In this episode, I am joined by the CEO of Mekanism, Jason Harris. We discuss sales and marketing with soul and how that means getting comfortable with sales, being original, sharing your story, getting vulnerable generosity, and so much more.
Show Notes:
1:33 Leading Brands for Companies Like Peloton
Jason is the CEO of Mekanism, a creative agency with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. They lead the brands for 25 companies doing their advertising, social media, and digital presence. These brands include prominent brands such as Peloton, Ben & Jerry’s, and more.
He wrote a book called the Soulful Art of Persuasion.
5:23 Fear of Being “Salesy”
One of the things I know so many people are afraid of is being salesy. It’s a huge roadblock! There’s misconceptions that sales is weird and scammy – but everything we do in life is sales.
8:18 Being Original
The first core principle of Jason’s life is Original. This is the idea of being yourself because everyone else is already taken. There’s an old paradigm in sales that you try to get your customer to like you because you’re like-minded, but this rule is the opposite. It’s about knowing who you are, your likes and dislikes, who your role models are, and owning it.
12:10 Sharing Your Story
Entrepreneurship is such a cool journey because it’s the identifier of what makes you tick, what makes differences in your life, and using these to connect with your buyer.
16:40 Generosity
Generosity is the idea of giving something away in every interaction. Whenever your paths cross with somebody, think of one thing you can do to give something away. This can be in the form of advice, contacts, connections, or other ways of giving.
If you’re somebody who’s in your business and your struggling, go serve somebody!
24:20 Never Be Closing
Never Be Closing is a concept of letting go of short-term transactional thinking. It’s the opposite of Always Be Closing when you’re always trying to make a sale. This doesn’t mean you’re never making sales, but it means that you’re not always looking at relationships as transactions.
Relationships first, always!
29:57 Empathy
Relationships and sales should be about developing the curiosity of other people, understanding where they’re coming from, and what their needs are. People are always thinking about their perspective and what they need to get done, but empathy is about understanding the other person.
35:22 Sales with soul
Soulful is about striving to be inspirational in your daily life, and trying to find something that you can do to help the world be a better place. When you’re inspirational, you will build your brand or company much faster. This is about doing something that you have the skill for to help something that you care about.
40:35 Don’t Let Your Relationships Get to Zero
Monday through Thursday, Jason blocks off 20 minutes of his calendar to reach out by text, phone, or email to go through his personal or business network and reach out to somebody to say hello or check-in. By doing those check-ins, this helps water your network. If you don’t set aside the time to do this, your relationships will fall to zero.
