OK, I Can Spare You A Minute

Build credibility and rapport
When you first get the chance to have a conversation with someone in anything that might turn out to be a business context, there are several important things you must establish extremely quickly.  You need to start building credibility and rapport; you need to start allowing the other party to decide whether a 'relationship' with you might be of value to them.  You need to be 'interesting' and 'interested'!

You need to start building credibility and rapport.
You need to be 'interesting' and 'interested' for this.

Train your sales team
When this rapport has got off the ground, you may need to start 'training' this possible member of your 'surrogate sales team' to spot others who may find knowing you of value.  The ability to do this part clearly and succinctly is often referred to as an Elevator Pitch.

"An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project.  The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words)." - Wikipedia

Start training your 'surrogate sales team' to spot others who may find you of value

Where to start?
Before you can start constructing and refining your elevator pitch you must have the following information available to you about your business.

• Who is your ideal customer?
• What problem do most of them have?
• What pain(s) does having that problem cause?
• What good does your customer get out of what are you selling?
  i.e. How does no longer having the pain make them feel?  All the ways!
• Why do your customers choose you, and not one of your rivals?
  All the ways!

Note which of these are singular and which are plural!

Just one ideal customer type should be defined purely by information in the public domain.  For example, there isn't an SIC code for companies with cash-flow problems!  We all know you can work with other types but you have to pick one at a time.

Their biggest problem is unlikely to be voiced at first, but finding and fixing this will remove their pains far more effectively than merely relieving one 'symptom'.  Understanding their symptoms will lead you to your diagnosis of the underlying 'disease'.  It will take a conversation with an individual to discover whether or not they display these symptoms.

Define your ideal customer by public domain information.
It will take a conversation to discover their symptoms.

Size matters!
Now you can start to construct your 'Elevator Pitch'.  In fact I believe you need several elevator pitches: 60 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 breath, 1 word or phrase - all have their place.

Practically you'll have to start long, then distil and refine.  You just won't get it right starting short and trying to expand.  You'll need to test and measure to see if your messages are coming across, and being received and understood.  Get a friend to ask someone what you do!

If you are a regular networker, you may feel the need to vary your pitch so you don't seem repetitive, but this risks confusing your listeners.  Getting the one-phrase version right, and then using this every time as an 'Anchor', you become known for that phrase, people aren't confused, and you can safely ring the changes.

You need several elevator pitches: 60 seconds, 30 seconds,
1 breath, and 1 word or phrase

A helping hand
One possible template for a longer elevator pitch is:
"I work with (ideal customers) who (widely held problem) which means that (widely suffered pain).  I help them (pain relief) so that they (life without pain)."

An alternative opening might be:
"You know how (ideal customers) are always (widely held problem) which means that ......"

Go on!  Give it a try.  Confidence come from practise, not further study!  Use the one-breath version as your intro on cold calls too, for instance.



Both of these ideas steer miles away from:
"I am (what it says on the second line of my business card).  I can do (a list of all the things you ever have or ever might have done)."  Followed by the unspoken, "What do you think?"  Or more likely, "No, please don't walk away from me.  Surely you can't go and find someone more interesting!"

I work with (ideal customers) who ...
I help them (pain relief) ...

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The Toughest Sell Is To Yourself

A great new idea

Often, when you come across a new idea or a new way of doing or explaining something, you think it sounds great.  You feel you want to adapt it and adopt it for yourself because you really think it will make a difference to you, and quite possibly to those around you too.

“You come across a new idea that sounds great.
You think it will make a difference to you.”

Imagine doing it yourself

So then you start to imagine yourself implementing your adaptations and guess what?  Suddenly it doesn't seem quite as right for you as you thought it did!  It still looks great for other people but, for some reason (that you get better and better at explaining - largely to yourself), it won't work for you!

“You start to imagine yourself doing it and guess what?  Suddenly it doesn't seem quite as right for you as you thought!”

Shattered confidence

The technical term for this is fear, and the biggest fear generally involves you!

With most new things the toughest sell is to yourself.  You worry about all the things that might feel uncomfortable, that might go wrong, and you've shattered your confidence before you've even started.  You don't doubt the value of the idea; you just doubt your own ability to implement it.  You need to build that confidence that was shattered before its very conception.

There are many reasons for lack of confidence, but many boil down to either a fear of getting hurt or a fear of looking stupid.  Even the fear of losing money is really only a combination of these two key fears - You'll be hurt and you'll look daft!

“You worry about all the things that might feel uncomfortable, that might go wrong, and you've shattered your confidence before you've even started”

Essential survival mechanism

These fears are largely the 'flight' part of the 'fight, fright or flight' that is hard-wired into our behaviour as a survival mechanism.  We probably need to be taught or to learn from experience that hot objects, ferocious beasts, fast moving heavy machinery and sharp tools can cause pain.  But once we're aware of a few specific examples, we can translate these into generalities, so then we can evaluate new potential threats when we meet them for the first time.  Essential survival mechanism as I said.

“Survival time.
Three choices.
Fight, fright or flight.”

The little voice in your head

Often however, the little voice in your head that's telling you not to do something becomes too arrogant and dogmatic, and tries to wrap you in cotton-wool with its CYA* policy, and you develop fears that are counterproductive to both your survival and your success.

To overcome this and gain confidence it is frequently a good idea to replace, rather than try to eradicate, this little voice in your head.  Try telling yourself that actually it's rather good to be doing this thing you're trying to do, that you'll feel great once you've done it, that it will be a pleasure and not a pain
to do it.

“The little voice in your head tries to wrap you in cotton-wool.
Don't eradicate it, replace it!”

Tell the face in the mirror

And here's the clue to increasing your confidence: "Tell yourself"!  Confidence comes from practise, not further study.  Look in the mirror and tell the face you see there the things you need to be able to tell other people.

If the highest price you've ever quoted is £1,000, tell the face in the mirror, "My price is £5,000."  Did you start to grin or laugh?  Getting in first with the laugh in the face of our own (perceived by us) silliness is a natural defence mechanism to mitigate the pain that comes when the other person laughs first at our misfortune.

Keep practising in front of the mirror until you can say, "My price is £5,000" with a straight face and mean it.  Then you'll have all the confidence you need to say it to customers!

“Tell the face in the mirror what you need to tell others.
Confidence comes from practise, not further study”

*CYA - A well known policy; it stands for Cover Your Arse!

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Be Interesting; Be Interested

I am making a huge leap of faith here.  I am going to assume that you don't want to be viewed as being dull and boring!  Or do you think you will be better liked and stand more chance of getting referrals if you are?  Was I right?  I sincerely hope so.

If people aren't already telling you that you're one of the most interesting and friendly people in the room, then you might want to do something about it.

Back in summer 2009 there was a lot of talk about a Swine Flu epidemic, but why do you suppose are there only epidemics of bad things?  Epidemic actually means 'a larger number of cases than expected', so how might you create an epidemic of people who think you're interesting?

Some of the ideas discussed in my 'Pricing By Value' Workshop are definitely applicable here.

To be interesting and memorable you must provide what the other person regards as valuable, for a very reasonable investment on their part, and receive in return something you rate highly profitable.  This applies whether you are meeting someone for the first time or re-encountering an old friend.

Taking the second of these ideas first, you may think the reasonable investment will consist of the other person taking the time to listen to you tell your tale - so you'd better not take too long.  But this is very 'me-centred' and is time-based, and thus cost-based.  How would it be if the other person's 'reasonable investment' was taking the offered (by you) opportunity to tell you about their business?  To recruit you into their surrogate sales team and train you?  Wouldn't this show you to be 'interested'?  Surely this is one of the components of being 'interesting'.

This takes us back to the first idea above.  One value outcome for the other person would be to have recruited and trained a new salesperson.  Additional value may have been perceived through your probing questioning, where you ensured you fully understood their market and product, which has helped them understand it more too and hence become better able to explain it to others in future.  But how might this be profitable for you?

By behaving in this way, which is so unlike the way most people behave, you are seen as being highly memorable by being highly interesting as well as highly interested!  But this won't be the end of the encounter.  Having derived so much value from you, the other person will feel obliged to reciprocate, and if they don't you may wish to do a little prompting.

Now their 'reasonable investment' is listening to you, so reply in a way that answers some of the questions you have recently asked them.  Do resist though, the temptation to do this without a break.  Part of the value to the other person is being allowed the opportunity to practise the questioning skills they have just heard you use, knowing how nice is was to be treated in this way.

Their value outcome this time results from their very clear understanding of how you help your customers, who they are, and the good they get out of you doing so.  The fact that they can add to their own value to their clients by bringing you in when appropriate is part of this value.  And your profit this time is in having another well-trained member of your sales team.

Of course it's possible to swap 'you' and 'other person' in all of this and it reads just as well, and is just as true!  Genuinely win-win I'd say.

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