When you approach new or existing clients, are you entirely respectful of their time? Do your prospects cower at the very sight of you? Have you ever detected a noticeable change in their voice and tone when you identify yourself over the phone? It is possible that your prospects associate you with taking up too much of their time with too little benefit to them in return.
In each selling situation you must remember your prospects’ goals as well as your own. Sales professionals who launch into their propositions purely with facts about brand names, high quality and low pricing are unlikely to get the sale. In truth, all of that information can be found on the internet or by giving an assistant a fact checking project. If you want to engage busy prospects, you must create streamlined, effective presentations that are sure to hit issues relevant to them from the first moment you open your mouth and begin to take up their time.
Situation Review
The situation review should begin every sales presentation, but too often sales people begin by telling prospects about their proposition. Without the situation review you have not told them why they should even care. Without the situation review, you have not given your prospects a reason to listen to you. So you have this great product, so you beat the competition with time and effectiveness, none of these things matter to a busy prospect with a very long to-do list.
The only way to succeed without a clear situation review is if some other agent serves to remind your prospects of a looming situation the moment before you talk to them. This is not a coincidence on which you should base your paycheck.
For example, I was recently contacted by a video producer marketing his services to keynote speakers. He had correctly identified a need for video promotional materials, but when I received a bland postcard in the mail, it didn’t stir much interest. A few weeks later, when a potential client asked for a DVD showcasing my speaking abilities, the urgency behind my need for a professional promotional DVD escalated quickly. Add to this the fact that the other speakers in the running for the same engagement had already provided similar video materials and this producer would have had himself a sale. The only problem, of course, is that this happened several weeks after I had already thrown his postcard out and I couldn’t even remember the name of his company.
If the video producer in question, had begun his presentation with a brief description of this kind of situation, something that I have faced before and would surely face again, I would have cared a lot more about the rest of what he had to say. I would have felt more compelled to deal with what I knew was an important issue. But instead, his marketing material launched into a rather bland description of his prices, his quality of work and his references, none of which I cared about. He had lost my interest.
Think of the situation review as reminding prospects of why they already do care about your proposition.
WIIFM
The popular radio station WIIFM: What’s In It For Me? should be well known to everyone in sales. Each time you discuss your products or services in the presence of your prospects, it should be to explain something in terms of what’s in it for them.
List the current selling points that you focus on when you approach prospects. Are they bland? Are they boring? If someone walked up to you and explained that they possess all the traits, characteristics and qualities included on your list, would you really care? Your list of features and benefits are subjected to this kind of scrutiny every time you read them aloud. It’s just that some people are too polite to tell you when the list fails to past the test.
It is imperative that you know your products and services. Understand what they do and how they differ from your competition. But when you approach your prospects, make sure your presentation doesn’t just read aloud the facts in your sales fliers, make sure it captures their interest and answers the question of WIIFM.
To accomplish this, try this simple exercise: think about one of your most important selling points. We will use the example of a fast turn around time. Ask yourself,
“Why would my customers want a fast turn around time?” You may answer with something like, “because it means they can be in and out of my store in ten minutes.” Then ask the question again - “why would my customers want that?” You may answer with something like, “because they want to get on with all the other tasks they have for that day.” Continue asking why your customers should care about your selling point until you run out of answers. When you touch on emotional and personal issues, you have touched upon a way to represent your selling point that is actually relevant to your customers.
This is an important exercise, don’t skip it. You are digging through the clutter to get to the essentials – the things that really matter to your customers. The fact that a printer promises to complete job orders and have customers out of the office in ten minutes flat is nowhere near as interesting as the idea that your prospect can be a working mom who has to pick the kids up after school and make sure they’re not late for basketball practice and can still afford to drop by your office because your order filling process is so fast that you won’t keep her waiting.
Take a New Approach
Put aside your propositions, features and benefits and look instead at your language. Peppered throughout every conversation you have with your prospects should be stories and examples that describe how you can solve their problems. Remind them of the situations they face regularly before you launch into a list of things you do. Instead of talking about the features and benefits you offer, try talking about the effects these features and benefits will have on your prospects’ lives, businesses and everything else that matters to them.
Your biggest clue that you have been effective in showing your customers why they should care about your product or service comes when they thank you for calling or dropping by. This is a sure sign that, even if they did not buy, they know time spend with you discussing an important issue was time well spent.
Alvin Day is a sales coach and author of the book, Persuasion Power. To learn more visit www.AlvinDay.com
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