One of the things I like best about marketing is the way what works, changes so rapidly. Remember when a furniture store in your market advertised, ‘Nothing to pay for thirty days?’ It worked!
          But then someone else countered with, ‘nothing to pay for ninety days’ and then, ‘don’t pay till next year.’
          I’m still waiting for the campaign that says, ‘Never pay a dime! Leave the darn debt to your heirs!’
          But seriously, our business is no different. The old consultative opening sales line, “I’d like to make an appointment to learn about your business………” used to actually get us in the door.
         Today the receiver of that over-used door opener is thinking, “My time is too valuable to teach you about my business” or “You want me to teach you in an hour what it took me twenty years to learn?” or “Yeah, yeah, I took that consultative selling course too.” Or worse still, “The last guy who told me that just asked questions until he saw an opening to sell his package of the month.”
          Recently I had one client say to me, “If one more media rep asks me ‘who is your target demographic’, I’m going to scream!”
          In his ground breaking book, Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer), Anthony Parinello proclaims that today we must ‘Earn the right to ask questions.’
          VITO wants to deal with business equals, not opportunistic sales people. VITO wants you to know more about his target demographic than he does, before you make the call.
          In his book, What Clients Love, Harry Beckwith suggests account executives need to “touch” the client in a meaningful way seven times before the client will trust you enough to give you honest and candid answers to the important questions about his goals and objectives.
           Isn’t it time you went beyond old-fashioned consultative selling techniques and developed a “seven touches” plan to build customer trust and loyalty? Or do you still want to use the same tired approaches as you competitors? 

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