A few years ago at a National Speakers Association chapter meeting a speaker was telling us that we have to be EASY to work with.
Clients don’t want long, complex contracts. They don’t want to go through a tough process. They simply want you speaking at their event, and they want it to be easy to get that set up.
I’ve tried to take that to everything I do. Recently we’ve been “cleaning up” things in JibberJobber, and making it easy to understand or do certain things.
My question to you is, are you EASY to work with?
As a job seeker, is it easy for me to understand what you do? If you have jargon or cliche in your branding statements they may sound cool or cute, but I bet it’s not easy for everyone to grasp what you do.
Is it easy for me to talk to others about you? I have to (1) understand what you do, AND (2) have the right language so I can easily talk about you. I can’t evangelize for you if I don’t have the right language. Have you given me the right language?
People would ask me how they could describe JibberJobber, which was really hard for me to narrow down. All the things I could say, all the things I thought I should say… all those things were TOO MUCH.
Job seekers have the same problem. They could and think they should say a lot of things. But it’s too much. Make it EASY for people to get and talk about you.
Is it easy to set up an appointment with you? I HATE it when people say “click here to find an opening on my calendar.” One time I found that convenient, the rest of the time I found it horribly inconvenient.
Is it easy to talk to you? Do you dominate the conversation, or spend 90% of your time on tangents and stuff that is disrespectful of my time?
Is it easy to recommend you to my contact you want to meet? Or am I worried that you might tarnish my reputation or image?
Is it easy to be excited about what you do? If you aren’t excited, or if I don’t get the vision of what you do (not the technical stuff you do, but WHY you do it and how you change the world) I might find it hard to be excited about you.
Get the drift?
I’m working on being easier because I need to influence people (to buy my stuff, or promote my stuff).
You need to be easier because you need to influence people (to talk to/about you, interview you, recommend you, hire you).