1. Sell the dream.
Not everybody you’re selling to will be interested in your product, but they’re always interested in themselves. Creating a vision of what the prospect’s life might be like when they purchase your product is a great place to start.
Think about Nike’s catchphrase, “Just do it,” or Burger King’s “Have it your way.” These phrases don’t tell you what they sell. They tell you what you can do with the things they sell.
When I call on a VP of Sales at a Fortune 500 company to sell her my firm’s services, I certainly don’t lead with, “Hi! I’m Jeff from Boston, and I sell sales training and consulting products. I’d like to introduce my services. Is this a good time?”
Yawn. That isn’t interesting to her (or me!) and it certainly doesn’t make her curious to find out more. Instead, I do this. As soon as she picks up the phone, I say, “Hi. I got you live on my first dial, and when you hire me, I’ll teach your sales reps how to do the exact same thing.”
Now, I have her attention. You’ll notice I didn’t even introduce myself or describe my services. Instead, I’ve managed to gain her attention and plant the first seed of curiosity. Only after she’s interested, will I then take the time to introduce myself and my services. Now that she’s actually listening, of course.
If you sell copywriting services, you might look for errors on your prospect’s website and email them with the corrections, adding, “As your copywriter, I’d ensure your site was 100% typo-free at all times.”
If you provide leadership training, you might say, “It looks like you’ve been hiring a lot of middle managers lately. That often occurs when internal candidates aren’t being properly developed. What would it be like to have an 80% internal promotion rate?”
2. Pique their curiosity.
Once you’ve gotten your prospect to agree to another call, your goal is to keep their attention. I use this strategy to do just that.
At the beginning of the meeting, I’ll say, “Before I forget, I want to ask you something related to our last conversation. Let’s get into the agenda now, but will you remind me?”
They’ll say, “Sure, no problem.”
At the end of the call, they’ll either ask, “Hey, what was that thing you wanted to talk to me about?”, or they won’t mention it.
If it’s the former, I know they’re engaged and present. I’ve also managed to create a little intrigue. If it’s the latter, I know they don’t really care (and I should either try a different approach or move on).
Wondering what to bring up? I usually ask something I actually want to know that’s too short to include in the agenda, such as, “What percentage of your revenue comes from channel sales versus direct?”
3. Use past successes (not failures) as your guide.
I’ve always found it far more instructive to focus on what went well and try to replicate specific successes, rather than to dwell on mistakes. Our minds often behave like a search engine, displaying the results that reflect your query.
For example, if you Google “don’t show me fast-food restaurants” you are bound to get a massive list of fast-food restaurants. Coincidentally, if you only focus on how things haven’t worked in the past, then that’s probably all you will ever see.
The good news is that the same rule applies if you focus on the things that have already worked. One way to reinforce that mindset is to reach out to your current customers and ask about the things that got them interested in your offering.
Look for trends in their responses and then reuse those successful approaches with future prospects. Who knows, they might say, “Hey, that’s not why I took your meeting, I took it for this reason.”
The best answers for how to sell can usually be found from the people you have already closed.
