Aligning (instead of conflicting) your objectives to that of the buyer, will more likely progress the sale to fruition, faster.
What’s the objective of a client meeting? The average seller will dismissively say, “Duh! To make a sale, of course.” The same question to the buyer will yield this sombre response: “To get information”. Conflicting objectives. And so the dribbling begins with each team doing their best to keep the ball in their half thus impeding meaningful progress to a sale.
What then? Don’t sell; help buyers make purchase decisions. From last post, one of the ways of graduating from the tired courtesy call to the vibrant business call is to send a link or an extract to the buyer saying, “I found this of interest to your business; let me know when we can discuss it in the course of next week.” Note that the link is about the buyer’s business; not yours, the seller. Interestingly, there are those who send links of their business thinking, “This is such a wonderful product, they need it and when they browse my website they will grant me the appointment I seek.” They don’t; silence follows. Even clicking on the link is a bonus.
Unclear objectives impede alignment
This happens because it’s all muddled. The seller’s objective was unclear. Is it an appointment she wanted or was it information she was sharing? If it was the former, what was the purpose of sharing the latter? And now that the latter has been shared, why does the seller require the former? Also, buyers being human, are selfish by nature. We want what we want. Your sending us information about yourself just confirms your selfishness (to sell), and presumes the buyer’s is secondary. Knowing this, the progressive seller makes the buyer’s selfishness paramount-hence the link/extract is about his (buyer’s) business or him. Even if you don’t get the appointment, you will sit well with him and chances are very high that the buyer will read what you sent because it touches on him.
If the objective is to ask for an appointment, let it be so,
“Dear Prospect, Congratulations for… (or I read about what you are doing in…). We have a product or idea which we feel may be of interest to you, ties in well with your strategy and will assist you achieve the ambitious goals you have for (their market). To this end we request for a meeting to share how it may be of benefit to you. Kindly advise if Monday 9th at 10am is ok with you, or would Tuesday at 2.30pm be better?”
Align your objectives to buyer’s with singularity
Singularity of purpose. Maybe the buyer will have an idea of what you want from your email address or website you will likely have in your sign-off. The point is, you don’t shoot yourself in the foot by firing pellets from a shotgun but a single bullet from a focused rifle. And rarely will you be dismissed because “I have read your website”-if at all it’s visited.
And when the meeting is granted, the objective is still not to sell. Not in the initial meeting. The buyer wants information. Focus instead on finding out more about the buyer ahead of sharing how you see your service or idea, assisting him succeed-if at all it does. His seeing the light is what triggers the sale. Just like when dating, the girl is happier and connects with you more when you talk about her!
Align your objectives to the buyer’s, and progress the sale to fruition.
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