I think you will agree with me that your success in securing appointments will be directly proportionate to how compelling your message is to your prospect. We always recommend you develop a very strong valid business reason regardless of how you deliver it.
So, what does strong look like?
Let me begin by illustrating to you what strong isn't. I would experience a certain and painful death if I was representing my own company and trying to get an appointment like this:
"Hi, Bryan. This is Jim Hopes from the Center for Sales Strategy. We have nearly 30 years of experience and a long heritage of providing best-in-class sales training —
CLICK! (If I am on the phone.)
ZAP! (If I am using email.)
TOSS! (If I have sent a letter.)
You see, sales training is a commodity. It's plentiful and often cheap and nearly every company has some. I am DOA.
Let's try another approach:
"Hi, Bryan. This is Jim Hopes from the Center for Sales Strategy. I want to share with you some of the reasons people work with us:
They need to reduce turnover among their best customers.
They are struggling finding highly-talented salespeople.
They need their salespeople to get in front of key decision makers more often.
They need to get better at integrating digital assets into their media solutions for clients.
They need more quality sales leads and they are having a hard time setting appointments.
These are just a few examples of why people choose to work with us, and in my research about your company I suspect several of these items are important to you.
You see, no one cares about our product pitch. They DO care about the high-level problems we solve.
So what are the high-level problems YOU solve? You should think about those and tailor them to the individual you are approaching. Let's suppose you were working for a temp services company, here are few that come to my mind:
"Hi, Cameron. This is Jim Hopes from Apex Temporary Services. I wanted to share with you some of the reasons people work with us:
- They have new tasks that need to be accomplished and they don't have anyone with the particular expertise
- They need flexible capacity so they can deliver on new business without committing to a new hire
- They have time-bound projects with a distinct start and end date
- They have a permanent job opening, but they want to "test drive" a prospective new hire before hiring for a permanent position
You get the drift. "We have a long success history in the temporary hire marketplace" probably won't do much. CLICK! (If you are on the phone.) ZAP! (If you are using email.) TOSS! (If you have sent a letter.) You see, temp services are a commodity. They are plentiful and often cheap and many companies already buy some. You are DOA.
So, what high-level problems do you typically solve in your business? Think about those, and then decide which might be of interest to your prospect, based on the research you have done in advance. You'll probably get their attention and an appointment. Besides, there will be plenty of time to tell about your fabulous product later — when they might actually care.
Jim Hopes is the Chief Executive Officer at The Center for Sales Strategy
