Marketing Speaker Asks… What Do You Do & How Are You Different?
I walked into a networking meeting this morning and encountered two individuals from an advertising agency and one independent marketing consultant.
Of course, they were at least potential competitors… and perhaps collaborators, so I was anxious to find out about them. But neither could tell me what they do and why I should choose them instead of their competitors.
These people were at a networking event. Their goal was to meet people with whom they might be able to do business.
But on the very most basic issues of what do you do and what makes you different, neither of these “entities” had their story straight.
Don’t you think they could anticipate the questions “What do you do and what makes you different from others who claim to do the same thing?”
What about you? Don’t you know the basic questions people are going to have on their minds about your business, whether they ever ask the questions or not?
Do you have the answers? Can you deliver those answers quickly, concisely, convincingly, every time?
We’re in a very competitive market. People have options when it comes to buying whatever you sell. You know both your products and your expertise are superior. But does your public? How are you going to let them know?
Contrast the encounter I had with the guys in my story above, with my meeting with a prospective client earlier in the week.
I walked into the appointment and the first words out of the prospect’s mouth were, “I’ve had a marketing consultant in the past and an agency. In fact, I’m terminating a relationship with my current agency. What makes you different from all the other agencies and consultants out there?”
I do believe I shocked the pants off of him, simply because I actually had an answer…
“We work with all three ways to grow your business, Rich. Bringing in more customers, increasing your average transaction, and getting existing customers to buy more often.
“What makes us really different is that we focus on measurable results. We believe everything you do in marketing should be measurable, trackable and be targeted to get a response.”
Halfway through, his head was nodding in agreement. He knew we were different.
We had a meaningful answer to his question, not just platitudinous hyperbole.
He was already sold!
The rest of the meeting was hashing out details. We walked out of that first-ever meeting with that decision-maker, less than an hour later, with a signed agreement in hand, which could bring us upwards of $80,000.00 this year.
That outcome wouldn’t have — couldn’t have — come about had we walked into that meeting unprepared for the most predictable and relevant questions that guy could possibly have had on his mind… whether he ever actually asked these questions or not…
What do you do? And… How are you different? You should know the answers to these questions and be prepared to deliver them at the drop of a hat. In fact, you should be delivering them before the hat drops.
Be prepared to answer these questions in every ad you run.
Predictability in every aspect of selling.
Selling is like the weather. Prospects are either “unseasonably warm”, “unseasonably cold”, or “normal”.
And if those are the only three possible circumstances, you certainly should be able to prepare for all three contingencies.
I’m tempted to assume that your process includes a scripted presentation. But as I’m thinking about it, I realize that it probably doesn’t, as a matter of fact.
It blows my mind that most sales processes are shockingly random.
But I would be willing to bet this. Generally, the more seasoned; the more professional; the more consistent; the more successful a salesperson is, the more predictable, routine, scripted and systemized is every aspect of her process.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that even among salespeople who claim they are not predictable and systematic; who claim they don’t use a set process or scripts, we would find, if we analyze their successful sales calls, that they are astonishingly consistent in the things they both say and do in every situation.
Develop a regimented discovery process consisting of a set of specific questions asked a specific way, designed to not only discover what of your products can best serve the prospective client, but also that reveal how that prospective client would best like to be turned into an actual client.
Develop scripted demo and sales presentations, designed to take the prospect through the educational phase, pre-empt most questions and objections by pre-answering, and lead the prospect to the only right decision — to invest in your company’s products or services.
Objections & The Close
In a world of perfect prospects and perfect salespeople, if you engineer your processes well, you won’t get questions or objections. But no salesperson is perfect and prospects are far from it.
And despite this truth, amazingly, for every product or service out there being sold, there are surprisingly few categories of objection or question.
So why not have your responses to any of them scripted?
You should also have a scripted, assumptive, alternate-advance closing question…
Okay Bob, it appears we agree. Here’s the agreement ready for your signature,
and should we take care of the commencement payment now, or would you like to
have it sent to us
Naturally, a closing question like this isn’t going to work every time. There will be questions… there will be objections.
But by the time you’ve given a dozen sales presentations, you will have heard just about every objection or question they’re ever going to throw at you.
If you know they’re coming, have the scripted answers ready to deliver.
Finally, carefully track your results. If closing rates drop, change your process. If they go up, you can still change your process carefully, systematically, and always paying attention to the results.
Do this and you’ll be “genetically engineering” your sales procedures for ever-increasing success.
THE END
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker. His new book, How To Market Your Crap When the Economy is in the Toilet, contains 12 vital strategies for unclogging your revenue pipeline. Find it at www.marketyourcrap.com, or at www.amazon.com. Or email mail@ascendmarketing.com.
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