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​​Howdy, Moz fans? On today's Whiteboard Friday, we're gonna tackle the toughest question in customer stories, far and away the biggest challenge we saw across 300 plus companies, and that's getting buy-in to do these things in the first place. How do you get customers to agree to be featured? How do you make the ask? How do you scale this and make it something that can happen beyond just you?

So we're gonna dive right in. I'm gonna give you some really practical ways of tackling this challenge, and we're gonna start by just unpacking what does “no” actually mean? Where does a “no” come from? So when your customer says “no” to taking part in a customer story, what are they really saying? Where is that coming from?

Fear

And that can be coming from a place of fear. So what will be said about me? How will I be made to look? Will you make me look stupid? What will be exposed in the story that my competitors might see?

So how do we counter fear? How do we address this underlying reason for a “no”? And the answer is we give them control. We give them control over the situation right away. We don't wait for them to ask for it. We volunteer to them. Nothing will go live without your approval, and that's a sentence you can take to the bank. Nothing goes live without your approval. Let them know they have a voice in how they're presented and how this story's gonna come together.

Inconvenience

Well, what else could a “no” mean? Where else could a “no” come from if not fear? It might just be the inconvenience. How long is this gonna take me? What are you asking of me? What do I need to give up to make this possible for you? Because to some extent, they're doing you a favor when they agree to be in a story.

So how do we address this issue of inconvenience? And that really comes down to giving them the process, letting them know, "Hey, this is not the big ask that you might be mentally making it out to be." So it's as simple, again, a one sentence way of tackling this is to tell them it's as easy as taking part in a short interview and then having a chance to review the draft. You're reaffirming that control, and you're letting them know this is not huge.

And if you can truthfully say of your process that it takes no more than 30 minutes to an hour, that's not the big ask. Even you might think it is. So your win rates are gonna go up when you let them know, "Hey, here's what's involved."

Greed

But okay, it's not fear; it's not inconvenience. What else could it be? It might be greed. The whole “what's in it from me” factor? And that's something we have to contend with. The truth is, while they're doing a favor for you, they also stand to gain a lot. Whether it's looking smart in front of the camera or in front of their audience in a written piece. Something that makes them look good, something that makes them look like a genius who made the right decision. Whether it's a link for SEO, whether it's positive press, whether it's exposure to your social community, there will always be some sort of benefit that you can point to, or even benefits plural, that you can point to that they will take something out of this experience too. And it's important to

highlight that because it shows this kind of duality of the situation.

So, alright, we'll take all of this and a cheat sheet, a bit of a way of bringing this together that makes it easy not only for them to understand, but to sell it internally is a pitch packet. And a pitch packet is just a simple one to two page doc that expands on these things. Reaffirms you have total control. Reaffirms, here's the process and the steps that we'll go through. And if you're smart, include some beautiful examples if you have any already that can really help get them excited about taking part.

So, okay, you've countered fear, but you can still drop the ball on the one-yard line. So when we're actually making the ask, be it on a call or in an email, what should we think about when we're actually using the language, and in the moment, making that ask?

Keep it short

Well, three things. Number one, keep it short. When we're nervous, we tend to over-communicate. We tend to overexplain, we tend to give too much information in hopes that by giving them everything, it'll shield them from any kind of fear or any kind of objection. It actually accomplishes the opposite. Big amount of text or big amount of talking

makes the concept feel big, makes the the ask feel big. So we wanna keep it short.

Personalize it

The next thing is it needs to be personal. I don't care if you have a template that everybody on your sales team uses or your team uses, you need to bring that personal element in. Under no circumstances can this feel like a form letter that you blasted out to everyone because that is not something that I'm gonna be interested in. I'm about to share something very personal, a very exposing for me. I wanna know that you came to me for a reason. We'll talk more about that in a sec.

Make it feel safe to say “yes”

And then the third one is safe. And that might feel like a bit of a strange word to have here, but the truth of the matter is you want your ask to feel like something that's easy to agree to right now. That they feel they have the cognitive ability and load and everything ready to say yes to. Something that they can make that decision right now on their own. So rather than saying, "Here's all the information and will you get on camera right now, and do you wanna hop on an interview?" Might be as simple as saying, "Are you open to taking part? Can I share more information with you?" That's a safer ask.

So how do we take these three things now and enact it in real life? I wanna share a framework with you that's worked wonders for me over the years. And that's the sixth sentence. Ask. It's as simple as six sentences.

First sentence, why them? Why have you chosen them? What is it about their story? Bring a specific in right away. It could be something like, we've been talking about clients who've succeeded in X and you came to mind right away. Or this person recommended you because reason. Have something there that points to why them specifically. Why you're asking them.

Why now, what is it about this time? It could be as simple as we're working on a library of stories and you came to mind. It could be we have a campaign we're hoping to launch, but give them a reason for the timing. Make it feel urgent and interesting and important for them to take part now instead of later or a year from now.

What's the story? This is if you don't take anything else into account, take this one into account. What are the specifics of what you want to share? So X, Y, Z, it could be, "We'd love to feature you because you've achieved X metric or because you've seen why outcome or because you fit Z profile. Or we'd love to highlight this particular part of our relationship together." Lay that out from the outset. Dispel all fear, dispel all ambiguity around what it is you're planning to put in that story that will help them feel more comfortable taking part that will help their legal team and their PR and the rest of their team feel better about taking part.

Then why bother? Or what's involved. So what is the process? We're now bringing back this process piece. So what does it take to get involved? Again, keep that to a single sentence.

And then why bother? What's in it for them? What benefits do they stand to gain?

And finally, what's next? If they agree, what's the next small, manageable, safe step that they need to take? So as you think about making your ask, don't overcomplicate it. Don't make it too long. Keep it personal, keep it safe. Use the six-sentence framework, and I promise your win rates are gonna improve over whatever it is you're doing now. Have a great week to come.