What's the most effective influencer? (not that type)
“"Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." — Robert Schweitzer”
If you’ve spent any time studying sales or marketing, you’ve probably come across Robert Cialdini and his seven principles of influence.
But one factor combines several of these principles and stands above the rest:
→ Having personal results from doing the work.
You’ve likely seen the newest entrepreneurial guru popping up in YouTube ads.
And if you do a the slightest bit of digging, you’ll often find they’re selling something that directly contradicts what they claim to believe.
A topic for another time, but the reason why people like that can still tread water is because they have enough money to burn from their last efforts to reinvest into colder and colder eyeballs — until eventually their reputation catches up with them.
But that’s why HubSpot doubled down on its marketing philosophy when it recognized its own hypocrisy.
Realizing they preached “inbound marketing” while still funneling major time and money into outbound methods — and buyers noticed the disconnect.
To be fair, it can feel counterintuitive to intentionally limit your marketing efforts — especially if you want to grow.
But it made even less sense for HubSpot to keep salespeople cold-calling when the entire platform was geared towards the benefit of generating inbound leads.
So, HubSpot planted its flag and went all in on inbound.
The result?
Clear, consistent messaging and a lot more cash.
- To the tune of $255k/yr to $3B/yr
There are plenty of tips, tricks, and trending tactics that nudge people toward buying.
But practicing what you preach never goes out of style.
So, what can you do about it?
Audit your company’s first impression.
Whether that’s your website, storefront, or product.
Look for the areas that don’t quite line up.
Remove contradictions.
And add more evidence of the results you’ve created for others.
And because people value their own work 5x more than others, it’s probably not a bad idea to get another set of eyes.
— Plus, if you want to raise your awareness on what else you could improve, head over to readar.ai to find the right book for you to read next.
Keep seeking,
Michael
