No Mind Reading... Find Real Answers

I was working with a client recently... I won't bore you with the whole story, but it started with "We gave a pitch for the work and we ended up getting the entire account."

I said "Great." Do you know why you got the entire account?  He said "No, I guess probably our rates, not sure..."

I said "Do you ever give those pitches and NOT get the work?" He said "Yea, all the time..."

I said "Do you know why you don't get them?"  He said "No... not really."  I said, "Is there a trend?"  He said "Oh yes, we're getting less than we used to..."

This company is "pitching" for business, but doesn't really know the target...like throwing darts at a dart board but someone turned off the lights...

So here is a rule for you...NO mind reading!!! Clients and prospects buy for their reason, not our reasons... and their reasons change, all the time... and they've really changed the last few years. Company pitches features and benefits, service, price, or quality, often don't address the real reason.

I'll use our company as an example... we do training and consulting for sales growth, but do people pay us for training?  Never, heck I can't remember the last time a company even had a training budget... no, they pay us for things like a CEO having comfort they are making the best decisions to beat the competition and doing everything possible for their employees to have jobs.

What are your clients and prospects REAL reasons?  Do you know?  Be careful what you "pitch"... Reason like we've been in business 40 years, our service is better, or we have the best value may mean nothing... or one I always get a kick out of... "we're a local company"... So what?  For someone, it may mean something, but I guarantee you there are plenty that could care less, the point is we don't know and don't guess..NO mind reading!!!

Two quick tips:

1. Have a process for finding their reasons, and don't cookie cutter your marketing and sales pitches.
2. Go have lunch with some clients when there is nothing to sell them, and ask them their reasons...it probably had little to do with your pitch.