Hitting A Bad Note

As many of my followers may know, I used to be a lead guitarist in a heavy metal band back in the eighties. When my son was much younger, he wanted to learn how to play the guitar, so I started showing him some basic chords and scales. What does this have to do with Business? Good question, but please humor me-it will all come together in the end. 

A good friend of mine, we will call him Scott for the purpose of this article is starting up his own electrical business and I have been mentoring him along the way. In the beginning, it was all about setting up his business plan, doing some market research, and coming up with a high-level marketing strategy. Scott is a great electrician, however, when it comes to the business side, he has the attention span of a mouse and doesn’t enjoy any of the duties required as a business owner. 

A few days ago we were in my kitchen talking about building new business. I referred him back to our marketing strategy that we developed in the beginning and told him we had to build an actual marketing plan for him to begin working on. Up to this point he has had several jobs to keep him busy, but they were all from friends and family, and he didn’t really have to do anything to gain the jobs he had landed. I was helping him to understand that in order to grow his business he needs to have a marketing plan, with a set goal of bids he needs to push out every week. In order to get the jobs he needs to bid each week, he has to market to local businesses and /or general contractors. This requires going to networking functions, cold calling, joining associations, and etcetera.

Scott didn’t want to hear any of what I was telling him. He kept telling me that he isn’t good at marketing, selling or talking with potential clients. I told him that if he was not going to handle the marketing himself, then he would have to hire someone to do it for him. Scott, of course, didn’t have the money to hire someone to market for him, so he kept complaining about how uncomfortable it makes him to just walk up and talk to someone. I explained to him that most people have a problem with that, but he needs to get over it, move outside his comfort zone, and learn how to be as good at marketing as he is at being an electrician.

I asked Scott when he first started the electrical trade, was he uncomfortable about being left alone, or doing a task he wasn’t confident in performing? He answered me with a “Duh, of course, I was!” I explained to Scott that as you learned more and became confident in that task, it didn’t bother you anymore. The same is true with marketing. The reason you don’t want to walk up to people is because you are not confident in what to say. Scott agreed with me and explained that in the electrical field he had someone to show him how to properly perform that task, but there isn’t anyone to show me how to market. So I told Scott, fine let's go right now and I will show you what to do and say. 

We went out for about four hours hitting several businesses. By the end of the four hours, Scott had several examples to learn from on how to solicit a new possible client. I explained to Scott that he didn’t have to remember what I said or how I acted, he just needed to take what I did and adapt it to his style. However, Scott was still reluctant to make any attempt to follow my lead and try the marketing himself.

Scott tried to explain to me that he was afraid of looking stupid or saying the wrong thing to a potential customer.

While we were talking my son, Randy was in the room, and he jumped into the conversation. To my surprise, Randy told Scott that “one of the best things my dad ever told me, was when I was learning how to play the guitar.” Randy told Scott that when he was learning how to play the guitar, he would get frustrated every time he hit a bad note. During one of my lessons with Randy, I apparently told him, not to worry about the bad notes but to just keep playing. In many cases, as you improve, few people would ever even know if you hit a bad note as long as you don’t show it in your face and keep playing. Also hitting bad notes is part of the learning process. You have to hit the bad notes to learn. Then Randy went on to apply that lesson to Scott. Randy told Scott, “don’t worry if you say something wrong, keep talking to the customer. Even more importantly, listen to the customer. Even if you look stupid, it will be a learning experience, it will be your bad note, and you have to hit those bad notes to learn how to market successfully.”

Scott, also being a musician, looked at Randy and said: “wow that is so true!” He then looked at me and said you have a pretty smart son! I told him “I know, Randy is quite amazing.” 

I find it funny sometimes, you never know what you say or do that will have such an impact on someone. Back when I was teaching my son to play guitar, I never thought about the deep meaning behind what I said about a bad note. I never knew it had such an impact on him, nor did I think it would be something that would be a guiding principle in Randy’s life. However, the way Randy took it was very profound and very accurate. In life, you are going to hit some bad notes. The key is not to let the bad note affect your ultimate goal and to just play on!