"Show them where it hurts." There's a very simple way to make tons of sales: Show the prospect where losses are occuring, and how you can fix it.
The effectiveness of this hit me when a salesperson did it to me, and showed me exactly where I was losing money in my business (that I wasn't even aware of) and I bought from him immediately with no sales pitch. I didn't want to hear any more of his presentation, and none was necessary. On top of that, I didn't need to be closed. I simply said "Yes! I want this!"
Features, benefits, bells, whistles, price, "best service" and all that other nonsense that sales persons like to blurt out.... If you can pass on all that and get to the bottom line - show me where the losses are, and what you can do about it - you'll have me as a customer for life. Of course that depends on whether or not you can do what you say you can do.
A Really Stupid Sales Pitch
Probably dozens of time each month, I hear the same sales pitch that every business owner hears: "I can save you money!"
Sure you can... just like everyone else who promised to save me money, by providing a lower quality product or service than the one that is actually worth its high price. Nothing frightens a desirable prospect (successful = deep pockets) faster than blurting out, "We can save you money!"
However - there's a close cousin to saving money, and it's recovering money. And if you can do that, you'll win all of your sales, instead of getting shot down for saying "save" money.
The big difference between "save" and "recover" money is simple: Saving money implies buying a lower-cost product or service than the prospect either has, or is considering. By contrast, recovering money means showing them ways to stop the bleeding. It can range anywhere from a consumer paying too much on a mortgage, to a large business losing customers because of an outdated phone system. This strategy applies to just about every industry and niche, if you will simply think and find ways to apply it.
How To Use This Strategy
That's the easy part. To apply this sales strategy, do as follows:
1. Meet with as many prospects as you can who have an immediate or pressing need for your product or service.
2. Do a detailed analysis, and uncover areas where they're losing money.
3. Demonstrate to the prospect how your solution will "stop the losses" and recover all the money that's being lost.
Parts 2 and 3 are very simple, once you're meeting with a qualified prospect, and you use your brains and your imagination to uncover losses. Step 1 isn't as simple, at least if you're still cold calling. Making cold calls will virtually never get you in front of these types of hot prospects, who are too busy and too smart to spend their time taking cold calls.
The reality of today's economy is that cold calling, nowadays, will only serve to get appointments with the lowest quality prospects out there - the ones who have a lot of time on their hands, which generally means they have nothing productive to do. These are the sales prospects who seem very interested but never return a call or answer an email after you meet with them.
And if you do manage to uncover prospects who have current needs for what you're selling via cold calling, 9 time out of 10 it means you're late to the game and they've already got a few proposals from competitors. And the last salesperson to the table rarely wins.
So, first things first: Stop making cold calls and use intelligent lead-generation methods instead. This can mean networking, referral selling, online marketing, social media, or any other variety of options. Once you wipe cold calling away and are getting qualified leads, you're now free to use this powerful sales strategy to begin closing massive amounts of sales with high quality prospects!
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NY Times best-selling author Frank Rumbauskas has taught over 50,000 salesmen everywhere how to sell more without cold calling. Learn more at http://www.nevercoldcall.com and find his sales blog at http://www.nevercoldcall.com/blog/
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