“if you like them…” – Ask. Pause. Listen. Care.

THIS is cross-posted from my other blog, fixmytricks.com

There is an old adage in magic that states “if they like you, they’ll like what you do.”

I’m writing today to change that. And keep it exactly the same.

I suggest the following: “if you like them, they will like what you do.”

Allow me to explain:
I recently worked with a street team promotion for a well known fast food restaurant. Part of the job was to hand out cards explaining the details of the current promotion. As I watched my fellow teammates pass the cards out, my eyes were wide with horror as they would run up to a passerby and say something to the effect of: “heyhowyadoin-I just wanna tell you about this promotion we’re doing…”

(just so u can make the connection, this is akin to walking up to a table in your restaurant job and saying “howareyoufolks tonite- like to see some magic?”)

In magic, in sales, in life, DON’T ask how someone is doing and then plow over their answer.

Ask. Pause. Listen. Care.

Relax, you will be able to work your task somewhere in the conversation. In fact, if you are socially adept enough, they may even ask you why you are there. If that’s not a soft sell, I don’t know what is.

I tried hard that day to convince my teammates that they need to pause and wait for an answer, and being a conversation with our “customers.” They looked at me like I was crazy, and like I’m the new guy, so what do I know. Their job, in their minds, was to pass out as many of our promotional cards as possible before going home.  My job, in my mind, was to promote the company and get people to pay attention to the promotion. Just more people who don’t “get it.”

As it turned out, I talked to far fewer people than everyone else, because I talked longer. Sometimes it took two or three minutes before I got to my subject. But, I met a lot of cool people. Oh, and there’s the other thing. I’m confident that the people I talked to will (most of them) take advantage of the special prices we were offering, and go to the restaurant I was promoting.

I’m also confident that the people who got the card shoved into their hands in the first ten seconds took those cards because they were too polite to say no, and that they threw their cards  in the trash at the first available opportunity. Not wanting to hurt our feelings, they probably waited until they turned the corner, so we couldn’t see them throw it away.

Ask. Pause. Listen. Care.

If you are in any magic field where you have to approach people to perform, you need to do this. If they feel like you care about them, they will care about you.  If you ask someone how they are doing, and don’t care about their answer, they will know this, and feel the same about you.

I was lucky enough to have a magic mentor that molded these ideas in my head early, so that they could grow through experience. But part of it is just logic and common sense.

I want to paraphrase my mentor here, to solidify the idea:

“People ask me which trick I start my routine with. I say, I don’t start my routine with a trick. I start by asking people about themselves, making some new friends. If I end up doing magic, I’ll start with whatever seems right to start with at the time. I guarantee one thing, if I do magic at a table, they already like me before I start my ‘routine’.”

and another:

“Novel magic idea of the day: Ask someone if they would like to see a card trick, and then actually listen to their answer. Just my thoughts,
Brent Braun”

“if you like them, they will like what you do.”

’nuff said.

Rating: ***** Five Stars, because I wrote it.

(This rating is not arbitrary at all)

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