Are You Worth Your Prospects' Time?

Are You Delivering Value On The Very First Call?Very early in my sales career I made a cold call on the CEO of a large homebuilder in my territory. I was selling accounting systems for one of the larger computer companies. I was freshly trained in sales and computers, a newly minted sales rep ready to go out and conquer. Dark suit, white shirt, red power tie straightened and shoes shined, I marched into the lobby and asked the receptionist to see the CEO. I fully expected that I was going to be rebuffed so I was completely taken aback when the CEO, Bill, came into the lobby, shook my hand and escorted me back to his office.Bill was very polite, courtly in his manners. In other words, he seemed completely old-school. Silver hair, nice tan, expensive 3-piece suit. He took me into his office, which was empty except for his massive wooden desk with a phone on it. He motioned for me to sit down opposite him. Bill asked for my business card. I reached over the aircraft carrier-sized surface of the desk and handed him my card. He took it, slowly turning it in his hands, examining it back and front, and laid it on the desk in front of him. "So, young man, what can I do for you?"I took a deep breath and launched into my elevator pitch. Just as I had been trained to do. Bill let me talk for about a minute and then raised his hand for me to stop. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a stack of business cards bound with a rubber band that was literally two inches high. "These are all the computer salespeople that have been by my office in the last year." He spread the cards across the top of his desk. There were dozens of cards from nearly every sales rep from my office as well as those of every competitor I could think of. "Tell me, how are you different or better than any of those folks?"The answer was that I wasn't. Yet.Give Your Prospect A Reason To Talk With YouI learned later that Bill talked to nearly 50 salespeople just like me every year. Fifty salespeople were given an opportunity to speak right to the CEO on their first calls. He had simplified the task for every salesperson. There were no layers to go through, no BANT qualification to process because they were talking to the ultimate decision maker. And, yet, no seller had ever gotten past the first call with Bill.Why? Because Bill was simply waiting for someone to give him a reason to buy. That reason was not going to be a new feature or its associated benefits. He was patiently waiting for a salesperson to deliver some value for him by providing a simple, cogent reason for him to invest his time and money in a new system. In short, he was waiting for a salesperson to step up and through the questions they ask or the insights they provide become the point of differentiation between similar products.The lesson Bill taught me continues to grow in relevance for salespeople, both new and experienced. Today more than ever how you sell is as important as what you sell to create value, build trust and differentiate yourself from your competition. Bill had looked at the universe of product offerings that addressed his needs and yet he had never gone past the first call with a seller. It isn’t enough to show up at a prospect's office or on a sales call and expect them to fall in love with your product or service solely based on its features and benefits. It also isn’t just about playing the numbers game. You could make a million cold calls but if you don’t give the prospect something of value that provides them with a return on the time they invested in you, then you are never going to get past the first call, let alone earn their business.Ask Yourself The QuestionAsk yourself a simple question before every prospecting call, sales call or existing account review. What value are you going to deliver to the buyer, what information are you going to provide in the form of challenging questions or business insights that will enable them to move at least one step forward in their buying process and allow the prospect to perceive that the time they invested in you was time well spent?In the formative years of my career there weren't as many resources available as there are today for salespeople to research industries, companies, individuals and to develop a better understanding of a prospect’s requirements for the products and services you sell. We didn't have access to an Internet full of information to serve as a rich source of content and context to enable prospects to make more informed purchase decisions in a shorter time.The approach I learned to create value on a first call was to become skilled at using stories to illustrate how my customers were using our products to manage and grow their businesses and the unique value our products provided in meeting their requirements. Through simple stories my prospects gained value by quickly being able to envision how they too would benefit by using our products. I had used their time wisely and earned the right to more of their time.A little over a year and more than 50 salespeople later, I went to see Bill again. We started all over again. But this time with a different conclusion.