What would you say to a prospective buyer if you only had 30 seconds to make an interest creating remark to get that all important first meeting?
Well guess what … this is about all the time you have to make a positive first impression that will hopefully lead to future sales. In most networking and social interactions, 30 seconds or less is the standard to grab their attention. You see, we humans have rather short attention spans and are easily distracted.
So, what’s the secret to capturing a prospective buyer’s attention in a crowded room or a crowded marketplace bombarded by literally thousands of daily sales messages?
Although it’s widely held that 93% of communication is non-verbal, getting the remaining 7% right is essential to building credibility and trust with your target audience. When you formed your business, you developed Vision, Mission and Value statements that address your going-forward business direction and value proposition. How do you convert these statements into sales messages that address the “So what?” and connect with prospective buyers?
This is one of the exercises I work through with coaching clients who are struggling with sales and effectively promoting their businesses. To begin, review and update your Vision, Mission and Value statements so they accurately and succinctly reflect your current business direction and value drivers. Next, think through the typical sales and social scenarios you engage in and the follow-on conversation.
For example, when you connect with people for the first time in a social or networking setting, you can breakdown the logical flow of these interactions as follows:
- Opening Statement … What do you do?
- 30-Second Introduction … Tell me about your business?
- Customer Value Proposition (CVP) … What makes you different?
- Expanded Sales Message … Tell me more!
Now, prepare your written responses for each of the items referenced above. Click the following link: http://www.slideshare.net/TresCoach/building-your-sales-message-exercise-38189715 for example responses to help you complete this exercise.
Developing responses to these items will help you be better positioned to deliver a compelling sales message to help promote your business and generate future sales. One of the underlying benefits of completing this exercise is you now have new content for use in a variety of ways – i.e. web site, blog articles, newsletter, headlines, YouTube videos, brochures and proposals, to promote your business.
At the end of the day, the purpose of building your sales message in this manner should be to help you find the right connections with prospective buyers so they buy more and more often from you.
Good luck and good selling!
John
COPYRIGHT © 2014 John Carroll