Article: Fishing expeditions:
How to Show Value Without Giving Away Your Brain
RainToday.com, July 2008
By Vickie K. Sullivan
It’s easy to dismiss those long-winded, unfocused
conversations – a.k.a. fishing expeditions -- as a waste
of time. Professional prospects, those who go from provider
to provider looking for free advice, have given such conversations
a bad name. But you can't let that bad name stop you from
having meandering conversations altogether. Lot of serious
buyers want them, not for freebees, but out of a concern for
being cautious and doing due diligence.
And so you have a challenge: When you’re selling what’s
between your ears, how do you walk the fine line between showing
your value to qualified buyers and helping someone who has
no intention of working with you?
Below are two types of inquiries and how to showcase what
you can do without spending too much time solving problems
for free.
Here’s My Story
These prospects come to you without a clue. They didn’t
know they needed your help until they discovered you. They
read your book, or heard you speak, and “just know”
that you can help them. But they don’t know how you
work, or how to use your services. So they start with “their
story” to brainstorm ways to proceed.
You can qualify which prospects are serious and which are
not by the amount of information they share and the time it
takes them to share it. Serious buyers will give you the Reader’s
Digest version and then move on to asking you how you can
help. In contrast, professional prospects will spend too much
time giving you too much information. Boldly going where no
initial conversation should ever go; they are looking for
enough validation and advice to move on without you.
Their agenda: These folks are strong believers in
context. They evaluate your services by how well you understand
them, believe in them, and are excited to work with them.
They want to make sure there’s chemistry and that you
“get it.”
Serious buyers are looking for feedback on what to do next.
Once they know you understand, they move quickly to logistics.
The pole-in-the-water people, on the other hand, want the
“atta boys” and ideas they can use immediately.
They are content talking to people without making actual progress
on their goals. They say they’ll work with you “someday”
but don’t count on it.
Your best response: Answer their questions by asking
in-depth questions to chart their next move. Once you get
the Reader’s Digest version, politely interrupt with
a question that feeds back what you’ve heard and that
identifies a next step.
For example: I would ask an emerging speaker with an inspiring
story this question: “So it sounds like you are ready
to launch a profitable business so your story could empower
and inspire others, correct?”
This question acknowledges their altruism but also moves
on to creating a profitable business and the approach allows
you to create value by focusing the prospect's thinking without
offering premature solutions that are educated guesses at
best. In this example, I would “talk shop” about
what’s going on in the motivational market and what
it takes for speakers with stories to succeed.
Serious buyers will be okay with not getting specifics. They
will take this next step and want to explore further. Buyers
who aren’t ready to act will be disappointed and will
want to talk more about their story and get specific ideas.
You now know when to end the conversation.
Here’s My Problem
These prospects are on a mission. They have a problem and
are looking for ways to fix it. They’ve been looking
for a while and your name popped up on their radar. They know
either they have a problem that is hurting the business or
have the high-class problem of managing growth and don’t
want to plateau.
These folks have more urgency to act but are not necessarily
more decisive than the storytellers above. They may or may
not know how you work, but are intrigued enough to reach out
and find out more.
These potentials qualify themselves by the questions they
ask. The serious buyers will briefly outline their situation
and ask more focused questions about your experience and approach.
They will have a timeline for making a decision; they are
ready to act.
The wanna-be prospects will ask for minute details about
what they should do next. They will give lip service on the
importance of the problem, but don’t know when they
will solve it.
Their agenda: These problem-solvers are focused
on the issue at hand and want to make sure you can really
help them. They evaluate your services by your insights about
their problem and by your experience and approach to resolving
their challenge.
They are most afraid of spending money and time on a solution
that will cause more harm than good. They are more jaded prospects
if they have tried other vendors/solutions and it didn’t
work.
Real buyers want a workable solution they can afford. The
false buyers want ideas they can implement on their own.
Your best response: These folks feel uneasy, so
empathy is a great springboard. If I see a pattern, I’ll
respond with “Ya know, I see this problem a lot, so
you are not alone.” And then I reframe the issue by
identifying a common underlying cause.
For example when speakers raise their fees too fast, they
begin competing with colleagues who are better branded than
they are. This results in a huge drop in speaking engagements
because they went from top dog in one category to the weaker
option in another. This insight shows the buyers that you
understand their problem. It also opens the door to your approach.
In this case, I’d say, “If we were to work together,
I’d focus on either rebranding you in the new category
or maximizing your revenue in the lower-fee one.” The
focus is clear without specific recommendations (which you
shouldn’t have yet anyway). Real buyers will move to
explore both options.
This approach allows you to create value by helping the prospect
understand how they got into their predicament and offering
options to consider. And this approach allows you to outline
a focused approach without establishing a step-by-step plan.
Fishing Expeditions Can Work
Unfocused inquiries, like fishing expeditions, are a sign
that your marketing activities, or bait, are doing their job.
Your brand is intriguing enough that folks contact you and
want to learn more. Your articles pinpoint a problem and show
how you can help, so prospects want to know if your solutions
will work for them.
And I have found that professional service pros are generous
people. They got into the service business because they have
something to share and genuinely want to help others. By walking
the fine line between showing your value and helping yourself
out of an assignment, you can get more assignments from serious
buyers who want to work with you but need to go fishing first.
Since 1987, Vickie K. Sullivan, President of Sullivan Speaker
Services, has generated millions of dollars in speaking fees,
book advances and ancilliary income for her clients. Sign
up for her free market intelligence at http://www.SullivanSpeaker.com
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