Lesson 3 | Structure of the Bridge Talk™ (7:15 minutes)
Structure of the Bridge Talk(TM)
Alright, so let's dig into the actual structure of the Bridge Talk. What are you going to say? It's like, "Okay, Chris. I got it. I want them to agree to meet. I get that there are problems with the elevator pitch, and I'm willing to look at a new way. I get that there are problems in and dangers in what we say and key attributes that need to be in place. Okay, I get it. I get it, but tell me how to do it."
Good. So here is the structure of the Bridge Talk, and it is incredibly simple. Incredibly simple, and it's the kind of thing that once you have this, you need to practice it, because under pressure, you'll go back to saying what you used to say, as opposed to this new way. So here's the structure. It's two things and two things only. Who do you help, and what problem do you solve, or how do you help them? So, who do you help, and what problem do you solve.
Somebody says, "What do you do?" You're going to say, "I help," or "We help," or "I have a company that helps." But you're going to start with the words "I help" or "We help." Why are we going to do that? Well, the brain ... The law of primacy and recency says that the brain's going to remember the first thing it hears and the last thing it hears. So, we want them to, when they forget everything else, and they say, "Aw, I can't remember what that person does, but they help, ah ..." If that's the message that they communicate to other people, at least we're okay there.
So, we want to name who we help, and then what problem that we solve. We're handling two things here. One is, who's the niche market that we're dealing with, and the second is what's the key problem that you solve for them. We're not talking about product. Why does this structure work? Well, there's a few things. The first is that it really is conversational. It is going to lend itself to creating some permission. There's no stereotypes in it. As you go through the list, it handles all of it. There's no gimmicks. We're not selling. It's really clean. We're going to create a little interest. No education.
Let me give you an example. Somebody says, "So, what do you do?" You say, "Well, we help families in Boston retire on their terms." Now, is there effective ambiguity there? Yeah. We know it's in the financial services world somewhere, but we don't know exactly what it is. We've declared a niche market. It's families in Boston. Really simple. Does it open us up for permissions? We help families in Boston retire on their terms. Well, what do you mean, retire on their terms. Your brain is going to say, "I'm so glad you asked." Because, now I have permission. Away we go.
There's no gimmick to it. We're not hiding. We're staying away from stereotypes. We're not selling. It's really clean. We help, and in this case, our niche market is families in Boston. What's the problem that we solve? It's not retirement income planning, it's not investments, it's not insurance, we help them retire on their terms. That's what these people really want. It's like, help me retire on my terms.
Here's another example. "I help hard-working business owners keep what they've built." It's like, "Oh, well, what do you mean by that?" So glad you asked. I've declared I help hard-working business owners. That's who I help. And what's the problem? They want to keep what they've built. They worked so hard to build their business, to create income, and then it gets taxed and taxed and taxed and taxed and taxed. We're going to help them keep what they've built.
Or, "I help family businesses make the most of everything they've got." I've declared a niche market, family businesses. What's the problem? They need to make the most of everything they've got. They've got to make the ... If they don't make the most of their business, their family suffers, and if they don't make the most of their family, their business suffers. So, they've got to make the most of everything they've got. It's these two pieces of who do you help and what problem do you solve.
Think about this for a second, and we'll use the "I help families in Boston retire on their terms." If I said, "So, what do you do?" And you say, "Well, we help families in Boston retire on their terms." If I have a family in Boston, if I'm a family in Boston, I'm probably going to perk up on that. It's like, "Aw, I have a family in Boston." If I don't, but I know people who have families in Boston, I'm probably still interested. If I don't have either of those, I don't live in Boston, don't have a family there, I don't know anyone who does, but I have an interest in retiring on my terms, I'm still interested. Or, if I know someone else who wants to retire on their terms, I may still be interested.
But, if I do not have a family in Boston, I don't know any families in Boston, I'm not worried about retiring on my terms, I don't know anyone who is interested in retiring on their terms, then in that moment you want to disengage or just leave it social. There may be some other way that you can work with them, but leave it social. You don't want to keep pounding away at them, because this is not your niche and they don't have the problem that you solve. I know that you solve many problems, but there's a core fundamental that your niche is dealing with.
When it comes to declaring a niche market, this can be a tricky space, because you really need to give some thought to who do you do your best work with? Who are you especially well-equipped to help and to serve? People say, "Yeah, but I don't want to confine myself. I don't want to limit myself." Well, let's make a key distinction. There's a difference between marketing and selling. From a marketing point of view, you want to invest in a specific group of people that you'll want more of. From a selling perspective, we graciously accept all inbound checks for appropriate work. This may not be your niche market standing in front of you, however, they fit a great profile, and you can do some work with them. You're allowed to. It's okay. But, if you're going to spend ... You're going to spend time, money, attention, relationship, interest, space. If you're going to spend in your marketing, you want to concentrate that on the people you want.
There will be a halo effect that goes around it. Other people will still have an interest. But you want to declare who's your sweet spot. So, who do you do your best work with? Who are you especially well-equipped to help? Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a minute, and this is your turn. Odds are, you're going to say, "Yeah, yeah. I'll just think about it in my head." In which case, you're going to let yourself down. Don't let yourself down. Take a minute, providing you're not driving or operating heavy equipment, or something, take a minute, take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle. On the left say, "Who do I help?" and on the right, "What problem do I solve?" Start listing who do you do your best work with and who are you especially well-equipped to help.
If a lot of your key clients are business owners, fantastic. Let's start to drill in there, but tighten it down. Business owners is a category. Get it down to a specific kind of business owner. If you have business owners, but that's not really the bulk of your business, you may say, "Well, I've got business owners, but really, my clients are these people over here." Start to look at what's the problem you actually solve for them. Is it confidence? Is it retiring on their terms? Is it having clarity? It's not making sure wealthy people get an insurance contract. That's not it. There's some other problem that you're actually addressing for them by using a product.
I want you to take a shot at this and see what you get, and we're going to make sure that you have some tools available for you as well. Look at the downloads. We have a Bridge Talk Builder Guide, and a couple of other examples that you could work with, but see what you can come up with, and then, what we're going to ask you to do is either message us or add social media comments around this, or even ask for some help or some feedback along the way.
