Open with a good customer story to set the table for productive new business meetings. Here’s how.
After the niceties of greetings and introductions in a new business meeting are completed, it’s usually time to get down to brass tacks. The interview begins with the opening salvo from your prospect: “Tell me more about your stuff.”
Most of us get excited by this because it appears they’re really interested in what we do, but the fact is they’re working to qualify us and dismiss us as quickly as possible.
Everyone has the same natural business question when meeting someone new: Why should I stop, and listen, and spend time with you? It’s not rude, it’s a fair question.
Jill Konrath is an internationally recognized sales strategist. She’s excellent and I like to review her writings regularly.
She sent out a post earlier this week on a method that I recommend to our clients all the time. It’s worked for me hundreds of times during my career. Here it is in Jill’s words:
Beware — if you talk about your stuff, you’ll be brushed off in moments!
So what should you do? Rather than try to give a quick overview, focus on a story — be prepared to share a real-live customer scenario. You’ll be much more successful if you’ve practiced it ahead of time too.
So, when someone asks me to tell them about my training programs, I’ll say:
“Let me give you an example. Recently I was working with Cox Media. Like most of my clients, they were struggling with new client acquisition. Their target market was fortune 500 companies. Prior to working with them, each rep picked out one biggie they wanted to set up a meeting with – and 87% achieved that objective in just 2 months.”
Once you’ve used your story to pique your prospect’s interest, conclude with, “That’s just one example of what we do. Are you dealing with any situations like that?” Then, proceed to questions.
Jill went right into conflict-resolution-results mode with her 75-word story. She gave context and meaning to what she does. She made it easier to understand – and decide – whether you could use her help or not.
Stop worrying about what to say, just take a deep breath and tell a good customer story.
Have a great week.
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