Do you believe that you must use standard approaches?

Do you believe that you must use standard approaches when making initial contact with a prospect?

By standard approaches, we mean Who We Are, Who We Represent, What We Do, and Our Purpose for Calling -Community Mailbox

No of course not... you start with.. "Congratulations, you've just won one of the most coveted opportunities of a lifetime. Rather than asking you to send me a check in order that we can send you your winnings, we are only asking you to allow us a few minutes of time with you in order to confirm that you can use this opportunity effectively in your business".

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Yes--I believe that is strategically correct. -Ace Coldiron

No, the standard approach is often the worst. But opening with "you just won a prize" has spam and trickery written all over it.

Try to find a middle way. Like starting with a question.
For example if you are selling job board ads;
"Would you like to get more applicants on your available positions?"

This way you at least get their attention before you start talking about your products. -LookingDaniel

Please give an example of what you consider a standard approach, insasmuch as you've branded it the worst. -Gary A Boye

What I ment by the standard approach is the regular presentation most salesmen do. In that they call a customer or knock on a door and just present their name and company.

As managers today have so much to do, they don't have time to talk to every salesman and therefore have to close the door to some.

The odds that they won't listen to a salesman presenting themselves and their company is a lot higher than the odds that they wouldn't to someone who is more original.

//Daniel M. Wood -LookingDaniel

Daniel, your example is not of a standard approach in selling. It is an arbitrary example of an approach by someone who doesn't know how to sell. This is a forum for people who know how to sell, and for people who want to learn. Anybody who wants to skip the standards of what has made others successful would be hard pressed to become successful themselves.

Don't assume others here don't know what they are doing. Many of us do. -Gary A Boye

I apologize if I offended you or anyone else using this forum.
That was not my intention.

In the industry I work in, job board adds in Scandinavia, what I called the standard approach, is the industry standard.
Pretty much every salesman uses it.

In spite of this many of these salesmen are very good. They sell for millions every year on a very small market.
At my company we have found that making small changes to that introduction makes a big difference.

I definitely do not assume to know more about sales than anyone. You can never be fully learned.

What I did want to say was that, in the industry I work, we all have a lot to learn and by using such arbitrary approaches we shoot ourselves in the foot.

This is a mistake I want to help others avoid.

//Daniel M. Wood -LookingDaniel

Were you referring to me by the way?

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Hi Rattus58,

I guess I stirred up some feeling with my post.

Both yes and know. I saw your post and it reminded me of all the salesmen in my industry who pull those tricks.
Honestly I have no idea how you handle it and when you pitch it, it might work fine.

But when the salesmen in my industry do, it just comes off wrong and people usually just end up angry. -LookingDaniel

I took no offense at all, and really I don't approach people that way either... I was being somewhat facetious and playing with words and was actually "pitching" opportunity, not prizes... ;bg

I'm actually a student of Action Selling and am learning a process that is proving to be challenging and fun. However back to the question at hand... Do you believe that you must use standard approach... No I don't. Personally I think salespeople are individual and those that can find an approach that sparks are lightyears ahead of the rest of us. What I do works, but does it ever get hung up in the process occasionally... yes of course.

I'll try new things whenever I'm introduced to them, but some things take a different personality than mine. Who you are, who you represent, and what you're here for covers the basis for me but every once in a while something off the wall pops up when I'm having a hard time but these pop ups rarely make it to the mainstream for me... :)

So... no worries... thmbp2;

Much Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

In many ways sales is a game of the minds, which is why I find it so appealing and so much fun.
Trying new things is what spices up the workday. 9 out of 10 will be a bust, but once in a while you do find gold.

//Daniel -LookingDaniel

Certainly no apology is necessary, Daniel. These threads are canvasses on which to paint our thoughts. Sometimes someone will post something that triggers a response that reveals an opposing thought. And often we get into semantics. For instance, "standard approach" has a meaning for me that may not be the same meaning in others. I'm schooled in strategy, and in strategic selling, innovation is reserved more for what happens AFTER the standard approach. In other words, pleasant surprises come later.

A lot of what passes for sales education today seems to be built on the premise that the student must change--that they are doing things wrong. I don't necessarily accept that. I think we all need to grow--to evolve--to let our hard earned skills emerge with greater meaning and understanding.

My "standard approach" is based on a fundamental that I learned years ago. I didn't invent it. But I came to understand it better than most, and found ways to refine it. The basic, simple, fundamental concept is this: You tell people what you're going to tell them--you tell it to them--and you tell them what you've told them. The first part of that is so simply stated here, but you could spend a lifetime refining and polishing it. For instance, I often ask permission to tell a prospect something before I tell it.

To others, because of semantics and personal perception, "standard" might mean "same old stuff." That's why a continuous quest for deeper understanding of the fundamentals of selling is so important. -Gary A Boye

Words again.... :)

Tell em what you're gonna tell em, tell em, tell em what you told em. This is something I learned back in 1980 with Connecticut General.

Why this is important can be illustrated/demonstrated by watching a commercial or movie more than once. Notice anything new?

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Thanks a lot Gary,

It is fun to see how different but yet similair approaches different salesmen have in completely different industries.

We basically have to lines that we keep telling the customer over and over again until they understand it. Because before they understand it they don't understand our product.

And just like you said Rattus;

Every time you say it, they see something new in it.

//Daniel -LookingDaniel