Ethan Beute: How to Start Re-Humanizing Your Online Business Today

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Being a successful entrepreneur means having an online presence. However, it can be difficult to maintain a close connection with customers in an impersonal online world. Enter Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, a software company where the goal is to help you rehumanize your business.

Beute explains that at BombBomb, they make it their mission to get people face to face with more people more often. And they’re making it happen. In the last eight years, they have gone from helping around 200 customers rehumanize their business to helping 45,000 customers all but eliminate faceless online interactions — all through the power of video. As Chief Evangelist, Beute sees his role at BombBomb as that of having a problem to solve as opposed to having a product to sell.

We want to rehumanize your communication. The pendulum is swung too far toward faceless digital communication.

Simplicity is Key

As the owner of a small company or one just starting out, you may be wondering how you’re going to swing allocating more funding to promotional materials if video is the way to go. Beute stresses that the videos BombBomb encourages entrepreneurs to use in their online presence is a casual, unscripted, simpler style of webcam or smartphone video. It is not about spending loads of cash on a polished, scripted video. Rather, the goal, Beute discloses, is simply to replace two paragraphs of text so that you can express your enthusiasm, sincerity, gratitude, or concern (or whatever your message may be) far better than through typed words alone. Your business will be far more successful if you are yourself more often when communicating with potential customers or investors.

Fans, Not Customers

You may have heard that the secret to amassing loyal customers is to create fans — fans who not only love your product but also love you, your business, and what you stand for. When you include video in your messages, people will feel that they know you far better, even before they’ve met you. Since your personality and non-verbal communication shine through, customers (and fans!) will understand your message far more clearly and be able to form an emotional attachment and psychological proximity far more easily than if they were just reading typed out text on your website.

Beute admits that this is also a far more satisfying way to work. You get to be who you are and build trusting relationships while doing so. He refers to a wholeness and integrity that appear when you can be yourself. When you are consistent with your own values and you can convey them in an informal video, you’ll end up attracting like-minded people who can’t help but become your fans.

Some Pro Tips

In this interview, Beute offers us loads of helpful advice on how to rehumanize your business. Here’s a synopsis:

Don’t send all your messages with videos. Aim to strike a balance. Flooding customers with too many videos will result in a loss of impact. When you do send a video, make the message specific and tailored to that customer’s situation. Include clear-cut statements such as “Thank you so much for your time on the phone today,” or “Congratulations on your one year anniversary with us.”

Focus on what’s in it for the customer. The customer always comes first. Your loyalty may lie with your business’s mission, but without customers, there’s no way of fulfilling that mission. When creating video content, be sure to ask yourself why a customer would want to listen to what you have to say. Are you just sharing your point of view or is there something in it for them?

Focus on the 25% of customers who read your email, not the 75% who didn’t. It’s easy to be discouraged when you get a very low open rate. Beute encourages business owners to stop worrying about what people don’t do and focus on the people who did do something. Focus on the people who act in a trackable setting, whether that’s by clicking through a Facebook ad, opening an email, or playing a video in an email. The benefit, in this case, is that you can speak specifically to — and invest time in — the people who have made the effort to show you they’re interested.

Allow your customers to be heard. Beute strongly recommends talking to your successful customers. Get to know them. Find out why they’ve been loyal customers, whether you’re truly meeting their needs, and whether they’re using your product or service in the way you assume they are. Learning who your customers are and how you’re meeting their needs will tell you how well your product or service fits in the market. It will also give you a better idea of who’ll be your customer two years down the road.

The more you learn from your current customers, the better questions you’re going to ask your new prospects and future customers.

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Transcription of Interview (Transcribed by Otter.ai; there may be errors.)

Adam Force 0:11
Hey, what’s going on everybody, welcome back to the Change Creator podcast show. If you missed last week’s episode, it was with the one and only Perry Marshall. He’s like one of the kings of marketing. And he wrote the book on the 80/20 rule, literally. And we had a really great conversation on a lot of key topics in the marketing space. So if you missed it, circle back, check that out. Today, we’re going to be talking to somebody by the name of Ethan Beute, and he’s with this company called BombBomb. And they’re all about re-humanizing your business.

And they use the power of video. I mean, these guys have done over 12,000 videos themselves. And they do have a Amazon number one bestseller book in the under the business and sales category, and it’s called Rehumanize Your Business. So we’re going to dive into a lot of the techniques and strategies on you know, building trust, creating a human connection with people in today’s crazy, you know, digital world. So this is a really valuable discussion. And we’re excited to tap into that with Ethan. So stick around and check that out. Captivate 3.0 is moving along for those of you that are following the updates.

We have a lot of really interesting developments. And the first iteration of the platform has been released to our current members and the doors will open again soon, we’re hoping by the end of September or so, we’ll be ready to open the doors again. So keep an eye out and right now on changecreator.com, on the homepage, you’ll find a place to click into Captivate. And you can get on the waiting list if you’re interested to make sure you’re one of the first people to know when we open up the new program with all the updates and everything else. Exciting stuff.

And so that’s a big focus for us now. And I think I’m just going to close it out there guys. Don’t forget to leave us reviews on iTunes, and all the other great platforms. We’re on Spotify now and stuff like that. So really appreciate all your support. Join us on Facebook. This is a main area where we do a lot of our updates. We have our Facebook page and the Facebook group for those of you who are really interested in kind of stepping up your marketing and connecting with some of these like minded social impact entrepreneurs. And that’s it guys. Let’s dive into this conversation with Ethan and see what he has to say about rehumanizing your business.

Announcer 2:22
Okay, show me the heat.

Adam Force 2:26
Hey, Ethan. Welcome to the Change Creator podcast show. How you doing today, buddy?

Ethan Beute 2:30
I’m doing awesome. I really appreciate the invite. I’m excited for what you’re doing.

Adam Force 2:34
Yeah, it looks like you guys are doing some cool stuff, man. So I am excited to hear more about it and see what kind of nuggets we can get from you on the sales and marketing side of things. So just to tee up everybody that’s listening right now. Tell us, you know, what’s the latest and greatest in your world today, what’s going on?

Ethan Beute 2:54
I’m with a software company called BombBomb. And our whole goal is to get people face to face with more people more often. And so, for me, I recently had a title change that captures…You know, I’ve been I’ve been with the team eight years full time. And I’ve had the same title most of the time, which is something like VP of Marketing. But the job has never been the same from year to year. When I started, we had about 200 or 300 customers. And now we’ve got about 45,000. And so it’s, you know, been a dramatic change.

And so the most recent change for me was a title change to Chief Evangelist, which for folks who aren’t familiar is a somewhat common, although not particularly common title, especially in the software world. And it’s this idea that, you know, you have a problem to solve, not just a product to sell. But you know, if you’re truly innovating in what you’re doing as an organization, as a company, and as an individual, someone needs to be out on the front kind of cheerleading it, raising up awareness of the problem.

And the good news that there’s a solution. And so I’ve been a little bit more out front, related to the issues that we have today with our faceless digital communication, which I assume we’ll get into. So that’s been fun. For me, it’s a little bit less operations oriented. And it involves a lot of relationship building, which is always of course a pleasure.

Adam Force 4:21
Yeah, yeah, no, and that’s more important than ever today. I mean, relationship building is always important. But you know, as we get more digital, I think there’s a disconnect, and we’re kind of filling that gap. So it sounds like you guys are trying to address that with your video solutions, yeah?

Ethan Beute 4:37
Absolutely.

Adam Force 4:39
So tell me a little bit about, you know, I guess what, how is your…how are these videos…Like, tell us a little bit about the product that you do have? Because I’m curious on not just the product itself, but like what it’s doing for people like what is that need to…How are you addressing the relationship factor?

Ethan Beute 4:59
Yes, thank you for asking. It’s, it’s the whole reason we exist. And we can get into the mission behind the company if we want to. But from a product standpoint, and what it looks like and feels like to the customer who doesn’t necessarily go behind the curtain to understand what we’re deeply about, we want to rehumanize your communication, you know. The pendulum is swung too far toward faceless digital communication.

Every single day, someone who’s listening to this podcast, including you, I guess, is interesting, some of your most important and therefore most valuable messages to a form of communication that doesn’t build trust and rapport. It doesn’t differentiate you and it doesn’t communicate nearly as well as if you look someone in the eye and so and just spoke to him or her right. And so, you know, when a lot of people hear video in a sales or marketing context, they think lights, scripts, editing, production, and all of that. And that’s cool. Like, if you and your team are doing that, keep doing it, it can be really useful.

We’re all all about this casual, unscripted, simpler style of webcam and smartphone video, that is not meant to replace that killer video on your homepage that you paid $3,000 for and is gorgeous, and makes you look like a million dollars. This is about replacing two paragraphs of typed out text so that you can express your enthusiasm, or your sincerity or your gratitude, or your concern, or your education or you know, whatever it is that you want to communicate, you’re going to do so much better, if you’re more yourself more often.

And the upside is people feel like they know you before they meet you. They understand your messages more clearly. They have this emotional attachment and psychological proximity to you and your team members, even in the absence of a physical proximity, which is a super interesting dynamic, and it’s very, very powerful. And it’s so ultimately, it’s more effective day to day, than relying exclusively on playing typed out text. But it’s also a more satisfying way to work.

Adam Force 7:03
Yeah, so I guess what does this mean for people and their sales process?

Ethan Beute 7:10
It means that you can get face to face earlier and more often in the process. You know, so many organizations are working, you know, obviously, regionally, where it’s difficult to you know, get together in person with some of the most important stakeholders in your success and your prospects and your customers and all these other people. But of course, if you’re working nationally or internationally, it’s basically impossible. And it’s impossible to do on a consistent basis is to spend that quality time face to face. And so this opportunity to do an initial introduction to respond to an inquiry, right, so many of us get these questions.

And I’ll give a specific video tip here. And again, by the way, I’m talking about just hitting record on your webcam or smartphone. With us, we do it in a variety of instances in Gmail and Outlook and Salesforce in our own web app and our mobile apps, etc. But no matter where you’re doing it, it’s just hitting record and talking to people. And so, again, an initial introduction or if someone reaches out to you with a question, you can just hit reply and talk to people and answer their question very specifically. Or if it’s a frequently asked question, you can record the video once and you have it at hand. So that when that comes up again, or if you want to build an onboarding sequence, right, if someone signs up for your product or your service, and you want to answer the four most common questions you get from someone who does that, you can do it once with video.

And you can blend that with, you know, the typed out text and maybe links to other articles or support pieces if you want to. But what it allows you to do is lead with your very best sales asset, which is you. Ultimately when people say yes, they’re saying yes, not just to the product, or the service and the price point and the terms and conditions and the mission that you might be on and in the values that you’ve expressed. They’re saying so you as a person and the trust and rapport that you’ve built with that person, that you’re not only competent to deliver whatever you’ve promised, but they also have this warmth, that you’re going to act in their best interest and really do it with integrity.

Adam Force 9:13
So yeah, I mean, and that’s great. And I like that makes a lot of sense. And I think more face time is important. And I kind of want to tap a little bit into the customer experience, right? So, you know, we’re going through the steps, and you’re labeling this as re humanizing the business. You know, what does this mean for someone who’s in the first couple years of their business? And if they were going to…they’re setting up their sales narrative across their website and stuff, I mean, I’m curious on the experience that you have maybe based on your background and stuff in the company that you guys are running, like, what is that customer experience like today that they should be keeping an eye out for?

Ethan Beute 9:56
You know, in general, when I hear customer experience, I think you know, the feelings and stories that people are left with, as they encounter you and your brand in your organization, the people on your team, etc. And so what this allows people to do is have a stronger attachment. So for us, when we were a much smaller company…You know, we’ve of course always used our own product, but not just to sell it–to sell it, serve it, represent it, to build relationships with people and what what I’ve found, you know, again, in the path from 200-300 customers to 10s of thousands is that I have this core initial group of people who I know personally, and when I’ve met some of them in person, two specific things happen.

One, a big warm hug, like we’re long lost friends, and I’m not a big hugger, I’ll hug people i like i like hugging people, I don’t think there’s enough physical contact in the world. But you know, I’m not a big hugger by nature, but I’ll hug them. And then we have to take a moment and establish, have we actually ever met in person before because that feeling is often easy to lose. And so what I’m saying is we built these friends and fans early on, by being ourselves. It wasn’t this, you know, you put up a website these days, just from experience standpoint, you can put up a really smartly designed good looking website that’s relatively frictionless. It’s well written, you know, you maybe use something like the story brand framework to get your message really clear. And people can walk in. And they don’t know if you’re a 50 person shop or a 500 person shop or a 5000 person shop, and you can look like you are.

And so ultimately behind that no matter what size you are this idea that people feel attached to Tim, or Jennifer, or Bill, or Jeff or all of them, if they’re all on the same team that they’ve interacted with you in a much more real and personal way. This movement is so young, that the act of communicating in this way from time to time — you don’t send all your messages with videos — but when you pick your spots, again, congratulations, you know, on your one year anniversary with us. Thank you so much. I hope we’ve been of value to you. Thank you so much for your time on the phone today, I hope you understand more clearly the opportunity, I want to address again, some of the exciting things for you and some of the concerns that you had. Then you pick your spots, and you communicate more in this way. It’s not just about understanding the information more effectively, it’s now they have a personal attachment and emotional investment at kind of that social reciprocity, right?

Like these unspoken thoughts and feelings that turn into behaviors and commitments and make us more likely to recommend or to take the next step or you know, even if it’s just from a reciprocal standpoint, even if it’s out of a feeling of obligation, I’m going to reply to that email more often, which is something we’ve seen statistically as well as through survey data and anecdotes that people get more more replies to their emails, when they ask people to reply in a video, right. And so there are all these benefits. But I think the most important one is that people are more connected, and they understand the information you’re trying to convey more clearly.

Adam Force 13:17
Yeah, it is interesting, and you know, putting that personal touch in there, we see a lot of value in it. And I think people…a point of clarity, too, for me in our experienc is that people get really hung up on, you know, the numbers like Oh, so if I do these videos, am I going to go you know, and get huge like, you know, viewership or go viral or you know, whatever it might be. And that’s not necessarily the goal here, the goal is to connect right with the right people who are really going to resonate with what you’re saying. So, you know, getting a few of the right people is more valuable than a lot of the wrong people. Right?

Ethan Beute 13:54
I’m 100%. And I’ll say a couple things there. One, if you’re evaluating video and video solutions and things, you’re going to see that promise, you’re going to see some snake oil type stuff that’s like, you know, we’re going to double this, we’re going to triple that. And to be fair, you know, when I did a survey, 15% of the people said they doubled or more than doubled their reply rate. 40% of people said they doubled or more than doubled their ability to stay in touch effectively. So you will get some of that stuff. But there are companies out there, they’re like, basically selling magic.

And there’s, and it’s interesting, because we get the residual effect of that on our side where people come in with these just unrealistic expectations that this is going to solve all of their woes. I will tell you though, it’s going to…again, it’s more effective, you’re going to get some better results. But it’s also more satisfying, and that you get to be who you are, and you get to win on who you are. So I just want to say that like to caution people say go out and read blog posts and headlines. There’s clickbait stuff, they’re over promises, etc. The other thing you said that super important, is this idea that it’s about the first five people or 10 people. I think of Seth Godin when I think about that, but it ties to this bigger idea that’s much more well established today than ever, which is that your current customers are your best source of your next customers, right?

This idea that we can go out and buy Facebook ads or Google AdWords and you know, follow people around with retargeting ads, it’s all good. And a lot of it is still relatively affordable. And you can produce a profitable customer from those things. But your very best source of your next customer is your current customer and the way they think and feel. And again, most importantly, talk about you is the best thing that you can create for your sales and marketing team.

Adam Force 15:45
Yeah, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, we have found you know, that, yes, you have Facebook marketing, and you can always buy traffic, you can always pay for ads, you can always do those types of things, but you can’t buy trust, right. So when you’re putting out you know, and using video, and you’re trying to build a more intimate and personalized relationship with the right audience, that’s just something you can’t buy. So if you’re not set up, right, you’re not set up on your website, or wherever, on the digital environment, you can go and get all the traffic in the world.

But you’re not going to be converting people and getting people really to trust you as a company and a person and all that stuff. So I see a lot of people going out after all the tactics like I’m going to pay for this traffic on YouTube ads, or Facebook, all this stuff. But then they’re not paying attention enough to the actual conversion of turning people into like action takers who trust you and become loyalists and advocates like you’re talking about. So there’s a major gap there and a disconnect for people I think.

Ethan Beute 16:44
Absolutely. Because you know, we’re just looking for Gosh, things haven’t been as good the past couple of months, I need to fix something. And in the quick fix is what…and this is true in fitness. It’s true in diets. It’s true in our lifestyles in general. It’s just our natural tendency to say, what’s the one thing I can do right now that’s going to change everything? And you know the answer, you know, you might find that, but it’s so much less likely than making a couple good decisions today. And a couple more good decisions tomorrow. But one thing I’ll add just from my decade with the company eight years full time in two years working with them part time prior to joining is that I think one of the most fundamental keys to our success is that we’ve had approximately the same core values.

And I say approximately, because, you know, we’ve changed the way they’re stated it started as four sentences with supporting statements, then it turned into eight short phrases. And, you know, for the past five, six years, it’s been five specific words, each with their own kind of supporting, you know, two, three lines. But we’ve been operating for the same purpose and from the same values from the beginning. And this, you know, when it’s a true thing, and it’s not just just an exercise you go through because someone told you, you should do it. And you’re in you’re honest with yourself and your other team members and the closest stakeholders in the organization, about why do we actually exist? And what value do we provide in the world? And how this is the how part not just the why — why is a very popular term lately — but how is the real practical application of the why you can sit and ponder and sit in the why forever. But the How is actually the filter for how are we going to turn this into action? So what does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like?

And when when you do the exercise well, you wind up at this point of wholeness and integrity, where the people involved are actually expressing the way they view the world through the work. And people can see that and feel that especially when you do it in video, especially if there’s some sincerity and some excitement around what you’re doing. Video captures all of that nonverbal and puts it forward. And so if you’re not clear on what you’re trying to do at a high level, not just from a strategy and positioning, and go to market standpoint, how are we going to package it? How are we going to price it and all that.

But like the real deep stuff, that’s obviously where you get that persistence, that you need to get through the ugly hard times, because we all go through them, and they don’t go away. They just change. We going through hard ugly times, even though on the outside it looks like we’re this you know, overnight success, overnight decade open success. Anyway, I didn’t mean to go off on that monologue. But if you haven’t spent the time to understand what you’re really doing, and why are we all showing up every day, I don’t think you necessarily have a strong enough foundation to get through those two tough months where I started, you know, three minutes ago on this topic.

Adam Force 19:51
No, I think you’re you’re right on point with how we think about it as well, because a lot of times people are looking for that new shiny object to save them. And we see it a lot. And so, you know, if you don’t have your foundation of the house built, it’s going to continue to be a struggle, right? So you really, you know, it’s funny, because you hear it all the time. And I can read it, book after book. And you know, we interviewed people like Seth Godin, and he’ll tell you, it’s like, if you haven’t taken the time to seriously dig into, which is becoming cliche, like the why and all that stuff.

But hey, it’s it is a reality. You have to understand your true intentions, which inform your business decisions, right? And so if you have all that stuff, really, you know, pinned down, I think you’re right, this is…everything else starts to come into play. And it makes the tough times a little easier to get through because you have a real mission and intention in what you’re doing.

Ethan Beute 20:44
Completely agree.

Adam Force 20:45
Yeah. So I just wanted to talk a little bit then like, I want to, I’m covering a little bit of this, this customer experience. And I think because people we’ve noticed that we talk a lot, we talk a lot with our audience. And you know, sales is a always a struggle, right? We’re not necessarily profitable yet. And even the money we get has to go back and the business is like when do I get paid, right? And we are in the social impact space. So we’re trying to make a difference.

And the more we can be financially successful means the more impact we can have with the mission of the business. So you know, we talked a little bit about having the audience warmed up by creating stronger relationships using, you know, video in authentic ways. And now I want to touch on email marketing and content marketing. I think this is an area that you have expertise in. And so if we’re flowing the experience, you know, we want to continue that consistency of building those relationships. Tell me a little bit about your experience in the email marketing and content marketing space, how that all translates as well.

Ethan Beute 21:54
Sure, absolutely. Well, the first thing I’ll say for people that don’t have any background here and might feel like they’re a little out of their depth, or they read a book, and they don’t understand all the terms and phrases and all that, when I joined this company, I had no specific experience in email marketing in particular. Content made sense to me. I always liked to shoot photos, just personally. I was very comfortable with video because I came up in broadcast TV and wrote and produced and edited spots and campaigns and stuff. And I’ve always been a big reader, not really a big writer except in an academic setting. But all those pieces worked well for me. And so what I’ll say is, if you’re on the outside looking in, you’re going to learn so much just by doing it, you’re not going to do it perfectly well.

But the key thing in both of these scenarios is just like in video, this is simply a way to reflect who you are and how you want to be of value and service to your customer. And so it all starts with the customer, what’s in it for them. One thing I hear all the time, because you know, one thing you can do with our services, send an email or a video email to 50 people or 500 people or 5000 people or 50,000 people. And it’s like, you know, I only got a 32% open rate. Why didn’t these other 68% of the people open it? And to that, I’ll speak to both sides of that first, stop worrying about what people don’t do.

This goes back to like the first five people. Focus on the people who did do something, right focus on the people who raise their hand with their real behavior in a trackable setting, whether that’s by clicking through a Facebook ad, or opening up an email or clicking your link in an email or playing a video in an email, you know, that’s the benefit of this is that you can speak specifically to you can invest your time in the people who’ve shown with their real behavior that they’re interested. The other thing I’ll say, though, is that why didn’t she Why didn’t he? Why didn’t they is backward looking. If you think about before you ever write a word of a blog post, or you or you know, you may be done some keyword research, and you know what you want to write about from a? How can I generate some traffic from this post standpoint, it still needs to go through this filter, as does any email or video email or whatever is? What’s in it for them? Why should they participate?

Why would he open this email? Why would or why should she play this video? What’s in it for them? So often, our default, especially if we’re not, if we don’t spend a lot of time in these areas and on this type of work, we want to just go see what we have to say and say it. Instead of putting the other person first, your entire right to serve your mission with the revenue you generate through your customers is exclusively a function of the value that you provide your customer. The customer always comes first. I know it feels like the mission is more important. But the mission can only be served if you’re providing value to customers.

And so if you can keep that in mind and think about what’s in it for them, why would they click through this headline on LinkedIn or Twitter or Facebook or whatever to go read the whole piece? What’s in it for them? And how can I position it? in their words, in their thoughts, etc? Same thing with subject lines, email bodies, and all of that.

Adam Force 25:14
Yeah, no, I think…I love that it makes sense. And you do have to think about what’s in it for them and the results that they’re getting, why would they participate? One thing I would call out just to kind of put it out there for people is that there is one mistake people make. And when you’re always thinking about the customer, um, historically, there has been mistakes made where you’re constantly trying to adapt your marketing strategy to meet the customer, you know, which means that you start, like drifting away from your values and your authenticity, and you’re constantly chasing them, versus attracting the right customer for who your business really is.

And that’s one thing just to be wary of, because, yes, I think you have to think about like, what’s in it for them. And I always even say the first thing on your homepage, like that first tagline should be who this is for, and what’s the result they’re getting, like if they work with you. So that has to be clear. And it is for us to remember who it’s for, though, don’t lose touch with it. And people get too worried about like, well, we gotta adapt to what’s going on in the market. And what these people are looking for, and all these things, when sometimes that can lead them away from their true customer and who it really is. Maybe they’re just not the right person sometimes, you know what I mean?

Ethan Beute 26:29
Yes, and one to do there on a list is, you know, if you’re not…let’s say you are young and still growing — not fully as successful as you want to be, maybe even not even as successful as you want to be in this moment, or at this stage — talking to your real successful customers. If you’re not doing that now, I strongly, strongly recommend it. This is where you break away from the imagination where even if you’ve written personas like yeah, you know, my persona is Jenny, and she works in this role. And she’s 42 years old, and she drives this kind of car. And she worries about these kinds of things. You know, that’s all good as a thought exercise, but the real money is in who’s actually paid me for the last 18 months straight?

And can I talk to them? And are they getting you know, is the reason they’re renewing the reason I think they’re renewing is the way they’re using the product or service the way I thought they would be using the product and service. This is where you find that real like that real met need. And like the product market fit. We went through a couple rounds of that. And it’s it’s just always so informative to talk to real people.

And the challenge here is to filter. You got to recognize, you know, who’s an outlier and where the real sweet spot is. But, you know, trying to be everything to everyone is a very common mistake early on, and being very clear about, you know, of the 200 customers I have right now, who are the ones that are going to be with me two years from now? Who are the ones that have been with me for two years? And what’s unique can different about those people?

Adam Force 28:01
Yeah, yeah, 100% agree. And those are conversations, I think people should just keep having, you know, you never know how people may be using the product, why they love it, who they are, what their current situation is, and all that stuff. And I think we’ve had over you know, well over 100 conversations with people. And it’s like an ongoing thing. And one of the most interesting things for us early on was, you know, we were doing market research calls, like you mentioned, and just kind of talking to people that were getting involved with our brand, learning about them, and just kind of having nice intro conversations. Then we got to a point where we had some other products and stuff. And we were like, Well, before we do anything digital, let’s see if we can sell this over like a zoom call with somebody right there on the spot, right, like a phone call.

And we did video calls. And that kind of research was super interesting. Because you know, if you can actually get on the phone and sell to somebody, you’re going to hear firsthand like their objections and all the stuff that they go through. It’s a different dynamic when you try to sell versus like doing the actual market research. So we found these two camps, which is one, the market research people that are buying, getting involved, learn about them and what makes them unique. And then two, when you get on the phone. Now let’s say you know your customers, now you’re getting on the phone with them and you’re trying to sell new people directly, you’re going to get a whole new dynamic of information that informs your sales narrative.

Ethan Beute 29:24
Yeah, and it’s all you know… The more you learn from your current customers, the better questions you’re going to ask your new prospects and future customers.

Adam Force 29:35
Nailed it. Yeah, exactly. And it’s funny, because the more calls you have, you start really seeing what…like where someone’s mind is, are they the right person for your product and really what what kind of conversation…you can almost predict the conversation a little bit, because you’re right, you get informed from it also. It gets better and better as you keep doing it. It’s an interesting process that we’ve had a lot of fun with, for sure.

Ethan Beute 30:00
Love it. It’s especially helpful when that customer is someone that is doing something day in and day out that you don’t do or haven’t done, because they have specific — not just a unique perspective and unique challenges that you might not understand the nuances of but they even use different language and things. So the more you can kind of mirror people in their own language and with their own concerns, and with better follow up questions, you know, the more comfortable they’re going to feel. And they you know, that trust piece of they get me? I can see that kind of thing. Yeah.

Adam Force 30:28
Yeah, you know, I always tell…I remember at the time is maybe I don’t know was last year or something, where we were…my wife and I were watching that show The Voice. And we were talking with some of the people in our program and stuff. And we were talking about, like, you know, how people resonate and all this stuff, when you tell, you know, micro stories from your life that they can resonate with. And when we were watching the voice, you hear these people, they always do these backgrounds before they come and they sing. And they’ll do like, Oh, this person grew up here.

They went through all this in their life and all this stuff. And so next thing you know, these artists are like, Oh my god, yeah, I got all these like fan mail and all this stuff. And people would reach out saying, Oh my god, I can resonate with like that experience you had in your life. That’s so me, and I love you. And you’re amazing. And yeah, they like their singing, but what they really connected with was the relation…the areas of their life that they resonated with. So to your point, those things are just phenomenal. And so the more — the better you get at that you’re going to be attracting people that really love what you do.

Ethan Beute 31:31
Totally. And the best part about all of it is, you get to be yourself more often and win for who you are in the relationships and trust you build. It’s like the super win/win/win, there’s like this wholeness and integrity, when you can be more yourself. And that’s why again, getting back to being clear about your values, you’re going to attract more like people and there’s no better way to win, than consistent with your own values. It’s just it’s such an amazing feeling.

Adam Force 31:58
Agreed agreed. And we always say, you know, pretending is exhausting. So be yourself.

Ethan Beute 32:03
Love it, love it! And, and be yourself because no one is more uniquely qualified.

Adam Force 32:09
Exactly. That’s it’s a major point of differentiation when the markets are saturated. I was reading something about from the guy who founded Costco. And he’s like, I get all these suppliers, right? It could be a laundry detergent, let’s say 100 suppliers of laundry detergent are pitching him. And they’re trying to get their products sold through Costco. And he’s like, so when it’s really saturated, here’s the thing, what differentiates what, like who I choose to work with. He goes, It’s the person that I trust and like the most. So it’s going to be the people that told the right stories that connected earn the trust, and he really related to and resonated with, that’s going to win because they’re unique. It’s their own differentiation.

Ethan Beute 32:48
Love it, and people and just another pro tip: People like and trust you more when you ask them questions, and you let them talk. You’re going to learn a lot more. And people love to talk about themselves because we all ultimately want to be seen and heard as human beings. So our most fundamental need is, do I belong? Am I accepted? And so when you can let people talk about who they are and what their real concerns are, you know, even if it’s the context of their work, and the solution that you provide, they like you more, while you’re learning everything you need to learn to serve them, help them, and to help the next person. It’s just, it’s fun.

Adam Force 33:25
Yeah, hundred percent agreed. I think that’s a good note for us to end on here. We’re at the end of our time, Ethan. So that was awesome. Really appreciate it. Let’s give your you know, let people know give yourself a shout out and let people know where they can find and learn more about what you guys got going on.

Ethan Beute 33:39
Sure. Again, my name is Ethan Beute. You can hit me up on LinkedIn, you can email me ethan@bombbomb.com. It’s just the word bomb twice. Of course at the site, you can learn more, you can try it free for a couple of weeks. If you want to check out the book that we mentioned, Rehumanize Your Business, that’s just bombbomb.com/book. And if you want to go deep on customer experience, I’m having those conversations every week at bombbomb.com/podcast.

Adam Force 34:11
Awesome, Ethan. Thanks again and we will stay in touch man.

Ethan Beute 34:14
Man, thank you. I appreciate it.

Adam Force 34:16
You got it.

Announcer 34:16
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai