Have you ever had this question posed to you by one of your customers or ‘game changing’ prospects?
If so, what was your response? Were you able to deliver the level of certainty and influence that was needed? More often than not this question is a buying signal. The challenge is being ready to deliver a response that builds trust and credibility.
Quick story…
This past Friday, I met with one of my game changing prospects. It was our third meeting as we are working through the training objectives for their national sales conference.
The meeting began at 3:00 p.m. Everyone was there, their CEO, VP of Sales, and VP of Marketing. Two minutes before the meeting their CFO walks into the room, politely introduced himself, and took a set directly across from me. Immediately my radar went off. My first thought was “this is the guy that is writing the check. He can not say yes, but he can say no”. My second thought was “he is sitting across from me for a reason”.
The meeting opened with a prediction of the upcoming college football games and settled into a short summary leading to where we are in the process. At the first break in conversation Mr. CFO asked “So Andy, what distinguishes your company from other training companies that are available?” Here we go. Time to deliver. Nothing lengthy, just short and straight forward.
My response…
Our group spends the time to understand your expectations, so you can set the right expectation for your sales team, then deliver a specific outcome. (In other words clearly understand what you want to accomplish, and then deliver.)
Whew…
At the end of my response he looked at me and said that makes sense, looked at the CEO and said his price is fair, then got up, excused himself and left the room.
In this case the CFO wasn’t trying to screen my group out, he simply wanted to hear how and why we are different, and how we can help boost his top and bottom line.
Questions…
Contact me if you would like to discuss how to create and define the areas that distinguish your organization.
To your success,
Andy