But many of these ‘new’ conversations are, in fact, the same conversation — over and over again — with new potential clients.

This makes sense, because the people who are likely to advertise with you all have similar problems, and are looking for similar results from their ads — so they are likely to want to talk to you about the same things as everyone else.

Which means that if you say something to one potential client and it really RESONATES with them ….. it excites them enough to make them keen to buy ….. then you should say the very same thing to ALL your potential clients.

Likewise, if you are saying something to every client and it seems to be badly received by many of them …. STOP saying it!

And the things which you should keep saying, and the things which you should drop can be as small as a couple of words and phrases, through to whole sentences and paragraphs, to entire stories.

We call these things ‘scripts’.

Scripts have a bad name with many ad sales people because they (rightly) don’t want to give ‘canned’ presentations — which are learned by heart and given verbatim to every possible prospect they encounter.

But true scripts are NOT like this. They are the COMPONENTS of a sales talk.

Each sales talk is unique, and ‘fitted’ to the client you are speaking to. If your sales talk were a car, then you would have a basic model, but would change the colour, engine, brakes, seating and many other components — depending on what the customer wanted. Each customer would choose the components that appealed to them …. so they’d end up with their own ‘customised’ car …. based on your standard model.

Likewise, from the huge pool of words and phrases you could possibly use in a sales conversation …. you pull certain words and phrases that fit the prospect you are talking to.

Each sales conversation is unique. But is based on the ‘standard’ model (the DIPADA model if you sell like we do) and is built with the components of words and phrases that are used over and over.

The components which you use again and again are the ones which work.

If a phrase or story is very persuasive on several clients, then you use it over and over on most clients — until it stops working.

An example?

Many years ago (over twenty) the set-up phrase: “If I could show you how we can do this for you, would you go ahead?” worked well.

It was the phrase we always used during the I (Interest or Idea) phase of the DIPADA conversation. Then EVERYBODY started to use it in ALL phases of a sales talk — and buyers heard it again and again. They knew this was a set-up and cringed (or immediately put up their ‘sales defences’ and stopped listening).

So a phrase which used to work — stopped working.

New ones came along.

And for the next few issues, we’ll be looking at words and phrases (scripts) which work for us today.

And we’ll begin with Four ‘Starting off’ scripts which you use when you are finding new prospects and introducing yourself and your publication. You should be able to use these scripts without thinking. They are:

1. Voicemail Script
2. Reaching the Target Script (on an ‘introductory’ call)
3. Gatekeeper Script
4. General Interaction Script

We’ll go into each of these scripts in detail next time.

Why?

Because it is a way of saying: ‘What RESULTS are you looking for from this meeting (and from placing an ad with us)?

And WHATEVER the client replies, you then ask: “What’s so important to you about that?”

The technical term for using these two questions in this way is ‘eliciting criteria’. In plain speak, you are getting your client to tell you how to sell ad space to them. They are telling you what will cause them to buy from you — telling you what offer you should make to them.

Powerful but simple.

It goes like this:

Picture yourself on the phone to a new client. You have spoken to them (briefly) once before, and sent them some information on your publication. Now, they have called you on the phone. Hot prospect!

You: “Thank you for calling me. I hope that we might be able to help you …. can I ask …. Obviously you have a REASON for calling me today — do you mind if I ask what it is?”

[This is asking 'Why are we here?' but more gently -- in a concerned voice -- with some pauses and verbal massaging]

Client: “I have a need to find a solution to X”

[X can be: more leads, more exposure to a particular group of people, an emergency fire sale, or a hundred other things]

You: “Sure. I can probably help a bit here. Tell me, what’s so important to you about X?“

And …. whatever they tell you ….. THAT’S what will make them book an ad with you.

So you ask a bit more about it. “What’s significant about that?” “Why is this important to you?” “How will this affect your situation?” “When do we need to produce a result?”

Suppose the conversation with your client goes like this:

You: “….. Obviously you have a REASON for calling me today — do you mind if I ask what it is?”

Client: “We’re launching a new product next month, and I’m researching the best way to publicise it to our potential market.”

You: “What’s so important to you about this market?”

[Note: 9 out of 10 ad sales people would immediately start questioning the client about technical details of the market -- who are they, what percentage is covered by the publication, what are their buying habits etc. etc. You don't. You ask a VALUE question. A question about your client's VALUES. What's important to THEM.]

Client: “They are a bit new to us. We haven’t offered a product in this area before.”

You: “OK. And what’s significant about this new market to you?”

Client: “They’re younger and have more money to spend than our present customers.”

You: “I understand. Why is this — attracting younger, wealthier customers — important to you?”

Client: “We want to slightly re-position our company as more up-market than we have been so far. This product launch is very important, as we intend to release many more products for this group of people.”

You: “If I could wave a magic wand and get you anything you want from this group, what would it be?”

Client: “Oh! …. I guess it would be delight at our new product and perhaps surprise that it comes from us — and trust. So that they trust us when we roll out the rest of the range …”

NOW. You know what to sell this client. Delight, surprise and trust.

You can now go into the technicalities of reach and frequency, customer profiles and so on. But you emphasise that your readers trust you (and your advertisers) that they are delighted with your publication and its contents (including the ads) and you work at surprising them with new ideas, themes features and ads. In short, you are the perfect emotional match for this client.

You must be — because you have just fed their very own words and values back to them.

And it’s emotion which sells ad space, not facts and figures. If you can get a client to feel that you understand them, that you are in sync with their values and goals, and that you want to help them make progress …. then they will WANT to do business with you. They’ll look at your readership figures with kind eyes, wanting you to have the right audience — so that they can place an ad with you.

But if you fail to get into any rapport with a client, so that they believe you don’t understand them, that your goals are different to theirs (you just want their money) and you don’t really care if they progress or not ….. then they will look at those same readership figures with hard eyes, wanting you to have the wrong audience — so that they can take their business elsewhere.

To make a sale you have to know what your client really really wants …. you have to elicit their criteria.

You begin that process with your opening question: “Why are we here?”

3 steps for making all your marketing more effective

1. Create a deadly accurate customer profile
2. Create a simple statement describing what your customer wants
3. Create a statement of the single most important action you want your customer to take

Let’s take a look at each step in detail and then find out how they work together.

Step 1: Create a deadly accurate customer profile

Research the web. Collect your competitors’ marketing promotions. Read the testimonials your customers send you.

Read and re-read the complaint letters or requests for refunds you get. What didn’t customers like about your publication? What suggestions did they give you for improving your publication — rational or not?

When you talk to your customers on the phone, thank them for doing business with you, then ask them, “If there was one thing we could do to improve our publication, what would that be?”

You’ll get a wealth of great ideas. And you’ll start to see recurring ideas or themes that indicate the points you should be making in your sales presentations. (Often, you’ll find that you already do what your client wants — you just haven’t told them about it).

Talk to some of your prospects who didn’t buy from you. What did they prefer about your competitors’ publication? How can you change your sales talk to handle this issue?

Using all the information you’ve gathered boil it down to a short, concise profile of who your customer is.

Try to limit this to no more than three sentences. Also, this should be a living, breathing profile that represents your ideal target customer.

For example, let’s say you sell ad space in a publication on safety standards for manufacturing plants. Your homework might produce a profile that looks like this:

Our target customer is the marketing manager of a company who sells goods and services to the safety officer of manufacturing firms with revenues of $50 million to $100 million annually. The main problem they face is getting the attention of the safety officer.

At first look, this might not appear to be all that glamorous, but this profile will prove to be worth its weight in gold.

Step 2: Create a simple statement describing what your customer wants

Once you have your customer profile nailed down to three tight sentences, the next step is to give your target customer a name.

For this particular profile, let’s say your research has determined that 80% of all marketing managers who sell to safety officers are female, in their 30s, and have been in marketing for three years or more. Based on this information, let’s give your profile the name, “Lizzie Sara”.

Next, use this personalized profile to determine, “What RESULTS does Lizzie Sara want MOST from our ad space?”

Here’s where you have to be very careful in your analysis. Don’t just repeat your profile.

In our example, when we examined the research we’ve gathered, the answer to the question: “What RESULTS does Lizzie Sara want most from our ad space?” was this:
“Lizzie wants to capture the attention of safety officers in a way which forces them to RESPOND to her.”

Whew, that’s a tough bill to fill! But at the same time, this is where having done your homework really begins to pay major dividends. Because, without it, you never would have known that this “response” is the single most critical factor your ad space has to deliver.

Which means you have to suggest a particular type of ad space to ‘Lizzie’. One with a response mechanism like a coupon. Or an insert which can be sent back to her. And a follow-up mailing using your publication’s mailing list.

Can you see how many sales you would lose if you continued to ignore this critical factor? And how you can absolutely cream your competition if you understand this driving factor while they don’t?

Let’s move on to the next step to find out how you can use this information to produce exceptional sales.

Step 3: Create a statement of the single most important action you want your customer to take

What is the one action — and one action only — you want your client to take? Answering, “Buy my ad space”, is not enough. What step or steps will it take to get your client to the point of actually buying?

If you’ve been selling ad space for a while, you know that you need your client to accept a presentation from you (On the phone — or better — face-to-face). So your statement would look something like this:
“I would like ‘Lizzie Sara’ to invite me to her office to discuss how my publication can bring her the results which she wants”.

Sounds straightforward enough, right? But because most marketing managers will be expecting (and dreading) a hard-line sales pitch, we run into a problem here. Once you’ve determined that you’d like ‘Lizzie Sara’ to invite you to her office, you have to ask the question, “Will she be willing to do this?”

The answer is: “No. Probably not!”. Why? Because as much as Lizzie knows she has to get her message to safety officers, she has too many other priorities to ‘waste an hour’ listening to another media sales presentation. So getting her to sit down to an hour-long sales presentation is a lost cause.

However, your competitors didn’t do their homework and they don’t know this. In fact, they’re probably still making cold calls, leaving voicemail, sending letters to get a general sales conversation.

Customer-driven solutions

You can now offer something different. A demonstration — “Which will take no more than 12 minutes of your time” — how you can deliver a solution which will grab the attention and produce a response from the safety officers she needs to connect with. (Your 12 minutes will show that your suggested response devise and follow-up will work. HOW it will work — your readership profiles, reach and frequency, and all the other DETAILS will be saved for another meeting).

Now when you contact all the ‘Lizzie Saras’ and offer a 12 minute demo, your chance of getting an interview increases exponentially.

Conclusion

To get the best results you create many customer profiles. And give each one a name. And treat each name differently. Because different segments of your advertisers want different things from their ads. Some want brand recognition, some want response. Some are targeting one segment of your readership, others want to reach a different segment.

By personalising each group of advertisers you get closer to matching your offer to their needs. You copy your customer profile, statement of what your customer wants, and the single most important action you want your customer to take on a single sheet of paper. Each time you prepare to contact a client you review these three elements — and make a focussed call.

If you have a concern about what you are going to say simply ask the question: “Would this appeal to Lizzie Sara?” That will help you make sure your call is focused on what your customer really wants, which is bound to make all your ad space sales much more effective.

At some point, you nearly always have to use the phone to connect with some of those prospects.

The most inefficient use of that phone is to pound out cold calls.

Cold calling is time consuming for you and it immediately tells your prospect that you’re not an expert in your field — because all prospects know that true experts don’t sit at a desk milking the phone.

So. You have a dilemma: there are prospects you can’t reach without picking up the phone and calling them. Even when you work by referral selling, networking, and developing referral partnerships …. you just can’t get to every possible prospect that you need to reach.

When you must use the phone — but refuse to cold call — you’ve got a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, there is a solution that allows you to never need to make a cold call. In fact, it almost always allows you to begin establishing a relationship with the prospect that you can expand and nurture over time.

Moreover, your chances of having a voice mesage returned skyrocket.

How does it work?

Once you’ve identified a larger company to approach about their ad space needs — do this.

Call three or four of the company’s salespeople. Try to speak to a salesperson that has been with the company for only a short time, to another who is an old hand with the company, and one who is a top producer.

Be upfront with the purpose of your call. Let them know who you are and why you’re calling them. You are trying to help them by bringing in more sales leads. Request their permission to ask them some questions about their company and their experience with it. Most will talk to you. If someone won’t, just call another sales guy in that company.

Here are the questions to ask:

• What type of lead generation the company provides
• Their personal evaluation of the quality of the leads
• What advertising is used to bring in new leads
• What other sorts of marketing and lead generation they use
• What marketing needs do they see the company has …. that aren’t being met
• Who, in their opinion, you should speak to about advertising
• If there is anything else you should know prior to calling the person they suggested you call
• Prior to ending the call, ask for permission to use their name when you make the call

Three or four short calls, each only lasting a very few minutes, gives you a tremendous amount of information about the company and any potential opportunities you have. You can also learn a little bit of personal information about the person you’re about to call that helps you connect with them.

Often one of the sales people you call will not only give you permission to mention their name but will encourage you to call, giving you a referral into the company. That’s an upgrade you really want!

When you call the company, use the introductions provided by the salespeople to break the ice and gain credibility. Those introductions turn the call into a conversation about their needs, and makes observations rather than a sales pitch.

If you’re directed to voice mail — don’t panic. Don’t hang up without leaving a message. Leave a very brief factual message that introduces yourself and mentions that salesperson X and salesperson Y asked you to call about some issues that concern them. You’ll almost always get a return call.

Naturally, the person you’re calling wants to know how and why his or her salespeople encouraged you to make the call. Again, don’t beat around the bush. Tell them that you were doing your homework prior to making your introductory call. The fact that you were willing to spend time learning something about the company, their needs, their salespeople, and their processes shows that you’re a serious professional.

Seldom do ad salespeople take the time to be prepared before making a call. Seldom do they find a way to turn a cold call into a referral.

Of course, you won’t turn every call into a sale. You will, however, make an impact …. and begin the process of developing a positive and trusting relationship that will, hopefully, turn into a sale in the future.

BUT. This ‘pre-call’ calling takes time. It doesn’t allow you to make tons of calls. You reserve it for the clients who are most likely to buy ad space from you.

And the companies involved have to be large enough to employ several sales people.

Like everything in ad sales, nothing works all the time. But some things work most of the time, and are worth the effort they take. This is one of them.

At the end of this extract is a link to the download page, where you can download the booklet in both .pdf and word format.

Both files are ‘zipped’, and you’ll need an ‘unzipper’ program to open them. The link at the download explains how.

Softening your Sales call

Defuse the resistance you will always encounter during your sales calls, with buffers and easy exits.

You are calling to part your customers from their money…They will automatically be on their guard about how threatening you will be – and how much of their time you want to take.

They don’t know yet if you CAN solve their problems. So soften your presentation with Buffers and convey that you’re not going to take up too much of their time by giving them Easy Exits. If they don’t want to do business with you – no problem.

Identify with your customer’s fears. You’ve both had bad experiences with pushy sales people.

When your customers tell you that they’ve had a bad experience with salespeople, or they don’t want to answer your questions etc., identify with them by responding this way:

“I can appreciate what you’re saying.”

“If I were in your shoes, I’d feel the same way.”

“I understand exactly what you mean…I’ve been there myself.”

And then you resume with a good question that gets your presentation back on track.

Agree with all your customers concerns, then question them
When someone tells you that your price is too high, they don’t need you or they want to think it over, they expect you to fight back. Instead, take the heat out of the moment by agreeing with them:

“I agree with you. The price does seem high.”

“That’s true, you don’t need me or my firm. You can probably be successful on your own.”

“I agree, you should think it over. It’s a very important decision.”

And then you follow with your sales questions.

Soften your questions and segments of your presentation by asking permission to ask. For example:

“May I ask you a couple of questions?”

“With your permission I will demonstrate how this programme works…okay?”

“May I make a suggestion…why don’t you look at my proposal and then decide if you want to go to the next step.”

Let your customers off the hook. Always make it EASY TO SAY NO to doing business with you.

This is the opposite of what pushy salespeople are doing and so very different from what your customer expects. You kill any pressure in your presentation and cause them to “open up”. You strengthen the relationship. Examples:

“If you feel the least bit uncomfortable with my programme as I show it to you, please stop me and I’ll be on my way. I’m the easiest person in the world to get rid of.”

“Do you want me to close your file?” (Say this if you’ve made a proposal and they’re not returning your calls. Leave this message on their voice-mail )

“I’ll be happy to show you my programme. If you like what you see, we can go to the next step. If not, I won’t bother you any more about it…is that fair?”

Be in a hurry.

Always try to convey throughout your call that you’re not going to take up much of their time by incorporating these kind of “I’m in a hurry” phrases in your speech:

“I’ve only got a minute…”

“Just one quick question…”

“Just a couple of questions and I’ll be on my way…”

“It only takes a few minutes…”

“I’m just about to walk out the door to another appointment but I thought you might want to know…”

Let them know that you will be gone in eight minutes.

Whenever you’re having difficulty getting an appointment and it’s one you really want, tell them:

“Ms. ______, if I’m with you more than eight minutes, it’s because you’ve asked me to stay…is that fair enough?”

After eight minutes, you must remind them that your eight minutes are up. Then ask them if they want you to leave or stay. If you’ve defined a genuine problem which is hurting them, then they’ll ask you to stay.

Encourage them to accept or reject you.

You don’t want to spend time with customers who aren’t going to buy. Weed them out quickly.

“Mr. _____, you may like my programme or you may not. Either way is fine with me. We’ll still shake hands and part friends. In other words, you can accept or reject my proposal as you see fit. Is that fair enough?”

Trial Closing

‘Trial’ close your customer to see if they are ready to buy from you – now.

The purpose of a trial close is to find out how near your customer is to buying from you.

If they ‘pass’ your trial close, ask them for an order. If they ’fail’ the trial close, they still need some more convincing. Show them some more evidence to prove that you can solve their problem.

Ask for AN OPINION when you trial close.

If you ask for a DECISION to buy, and the answer is “No”, you are stuck with an argument – which you’ll lose.

If you ask for an OPINION “In your opinion, do you feel ready to buy?” and the answer is “No”, you can reasonably, ask the next question, “Obviously you have a reason for that opinion, do you mind if I ask what it is?” Now you can have a discussion about your customer’s opinion, not an argument about their decision.

Calmly discuss the reasons for your customers ‘opinion’.

If they say that in their opinion your quality is too low, you can discuss how to bring it up to their standard. If, in their opinion, your price is too high – you can discuss ‘how much too high?’.

Question that opinion.

Don’t argue with a customer’s opinion, explore it. Ask questions to discover WHY they hold that belief, and what you need to do match to your offer to their satisfaction – what would satisfy any doubts they might have?

Once you have discussed you client’s first concern -Trial Close again

If your customer’s objection to your first trial close is that your price is too high; discuss it. Suppose that after a short discussion you adjust your price to your client’s satisfaction. What now? Ask for an OPINION again – not a decision. They might have ANOTHER reason for not buying.

Say: “In your opinion, do you NOW feel that this might be the right solution for you, at the right price?”

Customer: “No.”

You: “Obviously you have some OTHER REASON for saying this. Do you mind if I ask what THAT is?”

Whatever new reason your client comes up with, discuss that reason until you both agree a way to take care of it. Then trial close again.

Keep trial closing until the customer is ready to buy

You keep asking ‘opinion’ questions until the customer says that ‘in their opinion’ they might be willing to try your solution to their problem.

Then you ask for a decision. You ask a question which closes the sale. (See section on closing). But you never ask for a decision until your trial close shows you that your client is ready and willing to make one – in your favour.

If your customer is still not near to a decision after several trial closes, remind them of their problem and the benefits of your solution.

Whenever you feel that the sale is slipping away from you, return to the purpose of your call – THEIR PROBLEM and YOUR SOLUTION to it.

Start by saying: “You told me earlier that you were suffering because…. Let me summarize my offer to help you. If you agree to go forward, here are the benefits you’ll be receiving: One of the most important benefits to you will be…”

As you review the conversation with your customer this way, you can reinforce this procedure by asking “tie down” questions like:

“Do you agree? Isn’t that right? You recall that, right? Isn’t that what you said?”

After you complete your summary of his problem and your solution, Trial Close again.

You can download the whole of this tipbooklet HERE

Find the customers to sell to, then sell to the customers you find

Strictly speaking, finding groups of customers to sell to is called marketing, not selling. (See our sister booklet ‘Secret marketing tips for small business owners’ which expands the ideas on this page).

Lead Generation

Before you can sell to anyone, you have to identify them as someone with problems which you can solve.

You must build a lead generation system which encourages potential customers to come forward and give you their names, so that you can sell to them. The purpose of your lead generation system is to get people with a problem you can solve to raise their hands and say “Help me …”

Start Cold Calling for quick results

The quickest way to find out if someone has a problem which you can solve – is to call them and ask! It is also the least effective, and most irritating. It works, which is why you keep getting cold calls from ‘sales’ people offering you double glazing, fitted kitchens and so on.

If you need business quickly, find a list of likely suspects, get on the phone and call them. Call 50 in the morning, 50 in the afternoon and evening. Do it every day from Monday to Friday. After 500 phone calls you will have found many people with problems you can solve. You will have someone to sell to.

Expect grief from your cold calling

After 500 phone calls you will also have taken a lot of rudeness, swearing, and demands never to call again.

When cold calling, you’ll be like a doctor who calls the first 500 names in the phone book offering a perfect cure for a sore back. Most of the people he calls won’t have a sore back, and will be angry with his call. But out of 500 calls, the doctor will find several people (between 25 and 50) with bad backs who are delighted with his offer.

Expect tough sales presentations after cold calling

Cold calling is ‘quick and dirty’. Sometimes you just have to do it. It is the least effective method of finding customers because YOU have approached THEM and suggested that they have a problem. Now you have to prove TWO things:

1. that they have a problem worth solving

2. that you are the person to solve it.

Put a lead generation system in place, even as you are bringing in ‘quick and dirty’ business from cold calling

Because if you can encourage potential customers to come forward and THEY tell YOU that they have a problem which needs solving, then you only have to prove one thing – that you are the person to solve it. Much easier.

Generate leads by being seen as the most CREDIBLE EXPERT at what you do.

The five best ways to establish credibility, and get clients to come to you with their problems are:

Free newsletters
Free or low-cost reports
Endorsed offers
Case Study Style Advertising
“Just Like You” Testimonial Style Advertising

Send out Free newsletters to groups of likely customers

Use a free newsletter to establish your expertise with your customers, gain credibility, and get them to contact you about your products and services. Your goal with this newsletter is simple: to get 10,000 or more people to read it on a regular basis. Consider common problems and show how you have solved these problems for others.

By making many repeat contacts with your readers, and giving them information that’s very valuable to them, you establish credibility with them. So who better to turn to when they need help?

Offer Free reports

Free reports are similar to newsletters. The main difference is you don’t have to publish on an established schedule. You can devote each report to solving a different problem.

Use Endorsed offers

Find other companies that sell to your market and make a deal to pay them a percentage of your profits in exchange for them endorsing your product or service to their customers.

The key is, the sales message must come from the endorser – on the endorser’s letterhead.

Structure of a sales call

Use AIDA & DIPADA to guide you through a sale

Selling conversations are structured conversations. They have a purpose. They reach their goal through a sequence of definite steps. Sales experts always know what to say next because they always know where they are in a sale.

Copy the experts and use the sales structures so that you always know what to say next. If you know where you are, you know what the next step should be

AIDA and DIPADA are mnemonics. Each initial stands for a word. The words help you to recall the structure and steps of a basic sales conversation.

Use AIDA as your basic sales plan.

AIDA has been used in selling for generations. It’s based on benefit selling. AIDA helps you to plan your sales talk, and know when to start talking benefits.

The steps in AIDA are:

A Attention

I Interest

D Desire

A Action

Open your interview with the ATTENTION step. Complimenting your client as soon as you meet them is your best way to get their attention and open any call.

Make your client INTERESTED in listening to you before launching into the delights of your offer

At the end of the interest step your client should say, “Tell me more….”. Now give them your presentation!

Stimulate your client’s DESIRE to buy your offer with benefits

Make claims about the wonderful things that will happen to them and their business when they buy your offer. You paint a glowing word picture for your client. When you’ve finished, they WANT to book with you!

Ask your client to take ACTION.

You ask them to commit themselves to buy. You ask them to take that action with a ‘closing’ question. They sign an order or give you a verbal agreement that they’ll go ahead. It’s the end of the sale.

Use the DIPADA sales structure to sell ‘cures’ to your customers problems

DIPADA is a more recent, sophisticated theoretical structure for every sale. It’s based on finding and solving a client’s problem.

D Define your prospect’s need or problem

I Identify your solution to your client’s problem

P Prove that your solution is the right one

A Agree the client’s Acceptance of your solution

D Create Desire for your solution

A Action – get your client to sign an order.

Define

This combines the Attention and Interest steps of AIDA. You grab your client’s attention and interest by defining a problem which threatens them. “Mr. Jones, you’re not attracting enough new customers, and unless that problem is solved this week, you’ll go bust by next Wednesday!“

Identify

With this step, you identify your solution to your client’s agreed problem. You identify the benefits of your solution.

“ With my offer, you’ll attract so many new customers your competitors will try and have you arrested..”

Proof

Now you present your client with the facts which prove the claims which you’ve just made. You produce proof that your solution will work. The best proof is testimonials from satisfied customers, whose similar problems you have already solved – to their delight.

Agreement/Acceptance

You next invite your client to agree that they understand your proposal to solve their problem and accept that it’s exactly what’s needed. You ask for their opinion about your solution and what it will do for them. (Trial Close)

Desire

The desire step is aimed at your client’s emotions, rather than at their logic. You paint a word picture of the future, with your client as the hero(ine) of the picture, enjoying sensational success because they decided to buy your solution to their problem.

Action

This is where you close the sale. You ask your customer to confirm that they will be ordering from you. You ask them to sign an order or pay a deposit.

Asking Questions

Ask questions for relaxed and stress free selling

Asking questions about your client’s problems gets their attention and interest (the A & I of AIDA). It also helps to Define their problem (the first step in the DIPADA sales model).

If you know what your customer wants and needs, and you know that you can provide it – how do you feel about the sales call? Relaxed and happy – right?

You find out their wants and needs – you discover their ‘pain’ which you will ‘cure’ later in the sale – by asking questions at the opening of the conversation. Questions about the problem you are there to solve.

Let your customer talk for at least twice the time that you do.

Telling is not selling. Ask questions. Encourage your customer to tell you all about their problem in detail, and how important it is to them to get it solved. Ask lots of questions to discover the EXACT nature of their pain.

Know the answers to these 4 vital questions before you offer to solve your customer’s problem

If your ‘client’ gives you the wrong answer to any of these questions, then they‘re not a true client, and you shouldn’t waste your time explaining your offer to them.

What is the single most common reason why new sales people and business owners FAIL? Because they spend too much time with people who can’t buy what they are selling!!

Q1. What does your customer need and want? (a.k.a. What problem does your customer need to have solved – what pain do they want cured?)

If you don’t understand the problem properly, how can you offer the right cure? You need to know in detail what problem your customer wants solved – and WHY they want it solved (To look good in the boss’s eyes? To avoid being sacked? To calm down their wife who is angry because …)

Q2. Can this client pay you for your cure?

The bigger the problem, the more expensive the solution. But can your customer afford your cure? You’re in business, not a charity. Don’t spend time offering a brilliant solution to someone who can’t have it because they can’t pay for it.

Q3. Does this PERSON have the AUTHORITY to buy?

When you’re selling to bigger businesses and government, you will come across managers who pretend to have the final authority to give you an order, then suddenly have to refer your proposal ‘upstairs’.

Even selling to consumers you’ll find one half of a couple who refuses to buy until they have talked it over with their partner. Don’t give sales presentations to people who can’t buy. Rearrange to see all parties together at the same time.

Q4. How BADLY do they want this problem solved?

Do they REALLY want this problem solved? Or are they just toying with the idea? Don’t give sales presentations to people who ‘might’ buy. Down that road lies disappointment and heartache, and canyons of lost time.

Instead ask: “If I can show you how I can solve this problem for you today, to your complete satisfaction, are you willing to order from me?” If the answer is offhand – don’t tell them about your solution. Leave and spend the time talking to someone who WANTS their problem solved.

Always use the Basic Qualifying Question before you offer to demonstrate your solution to the client’s problem.

This question sets the stage to give your presentation. If your client answers ‘Yes’ to this question, you’re 80% of the way to a sale.

This is a trade-off question which offers to solve your customer’s problem in exchange for him or her doing business with you. This is a remarkably powerful question because it sets the mood for the rest of your conversation.

The question is built around offering solutions to the agreed problem. Here it is:

“Mr. _______, if my (program, product, service, company, etc.) can help you (increase sales, save money, improve efficiency, etc.), would you be willing to (go forward, sign the contract, make an offer, wrap things up, enter into an agreement with my firm, etc.)?”

When he answers yes, it’s time to give your demonstration (or proposal). If you can now produce the evidence that your solution works, your client has already agreed to buy that solution.

What to say to the people who contact them after they have advertised with us ….

Whether they take our advice (or even bother to read the tips) doesn’t matter. By giving them the booklet, we demonstrate that we are trying to help them sell more of their stuff.

Here is the cover and the first few pages. More next time.

Index

The best sales model 2

Finding customers 4

Sales call structures 6

Asking questions 8

Opening the call 10

Presenting your offer 12

Softening the call 16

Trial Closing 18

Handling Hesitation 20

Closing the sale 22

Referrals 24

These tips are just a fraction of the advice and help given by [Insert your name] to our clients.

To learn more about marketing and sales skills, and the ways in which we can help you, call:

‘ [Insert your phone number]

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The Problem solving model

Use the problem-solving model as the basis for all sales.

By solving a customer’s problems, you ‘cure’ them of their pain, and they are grateful to you. They like doing business with you!

When you have ‘cured’ one customer, they are likely to recommend you to other people they know who have the same problem – which you’ve just solved. Your customers are happy to find new business for you.

Write down the main problem which your product or service solves – the pain which you can cure.

Once you know the main problem which you can solve, you know the Main Benefit which your product or service delivers.

Use your Main Benefit as the headline to your adverts, the first thing you say when someone asks you what you do, the slogan which you have on your letterheads and business cards.

Write down the reason why you can cure this pain or problem better than anyone else on the planet

Now you know how to beat your competition. If your customer asks you why they should order from you when they can get it cheaper/quicker/easier from someone else, you can tell them “O. K. but you will suffer if you order elsewhere because no one else can solve your problem EXACTLY like I can, or do as good a job FOR YOU as I can because I’m the only one who can…”

(If you don’t know any reason why you are the best on the planet at solving the problems which you solve, ADD something to your offer, or re-engineer it until you have something which makes you unique. This is your Unique Selling Point – USP).

Model yourself on a doctor who cures his patients pain.

When do you go to your doctor? When you are in pain. Doctors are among the most respected members of the community. Why? Because they cure your pain – WHEN YOU HAVE ONE. They don’t cold call you or bother you when you’re in perfect health.

Ask Yourself.

How would you feel about a doctor who cold-called you with a special deal to remove your bladder next week -‘because we’ve got some spare capacity. We can offer you a special cut price!’

A doctor has a list of patients. The successful doctor’s secret is to have a big enough list of potential ‘ill people’ so that at any moment, enough of those patients are ill and in need of treatment to keep the doctor busy. YOU need to develop a big enough list of people who are likely to need your ‘cure’ at some time in the near future.

Don’t model yourself on double-glazing salespeople

They are among the least respected people in the community – because they spray you with junk mail, junk faxes, junk phone calls all trying to solve THEIR problems (lack of sales) not yours.

Find groups of people with a problem which you can solve.

A group of people with a problem which you can solve is your market. They can be consumers, parents of teenage children, businessmen looking to increase their profits, widows in London with an income of over £65,000 a year – whatever.

Find one person whose problem you can solve, then find a list of people like them.

This is the ‘marketing’ part of selling – finding the people to sell to. Once you have solved a problem for one person in a group, you can solve the same problem for anyone else in the group who suffers from it.

You can then find several different groups of people or markets, and solve the same problem for them.

Sell first to the group of people (the market) which has the most money to spend.

If you have several possible markets with a problem you can solve, spend most of your time with the group which can most easily afford your solution. They will be quicker and easier to sell to than people who will struggle to come up with the price you set for your product.

This time, let’s examine a 12 Step Sales Letter you send AFTER an appointment when — unfortunately — the call did NOT go as well as you had hoped.

The prospect dithered and asked some stupid questions …. which threw you off your stride and you failed to make some points which you know you should have made.

Worse, the prospect was then called away urgently, and closed the call saying: “Put something in writing, and I’ll look at it.”

You’ve called back a number of times, but the client won’t take your call.

NOW …. You need to send a hard-hitting sales letter to do the heavy lifting for you.

Your prospect is probably expecting a short summary of what you discussed. But, instead, he’s going to get a full sales presentation — in print.

This presentation has a structure, and a conclusion which calls on the prospect to COMMIT — to book an ad with you.

How long should this letter be?

It should be short enough that the client will read it (any more than about 4 pages and it will be put aside for later …. and NEVER read). But it should be long enough to make the points you need to make. Two to Four pages is the ideal length.

So. Re-use this letter:

You’ve heard of the 12 step programme for alcoholics, drug addicts and others in pain …. here’s a template to help you overcome the pain of writing a ‘killer’ sales letter. It follows (of course) the DIPADA sequence. (See our website for details).

The 12 steps
The 12 steps are:

1. Get attention
2. Define the problem (D)
3. Identify the solution (I)
4. Flash a Testimonial(P)
5. List the benefits (P)
6. Parade Endorsements (P)
7. Make your offer (A)
8. Take it away again (D)
9. Give a guarantee (D)
10. Call to action (A)
11. Warn them (A)
12. Close with a reminder

What are the only two things that truly motivate people? Pleasure and pain. People move TOWARDS pleasure and AWAY FROM pain.

In business, this translates as: the promise of gain or the fear of loss. Of the two, the fear of loss is the stronger motivator. We’ll use both.

So ….

1. Get Attention
The opening headline is the first thing that your reader will look at. If it doesn’t catch their attention you can kiss your letter goodbye.

Here are three headline generating templates that are proven to get attention.

• “HOW TO XXX (e.g. Pull in More Customers than you can Deal With)”
• “SECRETS OF XXX (e.g. Advertising Success) REVEALED!”
• “WARNING: DON’T EVEN THINK OF XXX (e.g. Buying Adspace) UNTIL YOU YYY (e.g. Read this FREE Report)”.

Immediately after the headline, you need a ‘LEAD-IN’ phrase which draws your client into the body copy. Try one of these:

• “If you’re like me…”
• “We’ve missed you…”
• “I’ll get right to the point…”
• “Today I found out that you…”
• “Imagine this…”
• “Thank you.”
• “I’m mad as hell.”
• “Here’s what the experts say.”

2. Define the Problem (not enough customers)
Then magnify it. You present the problem then expand it so that they really feel the pain and agony of their situation.

3. Identify the Solution (advertising with you)
Now that you’ve built your readers interest by making them feel the pain it’s time to provide the solution. This is the part of the sales letter where you SUGGEST that you can solve the reader’s problem.

It’s short. You’re going to describe your solution later in the letter. Now you just name it.

4. Prove your Solution (Two testimonials)
As soon as your reader sees your solution, he thinks: “Yeah, right. Advertising. That’s what they all say.” So now it’s VITAL to show that you can be trusted.

Before they throw the letter away, get SOMEONE ELSE to say how great it is to advertise with you. Provide enthusiastic quotes from two happy campers who got great results advertising with you.

5. List the Benefits (Continue giving proof)
Now it’s time to tell the reader how they will personally benefit from advertising with you.

Make a ‘bullet point’ of each benefit — making them easier to read. Have at least 15 bullet points. In many cases, people will book some space based on only one of the benefits you list.

6. Parade More Endorsements
After you’ve presented all your benefits the reader will AGAIN begin to doubt you (even though they secretly want all your claimed benefits to be true).

Add 3 more testimonials.

7. Make them an Offer they Can’t Refuse
This is what you’ve been leading up to.

The best offers are usually an attractive combination of readership, price, terms, and bonuses.

A great offer can overcome mediocre writing — but great writing cannot overcome a mediocre offer. Your offer should be irresistible.

You want your reader to say to themselves: “I’d be stupid not to take advantage of this deal. I’ll call them now to talk it over.”

8. Give a Reason and a Guarantee
Your offer may be so good that some readers won’t believe it. Your mother told you: “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

To prevent your clients from saying this, give the reason WHY you can make such a great offer. (You have some remnant space, or your publisher is off sick and you can make a deal, or …. or….)

When people read the reason why, it will help make this irresistible offer believable.

Follow up this reason with a GUARANTEE (of the number of eyeballs which will see this offer. DON’T guarantee any results. They may submit a lousy advert and then try and blame you …. )

9. Take it Away from Them
Remember that people are more motivated to act by the fear of loss rather than gain? Now’s the time to activate this emotion. You’ve made them WANT a deal, now tell them that it’s a scarce deal. They may not get it.

You can create a feeling of scarcity by telling your reader that your offer is only available to a few people, or for a limited time period. (“Once our remnant space has gone …. it’s gone” or “The publisher comes back on Thursday”)

10. Call to Action
Now you tell them how to get the deal — exactly how to order from you. You give them a COMMAND.

You can do this using words like ‘Pick Up the Phone and Call Now!”

You should plant hints throughout your letter. If you are asking the reader to call, then perhaps some of the testimonials might say, “When I called ….” and in your offer you might say, “When you call ….”

Then when you give the call to action at the end of the letter, your readers won’t be surprised or confused. It will be consistent with what you said throughout your letter.

11. Warn Them

Tell your reader what will happen if they don’t take advantage of your offer, they’ll continue to:

• Watch other companies get all the business
• Struggle day to day to make ends meet
• Work too hard just to get a few customers
• Keep getting what they’ve always got

Paint a graphic picture in the mind of the reader about the consequences of not taking action now. Remind them just how terrible their current state is and that it just doesn’t have to be that way.

With that, SIGN your letter. Below your signature ….

12. Tell Them Again

Always include a postscript (P.S.).

Your P.S. is the third most read element of your sales letter. Use it to remind your reader of your irresistible offer. Include your call to action then repeat the limited time (or quantity) offer.

So. Why not try this 12-step formula?

Quick Action List

1. Write ONE letter using this template

2. Send it to a client and get their reaction

3. Modify the letter and send out TEN to clients on your ‘B’ list and ‘C’ list prospects. (see our website for an explanation of grouping your sales prospects into ‘A’ ‘B’ & ‘C’ lists.

4. Modify the letter again and send it out to EVERYONE in your ‘B’ and ‘C’ groups.

5. Get your copy of ‘How to Sell Ad Space Like the EXPERTS Do’, so that next time you make a better call.

Dear Ms. Adams

“All ‘targeted’ advertising works …. It’s the audience that makes the difference!”

At Ace Weekly every single person, every piece of equipment — especially our computerised database — are designed to get your message to the RIGHT audience.

And when your advert appears with us, you needn’t worry about wasting money by advertising to the ‘wrong’ readers — because we can segment the printing so that your advert only appears in the editions which go to areas that are suitable for you!

Over the last twenty two years we’ve worried about circulation and readership, studied and purchased the finest equipment available, and hired the best people possible so that we can deliver your offer, while you can concentrate on delivering the promises you’ve made in that offer.

The more you know about advertising, the better Ace Weekly looks. Why not call me on 6375289 right now, to find out how our higher standard of delivering your message can lower your costs of doing business?

Yours sincerely,

David Ross

David Ross

P.S. You can visit our Web site at www.Megapubs.com or call me at 6375289 for further information.

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You can see that this letter is AGAIN very short and DOESN’T ask for anything. You are showing up on your client’s radar for the second time. They MIGHT just recognise your name from last week ….

Now sit down and rewrite this letter.

The PURPOSE of this letter is for your name to become more familiar to your prospect, not to make a sale.

That’s all you want. You’ll do the selling — in person — at a later date when this prospect has been ‘warmed up’.

PROSPECTING LETTER 3

This is the last of the prospecting letters.

Three days after you mail this letter, you call the client and ask for a meeting, or a 12 minute ‘telephone meeting’. (12 minutes is not too long, but shows that it is a FORMAL meeting which should be scheduled for a specific time, and NOT interrupted.)

What’s more, when you make the call, these letters will give you something to talk about — a foundation to build from.

They’ll warm up your cold calls.

Note especially the ‘P.S.’ in this letter. It gives you the first line to your sales call ….

THE “WHERE, WHEN, AND WHY” LETTER
(Mailed seven days after the “What Letter”.)

Dear Ms. Adams,

Have you ever heard the phrase “Winking in the dark”?

Because if you wink at someone in the dark, they can’t see you — so they fail to get your message.

Getting your sales message to as many of the right people as possible, as efficiently as possible …. is the most effective way to grow your business, isn’t it?

If you let us promote you and your business …. you will find your sales message spot lit and shining brightly for all to see.

Because our publication goes to MORE of your potential customers, than any other medium, and it is READ by them. So your message will be SEEN.

Further, our readers RESPOND to the messages which they see in our publication. And finally, we can TARGET your advert to be seen by those readers who are MOST IMPORTANT to you …

If you’re willing to risk TWELVE MINUTES of your time, I can show you several exciting ways that our proven company, quality publication and GREAT ideas WILL find you new customers.

Which means to you that you’ll find more new business easier, quicker and less expensively than ever before ….

I will call you Tuesday, October 9th, to set up a 12 minute appointment.

Yours sincerely,

David Ross

David Ross

P.S. We have packaged several of our BEST ideas for finding new customers into two special 8 page reports ‘The Customer Store’ and ‘Two Step Marketing’

(These ideas do NOT require you to buy advertising from me for them to work!)

If you’d like me to send you a free copy of this report — which we have previously sold for $27.00, please let me know when I call you, and I’ll be happy to send you a copy at once.

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You can see that this letter is AGAIN very short. It’s the third time that they’ve heard from you, and they don’t have to do anything but take your call next Tuesday. It should be a warm call.

You can start by asking them if they would like a copy of your free gift.

[ A .pdf file and a Microsoft Word file of both these reports are in the download area of our website. Subscribers can download both these files (in both formats) for free, and alter them to put their own branding on each report.]

Now sit down and rewrite this letter, to reflect your own publication. The PURPOSE of this letter is an appointment, not a sale.

If you send out 4 of these a day (plus 4 second letters and 4 first letters — making 12 letters a day) within 3 weeks you’ll have 60 new prospects in your ‘lead generation’ system.

60 people you can call on the phone and talk advertising (you can talk about the content of your special report)

Now you just need to find 4 NEW people each day and ‘plug them in’ to your system. And you’ll always have 60 names in your lead generation pipeline. The letters will take no more than 15 minutes of your time at the end of each day (to catch the last post).

BUT. Your ATTITUDE will undergo a shift. You’ll have to LOOK for for GOOD names every day. The better the quality of the names you pour into the front end of this system …. the more sales will come out of the back.

So you’ll find that you begin to SEARCH for GOOD names wherever you are, and whatever you are doing: jotting down 6 names some days — 2 names other days … but ALWAYS being ALERT for possible additions to your list.

The heavy lifting on any ad sales deal is always done by you: in person.

Use these letters to help ‘warm up’ a prospect before you call them.

The first is the ‘Who’ letter. Next we’ll look at the ‘What’ letter, and then the ‘When, Why and Where’ letter.

The three letters work together, and are mailed one after the other — one a week — for three weeks. The third letter asks for an appointment, either in person, or a telephone meeting (set up with a date, a time, and a likely duration, just like any face-to-face meeting).

Three days after mailing the third letter you phone the client.

Once you’ve successfully rewritten these prospecting letters they will deliver quality appointments for you. Adsales champions are no strangers to the connection between prospecting letters and sales. They understand that when their client’s awareness goes up — sales follow.

To test this idea, you should mail out the first of your prospecting letters to five, or ten, prospects per week. That will give you fifteen to thirty prospects to follow up with in three weeks.

Because you’ll have to follow up these letters with a call, they’ll give you something to do. Something to sink your teeth into — and it will help eliminate the intangibility of ad space sales.

What’s more, when you make the call, these letters will give you something to talk about, a foundation to build from. They’ll warm up your cold calls.

You see, by closely following the theme of these prospecting letters, you’ll sound knowledgeable because you have something to say. They’ll help you with the “um’s”, “ah’s”, and dead spaces we all fear.

Further, by following these “micro-scripts” you can LISTEN better. Because you have your words ready, you can concentrate better on what your client has to say.

Read this first letter, and then we’ll re-write it.

THE ‘WHO’ LETTER

Dear Ms. Adams,

“You don’t spend all day worrying where your new customers will come from …. But we do!”

We can help you find more NEW customers. Why?

Because we’ve been dedicated to helping our clients aggressively find new customers for the last twenty two years. We know who spends their money — when — and on what products and services.

We have the data to help you accurately target the right group of people. What’s more, we can consistently produce superior quality adverts just to make your job easier.

I’m writing to you today to introduce our publication, Ace Weekly. At Ace Weekly we have the most aware readership within the metro area, and we’re the only local publication which reaches 45% of the adult population!

Over the next few weeks, I will be sending you additional information about the benefits Ace Weekly offers you.

Sincerely,

David Ross

P.S. To learn more about us, visit our Web site at www.Megapubs.com or call me at 6375289 for further information.

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You can see that this letter is very short and DOESN’T ask for anything.

You have just appeared on your client’s radar. Next week you’ll home in a bit closer, and the week after that you WILL ask for something. For now, you’re just another new blip on their screen.

Now sit down and rewrite this letter to reflect YOUR circumstances. The PURPOSE of this letter is to get noticed, not make a sale. That’s all you want.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What need does this prospect have that I can serve? (new business?)
• Which type of advert is best for this account?
• Why would you give yourself an appointment if you were this prospect?

If you offer TOO MUCH information in your very first letter (hoping to get a booking) you’ll:

• CONFUSE the buyer
• Write a letter which is TOO LONG

they’ll lose interest and you won’t get an appointment, much less the sale.

At this stage, when you are writing to a stranger, several SHORT letters are 100 times better than one long letter …. which will be thrown in the bin, unread.

So we’ll feed them some more information in the NEXT letter – the ‘What’ letter.

Who do you send these letters to?

You want to find BUYERS, not needers. Yes there are millions who need to advertise — who could benefit from advertising with you. But they don’t have the vision to see that they should advertise, or the money to pay for an advert.

You should send these letters to BUYERS. People who have already bought an advert in ANOTHER publication, or on radio or TV. You should scan competitive media every day to find people who are SPENDING MONEY NOW on advertising.

You can construct lists of potential buyers (‘suspects’) as explained in ‘Finding New Business’.

And write to them ….

Once you’ve successfully rewritten these prospecting letters they will deliver quality appointments for you. Ad sales champions are no strangers to the connection between prospecting letters and sales.

They understand that when their client’s awareness goes up, sales follow.

Next time, we’ll work on the remaining two letters in this pre-call sequence ….