Posts Tagged ‘selling services’

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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 Most Powerful Sales Story

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

There’s one type of story I think everyone should have prepared. It’s the #1 story for building an emotional connection with your audience. It enables you to quickly build a level of trust that’s crucial in any selling situation.

Unfortunately few people have this story in their toolkit.

The story I’m referring to is what I call, Your Personal Story. It’s the story about why you do what you do. What makes it so powerful, is that the story transitions you from just another guy selling stuff, to someone who is doing what they do as a part of a larger mission.

Let me give you a couple of examples, so you can see what I mean.

If you probe a bit with many financial advisors, about why they decided to get into that business, you usually hear an interesting story. It often has to do with a family member, loved one or relative who got themselves into terrible financial straights because they didn’t understand investing. This experience was the catalyst for the fledgling advisor to say, “I’m not going to have that happen to me or to others I care about.” And that was the genesis for why they embarked on the path to becoming a financial advisor.

Now think about that, and compare it to how most financial advisors present their services. Most of the time it’s all about “Here’s my unique financial strategy that you should adopt.” Which in the ear of the prospective client, quickly translates into “Blah, blah, blah.”

Telling the story about why you got into the business makes the emotional connection. Pitching your solution, doesn’t. I don’t care whether we sell to individuals or to large corporations, in order for me to buy from you, you need to be someone who seems real to me. The story about why you do what you do, breaks down the barriers of skepticism that almost always exist, and accelerates the relationship building process.

That’s why learning to tell stories is a crucial, not a “nice to have” skill for anyone who sells or needs to persuade others. (Minor pitch-if you have a team of people who would benefit from getting better at using stories to sell, we should talk. Information about my one-day program is HERE.)

Second example.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that my first few years as a consultant were anything but a total disaster. A large part of the problem was that I positioned myself as this “expert from on high” who was born knowing all the answers. The truth, of course, was much different. In fact, I made every mistake possible, prompting my wife to comment, “It would be great if you would get it right the first time, just once.”

But here’s the point. Once I stopped trying so hard to be the expert, and instead told a story about how I struggled, learned from my mistakes, developed a system that worked for me and also for my clients…now people could begin to relate to me. My willingness to share my vulnerabilities made it safe for them to share that their business wasn’t dong as well as they hoped. Largely because of that story, they knew that I wasn’t going to be looking down on them, because I’d been in that exact same situation. (If you’d like to get a copy of the PDF that shares my story, just shoot me an email and I’ll send one along.)

The final point is this.

Whatever we are selling requires that people trust us, because unless they do so they won’t be open to discussing some rather important issues in their life. Whether it’s the corporate project, which if it isn’t done right could cause someone a missed promotion, to the individual who’s worried about having enough income to live on in their retirement, in order for these people to ask for our help, we have to make it safe for them to do so.

Your personal story is a powerful method for beginning that process.

Food for thought
Mark
mark@gentlerainmarketing.com

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Quit Selling

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Imagine for a moment that there was no pressure on you to sell anything…that you were free from the constraints of producing revenues.

In this mythological scenario, your focus is now 100% on building relationships.

No pressure to get them to actually buy anything. All you’re charged with is getting their attention and building a relationship.

How would you communicate differently?

The answers probably vary, but I’d imagine that there would be a lot less focus on you. Your solution. Your features. Why you are better/different/cooler than the competition.

My guess would be that you’d focus more on the person with whom you were speaking. What their challenges are. What they’re worried about. What they desire.

Now pause for a moment and put yourself in the shoes of that person. Who are you more interested in? The person who’s pushing their solution on you, or someone who is genuinely interested in you? (I realize the answer is kind of obvious.)

But here’s the point. In our desire to get people to buy, we tend to revert to a default mode that says the quickest way to do so is to evangelically preach at them about what we have to offer.

Once we’re out of the actually selling situation, we know that we should invest the time to find out needs and desires. But, once we’re actually in the white-hot fire of the sales conversation, WHAM-out come the big guns of WHY YOU SHOULD DO BUSINESS WITH ME. Let me preach at you until you see the light!

Curious, isn’t it, how we know we should do one thing, yet under pressure do something different?

I believe the reason why we don’t actually do, what we intellectually know we should, is because we feel under pressure to close the sale…make the money…meet the quota. And here’s where irony comes into play.

Which is…you’ll sell better if you just don’t care whether the person says, “Yes” or “No”. (Or at least not care too much.)

Of course, having that distance, that ability not to care, means that you have to have lots of people to present your case to. Lots of times at bat. And that’s what a great marketing system should get you-lots of “at bats”.

So you don’t have to care about making the sale (or at least not care too much.)

Food for thought
Mark
Here’s how to implement a marketing system in less than 45 days for under $300.

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Get Your Clients to Brag About You

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Imagine that there were hundreds, or even thousands or people who were all recommending you. What would the impact be on your business? Granted that’s somewhat of a rhetorical question, since the obvious answer is “Damn that would be great!.”..but it begs the question: How precisely can we get people talking about you?

Here’s one idea from (of all places) the world of antique collecting-and don’t immediately turn off because you’re not in that business. I really believe it’s going to be helpful to you, regardless of the type of business you’re in.

A quick story…

Hanging in my office is an antique sword formerly owned by Jeanne Pierre Robinette. Monsieur Robinette was the finance secretary for Napoleon I, and since his role was administrative and not military, the sword is actually rather wimpy. Nice to look at, but it would probably break in half in a real battle. However, when he was sworn into office, Monsieur Robinette was the only member of Napoleon’s court not to have a sword, so he commissioned one from the great sword craftsman Angelo Del’Amico of Seville Spain. Unfortunately, the first time he wore the sword in court he was made fun of by Napoleon’s Chief of Staff. Tempers flared, a duel ensued and Napoleon was soon is search of new accountant.

I know this story because the person, who sold me the sword at Red Baron Antiques, here in Atlanta, told it to me. Since Marian and I entertain a lot, I’ve told that story dozens of times over the years.

In all candor, being able to tell that story is one of the most pleasurable aspects of owning the sword.

But here’s the important part.

At the end of the story I also, instinctively, include the part about how I first learned the story when I purchased the sword at Red Barron Antiques. (As I just did once again.)

And here’s the even more important point.

I also instinctively) go on to talk about Red Barron and how cool it is and how all the items they sell have these great stories behind them. (As I seem to be doing once again.)

I’m sure you see my point.

I’m bragging on Red Barron because they gave me a great story I could tell. And what I notice is that if I tell the story to someone here in Atlanta, they invariably start to tell me the story about the cool thing they bought at Red Barron. Lots of people seem to have a Red Barron story.

Obviously, there’s no shortage of antique shops. Quite frankly, Red Barron isn’t the most convenient place to get to, and the parking is often a pain. BUT, it’s become the antique shop of destination.

And a large part of the their appeal is that they arm us with great stories we can tell to others about the cool stuff we buy from them.

So…what are the stories you want your clients to be telling about the services or products they receive from you? Is it something about the experience clients have the first time they visit you? Is it something about the great information you share with them? Is it about events and activities they get invited to once they’re a part of your circle? Is it the personal handwritten note you send?

Lets make our clients proud of the fact that they’ve selected you. Let’s give them stories they’ll want to tell to others.

Food for thought
Mark
I hate to keep reminding you, but if you want to learn how to tell great stories you need to read my book. Get it Here.

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The Illusion of Expertise

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Many successful consultants, advisors and small business owners are in enamored with the concept that they will achieve success merely by being good at what they do.

However, outside of academia, and for a few elite others who fate has shined a kind eye on, expecting the world to beat a path to your door is a losing proposition.

I recognize that in an ideal world, you’d just like clients to magically appear so that you could focus on the work you most enjoy. Which is why the marketing siren’s call of “we’ll do it all for you” is so alluring.

But here’s the reality.

As the CEO you also bought (perhaps unwittingly) the role of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

And the sad but true reality is that you can only delegate those responsibilities after you’ve mastered them.

So the question becomes…how are you going to get up to speed?

Here’s one option

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Making Boring Stuff Interesting

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Nothing glazes over the eyeballs quite like reading an article about Emergency Preparedness, but the folks at the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have figured out a way to turn oh-so-boring into I-want-to-read-that with over 1 million (and counting) page views already.

The secret? Link the boring “Here’s what you need to pack into a preparedness kit”, into a story about how to brace for disaster when the zombies attack. (And you know that’s going to happen any day now-so I’m packing my kit as soon as I’m done here.)

You hear me talk a lot about “mental heavy lifting” and how it’s the most important part of any marketing campaign. Well the CDC’s, Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic is a great example of some mental heaving lifting that results in a cool story around a dull topic.

Want to know what to pack to avoid zombies (as well as prepare for other natural disasters)? The article’s HERE.

Unfortunately most of us are in rather dry businesses. But as Zombie Pandemic illustrates, that doesn’t mean we have to be boring when it comes time to promote our message.

Food for thought
Mark
PS: Unique Sales Stories is now available on Kindle. (Currently at #1!) Get your copy HERE

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What’s In It For Me?

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Let’s spend a few minutes talking about…how to get people to do what you want.

The goods news is that it’s not terribly difficult. It’s more about changing how you “frame” what you’re communicating, than it is anything else.

So let’s put it into context.

Remember that the process of getting new clients is just that…a process. We need to move people through a series of steps. I’ll admit it would be great if we could shortcut the process, but the reality is that we can’t.

Step #1: Get them to pay attention to us. (Which falls into the category of “more difficult than one-would-think”. It’s not that people read or hear your message and reject it, they simply ignore what you’re trying to communicate.)

Step #2: Build trust and credibility. We don’t go from first date to marriage all in one evening (usually). High-value services can hardly be categorized as an impulse buy. That’s why the stay-in-touch-messages are so crucial. (Quick tip: Quit trying so hard to impress your readers, and focus on getting them to like you.)

Step #3: Get these prospects, who you’ve worked so hard to acquire and nurture, to actually hire you or buy stuff from you.

As most of you know, I’m a big believer in joining coaching programs. Back a few years ago I did John Carlton’s program. For those of you who don’t know him, John is a true persuasion master and holds the title of the world’s most “ripped off” copywriter. He’s an absolute genius at getting people to buy stuff.

John taught me something that’s literally enabled me to sell hundreds of thousands of programs, books, coaching and consulting.

The only problem with it is that it’s deceptively simple.

When I tell you what it is, you’ll claim to “know it” already.

In fact, you’ll probably say that you’re doing it already. But odds are…you’re not.

So here it is.

People will do what it is in their self-interest to do.

In other words they don’t give a squat about what you offer…

…UNLESS you can position it so that it’s in their self-interest to hire you or buy from you.

And how do you determine that?

One simple question.

What’s in it for me?

That’s the mindset you need when you sit down to talk to someone about your services.

Or, write copy for your website.

Or, write a sales letter or email.

Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect…pretend you’re that person, and ask, “What’s in it for me?”

Remember, your prospect doesn’t care a drip about what you do. They only care about what it can do for them.

Good food for thought,
Mark
Blatant Promotional Pitch…Please do not click here, I’m only trying to sell you stuff.

Really…this is just promotional stuff. You don’t need to learn more stuff. You need to DO more stuff.

Which if you a finally ready to do, then this link is the one you want to click.

Not this one.

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Stealth Selling

Monday, August 15th, 2011

Without meaning to belabor the obvious, we all want to get more people to buy from us. Yet, for the vast majority of us who sell high-value services, the idea of aggressively “selling” makes us uncomfortable.

So, let me share with you today a strategy that will enable you to convert large percentages (around 85%) of your prospects into paying clients, without having to turn yourself into some sort of hyper-sales type.

But, before I share that, I think a bit of background will be helpful.

Keep in mind, that it’s my belief that most of us make marketing way-too-complicated. (I know for many years I was very guilty of that.)

Remember, a highly effective marketing system really only has two parts to it.

Part 1: Get prospects to join your list by requesting some piece of free information that you are offering. (Most effectively accomplished through a micro-site or squeeze page. You can see an example of one HERE.)

Part 2: Now that prospects are on your list, communicate with them (and that can be done via email, snail mail, personally calling them, or some combination of all three) on a regular and consistent basis.

Once you have this marketing system in place, that is targeting one of the niches you serve, you’ll discover that you never again lack new people to talk with about your services.

Which leads us to the original point of this article…how can I convert these prospects into paying clients without being salesy?

The answer is actually pretty simple.

What you don’t want to do, (and what I did for many years) is to talk-at your prospects about what you do, or the solution you offer. That’s just going to leave them cold and bored.

What do you want to do? You want to tell them stories.

Stories about the challenges others have faced, and how they overcame them.

Stories about how other solutions just didn’t quite deliver the hoped for results that were desired. (Otherwise known as preemptively striking at your competition.)

Stories about you…how you got into the business you’re in, your struggles and how you developed your own expertise. (Ultimately, clients hire you-not your company, so you want them to bond and connect with you.)

Lots and lots of other stories.

As an article in Fortune Magazine pointed out a number of years ago (more HERE), the key to selling “invisibly” is to use stories.

However…(and you knew there was going to be a “however”), there’s a problem.

Most everyone agrees that stories will help them sell better.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone prepares their stories in advance. (And when I say “prepare” I’m talking about developing stories that are specifically designed to overcome objections and move prospects from idly curious to highly motivated to do business with you.)

The reason? Since we’ve told stories all of our lives, we think we can just wing-it when we need highly effective sales stories.

Wrong.

It takes preparation.

It takes practice.

But it’s worth doing.

Especially if you want to convert large percentages of your prospects into paying clients.

Food for thought.
Mark

P.S. If you haven’t already you really should read my book on how to develop your own Unique Sales Stories. You can get it at Amazon HERE.

P.P.S. One of the things I’m really good at is working with my clients on developing their stories. Maybe I can help you. Info is HERE.

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A Sales Tool For Experts

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

One of the challenges all of us face who are experts (whether we’re financial advisors, consultants, coaches or anyone else who gets hired for their expertise) is that our prospects aren’t usually as knowledgeable about our particular topic as we are. (Which makes an enormous amount of common sense since, if they were, they probably wouldn’t be hiring us.)

Unfortunately, what this means is that it’s very easy for us to talk “over the heads” of our prospects. We don’t mean to, and most of our prospects will never let us know they really don’t understand what the heck we’re saying, but still, it’s a real issue.

I’ve had many discussions with potential candidates in which I’d hear acknowledging grunts as I rambled on about sequenced autoresponders and information product up-sell strategies, without ever realizing that I’d left the poor person in the dust several minutes ago. Obviously, if prospects don’t understand what we’re communicating, the odds of them hiring us are usually between the proverbial slim and none.

But there’s an additional danger that we need to be cognizant of once we recognize this challenge. We don’t want to overcompensate and start talking down to our prospects. Not surprisingly they’ll take that as condescension, which is even worse than talking over their heads.

Fortunately the solution is simple.

Make sure that you’re using a lot of examples that illustrate the point you’re trying to make. It’s one thing for to say “Then we set up a sequenced autoresponder system that will enable you to put your communication on autopilot.” That assumes the person I’m speaking with knows what a “sequenced autoresponder” is.

I’d do a better job of bringing the benefits to life if I provide an example or story.

Such as…”I was working with a client in your industry who, like you, realized they needed to do a better job of staying in touch with prospects. What we set up was a system that automatically sent out messages in a pre-programmed sequence.

For example, the day after they requested the free report, they’d get an email with the subject line ‘Did you get it?”. It would include another copy of the link to get the free report and show that we were really interested in making sure the prospect got the information. A couple of days later the person would get an email titled “I’d love some feedback on the report”. As one might guess, asking for feedback is a great way to start building a relationship.

As a result of setting up these automated messages, this client increased his overall conversion rate from 5% to over 25%. You can imagine the impact that had on his bottom line.”

By using examples (or stories), we increase the likelihood that our prospects will be able to visualize the benefits that we offer. As anyone who has been successful in selling services will attest, “visualization” is crucial for converting prospects into actual paying clients.

Food for thought

PS: If you haven’t already you really should read my book on creating great sales stories. You can order it HERE

PPS: If you’d like to personally work with me to develop your marketing campaign but my Platinum program is outside your budget, here’s what you might consider. INFO

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New Billionaire’s Rules For Success

Monday, June 27th, 2011

It looks like Bob Parsons, founder & CEO of GoDaddy.com will join the ranks of newly minted billionaires as his company is acquired my KKR.

One thing I love about Parsons is the joie de vive with which he lives his life and runs his business. Case in point, his rules for success. You can read them HERE

All good points to keep in mind for all of us.

Talk soon
Mark
For the 5% who are committed to getting outside their comfort zone when it comes to attracting more affluent clients.

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