When selling your services, wouldn't it be great if you could get to a
"yes" quicker? So how do you do that?
There are several ways to do this. There are some low leverage but important
strategies and there are some extremely high leverage strategies.
Some low leverage but important strategies to use are as follows:
Make it very clear in all your marketing materials who you serve,
what problems you solve and what results you deliver. Chances are the
people who contact you will be "pre-qualified" and will be
in your target market and will have problems you can solve.
Have testimonials in all your marketing materials which show results
your clients have achieved from working with you. These testimonials
will help you speed through the credibility part of the sales cycle.
When a potential client contacts you, find a "reason why"
they should do business with you now rather than later. You can either
uncover a "reason why" by asking powerful questions or you
can provide a "reason why", for example, a time-limited offer.
There are also some extremely high leverage strategies, which will help
you get to a "yes" quicker as people will be "pre-sold"
before they contact you. With these strategies you can dramatically accelerate
your sales and the growth of your business.
The first high leverage strategy is to encourage others to give you referrals.
I will illustrate just how powerful referrals can be with my own recent
experience.
A few months ago I needed a new web designer. To find one I could
have done several things, including:
Do a Google search for "web designers"
Ask someone whose opinion I trust.
Searching Google is a time-consuming and risky approach. How would I
know if the person I found was reliable and could do a good job? I chose
not to go the Google path for the obvious risks.
Instead I asked Bob Serling, my trusted marketing mentor, who he would
recommend as a web designer. Bob referred me to Steve who he'd been working
with for over six years. As it turned out, Steve fitted my criteria perfectly.
And because of Bob's recommendation, I was effectively "pre-sold"
on Steve. I contacted Steve, and once we covered a few administration details and
agreed on the price, etc., I became Steve's client. Steve didn't have
to sell me at all as I was pre-sold, so I virtually said "yes"
to Steve immediately.
So the question is how do you get client referrals? There is a whole series
of strategies around getting referrals, and a good place to start is to
simply to ask for them.
But there is a strategy that's even more powerful than client referrals.
This strategy will, all by itself, naturally generate a continuous stream
of referrals and clients. This is the most powerful and most highly leveraged
strategy for getting to a "yes".
If you are serious about getting to a "yes" quicker - get yourself
known. The faster you can get known, the faster you will get to a "yes"
with lots of clients. People will automatically assume you must be good
at what you do and they will be naturally attracted to you and want to do business with you.
Put the time into implementing these strategies and into getting yourself
known and the "yeses" will flow!
Tessa Stowe helps Coaches, Consultants and Service Professionals who
are resisting selling their services as they don't want to be seen as
pushy and sales-y. Her free monthly Sales Conversation newsletter is full
of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself. Sign up now
at http://salesconversation.com
