Years ago, I was attempting to get in the door to make a presentation to a Fortune 500 Firm with no success. Then one day for some reason I realized that when selling to an individual (B2C or C2C) you must position yourself and your offer to be “other person centric” and serve their needs, ideally, their immediate needs. The same holds true when selling to a business (C2B or B2B).
One powerful way to determine if you are pushing jello up-hill or have a directed means of serving a business is to review their website, annual report, on-line or traditional promotional literature, their websites and find their Mission Statement. A Mission Statement serves as an organizations MAP (just as knowing an individual’s Personal Position Statement) and is supposed to serve as their GPS system of sorts from which all their decisions and actions are benched marked off of before implementing. By reading their Mission Statement you can determine how to elicit their emotional and logical attention towards what your deliverable’s may be and how you can position your consultative questions and discussion to determine how best to serve them. Consider:
- When selling to organizations, identify what their MISSION STATEMENT says; This will be driven by what their value system is and is not …
- When selling to an individual (or attempting to Recruit an individual to your organization or cause) identify what their PERSONAL POSITION STATEMENT says; This will be driven by what their value system is and is not …
Through analytics, discover or conversational engagement knowing this STATEMENT will greatly accelerate your next actions to success or disconnection.
By using their pre-determined trigger values, beliefs, goals, objectives, psychological drivers and words in your presentation and resposes, you can elicit a higher level of interest and serious consideration of your offer. Look for:
- What specific “call to action” statements are listed?
- What do they say are their “fundamental reasons” for being in business or having the identity they state to hold and how can you attach yourself or your deliverables (Features/Benefits) to that claim in a way that they can see you as an ally in their pursuits?
- Do any of their words indicate or provide any clues as to their immediate, intermediate, and long term “goals or purposes”?
- Who do they indicate they seek as “ideal partners” in their business relationships?
- Who do they indicate they “see themselves as” and how do you then position yourself, your deliverables, your clients so they see a positive effect in associating with you?
Once you internalize their Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement as an organization (or in selling to an individual identifying what their Personal Positional Statement would be), then in your presentation (word doc, email, PowerPoint, conversation, demonstrations, tours, etc.) copy paste their own words as lead in statements to what you want to discuss with them or present to them, and use their words in your dialogue to further personalization your interaction. In essence use their words as the set-up to your offer as the solutions.
Selling to Mission Statements/Personal Position Statement …
Fine tuning your presentation to the prospect or clients real core needs can be done by becoming familiar with their Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement.
You know, that sign hanging on the wall in their lobby as you wait to make your presentation, or by culling their website, or reviewing their Annual Report. Maybe it is even on their business card or literature. In reviewing their posted Value Statements that either drives their Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement or their Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement will drive their operating Values, you can look for areas where your offer can assist them to really drive their point home – In selling to an individual determine what their true motivators are and who they seem themselves to be, this will serve as their personal Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement!
Most Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement will identify six selling opportunities. As you examine a prospect’s Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement to make your initial presentation to or review an existing client’s Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement to determine additional follow up selling opportunities (up-sale, cross-sale, add-on selling), you will want to:
- Identify what each sentence really commits to
- Determine how to use their exact language in your written proposal or verbal presentation
The six critical elements to a sound Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement structure will be:
- Who – should be identified as to who owns or is committing to what
- What – is being sought or committed to and thus valued above all else
- When – actions and behaviors are to be demonstrated and in what order of commitment
- Where – identifies the geography of the commitments and in chronological order of importance
- Why – will be the driving or compelling force behind the commitments and will identify the rationalization and motivation behind their sense of being
- How – demonstrates the manner in which they commit to their actions, what they may deem as legal, ethical, cost effective in the driving forces
Once you illuminate these answers from your prospect or clients’ perspective, you can benchmark your entire presentation against what they spell out as important. You can even use it as reference markers in either your print campaign or verbal presentations. You can reference one of their key statements and then transition into one of the ways you can address that. And then continue onward throughout your presentation in a systematic manner to the closing step of the selling process.
This same model obviously applies when selling to an individual as well, but by now you have already made that mental leap of understanding! If you are selling your service/product to an individual (such you are working to recruit them to your endeavor or cause) you would look for evidence of their past actions to determine what is really important to them, not others, and then make the connection from those past commitments and accomplishments and how you can aid them in furthering that ambition to make your sale.
Where to go for insights for connectivity:
- Annual Reports
- Owner, Chairman or CEO Reports to share holders
- Websites
- Trade Journals and Associations that a point-of-contact may be affiliated with
- Social Media sites that the point-of-contact may participate in and have posting on
- Other clients or contacts you have that may also have connectivity with new targeted point-of-contact
- Etc.
Mission Statement/Personal Position Statement serve as the maps by which people operate and by which people look to make decisions off of, and when you can aid others in doing precisely that, they will typically embrace your offer!