Beyond Referrals Page 17

  Dave said that his prospects love this approach because they understand the concept of brainstorming—collaboration without pressure. He said, “This approach frees me up to ask and say just about anything I want and the same is true for my prospect. This simple paradigm shift has won me more new business than I ever imagined and the ‘brainstorming theme’ continues into the consulting relationship, allowing us to do some very powerful work together.”

  FINDING THE DECISION MAKER

  You probably already know that you always want to do your best to have the key decision maker actively involved in your selling process. Sometimes that’s an easy thing, sometimes not. If you’re selling to consumers, for instance, then it’s often important to have both the husband and wife present at your appointments. Perhaps you’ve heard the term one-legged appointment) This is when you need to have the husband and wife present for your process but only one is there. This will often (though not always) cause the sale to take longer than necessary because the husband and wife have to consult with each other, usually with you not there to help in that consultation.

  If you’re working business to business, then there is often more than one decision maker involved. And sometimes it’s a challenge to get in front of the key decision maker. Sometimes the person will use a subordinate as a shield. I run into this all the time.

  Make it a habit of asking your contact, “In addition to yourself, who might also be involved in this decision?” When you get the answer, you say, “For the sake of efficiency and clear communication, the next time we talk [meet], can everyone involved be there?”

  Sometimes a committee is the decision maker. What fun! When you send information to your contact, send enough packets for all the committee members to have in front of them.

  I know some folks who just won’t engage in the sales process if they can’t have direct contact with the decision maker. I can certainly understand this perspective. And I suspect there are some businesses where this is a must. In many businesses, however, you can still work your process; it’s just a little harder. I know that I’ve certainly acquired some very large accounts without ever speaking with the key decision maker. My contact was my “champion” in the company’s process. When you can’t speak directly to the key decision maker, then your reputation and body of evidence become even more critical players in your process.

  PEST, PATHETIC, OR PERSISTENT?

  How many times do you need to contact a prospect before that prospect agrees to do business with you? The answer is, “It depends.” It depends on what you sell; products and services vary in their sales cycle. And it depends on where the prospects are in their awareness of their problem and willingness to make a change. Since this book is about contacting and meeting with prospects you acquired through a referral, let’s remind ourselves of the three main reasons why prospects will meet with you from a referral:

  1. The prospects know they need your product or service. They’ve just been waiting to meet someone they think they can trust.

  2. The trust level between the referral source and the prospect is so high, that when the source says, “Take his call,” the prospect says, “Okay!”

  3. You have learned something from the referral source about the new prospect and have crafted a compelling reason why that prospect should meet with you.

  While the first and second reasons are great when they are present, you certainly can’t always count on them. In Chapter 6, on turning referrals into introductions, I suggested a great question to ask your referral source every time you get a referral: “What’s going on in the referred person’s life (or business) that’s important to the person right now?” The answer to this question can be the very reason why that prospect should meet with you sooner than later.

  But what if the prospect isn’t ready to commit to a meeting? Or what if the prospect meets with you but isn’t ready to take the next step in the relationship? If the prospect isn’t an “A+” prospect, a successful veteran may elect to just move on. A less successful person or a rookie may want to stay in touch with that prospect. Sometimes timing really is everything.

  Professional Persistence

  Over the years I’ve heard many statistics on how many contacts a salesperson must make with a prospect before the sale is made. I’ve read five times, seven times, sometimes more. It really can depend on the complexity of your sale. While there are so many contributing factors to this, it’s safe to say that your ability to be professionally persistent with certain prospects is a great skill to cultivate.

  Some of my largest, most profitable clients have taken several years to land. I had to find ways to be appropriately proactive with them until the timing was right for them to do business with me.

  Value-Centered Persistence

  Early in my sales career, I would never give up on a prospect, but my contacts weren’t always very purposeful. Looking back, I feel like some of my calls weren’t more than, “Are you ready to buy yet?” I guess I had some success in spite of myself.

  It finally dawned on me that I had to be value centered in my follow-up. Every time I called a prospect, I tried to bring something new to the conversation—something, I hoped, the prospect would find helpful.

  As I’ve already discussed, in most sales scenarios, one battle in client acquisition efforts is inertia on the part of the prospects. Changing products or service providers is not always an easy proposition for clients. Sometimes the devil they know is better than the devil they don’t know. Sometimes you really have to distinguish yourself in the eyes of the prospects before they will contemplate moving their business to you.

  Of course, meeting them through a referral is one key way to distinguish yourself. Another way to do that is to keep providing them with value in the courtship process (and beyond).

  People Buy What’s Familiar

  There’s an old story about this soldier who went off to war and wrote his fiancee every day. For the first nine months, the soldier received almost as many letters in return as he wrote. Then the number began to dwindle. Not to be discouraged, the soldier kept writing every day. Soon, the letters from his fiancee stopped. When the soldier returned home, he found the love of his life married to the postman. People buy what’s familiar!

  Here are a few ideas for you to consider in your efforts to remain professionally persistent:

  1. Determine who qualifies. You need to determine for yourself who is “worthy” of this professional persistence. The problem is that many don’t have any guidelines about who merits this persistence and who doesn’t, and way too often they stay in touch with lower-level prospects merely because they don’t have enough top prospects in their pipeline.

  2. Build an inventory of value-centered materials. Build an inventory of educational materials (printed and electronic) you can drip on your prospects. Of course, a newsletter should be a part of this inventory, but it’s usually not nearly enough. Be on the lookout for articles—printed or electronic—that you think your prospects and clients might find interesting and helpful. These articles can be related specifically to your core product or service or can just be of general interest.

  3. Work on the personal side. I always encourage people to build business friendships with their prospects and clients—to get to know each other in ways that go way beyond the business they do together. Don’t be shy about allowing your personal interests to enter into even your prospecting relationships. I know one small business owner who owns two show dogs, and his prospects and clients are always asking him about how they are doing in their dog shows. In turn, get to know your prospects’ interests and hobbies. When you see a newspaper or magazine article that relates to one or more of your prospects, send it out with a sticky note on it, saying, “Thought of you when I saw this.”

  It’s a good idea to mix up how you stay in contact with your prospects. Use a combination of phone, e-mail, mail, and fax. You might even use a courier service from time to time for emphasis. But make su
re you don’t let all your prospecting relationships turn to low-touch methods such as mail and e-mail. There is no substitute for a telephone conversation or in-person meeting with a prospect.

  ARE YOU WILLING TO WALK AWAY FROM BUSINESS?

  “Walking away from business”—now there’s a concept that you don’t often hear discussed. I think there are three main situations in which you should consider walking away from a potential new client.

  Client Doesn’t Fit Your Business Model

  When you accept clients who don’t fit your business model, you don’t have as much time to attract and serve the clients who do fit your model. Why do people take clients who don’t fit? Two main reasons: (1) they have a scarcity mentality, or (2) they are afraid to say no.

  Be on the lookout for the scarcity mentality—meaning you see prospects and clients as a scarce resource and so you’ll take anything that comes along. This often unconscious way of thinking or believing keeps many a talented person from reaching his or her full potential. The truth is, there are plenty of great clients out there; you just have to put yourself in the right flow.

  Client Isn’t Pleasant to Work With or Has Unrealistic Expectations

  I sincerely believe that an initial meeting between you and a prospect should be a mutual interview so that you both can see if you like each other and have similar expectations related to your product or service. How many times have you had a gut feeling, “I don’t think I’m going to enjoy working with this person,” and you bring the person on as a client anyway? Trust your gut! It will save you time, aggravation, and often money in the long run.

  Client Is Stringing You Along

  Have you noticed that many prospects don’t know how to say no to you? Sure, many of them have no trouble at all, but many others give you noes disguised as “maybes.” At some point, you go for the no. You say to this prospect who keeps telling you to call back in three months, “George, I’ve appreciated your willingness to stay in touch. I get the feeling that you’re being very polite, but the prospects of us working together aren’t that strong. Is that a fair statement?”

  When you say this to prospects—especially if they know they’ve been stringing you along—you’re likely to get one of two responses. They might say, “Well, I guess you’re right. I am very happy with my current advisor.” Whew! Now you can stop wasting your psychic energy on them as a prospect. (This, by the way, doesn’t mean you stop dripping on them in some soft way—especially if they are a big fish—but now you know the score.)

  The second response could be, “No, no. I really am interested. It’s truly a matter of timing. Let me explain a little better …” Now you know you still have a decent prospect.

  In the long run, your willingness to walk away from imperfect situations will help you build a stronger business that will also produce more referrals.

  15 TALKING ABOUT YOUR VALUE

  TALKING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

  One of the beauties of the referral process—particularly when you get introduced—is that many of your new prospects will already have a sense of your business and the value you provide.

  How you talk about your business (your value proposition)—the words you use and the conviction behind those words—is a critical step in converting referral prospects into new clients. The questions you ask will help you tailor your remarks to your prospects. And learning how to articulate your value proposition is never a one-time process. This is something that demands constant tweaking and occasional overhaul.

  This chapter gives you strategies and tactics to talk about your business (products or services) in a way that will pique intellectual and emotional interest—moving your prospects to take action.

  ENTHUSIASM AND BELIEF

  Someone once told me, “When you leave the room, the enthusiasm should remain.” I think that letting your enthusiasm for what you sell show through will help you bring in more new clients. Enthusiasm is contagious. When your referral source recommends you enthusiastically and your prospect senses your enthusiasm, it’s a winning combination.

  Now, by enthusiasm, I don’t mean jumping-up-and-down excited. It’s just a conviction and confidence that emanates from you. You need to match how you express your enthusiasm for what you do with the personality of your prospect. If she has an open personality, if she is someone who shows her enthusiasm for ideas readily, then perhaps you can wear your enthusiasm on your sleeve. This won’t bother her. In fact, she may feed on it. On the other hand, if you are with a more guarded person, you better pull back on how much excitement you show. Show confidence and conviction but remain on a very even keel. Too much enthusiasm can push guarded people away.

  What’s Even More Effective Than Enthusiasm?

  Belief! Like enthusiasm, belief is transferable. But belief goes deeper than enthusiasm. If you believe in what you sell, then your clients will pick up on that. It’s a contagious and attractive quality. If you don’t believe it, then certainly don’t expect them to.

  If you are trying to sell something that you don’t really believe in, then your success will always be limited by that belief. I think you can even use the word belief or believe when you are talking to prospects.

  George, as you can probably tell, I’m very enthusiastic about the work we do and how it will help you transform your business. My enthusiasm comes from a strong belief in our process and the tangible results we’ve helped other firms just like yours produce. We have literally hundreds of clients who have endorsed our work. My enthusiasm and belief come from the results. I’m hoping we will have the opportunity to help you in the same way. What do you think about moving forward at this time?

  Do you believe in what you do? How are you making sure that belief shows through? Do you need to craft a few sentences (like the example above) and add them to your sales process?

  FROM ENTHUSIASM AND BELIEF INTO TRUE CONVICTION

  Sometimes, first starting out in your business, you’re not fully aware of the true value of the work you do. Therefore, it’s often hard to display the proper belief and enthusiasm. It’s usually an evolutionary process.

  For example, when I first got started in the referral business, I was more of a generic sales expert. I had some good ideas that people found helpful, but I wanted to narrow my focus to expand my results. I knew the power of becoming a “specialist.” So I wrote my first book on referrals, which hit the market in 1996. As I began teaching my strategies, I knew that they worked for me, but I wasn’t 100 percent certain that they would work for others—that they would be fully transferable to other salespeople, business owners, and professionals across various industries.

  As I spoke to groups and wrote my newsletter, I always had a nagging feeling that maybe what I was sharing wasn’t that valuable to others. I certainly had a gap in my enthusiasm and belief in the work I was doing. Can you relate to this dynamic?

  Then the feedback started coming in. And, luckily, I paid attention to it and took it in. People started writing me notes telling me about the results they had produced with some of my ideas. Slowly, the body of evidence gained quite a bit of momentum. I received more and more requests to speak on the topic of referrals. I started putting together video-based training programs and started writing my next book, Get More Referrals Now!

  I went from a place of cautious enthusiasm and belief, to a place of great conviction in the work that I do. Here’s the important thing: as I was able to convey that conviction to my prospects, everything expanded for me. My prospects felt my conviction and wanted to work with me. And as I delivered speeches and seminars, I saw the attendees get lit up by that conviction.

  Not to brag (okay, nothing wrong with a little self-promotion every now and then), but in the middle of writing this book, I spoke by phone with a client whom I was debriefing on a pilot program I had just conducted for his firm. The results were undeniable. But he said something to me that sums up this section. He said, “Bill, while the results are better than we expected
, one of the reasons we want to roll this out to all 2,500 reps across the country is because you got them fired up about referrals in a way we just couldn’t do with our in-house training program. We see that your depth of knowledge, along with your incredible enthusiasm and belief in your system, has made all the difference.”

  Wow! The power of conviction! People notice it and they want more.

  WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT?

  I don’t have to tell you that being able to differentiate yourself from your competition is critical to maximizing your success. Yet in response to the question of what makes you different, most small business owners, salespeople, and other professionals struggle to come up with an answer that truly means something to their prospects.

  Here are a few thoughts to help you figure this out and formulate a way you can express this to prospects, clients, and COIs.

  What Do Your Clients Say?

  Whenever you are crafting answers to the question of what makes you different, go to your clients. Ask them what makes you different in their eyes. Why do they do business with you? Why did they choose you over someone else? Why do they stay with you? What do they say to their colleagues about you? When you ask your clients these types of questions, two things happen. One is that you learn things you wouldn’t have thought of yourself. The other is that what you learn is expressed in what I like to call “client speak,” meaning words that are in clients’ heads; when you use client speak with prospects like them, the prospects will get it right away.