Insight
Cates: Passing the 'Beer Test' Is a Flawed Metric for Hiring Talent
“Just cause someone is a little different than us in their personality, just because we might not enjoy an hour. Over a beer or two with them doesn't mean they couldn't be a great asset for our company. So, I mean, I get the idea. I get the kind of the energy b…”
Insight
Cates: Referrals should be the core growth engine, not a bonus
“Referrals are often looked as kind of the icing on the cake, right? Yeah. I get some referrals. That's part of how I grow my business that I recommend for a lot of folks to consider it is the cake. It is how people want to meet you.”
Insight
Cates: Paid Referral Arrangements Must Be Transparent to Avoid Damaging Trust
“I just think it should be transparent. I think that's the most important thing. Because sometimes when clients or customers, you know, maybe didn't know that you would get compensated and then after the fact they find out you did, it can leave a bad taste in t…”
Insight
Cates: Curating Third-Party Success Stories Transfers Borrowed Trust to Creators
“Any kind of content like that, whether it's your success story, someone else's success story, your knowledge is sometimes you and I work, we're creators say curators of knowledge and information, right? So we're helping the people in our community. By curating…”
Insight
Cates: Name-Dropping Irrelevant Big Clients Undermines Effective Sales Communication
“So the mistake is sometimes in communicating our value is using references, name dropping, right? Of our clients that don't relate to the person we're in touch with.”
Insight
Cates: Effective Messaging Must Actively Attract Ideal Targets and Repel Bad Fits
“Your messaging, whether the messaging is through another human delivering the message to others, like a referral source, or whether it's your website or anything else, your messaging needs to attract the right people and repel the wrong people. And I know repe…”
Insight
Cates: Target Maximum Three Buyer Personas to Avoid Diluting Your Message
“Now you can have more than one persona, by the way, you can have two or three. I don't recommend having more than three, but you could have a splitter page that says, if you're this click here, if you're this click here, if you're this click here, not necessar…”
Insight
Cates: Warm introductions are the fastest path to relevance with strangers
“How do you have a relevant message, a message that's relevant to the receiver? Well, the fastest way to that is an introduction. From someone they trust. That's how we become relevant with someone who doesn't know us.”
