I wrote about some of the conversations that sports and entertainment professionals should be having last night.
In reflecting on that piece, I got to thinking about how we often put our organizations on auto-pilot and do things the way that they have always been done.
Which got me onto the idea of presentations at conferences or sales presentations on the whole.
Over the last week, I’ve had a number of conversations about how the sales process should work, how presenting at a conference should work, and how to turn all of these different prospecting moments into opportunities that can pay off for you and your organization.
Here’s a little primer to make your idea or your product stand out in every situation.
Think about whatever you are doing from the POV of your audience:
In my travels, I see a lot of sales and marketing materials. They share a common theme, most of them are focused on what the vendor feels is important or the technical attributes or specifications of the product or service.
Having these ideas and facts as tools is great.
But when it is the entirety of your pitch, you are going to suffer because all buys are emotional buys.
This kind of marketing and selling keeps going because we see so many people doing it that we are subdued into the idea that this is what everyone is doing.
But like your mom or dad maybe told you as a kid, “because everyone is doing, that doesn’t make it right.”
In making your marketing and sales materials pop, you need to think about it from the POV of your target buyer.
What is the challenge they are dealing with? How do you help?
What is the key indicator they are going to be using to measure success? How do you fill that role?
What will make them exciting? How can you convey your excitement for helping?
If you need a gimmick to get people to stop and listen, maybe its time to rethink your value proposition:
I stood in the booth of Booking Protect at INTIX in Baltimore working with Cat and Simon to share what Booking Protect does.
They had a really great set up with a game that gave people a chance to win $20,000 and a couch that you could hang out on.
Despite having these things, the real sales pitch was Booking Protect itself and how it does 3 things that make it stand out in the market:
- It provides peace of mind to buyers of tickets, especially when on-sale dates are further and further out.
- It provides a new revenue stream to its partners…get that? FREE MONEY!
- Booking Protect handles all the customer service, so that the customer gets a nice experience that doesn’t add to the burden of the stretched thin box office staff.
See…we had a game and a set up, but we didn’t need a gimmick to get people to pay attention to what we were sharing. The product was built in such a way that it was valuable and didn’t need a trick to get people to investigate it.
Compare that with other people that I’ve seen break out costumes, song and dance, or other tricks…the difference is telling.
Follow Up Is Key:
I got an email this morning that was a bad mail merge job or template. Or, if isn’t either…that makes it worse.
The key in most sales is not in the initial contact, but actually in the follow through.
Your follow through can’t be on auto-pilot. You have to have something compelling and relevant to keep the connection alive.
To reflect back on the work, Cat and Simon did in Baltimore. Cat was very diligent in her note taking after each conversation she had. So that she knew which people she talked to, what their situation was, and what the next step they were taking should be.
Compare that to the email I got today and the difference couldn’t be more dramatic.
Despite knowing that I talked to the person at least twice and that they know I’m not in the market for their product, I got the standard form email back that didn’t reflect anything at all of value.
Which is a missed opportunity.
Because maybe I know people that I might refer, but won’t because I can’t be sure of the service they will receive.
Or, maybe I could help introduce them to the market more effectively because I know the market.
Whatever.
You can’t take follow up for granted because it is a marketing element. And you have to assume that people are thinking that “how you follow up is how you will follow through.”
If you aren’t doing it well, you can expect that people will turn away.
Is this belly flop happening to you?