, if two people are selling the same widget, you're going to go with the person who made you feel wanted, who made you feel like you went the extra mile. So this is just another way of doing that.

Definitely. Now, in your experience with the people that you've worked with, what are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're using this type of strategy?

Yeah, I'd say just being selfish. Right. There's this thing that I call selfish content and there's value based content. Selfish content is about getting what you need. A value based content is about giving the prospect or the customers what they need. And that's a complete different mindset because most of the time we want to hoard the things that we find useful and valuable, like the secret sauce or the methodology or, or the hack or the trick. But what I found in my experience and the client's experience that I've worked with, when we give everything away, when we just lead with, hey, we're going to give you X, Y and Z, and here's the whole playbook, a lot of times they're either overwhelmed by that much value that they're like, look, we can't even implement this on our own. We're just going to hire you because there's just no way we can do this, or they're just like so in love with us because they're actually implementing these things and getting traction. Right. The best thing that you can do is give something away for free and somebody actually get a result from that. Because now they have proof. Not just social proof from your testimonials on your website, but things that they've actually put into action and they've seen results. So what's the likelihood that they're going to hire you now, right. When you get to the negotiation table? It's not even about a negotiation. It's about where do we send the check?

Yeah. Oh, that's great. That's great. Now let's Think about a non transactional type of example. So let's say there's a leader within an organization trying to get their team on board with an initiative. So if that leader comes to you and says, hey, I'm trying to get my team to do xyz, but I'm meeting, I'm running into a lot of resistance. What type of content strategy could you use to kind of warm that up?

Yeah, so in this, in this example, the leader is, is, is, is. And he's working to enroll his, his team into implementing a strategy or a process. Is that correct? Yeah, I, I would say for me, the, the one thing that comes to mind is like, like what's, what's their, how can you make it theirs? How can you enroll them into it? Not being something that's from the top down, but from the bottom up. Most people want to feel valuable and useful. I think they've done studies on this. But most people will take a lower pay cut to know that they're contributing to an organization and they feel valued in that organization. I would say flip it on its head. Don't make it come from the top down, make it come from the top up. And that doesn't mean that like, hey, you just, hey, just throw all caution of the wind and tell them that they have free reign to run with it. You implant the idea, right? You plant the seed and you give them autonomy to create and then they come back to you with how they think it should be. And then you can tweak it, then you can tweak the campaign, then you can tweak the methodology, then you can really just have them bought in based on how they feel like it should be. And a lot of times the people on the front lines are closer to the customer anyway, right? So they're going to be able to give you insights that you aren't going to be able to see in the spreadsheets and the numbers and the calculations. A lot of times that goes over the executive team's head, right? But we have to remember that if you want people bought in, you have to plant the seed, right? Give them the autonomy, make it their idea and, and let them show you what they can create with that. And you'll probably be surprised at what they come back to you.

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. And I think about the times when I'm communicating with the people on my team. I'm recognizing that when I send a voice message or record a video, they appreciate that a lot more. I realize that it creates a bit of an emotional connection between you and the person that you're talking to. So I could type out a message and say, vernon, I appreciate you. You're an important part of this team, blah, blah, blah. And on text, I might read that and say, psh, whatever. But if I can hear your voice and hear the emphasis and hear the passion behind it, then it feels a lot more meaningful. Then I'm a lot more bought in because it makes it a lot more believable. And especially when there's an emotional component to what you're doing or what you're trying to convey. And I mean, in the majority of cases there is some emotional component, even if it's small. Just saying you're valuable. I appreciate you. I'm looking forward to having this conversation again. Reading. I'm looking forward to having this conversation versus hearing somebody say, vernon, I am really looking forward to this conversation. That feels different. And like you said, people buy things emotionally even if they don't want to admit it. They feel a lot better once they get that more personal communication.

And I love that there's a really cool and here's a really cool tool that people could use out there. Zip message. You could almost. In this scenario that we're saying that same leader could take instead of sending an email.

Right.

And their email inbox is already cluttered. Right. The chances of them actually like following through that with that will be less and less likely over as things kind of evolve and come on their plate. But if you just whipped out your phone and recorded a quick 10 second video and just said, hey, Jim, look, I saw what you did last week. I just want to congratulate you on a job well done that really goes a long way and shows leadership in this organization. You fire that off as a, as a zip message or, you know, something like that. There's a lot of tools that you can use. I like zip message personally. And there you go. Right. You have just enrolled that person into and seeing themselves as a leader in the organization. And it saved you a bunch of time because you didn't have to send a song drawn out email. Yeah.

Yes. The, the video messages, the audio messages, they're a lot easier to send. And they're a lot easier to receive too. Because if you take the text from a video message and put it into an email, it could look like an act of aggression. It's like, oh my goodness, like, what is it, eight paragraphs? What was that? What are you doing? I'm not reading this exactly. I might act like I did But I'm not really reading it. But you know what I've realized again, especially if it's something that. Again, like I said, an emotional component or if it's at all complicated, again, just hearing that voice helps people to absorb it a little bit better. And I know one of the things that you've used really well when it comes to creating trust and building relationships is you've been very, very generous with what it is that you have, like, with your knowledge. And I know you have something that you wanted to give the audience to.

Yeah. So I think when we look out in the B2B world, right. In the corporate space, there's a lot of angst about, like, what types of content should I create? Right. And a lot of people are really missing the mark because we see what other companies do, and then we say, oh, well, I'm going to copy exactly what they're doing. But that may not necessarily be the right formula for your audience. Right. For your prospects and your customers. So I've actually put together this guide. It's really the five content types that every company must be using in 2020 and beyond to succeed. And I would be happy to give that away to your audience just as a way to say thank you.

Yeah, appreciate that. Appreciate that. And everybody, we are going to link to that in the description, so make sure you check that out. But, Vernon, before you go, I want to give you an opportunity to. To remind the listeners about what you do and how they can get in touch with you.

Yeah, totally. So visibledemand.com is where you can find me. That's visibledemand.com and what we do is it's very unique and very custom. Right. I don't think there's a lot of companies out there that do what we do, but we really sit down with B2B organizations to help them concoct and create a content strategy across multiple, multiple platforms. Right. So that could be courses, that could be podcasting, that could be video. And we do that in a way that streamlined, in a way that serves the organization to where it has a direct impact on their sales and a direct impact on their engagement with their team.

This is great, Vernon. Really appreciate it, my friend. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks, Kwame. I appreciate you having me on.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

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