Jill Konrath

I wish all my prospects were just like me. It would be so much easier to sell to them. But, that’s not the case. People are who they are and it’s our job to get them comfortable working with us.

One very effective rapport building technique is to mirror your prospect's behavior. It quickly puts them at ease with you.

The toughest person I ever had to deal with was Don Diggerman. He was a wonderful man. Seriously. A real nice guy. But I dreaded talking to him.

I'll never forget the last talent show I was in. We were at a family church camp. My then 8 year old son insisted that I play a couple songs on the guitar. At first, I resisted. You might have too if you'd only taken three lessons, knew two chords and had never sung in public before. I didn't want to look and sound stupid in front of more than 300 campers!

But I finally said yes, after I realized that it was an opportunity to teach a valuable life lesson about taking risks.

To get sales meetings, the business value of your  offering must be crystal clear.

A while back, I had lunch with the president of a $1/2 billion division of a major corporation. She told me that if someone contacted her and said he could reduce waste by just 1%, she would meet with him immediately. Why? Because she knew exactly how much her company spent on waste – and it was a lot of money. Every penny she saved would go right to the bottom line.

Powerful value propositions open doors – quickly! Taking time to really clarify yours is well worth the time invested in the process.

Here are 2 ways to create sales messages that work in today's business economy.

1. Fill your sales message with business-oriented terminology.

Strong value propositions are always stated in business terms. Corporate buyers are particularly attracted to phrases such as:

If you’re selling to the corporate market, one of the biggest challenges you
encounter is getting face time with decision makers.

Corporate buyers, after years of continual down sizings and reorganizations, have way too much work to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. Under constant pressure to deliver “results,” they zealously protect their schedule, refusing to meet with anybody who can’t help them achieve their business objectives.

And what do they usually hear from people like you who are trying to get in and sell their products or services? A typical phone message sounds like this:

What’s the best way to handle sales rejection? I don’t know about you, but I’ve hated it from the day I got into selling.

Some sales gurus say you need to embrace it because each “No” gets you closer to a “Yes.” Others tell you that it’s not personal – and you need to toughen up. Neither of those approaches worked for me.

But I’d like share what did.

Without a strong value proposition, it’s much harder to sell your products or services in today’s economy, much less even get in the door of big companies. But what is a value proposition? And how is it different from other commonly used terms?

A value proposition is often confused with an “Elevator Speech” or a “Unique Selling Proposition.” It’s essential to understand the difference between these terms because their purposes and sales impact are very different.

Could you possibly be confusing your prospects with business jargon? I’m sure you wouldn’t do it intentionally, but if you don’t pay close attention you might still be doing it.

If you're selling, you're most likely experiencing fear. I say that, because I've dealt with it my entire professional career. I've worried about meeting my quota. Then, when I did, I worried about doing it the next month. I was afraid of losing customers or worse yet, losing opportunities to competitors.

No one really talks about this fear, but it's underneath everything.

The other day I was at the Olive Garden talking to a prospective client over lunch. He was telling me about all the challenges his sales organization was facing.

Setting up appointments with new prospects was a nightmare. Decisions were taking longer and longer to make. Competition was everywhere, undercutting their proposals.

His reps were frustrated, discouraged.

“If only they could all be like Paula,” he said, shaking his head in frustration. “Can you clone her?

If you're like most sellers, you want to create the perfect message -- one that your prospects will read and immediately pick up the phone to invite you into their offices.

You agonize over what to include in it. You struggle to find just the right words to showcase your expertise without sounding like you're a braggart. You wonder just how much you should include about your company, products and services.  And sometimes, you even write to me for advice!

Here's the deal. You need to get over it.