By Chris Donaldson
If I knew anything about boxing, I might say that you play to your opponent. You study his moves. You examine his strengths. You look for weaknesses. You know opportunity.
But I don’t know anything about boxing. What I do know is that most sales and marketers don’t lead with the ‘you’, they lead with the ‘me’. Take a look at your marketing and sales materials, especially your Powerpoint. Are you leading with the ‘ALL ABOUT ME’ verbage? The ‘What I do’ and the ‘Clients’ page? The blah blah blah?
If you are, you’re opening yourself up to getting whacked. Why?
Because your potential customer cares very little about you. Yeah, they want to enjoy your company and listen to few war stories to measure credibility, but what they really want to hear is ‘What have you done for me lately?
They want to know how your solution fits their problem. Then, how long will it take. Then, how much will it cost.
Try this:
- Look at the nearest piece of your sales/marketing collateral. Hey, your homepage will do. Count how many times ‘You’ appears in the first few seconds of reading. If ‘you’ doesn’t appear, or isn’t at least implied, chances are you’re talking about yourself again.
- Try turning your Powerpoint presentation upside down. Take the last few slides and push them to the front. Open with ‘The Solution’ and close with Who We Are and How We Can Help You.
- Keep changing it up: try different approaches with different people. Practice audacity and boldness a good percentage of the time – people love differentiation.
And, of course, make the calls. Outreach is the important part. Your customers (or lost prospects) will tell you what they want to hear.
Chris Donaldson is a frequent contributor for Schmoozd, an event management company that serves a passionate community of culturally-connected people who are seeking an alternative way to socialize and network.
