Most of us are familiar with K.I.S.S. . . .”Keep It Simple Stupid.” Put a bit more delicately, it is usually much more effective to communicate and support one or two compelling points, particularly when selling, than to roll out every feature and benefit in our tool kit.
Elementary, right? You would be surprised how eager many salespeople are to run through the entire gamut of neat stuff they have to offer. Why not? They are proud of their product and services and they want to make sure they don’t miss anything.
Trouble is research shows that most listeners only retain one or two key points, and the rest of the conversation can be both distracting and dilutive, if not closely tied to the core elements.
Let’s say we are selling printing, and we discover our prospect’s top priority is reliable scheduling. We need to focus on solving that issue and, perhaps, one other in the course of that particular meeting. Rather than, say, turning the conversation to three or four other offerings we may have. Those can come at a later time, but we should leave this meeting knowing we have focused on scheduling like a laser, and that we have satisfied the prospect that scheduling is our absolute strength.
Here is a quick tip to make sure we burn a key point into the prospect’s memory . . . Toward the end of the meeting, when summing up, try this phrase,
“Bill, if there is just one thing I would like you to remember from today’s meeting, it is . . .”
That “one thing” is the last thing he will remember. So, this week, K.I.S.S. to S.M.M.M. . . . Sell Much Much More.
Dead on right with today’s article. Finding a prospect’s biggest issue is sometimes a challenge as they may have trouble articulating it directly. Listening and asking questions early in a meeting can get you to the issue faster. Laser light focus on that issue is then key. In commercial real estate an owner or tenant’s biggest complaint may be real estate taxes but in reality it is property expenses. Working with them in getting their total property expenses down (including real estate taxes, utility costs, building maintenance costs, loan terms or lease terms…) is when you really begin to show credibility.