“You are responsible for providing what your clients need from the conversation, not just for paving the away to your own success.” ~ Anthony Iannarino
If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve been hearing me say “effective communication – it’s your responsibility.” I even worked on helping you become better with the Communication Trilogy back in 2014. That was more about the mechanics (softening – questioning – pausing – listening) than what Anthony brings up in chapter 2 of Elite Sales Strategies
Anthony is talking about WHY should your prospects (and customers) for that matter meet with you. What’s in it for THEM…
Not why should they buy from you – your company – your product/service… why should they spend their valuable time in a meeting with you.
It’s funny – every time I am working with salespeople about the why behind what prospects and customers need;
- many don’t know WHY their customers buy what they sell.
- they have never been able to instantly articulate what the people they’re meeting with get out of the MEETING.
Although he doesn’t say it quite this way – Anthony is telling you that you build rapport by sharing that you understand THEIR business with “early conversation focus on the forces, trends, and factors that contextualize and ultimately enable good decisions.”
Information without insight, is the focus of chapter 3. Which begins with a well articulated description of why the old school information dump about your company, your products/services are missing the most important thing…. insights they can’t Google and find out for themselves!
You have what Anthony calls “situational knowledge” from working with other customers and talk with prospects all day – that is valuable! The people you’re calling on certainly don’t have time to gather that type of insight themselves.
Chapter 3 also brings up the importance of addressing challenges you know you’ll face together when you work together. I especially love “The fact that you know what is likely to go wrong means you know how to avoid it, and how to deal with it should it crop up anyway.”
Plus it is another way to share your situational knowledge…
More reasons to get your copy of Elite Sales Strategies.
More reasons to rethink & rework your sales conversation call plan.