How to sell to a customer who does not need your services

How can you get the attention of those customers who think they do not need your services?
How can you convert them into customers?

16807235_sGetting this type of customer is difficult because you first need to convince them that what you do is important. This will be your biggest challenge, but if you succeed, the client will be all yours (or almost). This is not easy, because if he does not find value in what you offer, why should he listen to you?

If you know the client or know someone who knows him and can recommend you, you will find it relatively easy to be received.

If you cannot get an introduction, you need to convince them to first listen to you.  This will be hard, because to do so, he will have to spend part of his precious time doing  something that he does not consider important.

To get a meeting, you need to convince him that if he gives you some time, he will get more value than if he dedicates his time elsewhere. For example, to get prospects to a first meeting, the agency ThinkHandy proposes sharing in that meeting tips to improve the marketing campaign and web presence of the company. That makes many prospects accept a first meeting.

What mistake do many agencies make when they get a client on the phone or to a meeting?

They assume that the customer is already aware of the advantages of the service they are going to propose, so they spend their time describing how good the agency is, what awards it has, all the customers they have and they show an agency presentation. Meanwhile, the client does not understand why he should even hire an agency or that service, what benefits he can get and ends up frustrated because the agency is wasting his valuable time.

How can you get that client to understand the benefits?

By focusing on the benefits you provide, you describe the services and speak much less on the agency itself. A few days ago, I talked about the importance of defining the benefit your agency brings to your ideal customers. Now is the time to get that list of benefits and communicate them convincingly to potential customers, so they understand what you can do for them.

If, for example, you wanted to propose to a client a LinkedIn campaign, do not offer it as such, because it will be very unlikely that he understands why that is important. Focus your speech on explaining what they are going to get through this campaign on LinkedIn.

If the benefit is important to him, he will keep on listening.  For example, it is not the same thing to say a customer:

We are an agency specializing in LinkedIn. We would like to explain to you the benefits of using LinkedIn for your law firm.

than to say…

Our company specializes in getting clients to law firms. We have obtained more than 10 new customers each month for such and such firm. We would like to talk with you to explain how we can also get similar customers for you. When would be a good time to meet?

If you were a law firm, which of these two proposals would attract more of your attention? To which one would you dedicate your time? Note that in the second, you have not even spoken about LinkedIn which may be your area of expertise. You could go into a second meeting and speak about a LinkedIn campaign, an advertising campaign, a press release or whatever you want that can get them that particular benefit.

During the meeting, the message should be focused on what the agency will get and not on how you’re going to get it. If you can, back up your offer with a guarantee to add more credibility to what you say and that can bring them to an easy YES.  During the meeting, listen very carefully to what they say and ask questions.  Adapt the final proposal and include all those aspects which they have expressed as important, so when they read it, they recognize those points as important and relevant.  After all, they were the ones who said them!

Are you an agency or a PR / Marketing consultant?
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