Selling in 60 Seconds
Selling is a challenge as it is. And selling quickly is even more difficult. People just do not have the time to listen at length to sales pitches the way they used to. You need to make your point and make it quick.
GETTING STARTED
Before you begin to tell your story, choose only the most relevant aspects of your business to talk about:
1. What you do;
2. The problem you solve;
3. How your product is different from others;
4. Why the prospect should care;
When you only skim these 4 points, you will automatically keep your answers short and succinct.
CREATE A COMPELLING MESSAGE
These 4 pointers are the framework for your pitch. In order to grab the prospect’s attention, you need to create a strong, compelling and interesting message with the information you have. Your selling statement must be specific, easy to recall and vivid. Think of it like a great magazine or newspaper headline or a really memorable tweet. In fact, the ‘Twitter rule’ is a great way to build a sales headline. Describe your product or service in less than140 characters. If you cannot make sense of your business in 140 characters, your prospect will not be able to either.
TALK LESS
If you want to sell your business idea, talk less. When you interact with your prospect, you are seeking to understand more about their problem and situation. You need to understand what is going on in their world before they can begin to grasp what your product or service does. As a rule, keep a limit on your own talk time and carry the conversation forward by asking the prospect open-ended questions. Before you can sell the benefits of your product to the prospect, the prospect needs to acknowledge that they have a problem that needs fixing. Some prospects may not even realize the scale of their problem- which is why you need to draw them out with probing questions. With each question you ask, you get to buy more time with the prospect- think of it as an incremental 60 seconds to win their trust.
The quicker you are able to sell your idea, the more time you have to build a more meaningful relationship…and maybe upsell a little, too!
