Getting prospects to sign on the dotted line (you know this as 'authorizing the agreement') does not always go according to your plan. At the moment of truth, your prospect may back off. You may hear the dreaded, "I want to think about it." What went wrong?
Closing is a process, not a single event. Getting a positive conclusion to your "ask" starts way before you present a schedule or idea. It starts from the very first contact you have with a prospect. Do you present yourself as a "source" not someone with the "package du jour"? Do you look professional? Are you credible? These things can lead to your getting an appointment or not. Remember the prospect is asking himself, "Why would I give this person my time? What's in it for me?"
Once you have obtained the meeting, you arrive to find need, to gather information, to get commitment to move forward. The customer needs analysis meeting can determine whether or not you eventually do business with that person. What must you know when you leave the CNA meeting?
- What are the challenges and concerns of the business?
- What major changes have occurred in their business?
- What is their customer profile?
- What are the business metrics?
- What are their attitudes about advertising?
- What are their digital needs and plans?
- What should their creative concept be?
- What does the client want their advertising to accomplish?
- How will the client measure the results?
- What budget can they and should they allocate to us?
- What will correcting the problems or achieving the goals mean to this client personally?
- Why will they buy what we offer?
- Who are the decision-makers and what is the process?
- How does the client want to work with you?
As a check for yourself, do you know:
Why will your client buy this?
What does it mean to him personally?
What does he want his advertising to accomplish?
What should his creative message be?
If you leave with the answers to these questions, you will have moved the client forward in his relationship with you. You leave with a commitment to move forward, somehow, someway. Now you may go back to your office and craft a campaign to do what the client needs.
If you talk about the business of the business before you talk about the marketing of the business, you establish yourself as a resource for that client, someone who truly cares about making any advertising a success.
