Beyond Referrals Page 11

  This third section of Beyond Referrals addresses various attitudes, strategies, and skills related to setting appointments.

  9 CRAFTING YOUR APPROACH

  CRAFTING YOUR APPROACH: ARTICULATING YOUR VALUE

  Before you pick up the phone to call your new prospects or shoot them an e-mail, it’s a good idea to think through your approach. Do you know how to talk about what you do in a way that will create interest? Do you know what questions to ask to gain information and create even more interest? Do you know what body of evidence to prepare for this process?

  In this chapter we’ll walk together through some important considerations. Then we’ll work on your initial contact with your referral prospect. Not only do these ideas work well in the referral environment, but they will serve you well for any type of prospecting you may be doing.

  GETTING TO KNOW YOU, GETTING TO KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU

  Learning as much as you can about your new referral prospects will help you in at least two ways:

  1. You’ll feel more confident in calling them—so you’ll actually call.

  2. You’ll have a better first conversation with them, because you have more information from which to craft your call and generate trust and interest.

  Warm Research

  There are two types of research you can do on your prospects: warm research and cold research. Warm research is what your referral source tells you about his or her friend, family member, or colleague—your new prospect. There are things you want to learn that are specific to your business. And there are some generic questions I’ve found to be very helpful. I covered these in the Section II, but they bear repeating (especially if you’re jumping around in the book).

  1. What made you think of her? Why do you think she should know about the important work that I do?

  2. Tell me more about how you know each other (if it’s not fully obvious).

  3. Tell me a little bit about her personality. Is she as direct as you?

  4. Tell me something you like or admire (or respect) about her. (This can be a very powerful part of your opening with your new prospect.) What’s going on in her business (or life) that’s important to her? What is she most passionate about these days?

  Cold Research

  In addition to this wonderful warm research, before you make your call, it may serve you well to do some cold research. These days, most cold research is done via the Internet, but it need not be restricted to that. For instance, with B2B sales, you may find it helpful to call the prospect’s marketing department and request a brochure (and any other sales or marketing literature). Sometimes a company’s annual report can be helpful. If you’re dealing with a public company, you can request one over the phone, though most companies are posting their reports on their website these days.

  Other sources of cold research are company websites and LinkedIn profiles (personal and corporate). For any kind of prospect, try putting his or her name into Google, Yahoo, or other search engines to see what comes up. The more common the name, the more you need to ensure that what comes up is actually your prospect.

  Regardless of your target market, you can learn enough about your new referral prospect from the referral source and other resources to have one or more effective phone calls.

  ACTION STEP

  When you get referrals—either unsolicited or by asking—slow down and learn as much as you can about your new prospect. Then continue with some cold research on the Internet to see what else you might learn to help you craft the most effective approach.

  START WITH THE RESULTS YOU HELP PRODUCE

  Bill Whitley (http://www.BillWhitley.com), in his book Art of the Rainmaker (Berkeley), writes,

  It’s time to replace that elevator speech with a natural conversation that makes your prospect eager to learn more about your products and services. The problem with elevator speeches is that they are too long and sound too contrived. I’ve often heard that a good elevator speech should last thirty seconds. When you are meeting someone for the first time (especially over the phone for your first call) thirty seconds is an eternity when describing what you do. I think there is a much better way. I call this a Client Attraction Conversation. Your goal is to deliver a WOW that engages and kindles the person’s interest while opening the door for you to share more in the conversation.

  A good sales conversation has three basic parts:

  1. What do you do? This is your WOW line.

  2. What do you mean? This is your HOW line.

  3. How do you do that? This is your Client Attraction Story.

  Instead of telling people what you do, start with the result or outcome of what you do. For example, an accountant might say, “I help people reduce their taxes.” A financial advisor might say, “I help people avoid the three biggest financial mistakes most people make.” If I received an answer like that, I guarantee I would follow up with, “Wow, what are the three mistakes?” With that kind of response the person now has permission to tell his or her Client Attraction Story.

  Here is a sample sales conversation between a prospect and a financial advisor who provides investment and retirement planning:

  1. What do you do? (Wow Line) “I help people avoid the three biggest investment mistakes most people make.”

  2. What are the biggest mistakes? (How Line) “The biggest mistake is lack of diversification … it’s the single biggest reason that people lose a lot of money they shouldn’t lose. I make sure people diversify properly.”

  3. What do you mean? (Client Attraction Story) “One of my clients, who’s in the furniture business, was not diversifying his portfolio properly …”

  Using the Word Mistake

  I just wanted to put a plug in for you using the word mistake in how you talk about your business. When you tell people you help them “avoid the most common mistakes,” they often begin to wonder if they are making those mistakes. It creates curiosity. Sometimes it creates doubt about who they are currently using.

  PILLOW TALK

  Here’s an idea I picked up from Lisa Sasevich (http://www.LisaSasevich.com), founder of the Sales Authenticity & Success Mastermind and, as noted earlier in the book, often referred to as the “queen of sales conversion.”

  When crafting the words you use to talk about the value you bring to your prospects and clients, try to avoid the mistake that most business folks make. Most businesses, salespeople, and other professionals talk in “marketing speak” or their industry jargon. Lisa contends you’ll always be more effective when talking about your business using the same words your prospects already have in their head. Dirk Zeller, author of Telephone Sales for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons), calls this “putting on customer-colored glasses.”

  One example Lisa uses is that of a husband and wife settling in for the night and one leans into the other and says, “We need to find a way to save the house.” They are not saying to each other, “Gosh. If only we could find the 10-Step Formula for Preserving Your Property.” They want to “save the house.”

  Over and over again, we’ve had prospects and clients convey two major concerns to us regarding asking for referrals: “I don’t want to be pushy and hurt relationships” and “I don’t want it to look like I’m begging.” So now we take these concerns and use them in how we describe our training programs (live, video, and Internet based). We typically say, “You’ll learn how to approach clients for referrals without pushing or begging.”

  Sometimes we take it a step further. We had a client who’s been very successful with our video-based training program write to us, “Bill Cates makes asking for referrals as natural as breathing.” Wow! It would be bragging if I said something like that about myself. When a client says it, it’s very powerful. So we use the words our prospects and clients are using, and then we provide the solution to their concerns with other words our clients are using. This is a very powerful concept. Talk to your prospects and clients using the words that are already in their heads. They’ll get what yo
u do and how you can help them immediately.

  ACTION STEP

  As you meet with your clients, whether at regular business meetings or at a social lunch, talk to them about how they perceive your business. Talk to them about why they do business with you. What are the biggest problems you solve? If they were to talk to someone about you, what words would they use? Take what you learn and incorporate that into how you talk about your business to prospects over the phone and in person, as well as in your promotional literature and on your website.

  ADDRESS CORE BENEFITS

  Every business has some universal or core benefits it addresses with its clients. For example, in my business, helping people get more referrals is not the core benefit I help them achieve. Referrals are not the end product. Referrals are a means to the end—new clients. So when I am on the phone with prospective clients, while we certainly talk about my referral system and how they might implement it, it’s all under the umbrella of client acquisition.

  A financial advisor’s core benefit isn’t advice, as important as that is. It’s what that advice does for the advisor’s clients. It’s the ability to help the clients to feel more secure or to fund their dreams. I have a friend who sells very sophisticated security software to large corporations and governments. His core benefit is a computer system that no one can break through. It’s also peace of mind for the client. Don’t ever discount the importance of peace of mind as one of your core benefits.

  You might think that someone who sells printing is selling “quality ink on paper.” And although print quality is very important, with today’s technology it’s almost a given. I think someone who is selling printing should address the core benefit of “what happens when things go wrong,” meaning the willingness and ability to solve the problems that are inevitable in a customized manufacturing process like printing.

  What are the core benefits you bring to your prospects and clients? Sometimes a core benefit involves solving a problem. Sometimes it involves taking advantage of an opportunity. Make sure you are crystal clear on how you serve your clients, and make that part of your opening conversation with new prospects. It will demonstrate that you know their business—which builds credibility and keeps the conversation alive.

  PRESENT YOURSELF AS A SPECIALIST

  Who gets paid more in our society—generalists or specialists? In his book Telephone Sales for Dummies, Dirk Zeller makes this powerful observation, “One of the best words you can use in describing your company or yourself is ‘specialist.’ It positions you as an expert. People want to work with the best and ‘specialist’ implies that you’re more experienced in this particular field than others. Ultimately, it shows that the prospect has a low risk when choosing to work with you.”

  Who usually gets paid more, a specialist or a generalist? A specialist of course. A specialist not only conveys more perceived value but also brings more tangible value to the work he or she does. Another word you might use is expert. Position yourself as an expert in your field or even just a portion of your field.

  I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to capture the attention of new prospects. This “specialist” or “expert” strategy is something I have used for over 18 years, and it has served me well to get my prospects to give me just enough time to start building value and piquing their interest.

  QUESTIONS TO GET THE CONVERSATION STARTED

  One key strategy in getting people to set an appointment with you is to create value and generate interest through the questions you ask. Asking prospects a question they don’t know the answer to can be powerful, because it gets them thinking in ways they haven’t thought before. Here are examples of questions that can be used to help you get the conversation started—along with some comments.

  1. Getting more information from prospects may be as simple as repeating back their statement as a question. “You’re trying to sell your business?” You can add the request, “Tell me more.”

  2. Question “fuzzy phrases” for clarification. Suppose they say, “I’m going to have to give this some thought.” Then you say, “I understand. This is an important decision. As you give it consideration, can you tell me some of the things you’ll be considering? What are some of the priorities you might be evaluating?” (Make this fit your business.)

  3. Simple responses such as “Oh?” and “How so?” and “Tell me more” are just enough to keep them talking (and you learning).

  4. Resist going into presentation mode after uncovering just a bit of a problem you think you can fix or need you can fill. Continue questioning to further develop the need or problem.

  5. If you get a question you’d prefer to answer a bit later in the conversation, turn it around, but soften your delayed response by explaining why. “In order for me to suggest some specific things for you to do or how we might help you, I need to learn a few more key things. For instance …”

  6. Start off with a common problem you solve. “Many of our clients come to us because they can’t seem to________. Is this a challenge for you?”

  7. When talking to a prospect who either called you or agreed to take your call as the result of a referral, ask, “What did George say about me that caught your attention?”

  8. Learn about other people directly or indirectly involved in the decision. When your prospect mentions other people, learn more. “Tell me more about Donna. How might she be involved in this decision?”

  9. Be assumptive for a minute. “Let’s say you’ve decided to bring in our video-training program. Who do you think would do the facilitation? Would that be you or someone else in your organization?”

  10. If prospects have used a product or service similar to yours in the past, talk about how they made that decision and if they’d follow the same process this time around.

  ACTION STEP

  Make a list of all the questions you might want to ask your new prospects. You can even split the questions into categories. Have them printed out in checklist form and keep the list in front of you. Review the questions before you make the call so you know where you want to begin. Check off the questions as you ask them—taking notes on their answers, of course.

  WHAT IS YOUR BODY OF EVIDENCE?

  A big part of grabbing the attention of prospects and turning those prospects into clients is the body of evidence you bring to the table. This is especially important when selling a service, which is usually less tangible than a product. You are in the “evidence business.” Here are the ingredients of a compelling body of evidence:

  1. Referrals. A referral is great evidence! You know this. That’s why you’re reading this book.

  2. Testimonials. Testimonials are a cousin of referrals. Third-party endorsements work. Do you have a system in place that generates testimonials on a regular basis?

  3. Special reports. Use a special report to pique interest and bring value quickly.

  4. A great website. Your branding (expertise) must be clear within the first few seconds. Video from you and testimonials from clients are key components.

  5. Case studies. Communicating case studies to your prospects can be very compelling. You can put these case studies in your literature and on your website. And if you put them on your website, I urge you to consider using audio or video to relay this type of information. Your prospects can get a much better feel for you when they can hear your voice and even watch you. An easy way to do this is to record someone interviewing you about your product or service. You can cover the overarching philosophy of your business, describe the benefits of doing business with you, and then get into specific case studies where you have detected and solved client problems.

  TESTIMONIALS-PART OF YOUR EVIDENCE

  As I just mentioned, part of the body of evidence you want to have ready is testimonials. Testimonials—sometimes referred to as “third-party endorsements”—can often be the tool that tips the scales in your favor. I have become a testimonial-collecting machine over the years. Whenever people tell me
they are producing tangible results with my system (which happens all the time), I ask them for a testimonial and their photo.

  George, I’m glad you’ve been able to produce great results with our system. With your permission, I’d like to take your words from the e-mail you sent and craft a short statement from you that I might put on my website or use in some of my promotional literature. Would you be okay with that?

  I almost never hear no from the people I ask, and since I’m using their exact words (or very close to them), they almost never suggest any changes. After they’ve approved the statement, I solicit a photo.

  George, thank you so much. One thing we like to do is place a small photo next to the statements, to make them as “real” as possible. Do you have a headshot of some sort you can send for this purpose?

  I get 99 percent of the photos I request. Some people have their colleague take a photo with their smartphone right on the spot. Since most of these statements are going on our website or other digital media, the quality doesn’t need to be print quality, though I do get enough high-quality shots for brochures as well.

  Survey Your Clients

  Here’s something I did recently that has turned out better than I ever expected. I sent an e-mail to the subscribers of my free e-mail newsletter (http://www.ReferralMinute.com). In exchange for responding to a short survey, I offered the recipients a free report and a chance at winning one of our larger training programs, the winner to be selected at random.

  I asked them:

  1. How were you doing with referrals before you learned my system?