Let me ask you a question…

If you were your ideal prospect, and knew nothing of your product or service, would you buy?

When I pose this question to CEO’s from all over the globe, the knee-jerk answer is, “Yes! Of course I would!”  But that’s typically because they are too-close to their business. They focus 100+% of their time and energy to their service or product:

• Who they are
• What they do
• How they work
• Service/product they provide

So lets try this again.

Really sit back.  Close your eyes.  And try your best to turn off all the knowledge of your company and your preferences.  And truly put yourself in your prospect’s shoes…

Review this if this person is not clearly etched in your mind.

Are you there now?

Perfect.

Now, as the prospect, you’re not actively looking for your product.  As a matter of fact, you may not recognize a “need” or “desire” for it.  Let alone that it exists.

So here’s my question again….

Since you know nothing of the product or service, and don’t know you have a need, would you buy?

In this blog post I’m going to share 3 insights:

1. How to articulate your prospect’s problems in a way that positions you as someone they know, without any doubt, will leave them in a better place than before they met you.

2. The distinction between clear and fuzzy communication, and when each is appropriate to use.

3. What method of communication to gets people to respond.

 

1.  Find The Ultimate Benefit

Successful [and culturally sound] companies continually find new ways to communicate the ultimate benefit of their product or service.  They:

• Dig deeper – into why their customers buy, beyond the obvious benefits

• Find pain that prospects don’t even know about or haven’t thought about, and alleviate it

• Make it personal – treat each prospect as an individual

• Leave their customers in a better place than they were before

Here’s an example of what I mean by finding an ultimate benefit:

Benefit:  “the largest team of financial researchers in the country”

Immediate Benefit:  “clients are better informed and can make sound financial decisions”

Ultimate Benefit: “clients make more money and retire wealthy”

What if we don’t know we’re in pain?

What do we do if our prospects don’t know they are in pain?  Or it doesn’t nag enough to do anything about it?

We don’t always know we have a frustration.  Or, we may not know how to describe it. And, unfortunately, we often don’t know what we want.

Remember this:

“If people could tell you in advance what they want, there would never have been a wheel, a lever, much less an automobile, an airplane, or a TV set”  ~Leo Burnett

Shift your mindset from “buy my product,” to “here’s the reason why people, like you, buy my product”.  

Show contrast of where prospects are now to where they could or should be.

Here’s a simple 3-column table to build for each feature of your product that addresses this mind-shift I’m asking you to consider:

• Column 1:  List one feature of your product

• Column 2:  List the advantages it has

  • Give the background or context for how it originated or came about

  • List conflict or contrast that bubbled this feature up in importance

  • List what, specifically, it resolved

• Column 3:  List the reason why this feature leaves your prospect in a better place

If you take the time to do this exercise, you have all the content you need for compelling e-mails and telephone scripts for voice-mails.

2.  Clear vs. Fuzzy – The Direct Vs. Attraction Model

Let’s first define both the direct and attraction model.  The attraction model does just that.  You attract new prospects to your business.  This is the new craze amongst inbound (also known as opt-in) evangelists…

The Attraction model is typically executed through means of external advertising and other ways to get your name or brand recognized.  There are many advantages to the attraction model, however the biggest disadvantage is that in most attraction models, you’re casting a wide net hoping for any type fish to be caught.  Again, if your prospect doesn’t even know how to explain their problem, a “one-shot” or even a series of external ads may not be your best means of attracting the ideal prospect.

The direct model is completely different.

You are directly seeking out your exact, ideal prospect.  Creating cold conversations is ideal because you are going after those people who have the highest probability of using your product or service at the highest price-point.  Most CEOs start using the direct model by going straight to cold calling.  Commanding sales reps to pick up the phone and pound the pavement.  Without proper training, this yields minimal results causing the program to fail.

3.  Get Prospects to Respond – The Direct Model Done Right

This is why cold contact emailing  is so important.  You’re able to reap the benefits of the direct model on a larger, more efficient scale.  Since you’ve already articulated the prospect’s problems better than they can (via your simple 3-column table above), they’ll automatically associate you as part of the answer.

The direct email model is so efficient because each e-mail you send:

• Builds on problems and pains (tip: mention one pain in each e-mail rather than bombarding prospects with multiple pains at once),

• Illustrates their ideal outcomes,

• Gives helpful advice of what to look for, and

• Extends the invitation for more in-depth conversations with your sales team.

You position yourself as someone who is solving their most painful problems and leaving them in a better place by knowing you.

When you:

1. Articulate problems better than the prospect can, and

2. Reach out consistently via direct cold emailing designed to empathize, educate, inform and offer assistance,

Sales barriers and objections crumble.

And your bottom line goes through the roof.

Have a question or comment?  Post one below!