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Don't Be Proper - Do Your Job

The prospect finally returns your call - AND you have a meeting!! What did you say to get the appointment? Probably something along the lines of,

"We have some interesting services / products that I think can help reduce your turnaround time / increase your sales results / improve your profitability… ".
Great; appointment set; so far, so good. Now from here on out is where most of us get off course. Here is how it plays out for many of us:

Ms. Prospect invites us into her office and we share a few minutes of small talk – bonding and relating. The next few minutes we spend gathering a bit of information about the business, the operation and Ms. Prospect’s challenges. Then Ms. Prospect asks us about our “exciting service/product”.
“Yippee!”, we think. Ms. Prospect is anxious to hear about it! We spring into action. Our printed presentation / brochure / pamphlet comes out and we’re off and running. We introduce, describe and explain; Ms. Prospect asks and we answer; ask – answer; ask – answer, answer, answer.

The next thing we know an hour has gone by and we’re in our car heading back to the office. The best thing to come out of the meeting is Ms. Prospect invites us to “stay in touch”.

We went into this meeting with the plan of focusing on Ms. Prospect’s needs, on how our services / products can help her, on the benefits we / our product brings. So then what’s wrong with this sales call? Were we Ms. Prospect-focused? We had a friendly meeting and answered all Ms. Prospect’s questions telling her just what she wanted to know. …But did we, really?

Think about it. Were we really showing concern for her operation or her challenges? Did we come into the meeting already understanding something about Ms. Prospect’s business? Let’s face it, our main concern was being perceived as a nice, knowledgeable person with answers.

If you want to help your clients more, and therefore sell more, don’t focus on your service / product and don’t try to be so "proper". Yes, you should be courteous and polite, but your main job to figure out how to help Ms. Prospect find a solution to her challenges and improve her business, not to be her best friend. To do this you need to understand Ms. Prospect’s business almost as well as she does (perhaps better).

Don’t be shy, be BOLD. Do your homework so you understand Ms. Prospect’s goals, her critical business objectives, and key success targets; know her industry.

Armed with this knowledge it will be relatively simple to determine how your service / product fits into their operation. Learn about the problems that currently exist and then examine the value your service / product will bring. Equally important, examine and make known the consequences and costs of leaving things as they are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah; you don’t have the time to do this kind of prep work. I suggest you can’t afford to NOT do this type of prep work. Unless, and until you do, you may be able to present your service or product but you won’t understand your client's business. And until you understand your client’s business you can't speak to the value you bring to them. Having an intelligent discussion about the difference (value) your service or product can make (bring) to her business is what Ms. Prospect needs from you. Otherwise, you’re wasting her time.

I'm putting the finishing touches on a Sales Call Planning Guide which will be available for free on the Bold Vision Consulting Website. If you're interested in having one make sure you are on the BOLD Bulletin email list.

If you're located in the Waltham - Boston area, an Ocular Forum membership is being formed. The first meeting is scheduled for October 2. Applications for membership are due September 14. If interested send an email or call 207-221-3492 for more information. The application will be available for download on July 31.

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