Hi dear,

I hope this email finds you well.

Oops, sorry, I forgot this wasn't cold outreach.

I'm both a big fan of film and a big fan of filmmaking, and I'm always fascinated by revisiting older films with a modern view.

Have you ever noticed that special effects that were once ground-breaking date very quickly?

I loved the goopy spaghetti mess of The Thing.

How morphing was developed for The Abyss and later used famously in Terminator 2.

Or the underwater FX in Avatar 2 which makes every other underwater FX look rubbish - even newer big-budget films like The Little Mermaid.

But when you look back over time, they no longer have the same impact, either because they are now one of many, even though they were the first, or look increasingly fake.

A bit like what we see with AI as it develops.

Uncanny valley.

My favourite FX of all time is because of the notion of it.

CGI so good you don't notice it.

Such as the city in Gangs of New York, which appeared to be a genuine 19th-century metropolis.

The thing is if you don't notice it, it won't date so much.

There's a reason the BBC is so good at costume dramas - they have an incredible collection of costumes that are reused time and time again, whether it's Pride and Prejudice or Doctor Who.

So good that they don't pop suspension of disbelief in the same way dated FX does.

When you don't notice the details, the proposition can be more compelling.

I'd argue it's the same in sales.

Few people like being sold to, especially if you don't need it or it's done garishly.

While what was once an innovative gambit quickly grows stale:

“Yes, it's a sales call. Can you give me 30 seconds or do you want to hang up on me?”

Rely on innovative gambits, and you’ll always be looking for the latest gambit to stand out - before everyone catches up.

What even is sales anyway? A confident pitch with the hope of a bite? A consulted solution specific to needs the prospect hadn’t been aware of? A push, a pull?

Instead of soon-to-be-everywhere tactics, what if you had a stock of classic reusable costumes that never date because their singular purpose is timeless?

Sure, if you want sales at scale, shiny with automation might be best.

Go all Marvel with factory-produced blockbusters, and for a time you might rule the world.

But if you want the one and not the many, a volume-centric approach can work against you.

Such as when trying to fill a difficult vacancy, where you’ve carefully identified the needs and wants of an ideal candidate.

Perhaps they love costume dramas, but maybe it’s something else that meets their ikigai , and all you need do is give it to them.

When I speak to employers who've struggled to fill vacancies, the same two things typically happen:

My adverts don't have the imaginative one-liners you see at the top of many of the best adverts.

Instead, I try to provide the most relevant, meaningful information that might separate this vacancy from the competition, without the need to click ‘read more’, while giving the reason to want to learn more.

Often it's in the language of the employer, even if that language can be hard to wheedle out at times.

Always it's meant to be the start of a conversation that has the same voice throughout, with nothing glaring to raise false objections.

The crux of the message in those adverts is the same one I use in cold outreach, on the phone, or whatever the medium.

In any employment or recruitment marketing, it's common to see an attempt at FX to stand out.

Whether it's humour and metaphor that has nothing to do with the content.

WE'RE A MAD FAMILY HERE!

Or increasingly dynamic, progressive, nay market-leading and award-winning adjectives.

Maybe a haiku. A uniquely formed message. Which we hope stands out.

But while those contents, adverts and messaging might stand out for now, and encourage a read, how do they stay relevant enough to gain interest from the most relevant of readers?

Personalisation is the de rigeur strategy for starting conversations in recruitment.

And will be trivialised by AI when the tech is good enough.

I've no doubt when employed well people will respond.

But if AI is available economically for all, and all employ trivialised personalisation, how exactly is that going to stand out?

Or will it create many feelings of an icky uncanny valley, when everyone knows more about you than you?

If you want to know how I sell, this is worth a read.

It's because I wasn't actively selling that he felt my message spoke to him so effectively.

Instead, I wanted to establish if he might be a good candidate, by giving him enough reason to have and continue a conversation focused on him, his situation, his needs and his concerns.

Had he not been suitable, he probably wouldn't have been interested - a good outcome.

How could I know if I should sell to him, without understanding first if he should be interested?

And yet the result of this not selling is that he still became that employer's next hire.

My curiosity drives the conversation while trying to evoke curiosity to learn more.

I don’t think that will ever get old.

Look, I'm not telling you not to sell.

And I'm not saying that sales isn't an admirable endeavour.

But there are many ways to sell, and sometimes the way that goes unnoticed can be the most effective of all.

What if we gave our ideal candidates what they need, without necessarily being aware of it, to help them make the right decision?

The subliminal can be the sublime.

Thanks for reading.

Greg

P.S. How to Sell without Selling is of course inspired by Bruce Lee.

P.P.S. I broke Bard when I asked it to confirm my haiku was a haiku, even if it lacks a seasonal reference and kireji.