Talk about turning marketing on its head!!

Jay Baer preaches Youtility.

In short, Jay wants you to give away what you know.

For free.

The key to getting attention, demonstrating goodwill, building trust, developing a reputation, and eventually earning back all the good things you’ve done in the form of profitable business, is by giving away what you have, a little bit at a time.

Especially now, it is the professional who is the most helpful who will eventually win the business.

And in this episode, Jay practices what he preaches by giving away sound and practical advice about how you can become the most helpful professional in your space.

Key Points

• Youtility requires that you give away what you know, for free, one bite at a time.
• How you handle yourself and how you handle your company over the next 6-7 weeks will affect your company for the next 6-7 years.
• No one talks about you doing exactly the job you were paid to do. They talk about the choices you make in the operation of your business that are designed to shatter expectations.
• Strive to turn your customers into volunteer marketers.

Q: What is the concept of Youtility?

Youtility is the golden rule of information. If you know something, don’t hold it close to your chest. Instead, give it away for free, one bite at a time.

People are afraid to give away their secret sauce, but the truth is there is no secret sauce. Others either already have it, or can get it, or can figure it out. The better thing you can do is be helpful and give away what you know. Whoever is the most helpful will get the business.

Q: What is the process for creating Youtility? How do I become the most helpful professional in my area?

Figure out what your audience actually needs, not what you want to sell them. Then, if it works, offer your solution or connect them to someone who has a solution.

We often skip steps in figuring out the core of our audience’s actual pain points and needs. We connect the dots between what they almost need and what we want to sell.

Don’t. Do. That.

The idea behind Youtility is discovering what your audience truly needs and how you can fulfill that need without necessarily getting directly paid to do it. Youtility is sideways marketing. It’s about getting attention, developing goodwill, trust, and a reputation that eventually and ultimately pays off in client acquisition.

Q: How can the individual / independent service professional use social media to create utility?

Especially now, people don’t want to consume social media that is an overt sales pitch. Right now, selling doesn’t feel right. Instead, use social media to redistribute your FAQs.

How you handle yourself and how you handle your company over the next 6-7 weeks will affect your company for the next 6-7 years because brands are built in bad times, not good times.

The way things used to be aren’t how things are now. Shine a spotlight on other people and businesses. Help others out and eventually that light will shine back on you.

Q: Can you talk us through the ideas in your books that culminate in understanding success in a referral-based business?

It’s a philosophy that builds upon each of three principles.

• Youtility is about giving away what you know and being helpful. It’s about using helpfulness as a marketing strategy.
• Hug Your Haters is about being disproportionately good at customer service, ratings, reviews, and dealing with the less-than-satisfied customer as a marketing strategy.
• Talk Triggers is about outstanding customer experiences and the word-of-mouth advertising and referrals they generate as a competitive advantage and marketing strategy.

It’s amazing that 90% of transactions are influenced by word-of-mouth, but no one has a word-of-mouth strategy. We assume that if we run a good business, then people will talk about us. But that’s not how people behave.

No one talks about you doing exactly the job you were paid to do. Competency doesn’t create conversations. They talk about the choices you make in the operation of your business that are designed to create conversations.

You need to turn your customers into volunteer marketers. Do the unexpected and then do it all the time.