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The “museum-visitor” guide to b2b marketing

­When I started my service, I assumed that clients were like juries: they would consider my pitch and then decide whether or not to work with me. But it wasn’t until I stopped trying to play the hotshot lawyer that I began to win business; instead, I started treating clients like museum visitors – while imagining my service as an exhibit that needed to capture their attention, sans persuasion.
 

The “museum-visitor” approach works because clients are trying to solve problems that require expertise and perspective, not a commoditized product. They want to see skill and mastery, even get inspired by new modes of thinking. Pitching accomplishes neither. Like an infomercial, it sows skepticism and signals cheapness.
 

The key to demonstrating expertise is knowing what to avoid. In the “jury” approach, you formulate your pitch around reasons why someone should believe you. It’s additive. You’re building a case. In the “museum visitor” approach, the goal is to remove flaws an amateur would leave behind. You proceed via subtraction and signal competence by making it impossible for the viewer to detect a single blemish. If you manage to capture a client’s attention from minute one, they’ll be motivated to avoid the tinge of regret they know they would feel if they walked away.  
 

My transition into this approach was greatly aided by Oliver Meakings, a CRO expert who created RoastMyLandingPage.com. His service is simple: After you answer questions about your business goals, he films himself "roasting" your website. I remember cringing as I watched my roast, as if a friend pointed out my bad breath. Oliver pointed out dozens of items – irrelevant claims, UX mistakes, confusing charts – that dissuaded prospective clients.
 

When I finished implementing Oliver’s recommendations – mostly a list of items to delete – I thought of something the philosopher Nassim Taleb says in his book, Antifragile.
 

"Michelangelo was asked by the pope about the secret of his genius, particularly how he carved the statue of David, largely considered the masterpiece of all masterpieces. His answer was: 'It's simple. I just remove everything that is not David.'"
 

I’m drawn to the image of Michelangelo staring at a huge block of marble, imagining David inside. David – which has stood for over 500 years and shows no signs of collapsing – represents what you might call negative marketing: the removal of everything people don’t want to see until what’s left over is only what they do.