Why A Prospecting Mindset That Seeks To Convince Nobody About Nothing – Will Yield You The Most Hot Prospects Ready To Buy.
Do your sales and prospecting efforts seek to convince someone of your worth?
If so, that strategic error is shaping who you contact, what you say, your prospecting process, your follow-up system and your sales costs … and not for the better.
What say you Channell? We shouldn’t be trying to convince targets of our worth?
Exactly! You are one smart little selling machine.
Here’s the philosophy.
Assuming you pick the right group of targets, a certain percentage of that audience wants what you are offering. They already buy, but want something different or better. Or, they seek it for the first time.
Your prospecting challenge is much more about clearing out the crap between their existing (on some level) desire to buy — and your offering.
You are not trying to implant something that is not already there on some level. Nor are you trying to convince them of anything.
Your prospecting objective is much more about enabling those who have a need that you can fill to see that you are a credible benefit-laden option worth exploring. That’s it.
This topic has come up a lot these past few weeks as I’m helping 4/5 call centers roll out new campaigns, 3 companies improve prospecting production with customized training and 7 highly motivated salespeople retool their sales process.
In all those situations I have been listening and watching salespeople interact with suspects and place a burden on themselves to convince people of their worth. Big mistake.
If this is your mindset, you tend to sell too hard, sell too early and push push push — and your targets push back, so you push harder… until the cycle implodes and you get totally frustrated and start muttering things like “cold calling is dead” or other nonsense.
Plus, when you seek to convince people of your worth, too many people who are never going to buy enter your sales pipeline… eating up time you could be spending on better quality prospects — and it is all your fault.
But, if your mindset is … the people who want to buy are out there, all I have to do is bump into them and deliver a message which makes it easy and comfortable for them to identify themselves… you tend to take a very different approach.
You put your best foot forward. Your message is short, clear, concise and communicates credibility, three significant benefits you deliver and exactly what you want. They say “yes” or “no.” (Maybes are not allowed.) If they say “no,” so what?
If you are not getting the results you seek, instead of trying to implant something or convince somebody of something that doesn’t already exist within them on some level… change your mindset and do 3 things.
1. Refocus your message. Ask yourself, what words, what scripts, what script paths (initial pitch, responses to resistance, voicemails, etc.) would enable somebody who has a need I could fulfill to identify themselves.
2. Focus on efficiency. Get organized. Work a process. Generate more conversations with quality targets for the time you invest in prospecting. A great message delivered to too few people isn’t going to help you.
3. Be good at every step and don’t skip steps. Sell the first meeting. Sell the second meeting. Sell your offering.
Best wishes for sales success,
Scott Channell.
