Dan,
I’m having trouble getting my clients to return my calls and meet with me. Many of my deals have been postponed or canceled. Any thoughts?
-Jessie, North Carolina
Jessie:
Great question. This very issue is spreading across the globe thanks to the pandemic. It actually is a rather simple one to address.
Let me ask you something. If your house was on fire right now and a salesperson from the hardware store stopped by your home to offer a great deal on gas grills and paint supplies, how would you react? Right. Now, what if that same salesperson appeared to offer extinguishers, hoses and pressure washers to help you immediately?
You get the idea. It really comes down to how you recognize or create URGENCY. The best practices for this purpose are the same whether we are in a pandemic or not. You must understand that today, your customers are engaged in the fight of their lives to save their businesses and their jobs. If you are an average salesperson, business owners have absolutely no use for you. If you are a Sales Superstar, however, they NEED YOU! Why do they need you? You can help them. They are drowning in the ocean and you have life preservers!
Here are some best practices for encouraging return calls and creating urgency for your projects.
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Continue your never-ending efforts to increase trust (Top 10 Ways To Gain Trust With The C-Suite). Nothing is more important. Show empathy for your client's catastrophe. Offer to assist in ANY way appropriate. Provide insight, ideas, best practices, and share of how other clients are tackling the same challenges.
- Invest the time and research to know the top two goals of your clients and their CEOs. During the pandemic it is likely, but not certain, that the goals will include the safety of customers and staff along with cost reduction. The focus on cost reduction is due to the dramatic drop in top line revenues.
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FORGET ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT or SERVICES OFFERING. That’s right, FORGET IT! Instead, share how the unique benefits of your offering directly impact one of the CEO’s top priorities. Then quantify it (The Business Case). In the example I shared above, have a command of exactly how your offering “puts out fires.” Exactly how does your offering help your customer improve safety, reduce costs or improve productivity?
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Understand the importance of and how to position the 4 Keys to Successful Projects early in the client's buying process.
