When you ask for something what is the feeling you have just before asking? That feeling will pretty much dictate what the answer will be. This applies to asking a favor of friends and loved ones or asking for an influencer’s endorsement even asking for the order from your customer. Your sense of your level of deservedness will have a direct impact on every interaction with the contact.
So the feeling sense behind it has to be confident and “deserving,” not from and entitlement perspective, but from a competency perspective. For example, I am, and my product is competent and worthy to receive the energy of this influencer or sales contact. So, if you might not believe it at some level then how do you turn it around? My answer is 1) good old fashioned research and 2) just ask them!
Research:
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you will have heard this a lot –read, research, investigate. If you are pursuing an influencer to endorse your product or pursuing them as a possible customer, then research them in depth. Find out their likes and dislikes, discover what they have said in the press. Who else is using them and how? What are they saying about the industry, about politics, about their personal lives? If they are a high end influencer in the celebrity category it is easier to find out this information. If they are influencers that are niche or vertically oriented then it requires a little more digging. Lexis Nexis is a great resource, there is also Find Articles and of course Google News. Key in their name, find out what you can, then use it. Reference whatever you have in common with them. Also Spoke is another service that gives some details about their work history.
The next step in the research is as mentioned; use what you find. But offer the influencer something that will benefit them. For example if it is someone I admire and I have used their products before I not only mention that, but I offer how their product has directly benefited me. How, when I read the book or used the product, I experienced “XYZ (insert benefit statement here).” Give them your testimonial; write it so that it is a marketing endorsement that they could actually use. You probably know more about that influencer’s product because you use it. (The end user can often tell you a lot more about the pain that product is solving than you can.) You are helping this influencer by telling them your experience.
Secondly, humanize your approach, notice things, find out their interests then deliver news items or your own personal experience (if you have any) with those hobbies.
Ask Them:
You might want to start by using the research and simply connecting with no agenda. If you have time this is a great way to go. Develop the relationship and they will be much more willing to quickly say “yes” when you ask for something. If you don’t have time use much of what was stated above and ask them (not all in the same email brevity is still the best approach). If they say no ask them why they said no. Qualify it, “in the spirit of improving my approach to important influencers like you, was there something in particular that caused you to say no? Most will respond, and you just got your foot in the door to continue the conversation.
Bottom line is ASK! You won’t get a yes if you don’t ask. By simply approaching most will be pleased that you thought of them and your own credibility factor might just rise. By asking you are starting a dialogue that might not result in an immediate win, but who knows where that relationship will lead down the road. Do some research, pick of the phone and talk to them, or send an email.
This probably sounds a lot like sales, well it is. The caveat I place here is the intention. Once you start to do the research you will see a lot more synergy with the influencer. You will start to experience a kinship and be able to envision the partnership more clearly. These feeling states allow you to have a different energetic perception of the value of your product and that it would also be good for the influencer too. You know for yourself, when you are feeling that a certain relationship makes sense, you are more confident in your approach. The same applies here; the research has made you more confident and allows you to feel as if you know the person better (which you do).
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