Simplenomics » Create A Want

What Do All Prospects Have In Common?

Mike Sigers — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:31:00 +0000

The basic interest common to all prospects is self-interest.

It’s the one single common denominator of the entire human race.

Now all you have to do is tie that in with your offer. Simple.

Self-interest is expressed on four levels.

(1) What will this do to help me ?

(2) What will it do to help those close to me – my family, friends, or business associates ?

(3) What will it do to help my customers or my industry ?

(4) Will it help the public generally ?

The order in which these are listed is also the order of their effectiveness when you use them in your approach to a prospect.

Unless you know the prospect is a professed altruist or philanthropist, don’t bother with #4.

You could use #3 effectively with that small segment of society that loves to save the world or help their industry turn itself around.

You could possibly make it work with those who see that the interests of their customers are closely identified with their own interests.

As you might guess, #2 has multiple possibilities which are dependent on which one of the figures in the question you’re attempting to identify with.

And #1 is the universal common denominator of human nature – it’s built into every human mind and produces a universal response.

It’s the key to an effective approach which sells the prospect on the fact that he needs to delve further into your presentation.

Three Steps To A Sale

Mike Sigers — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:01:00 +0000

The first time a prospect comes in contact with your product or a demonstration of it, it must be the most powerful presentation you have of what the product has done for others and will do for him.

You need to sell him the desire to listen longer. The desire to learn why he needs your product and what it will enable him to do or become.

The presentation actually passes through three distinct stages and makes three separate sales.

First, the prospect is sold the will to listen.

Second, the will to consider.

Third, the will to act.

You’ll do well to think of the process of making a sale as leading the prospect down a flight of logical steps until he enters the arena of action.

You cannot omit a step, or the prospect will fall and you’ll fail.

You cannot rush him, or he’ll fall and you’ll fail.

Every prospect walks at their own pace, not yours. Let them walk at their own pace, a familiar pace and they’ll feel secure enough to trust you.

Leaving out the first step is particularly fatal, since jumping to the next step demands too big an effort and stops the prospect on the brink.

Whether the distance is five steps or fifty, it cannot be covered until the first step has been taken.

Thinking Ahead Maximizes Your Selling Time

Mike Sigers — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:33:00 +0000

In my last post, I told you that you needed to gain the prospects interest, before you threw him your best pitch. That leads us to finding better sales approaches. One simple approach would be to tell the prospect immediately what you can do for him.

In terms of what your product will do for him, sell him the desire to see proof of what you’re trying to sell him.

Doing this effectively requires a little thought about the prospect before calling on him. Such pre-call thought should be regarded as insurance for the salesman’s most valuable possession – his selling time.

What’s the nature of the prospect’s business, and what’s his position in the business?

What will the thing to be sold do for such a business and what’s he, in his position, most likely to want done?

If he’s an executive, for example, he’s more likely to be interested in saving money than in saving a little trouble for his employees.

But if he’s an employee, he’ll be much more interested in seeing how the thing will make his work easier, more pleasant or more profitable to him or those above him.

Attracting More Interest Leads To More Sales

Mike Sigers — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:28:00 +0000

Most people have little patience with salesmen and their approaches. They immediately want to know what you’re selling and the price.

Experienced salesmen know, through negative sales experiences, that it’s usually fatal to explain bluntly: ” I’m with the Simplenomics Corporation and I wanted to know if you could use one of our Simple machines. ”

Almost inevitably, the answer to that type of approach is ” No. ”

That’s why many successful salesmen no longer use business cards on their first approach.

Handing out a business card as the first look a prospect gets at your company or product is less than best. You give the prospect an easy way to pre-judge and reject you, your company and your product.

Most business cards are designed to tell the world about you, but you really need to tell the prospect what you can do for him. Immediately.

Handing him a white paper titled, ” 10 Simple Ways To Make Bigger Profits And Spend Less Doing It ” will grab much more attention than a business card with your name, email and cell phone number on it.

On the other hand, ” trick ” approaches, that tend to keep the prospect in suspense about the real reason you’re there, do nothing to disperse impatience or improve receptiveness.

Prospects want to know why you’re there and what you can do for them.

Salesmanship consists of giving prospects what they want…after leading them to want it.

You Have To Buy Time To Make A Sale

Mike Sigers — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:18:00 +0000

To become more successful in your approaches, you have to first recognize that you have two sales to make, not just one.

First, you must sell the prospect a desire and willingness to give you enough time to tell your story.

You have to separate the suspects from the prospects.

If you’ll regard that as a separate sale, you’ll soon discover that you’re increasing the number of sales per attempt ratio – your rate of conversions. You’ll also increase the amount that each sales call is worth to you.

Why ? Because a prospect that’s willing to listen, will listen more closely and with less resistance than one whose consent hasn’t been gained before the presentation begins.

You can try to force feed your story to a prospect, but they won’t eat. Nor will they enjoy it or your company.

Also, it’s much easier to get a prospect to give you ten or twenty minutes of their time than it is to get them to give an order – yet you cannot get the order until you get the time to tell your story.

If you try to force your story on people without their consent, that’ll only add to their resistive powers. It also empowers them at the absolute worst time for you – a fact that’s easily proven by the number sales calls that are stopped after a few minutes by the prospect impatiently telling you that they aren’t interested.

Spend that first few minutes devoted to finding out if the person is interested and you’ll waste less of your time and be more successful.