Monthly Archives: March 2013

Get Smart

Get Smart

My friend, Howard Christensen, once said to me, “Have you ever noticed that the smartest people you know think just like you?”

Think about it. It’s true! The smartest people you know think just like you. In fact, people who don’t think like you are often dismissed as idiots…..well, I may be overstating my case a bit.

But here is my point. Your clients will think you are the smartest marketing consultant they know if you can think just like them by aligning your proposals with their thoughts, beliefs and visions.

How can you write a presentation that demonstrates you think just like your prospect? Here are a few tips:

  1. Ask thought-provoking questions to uncover your prospects’ underlying motivations, and document their answers carefully.
  2. Fly some “trial balloons” during your questioning process to make sure you are interpreting their thoughts correctly.
  3. Look around their office to see what books they read and what marketing “gurus” or business leaders they follow so your presentation will align with their beliefs.
  4. Deliver a trade article or blog about advertising or about marketing their business and then ask for their feedback.
  5. Prepare your presentation with their long term vision or dream in mind, rather than simply solving this month’s short term problem.

When you become the smartest marketing person your prospects and clients know, you will be surprised how much they will pay you for thinking just like them!

 

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The Mastery of Fear

The Mastery of Fear

      We received a ton of comments about last week’s ENS on Sales about mastering the fear of rejection. This week we’ve added a few more methods you can adopt to handle the daily rejection faced by busy sales executives.

Mark Twain said, “Courage is mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

Here are a few mastery techniques you’ll find helpful:

1.)  Know your product. – Your prospect only dabbles in marketing while trying to run her business, hire staff, order merchandise, deal with taxes, accommodate customer complaints, renew her lease and fight with banks. Knowing that you are a full time student of marketing gives you more expertise on the subject than your clients.

2.)  Be comfortable with the “what if” – What if your prospect doesn’t buy? Knowing that you have succeeded up until now without your new prospect’s business helps you to accept the “what if” in stride. You lived before you met them, and life goes on without a hitch after the rejection.

3.)  Be sincere and have integrity – Make sure, based upon your expertise, that what you are proposing really does deliver value to the client. Knowing you are doing what’s best for the client increases your confidence level and selling is often merely a transference of confidence.

4.)  Understand the steps – If you know your closing ratio, and the steps involved in your selling process, you’ll understand that each step takes you one step closer to a sale. For example if you know your closing ratio is one in ten, then you can train yourself to become more excited with each rejection. At rejection number 9 you’re one presentation away from making a sale!

5.)  No doesn’t mean “no” -Understand that client’s needs and strategies often change. A prospect who says “no” to one idea or presentation, may see the merit in another idea or strategy in your next presentation.