Did you ever wish you had more compelling language when speaking with prospects? Most companies spend very little time, if any, developing their sales message and making sure it works.
You’ve spent time developing your website and brochure; you may even have a trade show booth. But how much time have you spent thinking about and revising the spoken word, the path of dialogue you use with individual prospects as well as the emails which support the dialogue? How strategic are you in bringing prospects from Point A to Point B in their thinking?
Let’s take a look at an initial conversation with a new prospect. Some call it an elevator speech; I prefer to call it an Identifying Message.
How do you take these words and bring them to a level that connects better with prospects? Here are some ideas.
If you can pinpoint why what you do really, really matters in an emotional and personally meaningful way to your best clients you may be able to find more compelling words and phrases to use when communicating with your prospects.
Think about what initially made your best clients feel that a meeting with you was not only important to them, but also something that they didn’t want to put off. They realized something about the meeting would make their lives better and that’s why they decided to clear time on their busy calendars to make it happen.
What are the words that describe how they were feeling at that moment that brought them to say “yes”? Likewise, why did they say “yes” to entering into a business relationship with you? What made them believe that out of all the options out there that you were the one to choose? What words describe how they were feeling that brought them to that moment of decision?
One helpful exercise is the Three Times Exercise. Write down what you do in one sentence. Use words are relevant and compelling to your prospect decision makers. Note: Be sure to review this from your prospect’s point of view.
One mistake business owners and salespeople frequently make is using words that THEY think are important. Remember, what you think doesn’t matter as much as what your prospect thinks.
When you have your sentence, ask yourself, “Why does that matter to my prospect?” Then, go a level deeper, ask “And why does THAT matter to my prospect?” Then go deeper again, ask, “And why does THAT matter?” The words you have at the end of this exercise are often much more emotionally based (and sometimes surprising).