Posts Tagged ‘sales presentation training’

The Elevator Speech is a Dumb Idea

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012


Here’s a contrarian viewpoint. I believe that trying to develop an elevator speech, in which you attempt to summarize what you do in a single sentence, is an amazingly dumb idea. Lord knows, I’ve spent enough time working on one for myself and trying to develop them for clients.

Finally, it occurred to me that it was a complete waste of time.

Think about what’s typically developed.

Either it’s what I call the Yellow Page classification answer…”I’m a financial advisor”…accountant…butcher…baker…candlestick maker.” Exceeding dull and only serves to check off our list of polite chatter, “I’ve said what I do.”

Or it’s incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t live in your business world…”I’m a supply chain consultant.” (Come again?). “I integrated proprietary networking systems into legacy based infrastructures.” (How nice for you.)

Or, we attempt to get creative…”I help people live their dreams.” “I turn potential into gold.” Blah, blah, blah. (As an aside, how does anyone actually say that stuff with a straight face? It’s a rhetorical question-so if you are someone who uses a “creative” elevator speech, there’s no reason to write me an angry note.)

But, we do have to say something. So what’s the answer?

Here’s what I think.

The goal for what you say is to stimulate curiosity. If they’re interested in learning more, they’ll let you know. That permission then enables you to tell them the short story about what you do.

I recently saw a great example of this from, of all people, a lady involved in MLM/Network marketing. As a group, these people are usually the worse at this sort of thing, but this lady had a great answer to the “what do you do?” question.

“I help mature women look as attractive as possible.”

I was intrigued and followed her around the room for a bit. Virtually everyone she said this to, asked a follow up question. That question then gave her permission to tell her story about how she started selling this product. (Did you catch why this line works so well?)

The lesson? Get them curious.

For years I told people some version of “I’m a marketing consultant.” The alternative I used, “I assist business owners attract more new clients with no cold calling” was OK, but never flowed as smoothly as I desired.

One day it occurred to me that one of the primary ways I attract clients is through my books, and that I spend the majority of my time preparing, writing or promoting them. Thus, I shifted my answer to, “I primarily spend my time writing books.”

What a change in reaction.

“What types of books?” “How many have you written?” “What are they about?” “Where can I get them?”

This naturally enables me to transition into the story about how I became an author, how I speak, train and coach people on using stories to sell.

Rather than just blab at people uninvited about what we do, or attempt to be cutesy with our elevator speech, focus instead on making them curious. That way you’ll be invited in to tell the longer story about how clients benefit from your services.

However…figuring out what precisely will make them curious requires that pesky mental heavy lifting I often refer to. But, if you’re planning on using networking events or other social engagements as a tool for meeting new clients, it’s certainly worth the effort.

Good food for thought.

PS: Would you like some assistance is developing your Anti-Elevator Speech? GO HERE

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The Power of a Great Story

Monday, January 16th, 2012


For those of you who aren’t quite convinced that a great story can overcome the most difficult objections, this video may change your mind.

Never underestimate the power of a great story.

(Many thanks to John Frisbie for passing this along-I’d love to hear about other great examples of powerful stories, so please send them over to mark@gentlerainmarketing.com.)

This may take up to 30 seconds to load, so please be patient. (Trust me, it’s worth it.)

Give me 3 hours and I’ll teach your sales team how to tell great stories that get more referrals, differentiate you from the competition and help you close more sales. Information is HERE

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Unique Sales Stories Training Overview

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012


I’ll admit it, this video is pretty much an unabashed presentation for why you should consider hiring me to teach your sales team how to develop and deliver great sales stories.

Not surprisingly, I firmly believe that the skill of creating and telling sales stories is not something that’s “nice” to have, but rather a critical skill everyone who sells or needs to persuade others, needs to master.

This 18 minute video will help you determine whether this program is right for your organization. Since it is a large video it may take up to 30 seconds for it to fully load.

Naturally, once you’ve finished watching this I would welcome an opportunity to speak with you in more detail about the program and how I might customize it to meet the specific needs of your organization.

Thanks for watching this and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Mark
mark@GentleRainMarketing.com
770-643-8566

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What Prospects Are Saying About Your Selling Skills

Friday, August 20th, 2010


According to IDC’s 2010 Customer Experience Survey of 213 senior level buyers, most people are not as effective selling one-on-one as they think they are.

This comes in stark contrast to the perception of most business owners, consultants and sales professionals who tend to adopt the attitude of “get me in front of a prospect and I’ll close the deal.”

According to behavioral psychologist John Crandall, this overly optimistic assessment of sales skills comes from the fact that for many people, the only face-to-face selling they engage in is with friendly prospects who are referred directly to them.

Crandall explains, “Although referrals are terrific, they can give one a false sense of prowess regarding their ability to sell. What I call ‘friendly referrals’ will usually be extremely polite and seldom brush off or overtly dismiss the sales presentation from a person who got into their office as a result of relationship with someone they respect and trust.”

“Thus, the meetings tend to be very pleasant and the business owner or consultant is left with the distinct feeling that a business relationship is likely to happen. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases that doesn’t occur, although the consultant will hold onto the ‘positive belief’ that a deal is imminent for months or sometimes even years.”

According to the IDC survey, 64% of the key decision makers found sales presentations to be extremely ineffective. A chief culprit? According to Eduardo Conrado, SVP & CMO, enterprise mobility solutions at Motorola Inc., “Doing a straight product pitch without relating it to the specific needs that I have.”

Crandall concurs. “It’s amazing to me that although anyone selling for any extended period of time knows about advanced preparation, and communicating benefits rather than facts and features, so few people actually do this when they are in a live selling situation. There is a huge disconnect between what people intellectually know they should do, and what they actually are doing.”

So what’s the solution? What should business owners and consultants do differently when they are in front of a prospect?

Dr. Crandall says, “The reality is that most consultants and entrepreneurs just don’t get that many times at bat. That’s a huge disadvantage because face-to-face persuasion is a skill that gets better the more you do it. However, when one relies on referrals or cold calling as your primary means for getting meetings, you’re just not going to have a lot of opportunities. This is, to a certain extent, a game of numbers, so you need to first fix the process by which you get opportunities to meet.”

But what about when you’re in the meeting, what can make people more effective in that situation? Motorola’s Contrado has one specific suggestion.

“If they talk about case studies and how they have helped companies with similar challenges-that kind of approach gets my brain going about how they can help me.”

In other words, it’s the stories you tell.

Dr. Crandall cautions, “Stories, case studies, call them what you will, are undoubtedly the most effective method for getting your prospect to visualize the benefits that a company can provide. But again there’s a disconnect. Most people think they are much more effective raconteurs than they are in fact. There’s a huge difference between telling a story in a bar to your buddy, and imperceptibly weaving an effective story into a sales presentation.”

“That requires planning, forethought and practice. Unfortunately very few people seem to be willing to take the time to actually develop a series of stories in advance that they can then draw upon when they are needed.”

Mark Wilson, VP at Sybase Inc. concurs, “The most effective sales presentations are those in which the person has a number of case studies and they pick them intelligently for companies that face the same problems as us.”

What struck me about this article, and the comments of Dr. Crandall, was this disconnect between what we understand intellectually and what we do in action. As anyone knows who has sold anything, the face-to-face selling situation is accompanied with a fair amount of tension. What this means is that unless your case studies and stories are developed and rehearsed in advance, it’s most likely that you’ll either fail to use them in the meeting, or that what is communicated doesn’t represent your best effort.

And that’s a shame. Especially if you don’t get a lot of “times at bat”.

I realize that this is extremely self serving, but one of the practical applications for my Gentle Rain Coaching sessions is to help you develop, practice and get feedback on the sales stories you want to communicate. Individual sessions are $250 and discounts are available for longer commitments.

If you would like to receive additional information please email me at mark@gentleraimarketing.com

Good food for thought. Talk with you soon
Mark
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The Most Watched Business Speech Of All Time

Monday, August 9th, 2010


Last night I re-watched what I (and many others) consider to be one of the best speeches given by a business executive in the past 10 years.

Can you guess whom I’m referring to?

Ironically, it was a commencement speech given by one of the world’s foremost business visionaries-who never actually graduated from college.

It started this way.

“Thank you. I’m honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots…”

It’s been viewed over 2.4 million times and is the only commencement speech to actually go viral. But most importantly it’s a model that all of us can learn from who aspire to gain greater attention for our marketing messages, motivate others or simply differentiate ourselves from the over-increasing hordes of competition.

You may have guessed that the speech I’m referring to is one given by Steve Jobs at Stanford University’s commencement exercises.

What made this speech so powerful? A large part of it is what Job’s said in the very beginning, “Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.”

A friend of mine who was there later told me that you could visibly see the audience’s level of attention increase as Jobs spoke those words.

Intellectually most of us know that if we want to get attention or persuade and motivate others, using stories is by far the most effective tool we have.

But do we really do it?

Unfortunately the answer is usually, “No”

A quick case in point.

I was in a meeting last week with a top senior sales executive for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. I was there to talk about my sales training program Unique Sales Stories: How To Get More Referrals, Differentiate Yourself From the Competition & Close More Sales Through Storytelling.

I could tell that Mr. Williams (he asked that I not use his real name although he did hire me to conduct the program for reasons that will be apparent in a moment), agreed wholeheartedly about the “concept” of using stories to more effectively develop relationships and close sales.

I could also tell that he thought his sales team:
1) Already knew how to tell stories, and…
2) Were doing a good job of it.

I could tell this because…well, he told me so.

Anyway, playing a hunch, I asked Mr. Williams if he would spare 2 more minutes and walk with me out on the sales floor. Humoring me, he agreed.

We walked past the desks of over 2 dozen financial advisors, all on the phone, all pitching their services. We’d stop periodically and eavesdrop.

Guess what we heard-or more specifically what we didn’t hear?

Not a single story.

Lots of facts. Lots of features. Lots of…noise. But not a single story that would enable prospects and clients to visualize the benefits these advisors were offering.

I’m sure you get my point.

There’s a world of difference between intellectually knowing something and actually doing it. Even more importantly…as I suggested to Mr. Williams, there is a huge difference between knowing what you should be doing and actually how to do it.

Which is why Mr. Williams is now a client.

But let me go back to Steve Jobs’ speech for a moment. After I watched the speech again I got curious. I’m a big fan (in fact I’m likely to be the only person you’ll ever meet who actually has never used a PC), but I was curious about something.

Does Steve Jobs wing it when he gives a speech? I mean the guy is one gifted speech giver. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he did.

But apparently he doesn’t. Not by a long shot.

I had the opportunity to do some work with Apple about 15 years ago and have stayed in contact with the person who hired me. (Not a big surprise-I am the Gentle Rain guy after all.) Anyway, he had a lot of interaction with the CEO so I posed the question of whether Mr. Jobs did much preparation prior to giving a speech. He replied:

“You wouldn’t believe how much preparation goes into making these speeches look completely unrehearsed and natural. The content is excruciatingly and painstakingly reviewed to make sure the ‘points’ come across. Absolutely nothing is left to chance. The preparation and the practice is the stuff behind the scenes, that very few are aware of, that makes the end result so powerful.”

So here’s something to think about…

Stories are powerful.

Stories get you remembered.

They help you develop more brand new relationships and convert prospects into paying clients.

But knowing and agreeing with those statements is worlds apart from actually developing those unique sales stories that only you can tell.

Perhaps that is something I can help you with. Whether it is training your sales team on how to develop and deliver sales stories…to coaching you one on one…to writing a great sales story for your website…please let me know how I can assist you.

Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Mark
mark@gentlerainmarketing.com
770-643-8566

Relevant links:
Learn more about my sales training
Let me coach you one-on-one
Need a great sales story written for you?
Steve Jobs YouTube video:
Transcript of the speech:

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How To Get Prospects To Pay Attention To You

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010


One of the key challenges in any sales presentation is communicating a message that makes prospects pay attention. Amid all the clutter and noise that exists in the marketplace, how do we get those with whom we most want to do business with, to pay attention to us?

Obviously, that’s a complex question and the answer quite frankly is that there are a lot of factors. But if we go to ground zero, that point where we are first trying to get attention, there is one element that we most want to focus on.

The Problem.

That’s what gets attention. That’s what makes people say, “Perhaps I should learn a bit more.” It doesn’t mean that they’re going to get them to hire us. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to give us money. But, the right problem, presented in a way that is compelling and intriguing, can be the proverbial spark that starts the dry brush ablaze.

However, what do most people do? How do they try to capture attention? Ironically (and mostly ineffectively) they talk about themselves. The opening salvo usually takes one of two forms. Sometimes it’s the ubiquitous, “This is what I do:”

“I’m a lawyer, realtor, financial advisor, headhunter, butcher, baker candlestick-maker. “

What’s the response? Typically, “Oh.”

Or they try this…

Those that have been to sales training 101 (but didn’t stay through the whole thing) know that this is not enough. So they confidently answer, “We offer the worlds most researched solution on extrapolating data through software integration.”

“How very nice for you.”

Answers like these are what my friend Don refers to as “Hammers in search of a nail.” Realistically how many of us really know what software integration is? Or care?

So what’s the answer? How can we make people care? One of the most effective ways is to put the answer in the context of something that I can understand. Something I can relate to. And what might that be? Simply put, it’s a story.

What compelling sales stories have in common is that they address a problem. Some sort of gap between what the main character desires and his or her current state. It could be desire for money, success, confidence, respect or any of another basic human goals. With business stories it’s usually something a bit more pragmatic: increased sales, improved employee morale or reducing costs.

The point is that if you want to get someone’s attention you need to focus on the problems that you solve. Even if the person you’re speaking to doesn’t suffer from that particular problem, by focusing on problems rather than some bland recitation about what you “do”, you’ll dramatically increase the likelihood that they will remember you.

Let’s take the marketing consultant as an example. She could try to get attention by saying, “I’m a marketing consultant.” In one ear and out the other. Let’s try again.

She could say, “I offer an integrated turn-key solution to help my clients get more new clients.”

Hmmm. Still a bit of the “hammer in search of a nail.”

It’s hard to visualize what she really does. And that’s the key. We need to get what we do visualized in the person’s brain. We need for it to come alive.

So how do we do that? We need to paint a picture. We need to tell a story. Like this:

“On a fundamental level I help my clients get more new business. The challenge most of them face is that they’re the ‘best kept secret’ in their marketplace. I show them how to get more referrals by communicating unique sales stories about what they do.”

So let’s examine this last answer in a bit more detail. Certainly it’s longer and that may take a bit of getting used to. Since most everyone describes what they do in 15 words or less we feel compelled to do so as well. Resist that temptation. If you have something interesting to say, your reader or listener will stick with you.

So this answer starts by framing the topic by focusing on a large problem-getting more new clients. However, she doesn’t stop there. She immediately drills down on a highly specific problem (being the “best kept secret”) that she helps solve. She then concludes by transitioning into what she offers. However it’s important to note, that she is very specific about how she helps.

What our marketing lady has done here is to paint a picture in our minds. We can now easily visualize a problem she works on. In all likelihood she probably works on many different problems and depending upon the situation she is in, she draws upon different answers. However, each answer follows the same format of hooking attention by focusing on a problem.
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Want me to work with you on developing you own Unique Sales Story? Send an email to mark@gentlerainmarketing.com and we’ll set up a time to talk. Please reference this blog post. Thanks!

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Why This Kills Your Business

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010


Let me tell you a quick story, and while it may not appear so, it actually does tie into the topic of this article.

Has this ever happened to you? You go to a restaurant that you’ve never been to before. Place looks nice. Perhaps the menu is a bit more extensive than you thought, so you ask your waiter/waitress/waitperson (or is it server/servess/serve-person?), what’s really good?

What do you so often hear?

“Well, we serve a lot of the chicken.”

That’s an interesting answer but it’s not the question we asked. However, according to restaurant consultant Michael Simmons, it is the answer that most people are happy with.

Michael explains: “What we find is that most people want to make the safe choice. Thus if the server tells someone that a restaurant sells a lot of chicken, the patron feels that they are making a good decision. Of course what is not really ever answered is whether the chicken is actually any good.”

The point to this brief story is that this same sort of mentality is also found among business owners and consultants when it comes to marketing or promoting their business. In fact the first step that most owners take when embarking on a “let’s get some new business” initiative is to visit the websites of companies who offer similar products or services.

That’s actually not a bad first step. However, it’s what takes place next that is the usually colossal mistake. Instead of looking at the competition and then doing something different, what is the far more typical reaction? They look at the competitor’s site and then copy it. In marketing circles this is what is often referred to as “the mad rush to the middle.”

“Hey Joe, I see that our competitors have a headline on their website, ‘Will you have enough money for retirement’. Maybe we should be that too.” And companies wonder why prospects have a hard time differentiating between them.

If you want to stand out in a crowded marketplace the solution isn’t all that particularly difficult or complex. There are really only a few steps to the process.

First, create a unique signature sales story about who you are, the problems you solve and the benefits that clients get from working with you. The key word here is “unique”. Make sure that it’s a story that no one else is telling. How do you do that? One simple method is by having the characters in the story be you, your friends, your clients and associates. Another simple way to create uniqueness is to tell the story about why you’re doing what you’re doing. How did you get into the business? Why is this your passion, or at least a strong interest in you life? No one can tell that story but you.

The second step is placing the story somewhere so that people can get it. A simply one page website is the easiest way to do that. Basic one page websites with an opt-in form cost less than $300 to put up.

Now, here’s a tip that’s real important if you want to get lots more clients banging at your door and giving you their business. Make sure that you only tell part of the story on your website. Give them enough that they’re hooked and want to learn more. Give them enough so that they say to themselves, “This is different from what I’ve read on the last 10 websites I’ve visited. I’d be interested in learning more.”

Naturally, in order to learn more and get the rest of the story they have to opt-in and become a subscriber. Now you’ve got permission to send them additional emails or newsletters that tell additional unique sales stories that build trust, credibility and eventually motivate large percentages of them to take action.

Once you’ve got this little teeny-tiny one page website set up, then it is simply a matter of getting the word out so that you get visitors coming to the page and reading your story. There are lots of ways to do that: social media, advertising, direct mail, videos, speaking, articles, the list goes on and on.

But it all starts with the unique sales story. The one that only you can tell. The one that won’t be found on your competitor’s website.

So the next time you’re in a restaurant and you hear, “We sell a lot of chicken.” Don’t accept that answer (either for yourself or your business). Ask them again. “No, what’s really good?” And then take a look at your website and marketing materials. Are you communicating what’s really good about you? What’s unique?
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This sales letter made me a lot of money. I’d like to share it with you for FREE. Go get it HERE

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Don’t Get Enough Referrals? Here’s Why

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010


To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. I had been a member of this peer support networking group for over a year. I had not only explained in a presentation to the group what I did but had made a point to take each member out to lunch to make sure they understood. Look, you can’t get referrals if people don’t know who you are and what you do, so I wasn’t leaving any proverbial stone unturned.

Our meetings were always on the third Tuesday of the month. Occasionally our group leader would invite an outside speaker to come in. That’s what happened on a fine spring day in June, and led me to sitting in my car fuming at the unfairness of it all.

Jim Brinkman is a pretty impressive guy. He’s obviously a polished speaker and his stories about the marketing problems his clients faced are entertaining, well told, and make a lot of good points. Although Jim was technically a direct competitor to me, I found that I was enjoying his presentation a lot. So too were the other members of my peer support networking group.

“Great presentation” intoned Alan Jameson, our group’s leader. “When you were telling us that story about how you helped that chiropractor differentiate his services, that reminded me that I’ve got someone who could really use your help.”

“Your right Alan”, said Tom Treadway, who for the past 11 months had sat to my left at these meetings. “My neighbor only last week said that he needed some help in updating his sales messages-here, let me give you his name.”

I sat there in stunned silence, hardly believing what I was hearing. “These leads would be perfect for me!”, I thought to myself. “Why haven’t you guys talked to me about them?”

The meeting quickly broke up and 10 minutes later there I sat in my car pondering the unfairness of life. “Those ungrateful jerks” I steamed, “I’ll show them. I’ll be damned if I ever refer them any business.” Round and round I went, in an amazingly effective display of mental consternation.

Until I eventually ran out of steam and I began to reflect on what had just occurred with a bit more patience and perspective. “Maybe they don’t like me. Maybe they don’t trust me. Maybe they don’t think I’m competent.” I didn’t know what the answer was as to why I wasn’t getting the referrals I so desperately wanted, but I was bound and determined to find out.

Among all of the group I was the closest to Laura Sinclair. So a couple of days later I invited her out for coffee. I was determined to get an answer to why Jim Brinkman after one 30 minute presentation had received the referrals that had eluded me for 14 months.

“Look Laura, I’d really appreciate your candid advice. I’ve been a member of this group for over a year and have barely received any referrals. This guy Jim Brinkman comes in and picks off two great ones in less than an hour. What gives? Do people not like me? Trust me? Think I’m not competent? You’ve got to help me here, I’m really frustrated.”

Laura’s answer both surprised me and set me on a new path. One that ultimately increased my monthly referrals from zero a month to over a dozen.

“No Mark” Laura said, “It’s got nothing to do with any of that. Everyone that I know really likes and respects you. I guess it’s that we just don’t really understand what you do for clients. To be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure who you work with and what kinds of problems your best at solving. I know you’ve gone to great pains to educate us on that but I’m afraid that it either didn’t sink in or somehow just didn’t register.

When Jim spoke to us I found that I was interested in the stories he told. Even if I couldn’t directly relate to some of them-there was that one about a chiropractor and I never been to one-the problem that the chiropractor faced is similar to issues I’m dealing with. The fact that he told us interesting stories enabled me to understand what he did, who he worked with and the types of successes his clients achieved.”

To say that a light bulb went off in my head would be a little over-dramatic, but that doesn’t minimize the importance of the message. As I reflected on what I had communicated in my presentations to the group and in the one on one meetings, I realized that it had been a laundry list of facts about what I did. Boring, completely forgettable facts.

What made Jim’s presentation interesting? What made it memorable? What motivated the audience to refer people to him? The simple difference was that he told stories. As my friend Laura said, “People don’t remember facts, but they do remember stories.” Once I shifted my communication strategy to creating and communicating unique sales stories, the number of quality referrals I received dramatically increased.
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This sales letter made me a lot of money. I’d like to share it with you for FREE. Go get it HERE

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The Best Sales Stories For Getting New Business

Monday, April 5th, 2010


OK perhaps the title of this is a bit grandiose, but it did get your attention. After all who want to read or listen to a sales story that’s dull or boring?

So what goes into the best sales stories? Although we can’t always pull this off, the best stories are ones that spark the imagination. Stories that enable us to visualize a desired outcome or experience. This last point is very important to keep in mind.

When we buy something, whether it be a tangible product or a service, we’re really not buying the “thing”. That’s not what primarily motivates us. What we crave is the experience that the purchase will give us. Buying a fancy watch doesn’t enable us to tell time any better. However when I purchased my first Rolex, it was the physical manifestation of a level of success I had achieved. I realize that it sounds somewhat silly as I type this, but I wanted to show the world that I was no longer someone who aspired to own a Rolex, I was someone who had achieved a level of success that enabled me to do so.

Much research has been done about the purchasing behavior in the luxury marketplace, and this desire to show “success” is a primary motivator behind the purchase of expensive cars, pens and other status objects. Thus, the more we can connect to the desires that our audience has, the more our story will resonate with them.

OK, that sounds find in theory, but how exactly do we do that? Here are some thoughts to keep in mind.

First, you need to write for a specific audience. One that you know and understand on a very deep level. This is the reason why niche marketing is so important. What we want to strive for in all of our sales and marketing stories is to have our readers and listeners see a reflection of themselves in what we are communicating. Not surprisingly, in order to do that, we need to target our message.

Secondly your story needs characters. To quote Stalin, “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.” If your story has characters that the reader or listener can relate to, the greater attention they’ll pay to what you have to say. Not surprisingly, the one of the best characters for your story is yourself.

Which brings me to a very important point.

However, despite knowing that I needed to tell stories and that stories needed characters, my first attempts at creating unique sales stories were mostly forgettable. The problem was that my character, me, wasn’t particularly sympathetic. My early stories were all about my successes and accomplishments. Looking back on those early attempts, it appears that I sprung into my profession without a single misstep along the way. Of course the reality was much more different. In fact my wife is often fond of saying that she wishes that I could get it right the first time just once.

Showing vulnerability wasn’t easy for me. I equated it with showing weakness. However, it was clear that my stories were not resonating with my audience so I figured it was worth a try. The results were significant. What I found was that by sharing this information, I showed that I wasn’t all that different from those who I was writing and speaking to. The only difference was that I was maybe a few steps ahead. What I knew I had learned from others, and from trial and error. It was that hard won wisdom that I wanted to share.

When I developed stories from that perspective, I found that I developed a deeper bond with my audience. By not focusing so intently on trying to convince people that I was an expert in my field, I somewhat ironically found that I was accomplishing just that.

Which leads me to the third piece in the puzzle. My wife Marian is a strong believer in what she calls “your authentic voice”. For more years than I care to admit, I looked at the style of those who seemed successful and tried to copy it. My thinking was that if it worked for them, it should work for me too. What I failed to realize is that the reason it worked for them was because it was their authentic voice, not mine.

The worse experience came when I spoke at a local Rotary group. I adopted a sales style that worked quite well for one of the well-known gurus in my field. Unfortunately it left my audience cold. In fact one lady wrote a note to me in which she stated that she “loathed” my presentation. Feedback like that certainly makes one rethink their approach.

I won’t say that my authentic voice was developed overnight. The real key for me was to relax and not worry about how others might perceive my message. To paraphrase Popeye, “We are what we are.” Once we accept that and focus on delivering our message rather than on impressing others, our authentic voice comes to the surface. Want to learn more? This may be of INTEREST

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Stop Being The “Best Kept Secret” In Your Market

Friday, April 2nd, 2010


If there is one problem that perplexes business owners more than others, it’s, “How do I differentiate my business from the competition?” This is a particularly challenging issue for services businesses.

So how can a consultant, advisor, or other services provider differentiate themselves from the competition? What’s the best way to stand out amid an ever increasingly competitive world? For many of the most successful companies the answer is increasingly to focus on telling stories. If you want more referrals or word-of-mouth buzz, telling stories about who you are, what you do and the benefits your clients receive by working with you, is one of the most powerful marketing strategies you can implement.

Unique sales stores can be used on your website, in your sales letters and your stay-in-touch communications. One of the great benefits of marketing using sales stories is that you can reuse one story multiple times without it losing its effectiveness. If one observes those companies that receive the greatest amount of referrals, the one factor they all have in common is that they are adept at developing and disseminating stories about their business.

What makes stories such powerful tool if your goal is to generate more referrals for your business? The primary reason is that stories are so much easier to remember than facts. If I tell you that an architectural firm has offices in Atlanta, St. Louis and San Diego, that information is likely to go in one proverbial ear and out the other.

However if I tell you a story about how the Atlanta office successfully bid on a project by drawing from the talents of one of their team members in the St. Louis office who had worked on the venerable St. Louis arch, and another from the San Diego office who had an intimate understanding of environmental design from work she had done at the San Diego zoo, the dynamics have changed.

First you are much more likely to actually remember the story. This is crucial. Not surprisingly the first step to getting referrals is having people actually remembering what it is that you do. Although this sounds simple and obvious, it’s actually pretty difficult to get your business remembered amid all the noise that exists in the world. Stories help enormously in that regard.

However, stories go far beyond simply increasing the likelihood that people will remember who you are. The true power of stories is that they intrigue people and make them curious to learn more. By engaging this natural curiosity, sales stories motivate readers and listeners to want to learn more. This is what is often referred to as selling invisibly.

Here is an interesting example for how this actually works. The sales letter that is credited with generating the largest amount of revenues is one that was written well over 40 years ago for the Wall Street Journal. This is how it began:

“Take two men. Both graduates of good universities. Both hardworking and ambitious.

Flash forward twenty years and one is in the corner office commanding the attention and respect of hundreds. The other toils amid the legions of middle managers in a largely obscure position. Why did one ascend to great heights and the other plateau so early?”

What made this letter so effective? The answer is simple. It told a story. As a result it creating curiosity and engaged the imagination of the reader. They wanted to learn more. They sincerely wanted to learn the answer to: “Why did one ascend to great heights and the other plateau so early?

This format for writing a sales story, called among copywriters as “Take Two People” is one of the most widely copied sales letters. It has been used to sell everything from consulting services to higher education.

So what types of stories could you tell about your company? What are the success stories that others would be interested in learning more about? Not surprisingly, creating excellent unique sales stories is both an art and a science. It is certainly far more than just simply sitting down and starting to type. There’s a process and system that makes stories interesting and memorable. It takes a bit of an investment of time and education in order to create stories that aren’t flat or lifeless. However, for virtually all business owners it is an investment that is well worth making.
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This sales letter made me a lot of money. I’d like to share it with you for FREE. Go get it HERE

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