SHARE THE STAGE 131
and then iPod. There was the phone and then iPhone. Apple
does things in an intuitive, insightful, and innovative way. It
will be a transformative version of the rental model, and we’re
incredibly excited about it. We couldn’t be happier and prouder
of our partnership.”^4
Gianopulos had provided Jobs with a company’s best sales
tool—a customer’s endorsement. Best of all, the two men
appeared side by side. A reference is good. A customer or partner
physically sharing the stage is even better.
Number One Reason People Buy
Your customers are always mindful of budgets, but in tough eco-
nomic times they are even more so, casting a critical eye on every
last dollar. Prospects do not want to act as a beta group. Your
product must deliver what it promises—saving your customers
money, making them money, or providing the tools to make more
efficient use of the money they have. Testimonials and endorse-
ments are persuasive because, as discussed earlier, word of mouth
is the number one influencer of purchasing decisions.
Successful companies know that a pool of reputable and
satisfied customers is critical for sales success. In fact, some com-
panies even have specific employees whose job it is to gather
case studies and distribute them to their prospects. Most small
business owners do not have the resources to designate a “case
study” specialist, but they can easily adopt some of the tech-
niques used by the world’s most successful companies. One
proven strategy is to steal a page from the Apple playbook and
invite your customers to share the spotlight, either in person,
on video, or, at the very least, through quotes.
Don’t forget the media. Sharing the stage with publica-
tions that rave about your product will bolster your message.
Jobs has a love-hate relationship with the media, but for pre-
sentation purposes, there’s a lot of love in the room. In the
first few minutes of his Macworld 2008 keynote address, Jobs
announced that Leopard (the latest version of the OS X operat-
ing system) had sold five million copies in its first ninety days,