You’ve made connections. You’ve set up the meetings. You’re having conversations. More importantly, you’re having conversations with the right people, the ones that will make decisions about whether to hire your firm or buy your product. You leave those meetings feeling good. You hit all the important talking points. The slide deck you flipped through was perfection; in fact, you nailed the presentation. You answered questions. You didn’t leave out anything. The conversations, however, aren’t converting to sales. Why can’t you stick the landing?
Here’s the good news: it’s often not because the product or service you have to offer isn’t valuable. In fact, the door was open for a conversation because something in your first exchange piqued your potential client’s interest. Often, the issue isn’t what you’re selling, it’s how you’re selling it. It’s because your conversation is focused more on what you do instead of what your client gets. It’s hitting talking points about features and logistics. Those things are important, but they aren’t the highlight reel.
Here’s the secret, you’ll convert more of your pitch meetings to sales when you change the conversation from what your product does (and how it does it) to the results your client can anticipate if they say yes. Flip the script, and you’ll change your business.
Sure, that feature set is worth reviewing. The budget is important. Cover them, just don’t bury the lede. What problem does your product or service solve? What results might your client expect if they sign on the dotted line? It’s great to know that you’re going to create a new website for their business and the cost will include a certain number of pages, content development, and images. That’s the middle layer of icing in a multi-layer cake, though.
You focus on user experience in your site designs and as a result, clients linger an average of so-many seconds longer than the average site in this client’s industry. On average, your clients have seen improvements in brand recognition and sales growth after rolling out your web site.
Unless your initial conversation has painted a full picture of what your potential client is looking for, don’t jump right into the conversation. Imagine walking into a café and the barista just hands you a big, steaming cup of joe. Before you can say a word, she launches into an enthusiastic summary of all the amazing flavors and hints of this and that this bold cup holds. She didn’t know, however, that you’re avoiding dairy or that you’d prefer a blonde roast and splash of something that tastes more fruity than nutty for flavoring. She didn’t know because she didn’t ask.
Of course, this scenario isn’t going to happen. That barista is waiting to hear what you want before crafting your brew. For good reason. And your client, of course, is not necessarily ordering from a menu. Yet they are coming to the table with wants and needs. They do have problems they hope your product or service can solve. They have an idea of what it’s going to take to move the needle and close this deal. The only way you’ll know those things is if you ask questions and listen. It doesn’t need to be a quiz. It’s a conversation that starts with “Tell me about your business.” It probes gently to uncover the challenges and the goals.
Every product and every service is not right for every client. We don’t listen just to tailor a pitch in order to fit what we’ve got into the box they’re trying to fill. Talk to the solutions you can offer. Be prepared to tell them what you can’t address, and if you can, offer another solution:
“It sounds like you’re looking for a full-service printer that can quickly turn around last-minute requests when your in-house resources are overwhelmed. I’ll be honest, our current workflow and project load make that difficult. I don’t want to promise that we can hit these deadlines without being certain we could consistently. Have you talked to Joe at Other Company? This sounds a lot like their business model. He’s a good guy and you’ll be happy with his service. If you’re ever in the need of [something else your business can offer], I’d love to work with you. Keep my card and call if there’s something we can help you with.”
Changing the way we talk about our products and services can take practice. If you’ve been running through the list of bells and whistles, flipping the script to highlight value and impact can take some work. It can be helpful to work with a coach or mentor to re-evaluate your presentations, practice your pitch, and hone your message. That’s where we come in. Book a call with Cheryl Marks Young here: Contact Cheryl.
(908) 345-0382