Two years ago I came across this crazy guy named Scott Ginsberg. He's the Nametag Guy. That's right. He wears a nametag 24x7. That's his schtick. Well, I thought it was a schtick. And then I found out that he knows a thing or two about people:

• what it takes to get their attention
• what it means to provide "real" value
• what it means to be "approachable"
• what it takes to provide real CRM

By the time I landed on his web page, Scott was already well on his way to being "well known." That's right, just because you don't know him doesn't mean he isn't well known. But I digress. His message about "approachability" resonated with me and I wanted to talk to him. In reality, I wanted to see if I could convince him to attend one of our national recruiting team meetings and share his message of approachability with our team. I rolled the dice and dialed his number, hoping he'd find a reason to forgo his normal "speaker's fee" and do a bit of pro bono on my team's behalf. Actually, I wasn't too sure we'd even get that far, but at a minimum, I just hoped he'd call me back. After all, it would look too great for the evangelist of approachability to NOT return a call from a potential client, eh? He did not disappoint. In fact, surprisingly, he called me back rather quickly. And, he was more than happy to take time out of his schedule to address our recruiting team...free 'o charge. Although I was a fan of Scott's "message," his down-to-earth approach, genuine kindheartedness, and the fact that he called me back (even though he didn't "need me"), made me like him even more than his message. In a sense, I bought in to him before I bought in to his message - his service - his product - his spiel. And he made me a believer - people buy a slick sales pitch people first. So, in true Scott Ginsberg fashion, I'll end this post with two questions:

1. What is it about you, that makes people "buy you" before they buy your product or service? And....
2. Are you approachable? No, I mean really approachable?