DESIRE — Painting Pictures of the Future
Suppose you’ve given your client your first batch of Selling Statements and got a cool response to your Trial Close, then given them another series of Selling Statements and got a warmer response.
You close for an advert, but your client is reluctant.
They bring out a couple of Objections, which you turn into Questions and answer with some more Selling Sentences. You trial close again. Your client says “I don’t know… I can’t really see it…”
What happens next?
You’ve already done a lot of selling. You’re getting near the end.
So now you move to the Desire step to ignite your client’s enthusiasm for booking an advert.
You ENTHUSE your client with a WORD PICTURE.
You create a picture of your client enjoying a fabulous future — because they booked an advert with you.
You paint your WORD PICTURE in the present tense and appeal to each of your client’s senses — sight, hearing, smell and even taste if appropriate!
The Desire step is the 2nd D in the
D
I
P
A
D
A
sales sequence. It is the last step before the Action (or Closing step). If your picture succeeds in enthusing your client, you ask for an order.
If your client remains non-committal after this step …… quit.
Ask for a referral, pack up, go away and find another client.
The desire step is the last step of the sale before your final closing sequence.
Sometimes, you don’t need it. When your prospect responds positively to your trial close, you skip the desire step and go straight for a close.
The WORD PICTURE — ‘This is What Happens’
You master this step of the sales process and this is what happens:
It’s three months from now:
You’re sitting at your desk in the office on a Friday afternoon.
The sun is shining brightly into the window.
You feel tired but happy.
You can hear the phones ringing all around you, but yours is on hold while you work some figures out.
You can see the figures in front of you. They’re your SALES figures. They’re OUTSTANDING!
You can taste a metallic taste in your mouth from too much coffee. You check your results again.
Since you’ve started using some new ideas for selling, you’ve BOOKED MORE ADVERTISING SPACE, and MADE MORE MONEY, than you ever thought possible in your wildest dreams.
A warm glow of delight slowly floods through your body, as you fight down an urge to shout out loud with joy!
Isn’t that what you really want?
The Formula
“You take out an advert with our publication — and this is what happens!
It is X weeks from now…”
You continue this step with a GLOWING PICTURE of your client enjoying the SOLUTION to their problem.
They’ve grown successful because they planted a seed in your publication. Now they’re harvesting the exceptional benefits.
The desire step concludes: “Isn’t that what you really want?“
If the answer is positive, close. If negative, quit and ask for a referral.
Setting up the Desire Step
The bridge into the desire step reminds your prospect of their personal buying motive. You then make a claim.
Instead of proving your claim (as you do earlier in the sale by embedding your claims in Selling Sentences and producing evidence to back up each Statement), this time you PAINT an emotional PICTURE of your client’s FUTURE.
The set-up bridge is:
“You want XXX Is that correct?“
(the XXX is what a successful advert will do for your client; their personal buying motive).
You don’t pause for longer than a moment. You let your client nod their head or grunt assent. Then you make your claim. Your claim is that you’ll do for them, whatever it is they want done:
(Claim) “Our Publication will do that for you. You place an advert in our publication and this is what happens …“
Then you paint a picture of what your client wants, as though it is ALREADY done. First you set the scene. Then you paint them into the centre of the scene, enjoying success.
(Paint picture)
“It is (set time) from now. You’re (set place).
You experience….
You hear….
You see….
You smell….
You feel….
As you help your client to imagine this particular scene in their future, you focus them as the STAR OF THE SHOW, enjoying the benefits of having advertised with you — but you describe your picture in the PRESENT tense.
You then conclude with the Closing question: “Isn’t that what you really want?”
The Present Tense
The tense is vital. It must be the present tense.
You describe what your client is seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling at a definite date in the future — as though they’re experiencing these things RIGHT NOW.
To recap; the desire step is the last step you take before you quit.
You’ve given your prospect the benefits of booking with you, you’ve tried some trial closes, and you’ve answered their objections. But although your client can see the logic of your case, they’re unconvinced EMOTIONALLY.
Now you home in on their MOTIVE for taking an advert; paint them a picture of how life will be for them, when their dreams come true because they booked an advert with you.
You make your client experience the feelings which they’ll experience when they book with you and have an enormous success with their advert.
Look at the layout below and fill in the gaps for the desire step for a client who has failed to book with you recently..
You want a _______ that will____________________________ IS THAT RIGHT?
Well, booking with us will do that for you.
You take an advert with us, and this is what happens:
It’s ____________________ from now.
You’re in ______________________________________
And you see ___________________________________
You hear _____________________________________________
You can smell ____________________________________________
You taste ____________________________________________
You’ve just XXX as a direct result of advertising with us, and you feel _______________________________________________
Isn’t this what you really want?
