In the movie Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise is in the midst of his proposal to Dorothy, she stops him with, "You had me at hello." Every seller dreams of hearing those exact same words when they approach corporate decision makers.
Unfortunately, the opposite usually occurs. Instead of capturing their prospect's attention, most sellers create resistance with their opening remarks and blow the opportunity.
Today's question was asked by a frustrated seller who kept running into the same sales objection in his initial sales meeting. Perhaps you've encountered this same one with your prospects.
A Salesperson Asks
Jill, I'm having trouble when I get in to see decision makers. When they ask me what I do, I tell them as best I can. Then they invariable say, "We already work with another company for that." How should I respond?
When pursuing big companies, most sellers want to ensure that decision makers know all about the full range of products, services or solutions that they provide. Proudly, they brag:
These killer phrases are detrimental to their sales objective and actually create massive roadblocks for them. But they don't want to believe me.
We were just approaching Des Moines, traveling at 72 miles per hour on I-35 when it hit me. My husband, who was driving, didn't even notice. But for me, the effect was jarring.
"Holy cow!" I exclaimed. (That's really appropriate when you're in Iowa.) I held up Wikibrands, the book I was reading. "Did you know that the Edelman Trust Barometer says that only 8 percent of people trust what companies say about themselves?"
No one I know wants to sound like a self-serving salesperson. So, as we prospect for new customers, we vow to never stoop as low as those product-pushing peddlers.
Instead, we decide to be paragons of professionalism. When we contact our prospects and get their voicemail instead, we'll leave a message like this one:
Have you ever had hot prospects who suddenly stopped returning your call? Then you know how disconcerting it can be - especially when they'd expressed so much interest in your product or service only days before.
At first, you assume their lack of responsiveness is an isolated situation that will quickly self-correct. But after repeated failed attempts to connect, you start to question your own sanity.
"I really care about my customers," Terry told me as we were driving to an appointment. "I try to do the very best I can for them and make sure that their needs are met."
"Sounds good," I thought to myself. "But I wonder if it's true."
Most sellers I know go to great pains to point out to me just how customer-focused they are.They want to make sure I know that they're not pushy or manipulative or sleazy in any way. Yet when they get into meetings with prospective clients, they quickly switch into a seller-centric mode of operation before they even know what's happening.
That's exactly what occurred in my sales call with Terry. Before we went in, I asked her to tell me what she'd said to get the appointment.
Have you recently seen promised orders or projects literally evaporate into thin air? It's a phenomenon I'm seeing frequently these days - and I'm personally experiencing it too. Time to put on the thinking cap ...
There's nothing I like better than engaging prospects when they're NOT thinking of making any changes from the status quo.