“If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you
stand a better chance of holding the viewer”.
David Ogilvy, Advertising Expert
The first step to achieving success here is to re-build existing scripts to focusondelivering value, and not selling. Your “value proposition is the foundation ofallprospecting scripts”. Thus, the purpose of the cold call is to secureanappointment or action step and commitment to move forward with aqualifiedlead, not sell yourproduct.
In the case of moving deals along, the identical things need to happen. You hone your value messaging which is great differentiator for you against any of your competitors. Value resonates with decision makers and they alone have to power to buy or kill you deal. It is not difficult to become adept at selling value (free “gifts of Knowledge”).
Some key principals to help you get this done are:
- Educating yourself to be aware of “how to talk to power and seniorlevel executives” is the first starting block to re-building a successful,new business prospecting plan.
- CEO’s, EVP’s, and VPs ofyour targetedcompanies are solely interested in value: how can you increase myrevenues; how can you lower my costs!On every sales call, customer visit, each day you read industry news, etc. grab snippets on value-points or measurement that you can use in your prospecting.
- Your VP of Sales spends most of their time on deals, customer meetings, presenting, negotiating, negotiating and closing. Seek them out to learn “how and when” they use Sr. Executive speak to move deals forward. Ask them for coaching on selling value…ofcreatingrevenues/lowering costs and NOT product features or even benefits.
- Master thinking like a Sr. Executive! To learn their pain points and more easily engage with them, read annual reports, the MD&A (Management Discussionand Analysis) section of their target prospects annual reports, Shareholder letters, Analyst reports…It is a greatexercise and an invaluable research tool, even if “you sell to smaller companies”. Thebasics issues are still the
Once you incorporate this into your day to day selling, it gets easier and will actually become fun. Success begets fun!
What do you do next? Send us an email and we’ll arrange for you to speak with Ed to chat about how these learnings can help build more sales just for your business.