The more I read of this book the more I see the parallels between what I have been doing myself and what I have been suggesting that you need to do. I left off at Chapter 5: Who Knows What You Know and Do They Like You?… so onward and upward.
- The Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle Process – Michael Port offers a sales cycle with six (6) keys that help you determine what you should be offering your prospect
- Key #1: Who Is Your Target Client or Customer? Identifying your target will allow you to focus on the emotional connection crucial in the initial development of a relationship with your prospect.
- Key #2: What Are They Looking For? If you don’t know what they are looking for you won’t know what to offer them.
- Key #3: When Do They Look For You? What needs to be happening to them personally or at work for them to want what you have?
- Key #4: Where Do They Look For You? Do you know where your market searches to find what you offer?
- Key #5: Why You? Why would they choose you? What is unique about your offer?
- Key #6: How Do You Want Them To Engage With You? Do you want them to call or sign up for a newsletter. Most prospects need to get to know and trust you over time and communication is the first step.
Michael suggests giving your prospects a risk free sample of your services so that they have an idea what you know and what its like having you provide products and services to them. The sales cycle itself has five stages:
- Stage 1: Simple and measurable. Most effective when used with a keep-in-touch plan. Your list is made up of people who have given you permission to contact them on and ongoing basis.
- Stage 2: Demonstrate knowledge, solutions, and sincere desire to provide value to your target market at no cost. Prospects should find it risk-free.
- Stage 3: Help prospects make the most of the information provided in stage 2 and make a sale by offering them a product that you believe they are ready for.
- Stage 4: Go the extra mile with your prospects. If they bought some information from you offer them an invitation to a workshop or webinar on the same topic. This allows you to offer the next level of your service.
- Stage 5: Not everyone will complete the cycle at the same pace or at all. You are building trust over time.
- The Power of Information Products – Nothing builds your credibility faster than products and services designed to server your target market’s needs and desires. Information products in the form of e-books, CDs, etc. allow you to express yourself and provide you with:
- opportunities for multiple streams of passive income
- enhanced credibility by establishing you as an expert
- more consumers because they speed up the sales cycle
- time leveraging giving you the opportunity to make additional income
Keep in mind that the market size for people who will buy your informational product is much larger than those that are willing and able to buy your product or service. Your informational product should be something you are enthusiastic about. But no matter what the product is always keep in mind your target audience as it should meet their needs otherwise its futile. Michael goes on to outline a few steps to developing your informational product:
- Choose the role you will play – the expert or the researcher
- Choose your product framework – modular or reference type
- Choose a title that sells
- Build your table of contents for ease of presentation and organization
- Create your content
- Super Simple Selling – If you’re uncomfortable with the sales process its likely you view it as unethical, manipulative, and/or dishonest. To change your perspective you have to let go of the notion you aren’t worthy of the money you are earning. Successful people get paid for what they do. The super simple selling system that Michael suggest requires a paradigm shift. Stop thinking of selling as manipulating and simply presenting a canned presentation when the opposite is true. To sell you need to become more polite, more considerate and more understanding. You need to listen more to and consider the needs of your prospects, clients, and consumers putting their needs before your own and grasping the deeper meaning of what they are sharing with you. Selling becomes an opportunity to provide them with the services that would take them to the next level.
Well thats all I had time to read today. If you’re reading this synopsis and its resonating even slightly within you then you need to go to the bookstore and pick up Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
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