4 simple rules for today’s market

August 22, 2013 at 12:30 AM
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If you give your prospect too much information at once, you run the risk of overwhelming her. These days, prospects are already overloaded and can't handle too much complexity. And if it's difficult for them to decipher the business value of your product or service, they'll opt to do nothing and eventually forget about your offer.

Speaking of forgetting, crazy-busy people are very forgetful. They forget they said they'd get back to you. They forget they were going to set up an appointment. There's only so much that the human brain can take.

Crazy-busy people subscribe to the philosophy of "if it's not broken, why fix it?" That means you'll have to work really hard to ensure they understand how much better — from a business value perspective — things will be if they decide to work with your company.

Finally, crazy-busy prospects view you and your competitors as clones of one another. To them, any differences are minute and any advantages are temporary. This makes it a lot more challenging to differentiate yourself and avoid a battle over price.

But it can be done if you focus on the top four rules of selling:

  1. Keep it simple.
  2. Be invaluable.
  3. Always align with prospects' business objectives.
  4. Raise priorities.

The window of opportunity for making your case gets narrower every day. You must get in there and demonstrate your value before your prospects move on to the next thing clamoring for their attention.

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Jill Konrath is the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. If you're struggling to set up meetings, click here to get a free Prospecting Tool Kit.

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