Marketing From The Heart: Issue # 18

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Marketing From The Heart: Issue # 18
http://www.zerald.com
By Tom St. Louis
"The Shortest Distance Between You And Greater
Profits(tm)"
May 17, 2002
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What’s Even More Important Than Selling Skills?

Most small to mid size companies depend on selling
skills to survive and grow. Accordingly, most smart
small business owners have made a commitment to
improve their selling skills. They invest in training,
buy cassette programs and hold regular meetings with
their sales staff. This is good!

As a marketing strategist, I am constantly being asked
to create scripts and materials to support the selling
processes of my clients. One of the things I tell
small business owners is to collect every possible
objection they regularly hear and create a masterful
response to each one. I also encourage them to develop
a deep understanding of their prospect’s pain points
and to create great articulations of their features,
advantages and benefits.

But guess what? There is a little known process that
any small business can engage in that makes selling
almost irrelevant.

By this I mean that if you follow this process
correctly, the sale is already made at the time your
prospect contacts you. The prospect shows up with an
entirely different set of thoughts than your current
prospect. They are not thinking about whether or not
to do business with you. They are not thinking about
finding out how you compare against two or three
other recommended suppliers. They are wondering what
it’s going to be like to deal with you. They are
wondering if they can afford you—and if you’ll take
them.

If that sounds a bit unbelievable, stick with me. I'll
show you what I mean and why it makes sense.

Let’s start with the simple notion of strategy. Most
business owners think tactically. How about you? If I
ask you what your strategic objective is in
communicating to your target prospect, what do you
say? If your answer is that you want to communicate
the superior benefits of your product, you flunk the
test. If your answer is that you want to excite
people about your wonderful product or service,
I’m here to tell you that you are putting the cart
before the horse.

If your brochures start with phrases such as: “Our
Company is committed to providing the best …” not
only are you boring your prospects to tears, you are
operating at a level below strategy.

So what’s positioning?

Positioning is consciously engineering your target
group’s perception about your company. That’s where
strategy comes into play. Ask yourself this question:
what perception in my prospects’ minds would result in
my business being able to achieve its objectives?

Here are two thoughts which exist in the minds of
prospects: 1) is this company the cheapest to deal
with? 2) I hope I qualify to have this amazing
company work with me.

Which perception do you like better? Which would
serve you?

If the first question is in your prospect’s minds,
you have a lot of selling to do. You’d better load up
on training and tapes and books. If the second
perception is in your prospects’ minds, your marketing
focus will be entirely different. You are no longer
obsessed with improving your “closing ratio”. Now you
are in the business of deciding who you want to deal
with.

So how does a small company create such a positioning?

Go to Issue # 19

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