You've been faithfully blogging each and every week. Quite some time has gone by and you've accumulated quite a wealth of information in your blogs on a variety of topics that a potential client might find interesting and compelling. Finally the day comes...your phone rings and it's a new prospect, who informs you that they've been following your blog and they have a need of your services and want to get together and discuss working with you to meet that need.
At this point you're super excited! All of your hard work is starting to pay off! Whether it was the detailed market reports in your blog, or the funny anecdotes about your kids, or the volumes of excellent and free advice that you've been dilligently providing each week that attracted this potential client, it's now up to you to seal the deal.
Let's be honest, you could be Hemingway, but all the writing is just the "foreplay" of the deal. The rubber hits the road at your meeting and you need to make the best impression possible. You haven't sealed the deal yet.
How are you going to approach this meeting? There's no doubt you're ready, you know your market, your services and products in and out, so what else is there to do? Many people would just show up to the meeting and take it as it comes. Hopefully they would be successful, after all their potential client already likes them. One might conclude that the deal is theirs if they don't screw it up. But if you don't really prepare for this meeting, any success you might enjoy could be called a coincidence. Those serious about their businesses plan for success. They don't count on it to happen occasionally.
So how do you prepare for a situation like this? It's important that you anticipate your potential clients possible priorities and/or concerns and prepare material to address those priorities and concerns as well as a presentation that draws out the client so that he opens up to you. With some thought and organization you actually lead a client down a predetermined train of thought ending in the logical conclusion that he or she needs to do business with you.
Clients typically have only 3 types of concerns. 1. Price. 2. Communication. 3. Integrity. Depending on the type of business you have there may be a variation of one of the above. So you need to ask the client, "What 3 things are important to you when selecting a __________ Professional to work with?" You ask them a question that you already know the answer to. You allow them to answer, and you may need to lead them....many times they can only think of one or two things. But if you point out these 3 concerns and then present a written plan on how you systematically address these concerns with your clients, it will immediately put a potential client at ease. For more detailed information about how to put this presentation together, see my blog post - Make It Easier For People To Refer You Business.
If you can systematically anticipate your clients priorities and concerns and lay out a clear process in writing of how you address these concerns with each and every client, you've made yourself accountable to your client. This is a huge step that will mean a lot to your client, because very few people care enough to go that extra mile. By being open, and putting everything in writing, you have effectively eliminated any confusion that they may have about how you handle your business and the type of service that you provide your clients, thus eliminating their will to say "No". You are committing to service them in the way that you've outlined in your presentation, and with your commitment, you'll find that any resistance that they may have had to committing to work with you now will melt away.
Now quit reading this blog and go get busy and close some deals!
Jason Sanders
Business Networking Specialist
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