Alliance Science

Can a Salesperson Really Choose Their Lifestyle?

Can you still be a top notch, relationship selling Advisor and work few hours and travel anywhere and often?

Photo credit cmpalmer

When I ask small business owners or commission only salespeople why they cut the corporate lifeline, here are the answers I hear most:

1. Make lots of $
2. Have flexibility over their schedule
3. Help people

In the same vein, lifestyle entrepreneurs have similar motivations as to the reasons for severing the umbilical cord of a regular paycheck according to Anywired blogger, Skellie:

1. Time savers who want to trade as little time for money as possible
2. Travelers who thrive on the change of scenery and people and either want to make a living requiring travel or allowing travel
3. Passion seekers who earn money doing what they love and therefore see it not as work

The secret to any successful career is in how it's designed

The truth is, for most of us, the above are ideals that conflict with the first of the top 3 reasons for starting a business or becoming self-employed, the priority to make a lot of money.  Most entrepreneurial careers including largely 100% commissioned sales jobs, take 2 to 5 years to establish and build into a sustainable business which allows the entrepreneur to spend a significant amount of time out of the business.

The secret is leverage

1. Start with the right business model
2. Next, create a plan, implement, test, perfect and meticulously record every operation, routine and job function so that you can automate and duplicate
3. Then, delegate or outsource until you can remove yourself from the business

This is the difference between being self-employed and owning a business.

In applying this process to the most important job function, lead generation and sales, you must design a system which greatly reduces the time and money spent on:

1. Prospecting and creating leads
2. Setting appointments with ideal prospects
3. Following up with your ideal prospect "herd" after you have created rapport, credibility and become valuable
4. Staying top of mind by constant communication through a multitude of mediums
5. Continuing to be valuable with regular conversations and face-to-face meetings to cement the relationship

Imagine being able to instantly reduce your prospecting time by 10 to 20 hours a week while increasing the number of appointments to 8 to 12 more per week with the best ideal prospects imaginable -- those who already trust you and are sold on your ability.  Find out how with the FREE, innovative report, "The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Salesperson's Life."  It's the first step to creating the lifestyle of your dreams.

 

Do Salespeople Need their Own Web Presence?

If book authors need websites and blogs, then so do sales people.  Whether a corporate cog on a team, an independent agent or a channel account manager, each salesperson is a brand.  The sales consultant's job is to hunt, meet and build relationships with people who don't know them yet in order to help them decide on what they want and be chosen to deliver that feeling, product or service. 

Just as a company needs at least a static page identifying their existence, service and satisfied customers, so does a salesperson.  That'll suffice and if properly executed, search optimized and linked, it will deliver information, build credibility, produce leads and sustain a message.  Better yet, a salesperson can effectively blog to brand him or herself and the company.

One of the elements listed in the guide, "The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in a Salesperson's Life," is the active pursuit of leverage to exponentially save time and increase effectiveness, volume and growth.  Imagine if the information provided on the website were quadrupled and then quadrupled again and again to your target market?  Imagine it another way. 

Now, imagine the same idea, but instead of an electronic and static form of leverage, imagine if the power of the personal, trusted, advisor relationship were systematically leveraged?  WOW.

 

Do You Sign Your Work?

The accruing value of art is the signature.

The residual value of a service is the contact name and number and installation or last service date.  HVAC techs do it.  Automobile service companies do it.  Treatment companies do it.  If you sell a consulting service or product, do you do it?

• Is your contact information and next service date on your invoice and service report?
• Is an expiration date or replacement date with a telephone number to a call capture service left where identification information is to be expected?
• Information gets old and needs to be updated.  Is a telephone number or URL promising updates on your folder brief?

The 11th Breakthrough in Salesperson's Life available June 1st.  Register for your FREE copy now.

 

Referrals VS Appointments with Ideal Prospects

If client referrals are King, then personally prearranged appointments with ideal prospects are Queen.

Given that, in the game of chess, the king is all-important, the queen is all-powerful.  How far can a Queen move and in how many directions? 

Whereas a great client can refer you to, let's say, 8 prospects, not unlike the range to adjacent squares for a king, a great Advisor Alliance partner can personally introduce you to 27 ideal prospects and do it again in the following 2 weeks!  Of course, this is a visual analogy, and you get the point.

 

What's the difference between a referral from a customer and a personal introduction in the form of a scheduled appointment from a trusted Advisor Alliance partner? 

• Intention
• Reciprocity
• Ability
• Opportunity
• Consistency and reliability

Asking for and receiving client referrals should be automatic.  They are one of the highest form of advocacy when properly executed.  There are many blogs, companies and books on the subject of referral selling. 

There's only one way to learn how to automatically receive 8 to 12 automatically scheduled appointments with ideal prospects.  Email your Name, title, and business address to receive the FREE, unique report on, "The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Salesperson's Life."  I highly advise it.

 

What Better Job?

At the start of most workdays, I exchange with a colleague a list of people, things and situations for which I'm grateful.  This morning, he said, "There's nothing right now I'd rather do."  What could be better than to be self-employed, the president of his destiny, to joyfully speak with owners and business leaders on how he can help them and their businesses?  How did he arrive at this present decision?

"When I started listing my other employment alternatives, I discovered I've got it better than most people." 

In other words, after looking at his choices, he decided he has a great job and intentionally focuses on what he loves about his chosen purpose.

What do you love?

In a refreshing interview with blogger, Jocelyn, at the Teen Book Review, and literary agent, Kate Schafer of KT Literary, Kate talks about what she loves about her job.  When you decided to come master of your career and income, do you remember the hope Kate shares about her present experience?

• Finding new clients and really helping
• Being your own boss
• Being responsible for your own success
• Loving the process of helping, learning from and developing deep relationships with your clients

Do what you cherish and the money will follow.  If you aren't feeling the love right now, immediately list what you appreciate about your talents, activities and the joys in your job.  Then, write a list of what you'd rather be doing and then decide on how you can get it within your present situation or get another job.

Commiting with all your power and energy to your purpose as a salesperson, an agent, an advisor, is a breakthrough in your career.  To discover other breakthroughs and learn how to have them, order the remarkable FREE report, "The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Salespersons Life." 

 

Who Cares?

You'd better care.

There's no better way to lose a customer or prospect than to appear indifferent.

From the very first communication, customers want to personally connect.  They want to be heard and understood and expect a personal response. 

What do most companies do to their future and current customers when they answer the phone?  They make their customers listen to an assortment of options to then listen to yet another set of options to which they make them leave a message or indefinitely hold for the "next available customer service representative. It's OK because they first say, "your call is important to us," just not your time.  It's more important that they save money by hiring less people to promptly answer your less important call.

There's no better way to win a customer for life than to compassionately fix a mistake.

I've always said, I'd much rather fix a mistake with a WOW than give the customer only what they expect.  That's not to say that we don't have EXCELLENT delivery systems, but that's exactly it, they're designed to deliver beyond expectations.  However, as people are the medium for which systems are designed, mistakes happen.  When we make a mistake, we now have the opportunity to make them clients for life.  The first thing to do is to admit the error immediately.  Then, do something outrageous to fix the problem.  Check out how Microsoft fixed a mistake while servicing one of their Xbox customers.  My favorite comment reads:

marketing ploy by microsoft.. clearly he doesn't 'need' all that free stuff.. its just to get attention.

And what's wrong with that? 

One revelation in a salesperson's life is the need to under promise and over deliver.  To find out about the other 9 big turning points in a sales person's life, order your FREE, groundbreaking report, "The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Sales Person's Life."

 

The Fastest Way to get Leads from Your Business Networking Group

You've joined a Business Networking Group or "Leads Group" and you want leads now.

The fastest way to a strong advocacy can make you or break you. 

Aside from Business Networking's Granddaddy, Ivan Misner, and his tips on finding the right networking partners, do business with the members.  Of course, there are two ways to accomplish this: 

• Become a client.  To really find out how your future partner is going to treat your referrals, put your money where your intentions are.  There's no stronger recommendation than a heartfelt advocacy from a client -- you. 
• Serve a client.  You should always profit from providing your service,  but what's the future value of providing your services to a future referral partner for free or a deep discount providing you don't lose money?  The opportunity costs of strategically placed seed money could prove to be the best investment in a solid business networking community, yet.

Now if you REALLY want to get powerful leads from your referral partners, learn about Automatic Appointments.  Imagine, 8 to 12 referrals a week.  If 3 or 4 referrals per month is good, isn't 30 to 50 better?  Is that what you want?

 

The BEST Salespeople are Rich

Did I tell you, I'm loaded?  Flush.  Uptown is my front yard.   Rich is in my middle name (close enough).

I am outrageously, exuberantly replete.  And so are you.

Yes, it does

Imagine you are worth $100,000,000,000. 

• What do you want to do?
• What do you own?
• Where are you? 
• Who do you want to know, hang with and who wants to know you? 
• How are you changing the world, forever to make a difference and be remembered? 

Really?  OK, now, write it down and remember that it is.

How do you feel? 

Now, what was it that you feared? 

Why?

What do You Want Today?

How do you know what you want, today? 

• Have you written the things, people and gifts you appreciate and are thankful for today?
• Have you written what you want down on paper today?
• Have you shared those desires with one or more people who care and support you?
• Have you decided and recorded what you are going to do in order to get what you want today?

As I do every morning in a 7 to 10 minute phone conversation, I have already shared with another business owner what I'm grateful for this morning and about 5 to 7 affirmations.  Here's some examples:  

• You are developing a new found empathy and caring for people you don't know
• You are developing consistent and predictable results in your business thus creating great peace of mind
• Every day you are attracting and creating walking, talking billboards for your business
• You easily set two ideal client prospect appointments for you and your Alliance Partners today

Why don't you join me?  8:15 AM EST.  Send me an email to alliancescience at ownershelp.com with your name and number.  We'll chat for 2 minutes so you understand what to expect and I'll give you the conference number.  Is that what you want?

 

Why Bother with Marketing Brochures?

Does your prospect community expect "more information" before they decide to engage at any level with you?  When I hear that question, I immediately ask, "what information are you looking for?"  Typically, there's a stammer and the ol' "well, like a brochure or something?" to which I immediately reply, "what questions or concerns do you have so I know what information to send you?" knowing that my job is to address their concerns or politely highlight and question their indifference instead of allowing them to take me off the scent to cast a paper net.  I know that their inability to decide or understand why we're speaking for the time being constitutes a, "no," and any information from me will only give them evidence to support their rationale.

Marketing bellwether, Seth Godin, turns our heads again with the question, "I think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all."  Speaking in a parable about job seekers, he continues:

If you don't have a resume, what do you have?

• How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
• Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
• Or a reputation that precedes you?
• Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

To which I decipher into sales and marketing context to mean if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a marketing brochure but instead:

• Testimonials as to what problems you've solved are always more impactful than labels, descriptions or processes
• Case studies or examples of your work are even stronger than 3rd party testimonials
• An Introduction or recommendation from someone they like, know and trust will greatly reduce their inhibitions
• Proof of your expertise, such as a blog, book, articles or newsletters -- not information about you -- will give you a second chance to impress

Being ordinary doesn't get you the sale.  Doing what others may do does not make you stand out.

Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for... those jobs don't get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.

In other words, great clients, world class accounts, customers your competition would kill for aren't awarded to people who follow-up with brochures or information about themselves.

What would your sales look like if you had an agent, like a headhunter, providing the testimonials and making the introductions, even setting the appointments with your new prospects?  Here's a whitepaper so compelling and insightful that you will have no choice but to follow-up.  :^)

Why NOT to Call Cold

In a previous post, I admitted I love to do what most humans hate more than speaking in public or paying taxes.  Most salespeople rather face criminal charges than routinely make the cold call.  In all fairness, from a business perspective, cold calling typically results in lower call-for-appointment setting conversions than most warm introductions or marketing generated leads. 

Before I give you a list of reasons why not to cold call so that you can show your boss or ease your conscience, here are important reasons as to why you should routinely and occasionally call people who don't know you, may not like you, and certainly don't trust you - yet. 

• To increase mental toughness
• To improve your perspective
• To reinforce discipline (doing something whether you like it or not) while developing your improvisational skills

On second thought, instead of giving you a list of reasons why not to cold call, I will give you some alternative approaches to avoid the cold call to a targeted company or decision maker.

• Call someone you know who works for the targeted company and secure a personal introduction.  Ask for your friends' help.
• Call a sales person representing the targeted company.  Salespeople have to be nice.  Start the conversation by asking about their product or service.  Figure out who you can now or later introduce them to and make or promise the introduction.  Ask them for their help.
• Call another marketer or salesperson who sells to the same decision maker you do and refer them to someone important to them first.  Find out what they need, give it to them and then ask them for their help. 

Which alternative do you think will yield the most fruitful results if practiced consistently?  Imagine how easy it would be if this same person referred you to someone who fit your ideal prospect profile each week.  What would your business look like if this same person automatically set 4 to 6 appointments for you with your ideal client prospect every week?

If you never want to cold call again, send an email to alliancescience at ownershelp.com for an mind-altering FREE report on how to get other people to set appointments for you with your ideal client prospect -- people who don't know you, yet, but already like and trust you. 

Does a Face on a Business Card Help in Setting Appointments?

Does THEIR Face on a Business Card Help in Setting Appointments?  Does Facebook work?  Does a picture say 999 words?  At least.

I used to think pictures on business cards or email v-cards were cheesy.  Then, when I was sorting through a stack of business cards looking for which (you guessed it) Realtor to call of the 15 cards I had in my hand, guess which ones I looked at first?  And then guess which one I called first?  Right, the one I recognized and remembered something pleasant about our encounter.  In fact, there were many cards from people I could not remember when there was no note or reminder or picture. 

Now here's an idea:  Keeping an electronic image of your prospect or client in your contact manager will give you the effect of a "face to face" conversation when you call them claims Meilee Anderson of Seattle Southside as referenced by the Selling Sherpa.

Does YOUR Face on a Business Card Help in Setting Appointments?  As mentioned before, it certainly helps the recipient remember you.  And if you couple that with a picture of yourself (the same picture is best) on your email tag or v-card in your follow-up email, you've just increased your chances, don't you think?  A couple things to remember:  No bedroom eyes, 20 year old pictures or pictures that plainly don't look like you.

Professional portrait photographer, Lynn Dykstra of Focused Images, has an excellent information guide, Preparing for a Great Business Portrait™.  Send Lynn an email with your business contact information including your address so she can mail you the report.  You may also read her article, "Image Really IS Everything!"

It's safe to say that a picture is a much more powerful associative anchor than simply a name.  You may stuggle with a name, but you'll never forget a face.

 

 

I'm so Motivated, I took a Day Off to plan a Six Month Vacation

Ever struggle with staying motivated?  If you told the truth and you have a Sales Manager, what does he or she do to help you or hurt you?

Tracking sales activity and projection data is absolutely necessary for the executive and sales management teams, it does little motivate the sales team.  Managing sales talent is harder than selling or trying to dig yourself out of a sales slump.

Certainly, sales people need to be aware of their opportunities and activity numbers to focus and improve and stretch.  What creates the activity and resulting sales is the salesperson's motives and purpose.  Every minute decision and subsequent action humans take is based on expected pain or gain.

Julia Marrocco on the Pumping Mental Iron Group Blog lists several good ideas to keep moral and focus on what you and your hunters want.  I've summarized some of her comments to support 6 powerful ways I've discovered to keep a team inspired.

• Share Best Practices.  Whether other star performers work for you or not, bring them in to present and share their success to your team.  And if you can't get a stud to come to you, send your team out to them at that conference, networking group or training.  As Julia put's it, "Show them it's possible.  Figure out which past or present performers they will relate to most, introduce them, put them together or at least share the stories of how the others did it so they can see it can be done."
• Create Mentor Teams.  "Shadowing" is best to see attitude and behaviors in action.  It's one thing to learn about best practices in conversation, but seeing them as they happen can make a difference.
• Routinely Share Dreams, Goals and Purpose.  Encourage individual and collaborative goal setting.  Start with asking each sales team member to list out their dreams and then the steps to make their dreams come true.  Allow each sales person to openly create and build a picture of their purpose both professionally and personally.
• Light up the Competitive Fire.  Contests to achieve certain daily or hourly Key Performance Measurements or even unrelated to sales performance.  The key is fun and acheivable.  Sometimes the achievement of some task, ultimately unimportant, recognized by the group, can be the catalyst to inspire and boost morale.
• Role Play.  Practice, practice, practice.  Scripts work.  Top notch, accomplished salepeople still spend 15 minutes to 30 minutes a day tuning their axe before show time.  Wonder why they're the best?

The best place to start at anytime of the day to reset attitudes is with gratitude.  Start by you and your team listing what you have, like, and appreciate about yourselves and each other. 

As a trainer who teaches sales people to set appointments for each other, the challenge for most clients to consistently keep a high level of daily activity is constant. 

Amazingly, when even a marginal sales person learns how to strategically promote an Advisor Alliance partner's services, the pyschological blocks of fear of rejection and lack of credibilty go away.  In fact, the process of "selling" as in, "convincing someone to want or need your services and agree to move forward," is erased.  When initiated properly, the process of simply setting appointments for other salespeople is easy.  Prospects simply say, "yes."

Learn how to triple the number of referral appointments with no extra time or work.  Ask for the FREE, career changing report, "The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Sales Person's Life."

 

Does Blogging Increase your Sales?

For the time it takes to write articles or blog, does this payout with more sales?  Used as an Information Marketing tool, posting regularly is certainly a branding continuity device when properly used can create a lead source.  Blogging: 

• Creates credibility (or dubious reserve, if you aren't careful)
• Can be used to build an opt-in email list or mailing list
• Should periodically promote special calls to action such as comments and information and product requests
• Is a form of viral branding

A regular poster serving the mortgage industry, always happy Ms. Sawyer shares a way to blog without creating original content, therefore, assumably saving time and overcoming any barriers keeping you from participating in the blogosphere.  She's promoting a turn-key solution of content provisioning for the mortgage and real estate industries. 

There are other ways to blog without creating original content.  To save time and drive traffic, repost other blogger's content.  When you repost the actual content, always linkback and give credit.  Add value with a summary or put into context with new information or provide comparitive analysis siting multiple posts of differing views on the same subject.  Other methods to save time in content creation are to: 

• Invite guest authors or co-authors; share materials
• Hire a ghost writer
• Aggregate or repurpose information and make sure to give credit.  This includes stats or charts or other sourced articles

Blogging takes time.  It's certainly a marketing tool.  Can blogging be used to regularly set appointments with clients or prospects?  Trackback or comment and let me know.

Trust: The Alpha and Omega

What is the one element which must be in place for a prospect to purchase from you at least once?

Byron Webster, founder and Chief of Whisperlabs, sagely suggests that in order to sustain client relations, trust must be reciprocal.  Bottom line:  "extend trust to your customers."

In his book, The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey (Steven R. Covey's son), outlines 13 behaviors which establish trust, the last being, extend trust.  Whether it is to establish or restore trust, extending trust is essential.  Giving people responsibility but no authority or resources to complete tasks stunts the growth of trust.  Simply put, you will be trusted at the level you trust others. 

The foundation to alliance selling is trust.  While many relationships survive on their own, business relationships such as Advisor Alliances, Strategic Alliances and Business Masterminds thrive in a structured environment.  To speed up engagement, sustain growth, weather turbulence and endure chaos, intentional business alliance partners can be educated and reminded on the principles and aspects of trust that keep them together.

Structure, whether it be simple systems, technology assisted or institutionally organized is paramount to the speed of growth and sustainability of powerful business alliances.

To maximize the effectiveness of your business networking group, company partnership, strategic alliance or referral partners, send an email to alliancescience at ownershelp.com for the seminal, FREE report on how to get other people to regularly and consistently set appointments for you with your ideal client prospects -- people who don't know you but already like and trust you. 

 

Will an Email Database get you More Appointments?

Announcement:  If I have your email address and I know you are a Realtor, small business owner, entrepreneur, salesperson, independent agent or marketer, you will soon be subscribed to my bi-weekly email of the articles I publish about the subject of Alliance Marketing and Selling.  In fact, I will be doing exactly what Jim Cronin from the Real Estate Tomato prescribes to initiate new Blog readership.  In the past, although only for a couple of months, I routinely sent bi-weekly emails with links to my blog posts of an earlier blog with similar 25% readership success so I know what he suggests works.

So the question is:  Can you regularly set appointments using a weekly or bi-weekly email subscription?

I don't know yet, but 3 different campaign types come instantly to mind which should easily drive up personal response either by telephone or email. 

1. Start with a blog about exactly what you do to your target audience and start with a complimentary e-zine subscription with 3 or more article leads.  The postings should have a call to action within each post to entice the reader to ask for a sit-down or next step.
2. Send out small batch, personalized emails stating a purpose for getting in touch and ask the best time for a call or visit.  Being slightly vague to entice the reader to "fill the information gap" may improve response.  Asking for help or suggesting an invitation are good lead-ins.
3. Directly ask for the appointment via personalized email stating exactly the purpose or agenda or intended outcome with the reader's needs in mind, of course.  The challenge here may be not knowing exactly your readers' needs in order for an appointment to sound necessary.

Which one sound most effective to you? Which approach will you try first?

THROWDOWN! with Alliance Science:  Start your campaign and record the results.  We want to know how many emails, over how much time, with how many responses and how many appointments set.  Respond with an email to Throwdown at OwnersHelp.com or comment to this post.  Every response will be considered for a personal interview to discuss your results, your special topic of expertise and promote you or your business.  The first one to respond will get 5 FREE CD's of the interview for your promotion purposes.

You Need to be the First one your Customer Thinks About

When your Client or Prospect has a need you can fill, you'd better be the first one they think of.  Patrick Williams started a list about what customers expect. To help them remember or know about you,

• Customers want to see you do what you say when you say you're going to do it
• They want you to be better than they expect
• They want you to do something so unexpected they can tell all their friends, family and coworkers about it
• They want to be remembered
• They want to trust you
• Customers want to be gently lead
• They want to see and hear from other happy customers

What do your customers want?  Add to Patrick's list with a trackback or comment.

What do salespeople, business owners and consultants want?  Imagine tripling the number of ideal prospects you meet with and then achieving the highest possible prospect-to-client conversion rate possible.  What would your business look like, then?  Order the seminal FREE whitepaper, The 10 Big Breakthroughs in a Sales Person's Life.

The Core of Advisor Alliance Selling a.k.a. "Lead Nurturing"

Brian Carroll, author and CEO of Intouch, Inc., gets it.  In his post, "Lead Nurturing as trusted advisors with the Human Touch," dittos 4 vital points which are essential to team selling and effective alliance partner promotion. 

• Start, nurture and consumate the relationship with your prospect even before the opportunity for a sale is identified
• Create value by being of service and providing free resources
• Engage in consistent, information exchanges and thought provoking communication
• Derive credibility as a trusted advisor and expert

In his follow-up post, Brian referrences, Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing for Hubspot, and a recent post about lead nurturing and developing the relationship first to support the sales process.  Again, key points were identified as to how important it is, in this age of social media and automation, to develop a interpersonal relationship.

• Relationships are strengthened by helping people solve problems, if only with information. 
• Bonds are created through sharing and trust
• Personal conversations strengthen associations.

There is no substitute for personal contact to facilitate the relationship and sales process.  Even if a sale doesn't happen now, the foundation has been laid for fulfilling a future needs.  Referrals and introductions can blossom.  It starts happening by personally helping as an advisor. 

Imagine if, 8 to 12 times a week, you were the "help" other people were offering to strengthen their relationships with their clients and prospects? 

• How easy would it be to quickly develop your new friend's trust? 
• What would that do for your prospecting and lead generation? 
• How would you support such activity?

Sure, It can all start with social media such as blogging or email exchange.  But it best ends up the old fashioned way, personal conversation whether it be over the phone or in person.

We'll find out if Brian Carroll really gets it when I ask him to be my guest as a thought leader for an upcoming teleseminar.  Stay tuned.

The Riches ARE in the Niches!

I've always said, the riches are in the niches with a limited understanding of what I meant, until recently.  For the last few months, I've been reinventing my marketing plan, developing and implementing an information marketing system for my Mortgage Advisor practice and Automatic Appointments.  My most profound revelation came when I started defining my message and service delivery systems.  The first step I took to defining my core marketing message was to define my TARGET MARKET.  What followed was to describe the pain or problem for the target market, then the solution I provide and what makes me unique while promising to take away the risk.

With the recent post, "How do I Persuade You?", Seth Godin makes a point about not relying on your company's or your own point of view as to what influences or persuades your prospects to make decisions.  Tracking back to Seth, new to my Google homepage, John Windsor's post, "Puncturing Persuasion", aside from mentioning one of my favorite references, Robert Cialdini, makes two points:  Ask questions and don't market to the masses.  And that's the point of first relegating yourself to communicate with a very specific, seemingly small, demographic and pyschographic audience.

The number one reason most professionals fail to communicate to a niche is the fear of losing business. Other reasons are:

• When speaking or presenting, they don't start their communication by asking questions to see if their audience is within their niche
• They believe they need to serve anyone and everyone
• They don't realize they can market to many niches

As soon as I started being micro-specific about my target audience, the lights started getting brighter.

• Immediately, I knew where to find my prospects
• My prospects now know how to find me
• I eliminated the competition.

I am super focused on how to communicate with my client like nobody else.  WOW, did my job just get easier.

When to Ask Yes vs. No Questions

Have you ever heard of the "technique" which suggests that if you can get your prospect to say, "yes", multiple times to small, less relevant questions, you can increase your chance of closing the sale?  The question of whether this is manipulation or trickery aside, the existence of the social science phenomenon is explained as the rule for commitment and consistency as described in Robert B. Cialdini's, Influence, the Psychology of Persuasion.  It is our almost obsessive desire to be and to appear to be consistent with what we have already done.  Once we have made a choice or decision, we are under personal and interpersonal pressure to behave consistently with that commitment.

As this is true, the  creation of the patterned response of, "no", can be just as powerful as the repeated, "yes".

In this way, to comply with the need to be consistent, if the prospect's initial patterned response was, "no", then the likelihood of a, "no", to similarly structured questions is usually higher than not.  Knowing this will help you avoid traps created by the prospect's social need to stay consistent in their responses even though it may not be in their best interest.  In fact, this pattern may be quite ethically used to keep the prospect from getting in their own way of not making a decision only because they are unsure or uncomfortable although it is what they want and is in their best interest. 

Of course, sometimes, your prospect may not answer you in the way you expect: