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"Yes, hello, my name is _______ and I sell radio advertising for station KXXX. Could you please tell me who handles your advertising?"
"Good morning, my name is _____ and I sell radio advertising for station WXXX. I was wondering if I might come by and learn a little about your business?"
"Good morning, great to see you Mr. Prospect. Look at the great deals I've brought you today. You're going to love these low rates!"
Do these opening lines sound familiar? At one time or another, most salespeople have used them. How did they work for you? My guess is, not too well. At least, they didn't for me. It took a lot of contacts to get an appointment. Getting new prospects to give us their time is vital to our success.
What is our attrition rate this year? Outside influences can increase the need for new business. The better we are at using "grabbers" to get our prospect's attention, the easier it will be for us to funnel new people into our sales pipeline.
Somewhere along the line, I got a little smarter about how to catch the attention of a new prospect. I discovered that "People don't buy radio or digital advertising: they buy what it will do for them". I learned to approach prospective new clients from THEIR WORLD, not mine. My ratio of appointments to new calls went way up when I added these "grabbers" to my repertoire:
"Mr. _____, my name is ____. I'm not sure if we have anything to talk about, but we work with business people in our area who are experiencing frustrations in several areas. Many of our clients have trouble fully staffing, and we help them with recruitment. Some are dealing with the results of inflation that have increased their cost of doing business. They know to protect their profit margins they need to increase their number of new customers. We help them with that. Others need some help with their digital marketing and how to compete with the Internet. Which of these might be of most concern to you?" (Wait for answer). "Would it make sense for you to invite me over to discuss this? Would you be available Tuesday at 2:00?"
The magic in this "grabber" is that you are positioning what you do in the world of the client. You don't sell radio or digital. YOU SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS. And, you have been successful in developing solutions for many other businesses. Can you help this prospect? Maybe, maybe not. But, you've helped others, and it would be worth his time to talk with you.
Think about the major problems and challenges you are hearing from your clients. You can list any of these frustrations in your "grabber". These will change as the world of business changes. Just remember to develop your list from your client's point of view.
To be continued......
Happy Selling!
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