Selling - Getting Your Prospect's Attention

Today's customers are more demanding than ever. They do not have time for casual visits, idle chat and random suggestions. Today's customers are sophisticated and well-educated, thanks in great part to the internet. Shared applications and solutions, problem solving and product information flow freely, easily accessible to everyone. Most prospects and customers do their research up front.

Our prospects often wear many hats, work longer hours and have greater expectations that at any time in the past. It is up to us as professional salespersons to offer significant value, providing both substantive and compelling reasons to allow us access to them and their precious time. When we get that open window of opportunity, we must be fully prepared to promptly get their attention and fulfill their needs if we are to count them among our customers. If we do not arrive prepared and tuned-in to their needs, offering great value, we are simply wasting our time and theirs. We may not get a second chance.

So what does this mean for the professional salesperson? We must do our homework. We must learn a significant amount of practical and factual information relative to our prospect and her company. What is her job, position and decision-making ability? What is their purpose? What is their position in the marketplace? Who are their competitors and how are they positioned? Are they successful and profitable? What is their business model? What is their marketing approach? What is restraining them from achieving additional growth? What market variables are currently affecting them? This kind of information is relatively easy to obtain from public companies, but smaller companies may provide an extended challenge. Small companies must be researched through their web site, their advertising, marketing, industry publications, customer base, their vendors, their employees and other avenues.

If I am seriously attempting to get that precious initial meeting with my prospect, I must successfully convince her gatekeeper or the prospect herself, that I am uniquely qualified to bring specific value to her and her company. I must get her attention. She must have strong, compelling evidence to warrant the surrender of a block of time from her day to answer questions and listen to my presentation. To successfully do that, I must become an expert on all aspects of her company and learn as much as possible about her positioning in particular.

Assuming that my prior work has paid off, I now have my appointment with my prospect. I have only mere seconds to make my positive extended-first impression upon her, otherwise everything I say will fall on deaf ears, if I have the opportunity to further speak at all. My initial statement must again get her attention! My initial statement must create an environment of great interest in every word that follows. In so stating it in this manner, she will know for certain that I have done my homework, I know her company well, I am familiar with their strategies and I have solid new ideas for their expanded profitability through my product or service offering. She would be foolish not to listen, and the foolish seldom rise to key positions in any organization.

Getting her attention is critical; otherwise, my visit will easily be lost in the mundane part of her day. I simply cannot afford to allow that to happen. The ideas I presented must stand-out. The old saying, "You only have one chance to make a good first impression" rings so true. Getting her attention is the first step in converting that prospect in a long-term, satisfied customer.

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Sales" article category.

People interested in the above article "Selling - Getting Your Prospect's Attention" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

Guaranteed Repeat And Referral Business

Imagine what it would be like if you found an advertising technique to increase your repeat and referral business. What if this technique not only gave you top of mind awarness with your clients and customers but also provide them with real value? Not staying in contact on a regular basis with past clients and customers is a mistake many salepeople make. It's a costly mistake because people who have bought your product or service are a great source of repeat and referral business.

Break Open The Voicemail Clamshell

Being effective at prospecting requires that you maintain a steady pace with your sales calls. That's how you ensure your sales funnel remains large enough so that you meet your sales targets year after year (and remember, that funnel has to be three times the value of your targets). In making those calls to new leads and prospects, sales people often complain to me that when they are intercepted by someone's voicemail, it too often becomes a black hole.

Price isn’t the problem

"Is it possible that what we’re selling is just priced too high?" I hear that question a lot when troubleshooting sales issues for clients during my seminars and coaching sessions. Plus it’s worth noting that it’s a question that tends to turn up again and again like a bad penny particularly in challenging economic times. My answer is always the same: price isn’t the problem.

The Secret to Sales Marketing Success

One concept in sales marketing that is so under used but will bring you out of sales mediocrity to fortune and fame is a Unique Selling Proposition or USP. Focusing on the USP in every advertising and sales marketing effort is the key to creating super successful products and services.

How to Create a 30 Second Elevator Pitch That Works

An elevator speech is a very important sales tool. However, you must know how to develop one the right way for it to be effective. An elevator speech is your quick, concise answer to "What you do?" When asked in an "elevator" or any other "icebreaker" or networking type of situation. It is very important to have an effective elevator speech.

Two Keys to Achieving Your Goals

Use this goal setting technique after you've written down your goals, gotten specific about what you want and why you want it and developed a clear mental image of your goal. When those steps are completed, it's time to take action.

SaaS Sales Analytics for Salesforce

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model is disrupting traditional approaches to business analytics. The long deployment cycles, high costs, complicated upgrade processes and IT infrastructure required of traditional on-premise business intelligence solutions are no longer acceptable in the era of on demand.