The unbreakable laws of successful sales prospecting – Part 2

The law of the first statement – This law states that, in a busy world, your first statement must grab the prospect’s attention, then elicit the response, “tell me more.” Your first statement should be a summary of the value you offer. When I meet clients I used to say, “Hello my name is Iyore and I train businesses on how to sell when no one wants to buy so they can make more money.” This should elicit a response, “tell me more.”

Finding your value statement- which is your attention grabbing statement- is gotten by identifying the end result of the value you give then walking backwards to craft the value process. For example what is the end result of people buying your furniture, comfort? With comfort comes what? Happiness. So the end result is happiness. Now walk backwards as I mentioned earlier by identifying the value process used to produce this happiness. For furniture it could be bespoke furniture or readymade furniture then having identified the value process, choose your niche. For example your niche could be salaried individuals.

With all these your value statement will then be, “I help salaried individuals through bespoke furniture achieve happiness.” Your first statement could also be a question, for example, “a lot of clients have called me lately to thank me for making their lives easier, would you want to know why?” The prospect can then say, “okay, tell me why.” Then you begin selling from there.The strength of your attention grabbing statement is not in its complexity but in the response it provokes from the prospect.

The law of existing clients – This law states that, prospects associate the quality of your product to the quality of existing clients you serve. At one of my sales seminars a participant complained that he hadn’t been able to get high paying clients to buy his product. I then asked him a question, “How many high paying clients do you currently do business with?” He replied, “None.” That was his problem. I’m sure you’re wondering, “How do you expect him to get high paying clients?” The answer is, do some jobs for free and let it be known that you do business with those clients. No one cares if they paid you or not all they know is you do business with them. So, using the furniture value statement mentioned earlier you can say, “I help salaried individuals through bespoke furniture achieve happiness. I have done this for staff of Google, Oracle and Standard Chartered Bank.”

The law of the testimonial – This law states that, what clients say about your product will greatly influence the prospect’s expectation of your product. Become eager to get as many testimonials as you can. Get testimonials in all formats including written, video and audio. Sometimes you may have to write testimonial letters yourself with the client’s permission (if they’re too busy) so they can just sign. If you’re new to selling, test the market with your product, get feedback and testimonials based on the results people got from your product. So again, using the furniture value statement mentioned earlier you can say, “I help salaried individuals through bespoke furniture achieve happiness. I have done this for staff of Google, Oracle and Standard Chartered Bank.

Here is what some of them have to say………” In some cases you can close the sale after this statement by asking, “would you like this to be your experience too?” *for video testimonials you can simply use your phone to record the testimonials
The law of presence – This law states that, it is easier to get rid of a phone call than it is to get rid of a human body. When using the telephone, remember it is not to close a sale especially if you don’t receive payments or deliver your product to prospects over the telephone. Rather the aim of the telephone is to book an appointment. This is why you shouldn’t yield to pressure from prospects that try to press you into telling them about your product over the phone. A lot of times they do that because they are looking for a reason to disqualify you. Rather, stand your ground asking for just 3 minutes of their time to show them what to have to offer. Great prospects are busy, poor prospects have all the time to give you, so the greater the resistance in getting the appointment, the happier you should be.
Here is a sample phone conversation to book an appointment on the telephone:
Iyore Ogbuigwe is a sales coach

YOU: “Good afternoon Mr. Prospect, I….(introduce yourself applying the law of the first statement here). Can I meet with you for 3 minutes; there is something I would like to show you? (When you meet the prospect you can show them your brochures, product, testimonial letters, videos or just get a sheet of paper and describe in financial terms what they stand to benefit especially if you sell intangible products like services)
MR PROSPECT: “What is it?”
YOU: “I wish I could say it over the phone but it’s really important I show you, I promise I won’t use more than 3 minutes of your time because I know you’re really busy”

*The reason you want to meet with the prospect is because the moment you’re face to face with a prospect and you’re well dressed, confident in yourself and in your product, you become far more persuasive and difficult to resist. Unlike a phone call where all the prospect has to do is turn it off.

Iyore Ogbuigwe is a sales coach