Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home
Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home
After some probing, I found out that he was planning on using the brochure after the initial introduction in a meeting with a prospect to point out all the services he could provide. The reality is that no one has ever bought from a brochure. Every week he waits is another week of lost opportunities.
The lesson here is that brochures and marketing pieces, no matter how fancy, don’t sell you. If you rely on them, you’re missing a serious opportunity to connect with your prospect and find out what’s important to them. In the case of my business owner friend, he had about 30 services listed out in his brochure. Certainly, it would be rare that someone would want all of his services. Instead they might need one or two.
If he continued down the path he was headed, he may never find out which one or two services are important to his prospects and more importantly, why. That’s because if you focus your discussion around your brochure or around all the things that you can do, you’re not going to be focused on the right thing, your prospects and what they need.
A business card, a brochure, a marketing piece, and even a portfolio of work do not sell. They are marketing tools, but if you’re relying on them to sell for you, you’re not going to be as successful as you could be. I’m not inferring that these tools are not good to have, but you have to recognize them for what they are.
I have another client who is a graphic designer. She was like everyone else in her industry. She liked to go into a meeting with a prospect with her portfolio in hand. I suggested that she go to her first meeting without anything. At first, she objected and couldn’t conceive of not having her beautiful work to show off.
After we discussed it, she agreed to try it. The prospect, who was checking out several graphic designers, asked her why she didn’t bring her portfolio. To which she replied, “I assume that anyone that you’re talking to is going to have a wonderful portfolio. When you look at them, do any of them really stand out?” To which the prospect replied, “No, they’re all good. But now that you mention it, they are similar in many ways.” To which my client replied, “I’ll be happy to show you my portfolio at another time, but really what I’m interested in is finding out more about you and what you want.”
After that, she was off and running, engaging the prospect with good questions and attentive listening. The end of the story is that she got the client and never even had to show her portfolio.
Like my graphic designer client, your sales will grow when you really engage in a meaningful conversation with your prospects without relying on your visual aids. The time and place for those will come.
Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home - To learn more about this author, visit Will Turner's Website.
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I was speaking to a business owner this week and he said that he needed to be calling on prospects, but he was waiting to get his brochure done. It turns out that due to some unforeseen circumstances, he’s been waiting a couple of months already. Now, that just isn’t right.
After some probing, I found out that he was planning on using the brochure after the initial introduction in a meeting with a prospect to point out all the services he could provide. The reality is that no one has ever bought from a brochure. Every week he waits is another week of lost opportunities.
The lesson here is that brochures and marketing pieces, no matter how fancy, don’t sell you. If you rely on them, you’re missing a serious opportunity to connect with your prospect and find out what’s important to them. In the case of my business owner friend, he had about 30 services listed out in his brochure. Certainly, it would be rare that someone would want all of his services. Instead they might need one or two.
If he continued down the path he was headed, he may never find out which one or two services are important to his prospects and more importantly, why. That’s because if you focus your discussion around your brochure or around all the things that you can do, you’re not going to be focused on the right thing, your prospects and what they need.
A business card, a brochure, a marketing piece, and even a portfolio of work do not sell. They are marketing tools, but if you’re relying on them to sell for you, you’re not going to be as successful as you could be. I’m not inferring that these tools are not good to have, but you have to recognize them for what they are.
I have another client who is a graphic designer. She was like everyone else in her industry. She liked to go into a meeting with a prospect with her portfolio in hand. I suggested that she go to her first meeting without anything. At first, she objected and couldn’t conceive of not having her beautiful work to show off.
After we discussed it, she agreed to try it. The prospect, who was checking out several graphic designers, asked her why she didn’t bring her portfolio. To which she replied, “I assume that anyone that you’re talking to is going to have a wonderful portfolio. When you look at them, do any of them really stand out?” To which the prospect replied, “No, they’re all good. But now that you mention it, they are similar in many ways.” To which my client replied, “I’ll be happy to show you my portfolio at another time, but really what I’m interested in is finding out more about you and what you want.”
After that, she was off and running, engaging the prospect with good questions and attentive listening. The end of the story is that she got the client and never even had to show her portfolio.
Like my graphic designer client, your sales will grow when you really engage in a meaningful conversation with your prospects without relying on your visual aids. The time and place for those will come.
Leave Your Marketing Materials At Home - To learn more about this author, visit Will Turner's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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