Here’s an email I received a couple of weeks ago. No kidding. (I’m withholding the name to save embarrassment.)
Hi Art,
How do I reach out to CEO’s, CFO’s, VP’s who are very busy. How do I connect with them instantly and transform the call into leads or sales?
Please let me know.
(name)
Where do I begin?I teach entire two-day+ courses on this.
I have hours and hours of audio and video programs.
There are tens of thousands of words written about it in my online archive membership vault.
I’ve been writing about it for over 30 years.
And this person just wants the Easy Button.
The magic pill.
The one secret that will “instantly” connect with and transform them.
Oh, ok.
Actually, that gives me an idea. I’m going to ask the golf pro at my club about the way to instantly hit straight 300-yard drives and transform me into a par golfer. Let’s just get right to it.
While I’m at it, I’ve long thought about learning Spanish. It didn’t occur to me that I should just seek out the instant way to be able to hold a thoughtful, lively conversation with a local on my next trip to Mexico.
Please forgive me, but I get exasperated when I receive requests like this. I mean, how do you answer that?
Well, of course I do know how to answer that, since I do it all of the time.
Actually, I wrote about it in last month’s issue of my monthly Telephone Prospecting and Selling Report newsletter.
Here is how I address that question:
There’s no doubt it is more difficult than ever to actually get through and speak with decision makers.
Everyone is bombarded with hundreds of requests for attention daily… emails, voice mails, texts, pop-up ads, ads everywhere online and in print, radio and TV commercials, direct mail, other people wanting something… it’s no wonder we live in an “ignorance environment.”
Meaning that people are conditioned to tune most things out—especially salespeople deemed to not have anything of value.
And that means, more than ever–write this down…
To get someone interested, YOU need to be more interesting.
Nothing really new here. It’s just more necessary than ever, IF you want any chance of being successful.
You are not only competing with other companies and individuals who sell the same things as you.
You are vying for prospect and customer attention with all of the aforementioned distractions.
Don’t complain about how hard it is to reach decision makers. Instead, invest that time in working on what makes you unique, valuable, indispensable, and relevant.
How can you make your prospects’ and customers’ lives and businesses better?
And very importantly, how can you help them make and/or save money?
Creating Your Possible Value Proposition
OK, you want simple? Here’s a way to brainstorm for some of your Possible Value Propositions (PVP’s).
Fill in the blanks:
“We specialize in working with
(title of buyer/type of company, group, organization)
who/that
(describe a situation or problem)
and help them to
(the result you provide)
which means
(further describing the end result).
(Mention specific customer/client results)”
For example,
“We specialize in working with sales teams that have new business quotas, helping them to use a proven prospecting process which means they are able to confidently get through to and sell to new buyers. Our most recent client has already opened up 10 new accounts in a week, more than they did the past three months.”
You get the picture. Give it a try. Build a sales meeting around it.
I guess it’s not that tough after all. IF you do the right things.
______________________________
By the way, that is directly from my Smart Calling process, where we gather intelligence about our prospect through several means, online, offline, and on the phone, before speaking with him/her, so that we can laser-target our message, therefore making it more relevant and interesting.
A huge part of that process involves using LinkedIn.
A year ago I announced that we are releasing a LinkedIn training course specifically for salespeople, focusing on how to use the power of LinkedIn to get new business.
As the creation of it progressed, it grew into something far beyond what I had initially planned. Thus the delay in releasing it.
Not only will LinkedIn for Sales Success provide Black Belt training on how to master LinkedIn, I am including a sales component: how to actually USE your LinkedIn account and intelligence with my Smart Calling process to connect with, get through to, create interest with, and sell to buyers.
Essentially what our questioner above asked about.
When can you get your hands on this?
We’re putting the final touches on it, and testing all the components of this massive program. In a few weeks we’ll introduce it by making available a series of free training videos, that themselves provide instruction as good as many paid programs now available.
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