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There are some people who will absolutely never ever
succeed. Let me tell you a little story about one of them:

I was going through some feedback forms from one of my
client’s recent seminars.

My client’s a successful info-marketer in the real estate
area… a VERY sharp guy when it comes to knowing how to
completely avoid paing income taxes… and he also owns a
bank.

No doubt, when this guy opens his mouth — if you’re smart
— you’re going to be paying very close attention to what
he’s saying, because it’s going to pay off for you in
spades.

Anyhow, one of his seminar participants was complaining on
his feedback form, because — and I kid you not — my
client’s seminar wasn’t “Atkins Friendly”.

I’m dead serious.

The guy said “Your seminar breaks are not Atkins friendly.
You should have cheese and club soda.”

Now I would bet you a dollar to a hole in a doughnut, the
person who wrote that complaint is one of those types of
people who complains about absolutely everything… who
never takes action on anything because nothing’s ever
“right”… and of course, it goes without saying, that all
this stuff is everyone else’s fault.

But here’s the thing: You are always going to have a few
petty and annoying customers like that. Just don’t spend
any of your time worrying about them when you’re planning
out your marketing or your sales copy.

People like that are going to be “looking” for something to
aggravate them, so regardless of what you end up doing,
you’re going to be doing the “wrong” thing as far as they’re
concerned.

When it comes to people like this, there’s never any way
you, or ANYONE else, will ever make them happy.

Your job, with PITA’s like that (Pains In The Asses), is to
deliver a good service or product… take their money in
exchange for it… and then… completely eliminate any
thoughts of them from your mind, forever.

What I’m saying is, don’t sweat the PITA’s — focus on what
matters — the 99% of your marketplace that’s “normal” –
or… at least… “sort of” normal.

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

http://www.KingOfCopy.com

P.S. Check out all the prior archives you’ve been
missing, right here at:
http://www.kingofcopy.com/tips/tiparchives.html

If you want to know how to consistently attract a steady stream of fresh new prospects, who are pre-qualified, eager, and excited about buying from you, then Craig Garber — recognized by his peers as America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriter — can show you exactly how to do this, step-by-step. Garber’s written winning promotions across a HUGE variety of industries and you can see them all for yourself on his website at http://www.kingofcopy.com

Recently I received a prospecting voice mail message from a salesperson. The salesperson explained his company was “the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions” and he encouraged me to visit his company’s website. That was it - that was the “meat” of the voice mail message.

If you received that salesperson’s voice mail message, what would go through your mind? Do you think it might it be a question like, “What the heck is a Microsoft hosted Exchange solution?” Do you think the voice mail message would inspire you to call the salesperson back?

Why did the salesperson’s voice mail message fail to accomplish the desired end result? Because it focused on a solution rather than a problem.

If your prospecting calls and related voice mail messages talk about a solution, in effect you are assuming that your prospects are already aware of the problems that your solution can solve for them. If your prospects are not able to relate your solution back to their own specific problems, your message will probably just “bounce off”.

If you use industry-specific jargon to describe your solution, you are making the additional assumption that your prospects are familiar with the jargon that you are using. If they aren’t, it further reduces your chances of attracting their attention!

How could this salesperson restructure his voice mail message to be more effective? Instead of talking about his solution, he could talk about one or more of the problems that can be solved by using a hosted Exchange service. A revised voice mail message might sound something like this:

“We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses, which accelerates growth and profitability. If you’d like learn how we do this, please give me a call.”

This salesperson could further enhance his message by including a specific quantified impact that his company’s services have produced for customers. Here is what it might sound like if we add a quantified impact to the previously revised voice mail message:

“We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses. This has helped some of our customers reduce their operating costs by as much as 30% in just six months. If you’d like learn how they were able to achieve these results, please give me a call.”

Do you see the difference between the revised messages and, “We are the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions; please visit our website”? Do you agree that the revised messages are likely to capture more prospects’ attention and produce more returned phone calls?

There are other advantages to focusing your prospecting messages on problems rather than solutions. If you talk about a solution, your message will have the most appeal for prospects that are already actively looking for that specific solution. But, do you think those (few) prospects are just sitting around waiting for you to call? Or, do you think they might be doing some proactive research? In fact, isn’t it possible they might already have some price quotes in hand? If they are that far along in the buying process, how does it impact your chances of winning their business? If you do manage to win their business, how profitable is it likely to be? Wouldn’t you agree that in this situation your solution is more likely to be perceived as a commodity, and the business is likely to go to a low bidder?

Contrast this scenario to a properly managed, problem-based prospecting approach. If you are successful in attracting a prospect’s interest by talking about the business problems that you can solve and the quantified impacts that your company has delivered to customers, the natural next step is to ask the prospect to identify which specific problems pertain to their business. Once the prospect prioritizes their problems, you can ask more questions to help them quantify the impact of these problems on their business. If the quantified impacts are substantial enough, it becomes quite easy to justify a very profitable price for your solution.

If you want to improve your prospecting effectiveness, stop leading with solutions in your prospecting calls and voice mail messages. Instead, lead with the problems that you can help prospects solve, and (ideally) one or more of the quantified impacts that your company has produced for customers. This type of problem-focused prospecting approach will attract the interest of a larger percentage of your prospects, produce higher close rates, and generate more profitable sales.

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

The good news about conventional sales contests is that there is a big winner, and generally, that person is very, very happy.

The bad news is that everyone else is a loser.

If you have a sales leader, someone who just keeps beating the pants off of everybody, then there’s no suspense left, the moment you announce a contest. From that instant forward, every other member of the sales team is yawning, scratching his head, murmuring, “Why bother?”

Now, isn’t that the exact opposite emotion that we want? Contests are supposed to motivate, electrify, focus people; not to make them more apathetic than before. But that’s the tendency of winner-take-all competitions.

They’re not competitions. They’re coronations.

So, how can we avoid this problem and get everybody excited?

It takes a little more arithmetic, but here’s what you do. Offer a three-in-one contest:

(1) There’s a Grand Prize, and yes, that goes to the top seller.

(2) There’s a Team Prize, that will be awarded based on the total production of all contest participants; and

(3) There are Personal Best Awards, based on whether an individual surpasses his performance peaks from the past.

Rookies as well as veterans can win. Everybody can win. And the neat thing is that you have created positive motivation for all, without de-motivating anybody.

Plus, when you have a runaway leader, well, nobody can give up because there are peer pressures, as well as individual incentives to keep working until the contest clock stops.

I’ve used this design and its power never ceases to amaze me.

As far as sales contests go, it’s a real winner!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.