As You Wish (or the Dread Pirates Roberts playbook)
It’s no secret I like movies (scrap that, I LOVE movies) so it should also come as no surprise that I inflict this on my kids as well! There is a right of passage about to happen in our house this weekend and I’m almost jealous that the kids will get to experience it firsthand.
I’m talking about their first ever screening of the princess bride of course. I’m that obsessed I even have a framed poster of it in my office 😂
SPOILER ALERT AHEAD (OR THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY)
A kindly grandfather sits down with his ill grandson and reads him a story. The story is one that has been passed down from father to son for generations. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup, engaged to the odious Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped and held against her will in order to start a war, It is up to Westley (her childhood beau, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) to save her.
On the way he meets a thief and his hired helpers, an accomplished swordsman and a huge, super strong giant, both of whom become Westley's companions in his quest.
Just like how Peter Falk reads the story and passes it down from Grandfather to nephew (played by Fred Savage), I’m passing it down to my kids. The film is a cult classic and oft quoted fairytale (that adults love too).
The Grandson: A book?
Grandpa: In my day, television was called 'a book.’
There is line early on in the film that Westly (our hero) repeats to his one true love and that line is "As you Wish". What Buttercup realises when Westly says this to her every time is he’s really saying “I love you”.
Grandpa: Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Westley around.
Buttercup: Farm boy, polish my horse's saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: "As you wish" was all he ever said to her.
Buttercup: Farm boy, fill these with water - please.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish," what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.
Buttercup: Farm boy ... fetch me that pitcher.
Westley: As you wish.
There are numerous ways we can tell a potential client that we love them and we do that by adding value.
This isn’t about YOU (imagine you're Westly), this is ALL about Buttercup. I think we need reminding from time to time that we are in a service industry and the level of experience and service you bring is what really says “I love you” to your clients.
So to that end I’ve come up with a few reminders of how we can do that through our working practices and content.
1 - The Reciprocity Principle
Sorry Wikipedia just like a certain Vizzini I stole this bit -
In social psychology, reciprocity is a social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions. As a social construct, reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest model; conversely, in response to hostile actions they are frequently much more nasty and even brutal.
Reciprocity makes it possible to build continuing relationships and exchanges. Francis Fukuyama states that "If the institutions of democracy and capitalism are to work properly, they must coexist within certain premodern cultural habits that ensure their proper functioning" According to the sociologist Alvin Gouldner (1960), this norm is nearly universal, and only a few members of society—the very young, the sick, or the old—are exempt from it.
Or as I call it, digital karma. Put good stuff out into the world and good stuff comes back around.
We can do that in the form of giving away ALL of the knowledge you have acquired over a long and successful career through content. Now I can hear you screaming and going into a blind panic from here, like you're just about to scale the cliffs of insanity.
If I give away all my trade secrets (or worse a competitor steals them) I’m done for. Eeep WRONG.
No one can deliver what YOU do the exact WAY you do it. This sits at the core of a personal brand. No one can imitate you. It’s impossible (well maybe not so much anymore with the advent of AI).
So give away all that knowledge, people don’t want to consume it because they will implement it themselves. They want to know that you’re the expert in your space and we do this through demonstrating our actual expertise in our content!
Some ways are -
Run demos or free workshops
Give tips
Create Do’s and Don’t checklists for your industry
Portion up your course and give small parts of it away for FREE
Answer common customer problems on Live Q and A sessions
Even the very act of creating content is valuable (it doesn't all have to be answering and solving customer pain points, sometimes people just want Dread Pirate Roberts gifs).
Westley: "This is true love, do you think this happens every day?"
2 - Customer Journey
Making the entire customer journey a seamless and beautiful experience should be your priority. I’m always reminded of this quote from Maya Angelou
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
Everything from your first interaction with them through your content, to repetition and showing up on their content, to sliding into those DM’s and talking to them, to that all important sales call and the actual delivering of your services should be as slick as the dread pirate Roberts!
Which is why I’m not a huge fan of ghost writing, your content is literally the first stage of starting to build a relationship with someone. Do you want that relationship to be built through someone else? Not for me, when there is a disconnect between the content and the real person (and we humans can smell it on each other) it creates friction.
3 - Sales
Even (and especially during) the sales process needs you to add as much value as you can to your potential Buttercup client. Ask questions (lot’s of them) and again give away some of those solutions to their problems on your call. This is a dance, they are checking you out but don't forget you're also checking them out to see if they’ll be a good fit.
Don’t be a Prince Humperdink and marry the first person you come across, make sure you’re both compatible.
If you've done the legwork through your content, this should be like paddling gracefully through the sea of florin and avoiding the shrieking eels. Utterly seamless.
Give, give, give as much as you can. You’ll get it back tenfold. We can do this at scale with social and you might experience true love!
That’s it from this Dread Pirate Roberts. I’ve got a boat to catch!
Nick will you come back next week with another Newsletter...
As You Wish ❤️
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