Same Side Selling Read online

  This approach is counterintuitive because for most people, the explicit purpose of a networking group is to generate sales. But Derek and Melanie weren’t looking for most people. They were looking for established business owners and principals who were seeking high-quality relationships and professional or personal development and who were looking to give to others first.

  The unique positioning led to extremely efficient marketing. In a mature, competitive field, cadre stood out as different and attractive to its target prospects.

  Puzzle Pieces Are Distinctive

  Same Side Selling requires a clear definition of your unique value proposition. You must understand which problems you can solve and which you cannot, who your best prospects are, and who would be better served by someone else.

  The puzzle piece is a helpful reminder. Because of its distinctive shape, a puzzle piece is of great use where it fits—but only where it fits. In contrast, a building block can be defined by simple dimensions and be useful almost anywhere. Clay can be molded to fit in many places. But the puzzle piece has contours and limitations. When it is in the right place, the puzzle piece is essential. Otherwise, it is useless.

  What You Sell Is Essential; What You Sell Is Useless

  Are there situations in which you can have a dramatic impact? Are there others in which your services are useless? (We’ll help you out here: the answer to both questions is YES.)

  Acknowledging that you are not the right fit for everyone seems simple, but too often sellers appear to believe that their remedies can cure all of the world’s ailments. When you mistakenly think that almost anyone can use what you are promoting, selling becomes an exercise in pushiness or persuasion. Such pressure is a recipe for the traditional sale, aimed at convincing:

  Buyer: I’m not sure that what you are selling will help us.

  Seller: Of course it will help you. It’s great! It can help anyone.

  Buyer: I’m still skeptical.

  Seller: Look at the product, the case studies, and the testimonials. Now are you convinced? Here is a pen. Sign right here.

  Convincing is usually adversarial.

  Convincing implies that one person is right and the other person just needs to be a bit smarter or better informed. While it is important to believe in what you sell, it is equally important to appreciate where your solution has impact and where it doesn’t. When you acknowledge that only some customers are positioned to get the most from your offering, then selling is solving and looking for the right fit.

  A posture of solving instead of selling starts before you talk with the prospect. It starts with your internal definition of what business you are in and who your customers are.

  Start With What You Do and Whom You Serve

  Knowing the unique shapes and designs of your puzzle pieces starts with a few basic questions:

  • Whom do you help?

  • What do you do to help them?

  • Why do they need your help?

  These answers may be obvious. For example, a friend of ours provides advisory services (what) to real estate developers (who) when they are building assisted-living homes and evaluating sites to determine if they will attract enough people (why). If you are a pediatric eye doctor or a motorcycle mechanic or are in another highly specialized profession, defining your who, what, and why might be straightforward.

  But for many organizations, it is a struggle to create a concise message about who, what, and why. Companies from startups to Fortune 500 organizations often revisit these seemingly simple questions and refine the answers, which can then be combined to form a pithy elevator pitch—a summary of your business that you could share with a new acquaintance during the short time before the doors open at the right floor.

  The stakes are high for your elevator pitch because, as we illustrated in the last chapter, prospects are likely to classify you—almost instantly—as either 1) someone who is trying to sell them something or 2) someone who may be able to help them solve a problem. Whether your pitch is already polished or seems elusive, we will explain a different way to introduce yourself—a way that’s more effective and that sets the stage for Finding Impact Together with highly qualified prospects.

  Make a Memorable, Specific First Impression

  Your first impression may start with a conversation like this one, a familiar scene at a networking event:

  “Hello, I’m John, the president of Worldwide Inc.”

  “Hi, I’m Sue. I’m VP of sales for Universal 123.”

  “Oh, what does your company do?”

  “We’re a full-service technology and consulting company. Maybe we can help you with something?”

  In that exchange, is John likely to see Sue as someone who is there to solve a problem or as someone who is trying to sell him something? How eager is he to continue the conversation?

  Now instead of her “full-service” response, imagine that Sue answers like this:

  “Companies come to us when they have experienced rapid growth and their technology backbone isn’t keeping up. We can help them review where they are, design the right structure, and even help them implement the solution so they can keep focusing on their customers.”

  In this second version, is John likely to want to continue talking?

  That depends. If he views his company as one that has experienced rapid growth and is behind on technology, he’ll probably be highly interested. Otherwise, the conversation may be cut short, but there’s still a better chance that he will remember the discussion, and he may even be able to think of a good referral. Meanwhile, Sue can continue to mingle toward a more opportune prospect.

  Buyer’s Perspective: If a company defines their offering too broadly, it is less likely that they can help us. We’re not looking for generalists in our vendors. We want to hire specific fixers for specific problems.

  The Same Side Pitch

  The previous scene contrasts a traditional elevator pitch with our version, which we’ll call the Same Side pitch. The traditional elevator pitch presents two basic pieces of information:

  • Who we are

  • What we do

  This line starts with the seller and ends with the seller. The customer may be mentioned in the mix somewhere, but it’s pretty much all about the seller. This seller-centric approach will rarely engage the other person, and it may lead straight to the adversarial trap.

  The Same Side pitch (like the one Sue used above) starts with the customer’s challenge and ends with the customer’s success. Let’s take a close look at the building blocks.

  Pitch Element 1: “Companies come to us when …”

  It is helpful to first help the listener by defining your pool of potential prospects. Do you serve individuals or organizations? If the clients you seek and serve best fit a specific profile, you probably want to put that filter on the table right away. Do you serve government contractors? Parents of high school athletes? Owners of nail salons? Then you might open with, “Government contractors come to us when …” or “Parents of high school athletes come to us when …,” and so on.

  After homing in on your customers, you arrive at the heart of the Same Side elevator pitch: the customer’s challenge. Identify the impetus that brings your prospects to you. Do they need you when they have just lost a key employee? When they are struggling with client attrition? When they need more office space?

  As you think about those triggers, remember that the circumstances are far less important than the challenges or problems that ensue. Every “when” can be translated into a “why.”

  When

  (Circumstance)

  Why

  (Problem or Challenge)

  Just lost a key

  employee

  Because it is understaffed, the company is falling behind on deliveries and facing morale problems.

  Struggling with client attrition

  The steady loss of clients is eroding profitability and bringing the company’s business model into que
stion.

  Need more office space

  The company cannot take on new work because there is no room for new hires.

  Table 2-1: When and Why

  Some salespeople resist introducing a problem in their elevator pitch because it seems negative. The thinking is that a circumstance is just a fact of life that could happen to anyone (everyone loses a key employee now and then), but a problem is messy and embarrassing. Maybe you worry that laying a thorny, stinky problem on the table could repel good prospects who are simply reluctant to acknowledge that they fit the description for the problem you described.

  This resistance to a problem-centered pitch is fine… if you’re looking for prospects who are in denial and not likely to spend money (sarcasm alert!). The reality is that a problem is much more likely to lead to action than a circumstance is.

  Remember the classic advertising proverb that “it’s easier to sell aspirin than vitamins.” That is, when people are in pain, they are highly motivated to relieve the pain; when people are in generally good health, it is less urgent for them to improve their health incrementally.

  That principle applies to your Same Side pitch: the most successful pitch will resonate with the prospect’s pain.

  What Are Your Prospects Sick and Tired Of?

  Where is the customer pain that you can relieve? What are the best words to describe it? These are essential questions in defining your role in the marketplace. Rather than using buzzwords and polished brochure language, the most effective statements of customer pain are often raw and real.

  To find those words, start with your best client: the organization for whom you’ve made the most dramatic impact. What was too much for them to handle without your help? What were they wearily dreading until you took it off their plate with glorious results?

  Our friend Bob London of London, Ink, refers to the way customers might describe their own challenges as the elevator rant. The elevator rant might occur in an elevator as one executive complains to a colleague, unfiltered:

  • “If we could just solve this darned turnover problem!”

  • “I’m sick and tired of having these technical failures every other week!”

  • “When are we ever going to find a qualified VP of sales—this is killing us!”

  The colorful language reflects an important component: emotion! When you key into your prospects’ passionate complaints and can use them to describe what you do, you will instantly filter prospects down to those who not only need your help, but also know that they need it and are ready to act. We explore this topic more in Chapter 4, which covers urgency and readiness.

  Pitch Element 2: “We help them by …”

  The second part of the Same Side elevator pitch explains what you do to help your clients. The good news is that this is the easiest part of the pitch to write. All of us can describe our products and services in great detail.

  The bad news is that this is the least important part of the elevator pitch. In fact, too much of the “what” element in a pitch is distracting and can be counterproductive.

  Your best prospects are not looking for products and services; they are looking for solutions to problems. They are looking for results. When a salesperson elaborates on features and details without first connecting to a prospect’s problem, those words are wasted. How you solve someone’s problem is irrelevant if she doesn’t think it is a problem or doesn’t think you understand it.

  Have you ever started a casual conversation with a new acquaintance on an airplane or at a party and had that person start talking about his beloved hobby that you had absolutely no interest in? You keep checking your watch every 15 seconds and saying, “uh-huh,” hoping he will stop, but he goes on and on? Remember that feeling when you share what you do in your elevator pitch. Sharing more is far worse if the prospect is not interested.

  When a prospect does in fact connect to the problem, he is likely to ask questions. Then you will have the opportunity to share more about what you do and how your genius methods and spectacular results separate you from the pretenders in your field. (We address this more in Chapter 5, Be an Educator.) But before you go deeper into what it is you do, you need to paint a picture of the impact you can have.

  Pitch Element 3: “… so they can …”

  One of the most widely used and successful sales techniques for diet and fitness products is the set of “before” and “after” pictures. Two simple photos convey a compelling story: an overweight, out-of-shape couch potato with dim prospects uses product X and then becomes healthy, beautiful, and (presumably) successful in all worldly endeavors. If he can do it, maybe I can do it!

  The Same Side elevator pitch is no more (and no less) than a before-and-after comparison. The prospect needs a clear picture of a problem she relates to, and then a compelling vision of what life will be like after this problem is eliminated. The transformation between the two is the impact of your solution.

  The third element of the Same Side elevator pitch is the “after” picture that defines the impact. It is a description of the success that you and your clients share when the work is done.

  This success is more than just removing a problem—it includes all of the downstream benefits. Like the problem statement in the first part of the pitch, the results phrase emphasizes impact more than circumstances.

  Result

  Impact

  Help them find the right person

  So they can become even more productive than before

  Improve service ratings and renewal rates

  To reduce their cost of sales and generate more referrals

  Get the right space

  To inspire their team and lead to optimal productivity and easier recruiting

  Table 2-2: Results and Impact

  Putting the Same Side Pitch Together

  A strong Same Side pitch has a clear and limited explanation of the problem that the seller addresses uniquely and an exciting resolution that will give hope to the right prospects. Here are some examples:

  Old Elevator Pitch 1: “We are a consulting company with experience in procurement. We manage RFPs.”

  Same Side Pitch 1: “Companies come to us when they are about to hire a strategic, high-dollar vendor and they want to be sure they don’t end up selecting the wrong vendor or paying too much, as they might have in the past.”

  Old Elevator Pitch 2: “We are a technology company that provides IT outsourcing services.”

  Same Side Pitch 2: “Companies come to us when they are sick and tired of investing a ton of money in their IT team and wondering if they are keeping up with technology. We take that off their plates so they can focus on their core business.”

  Old Elevator Pitch 3: “We are a full-service law firm with offices in Chicago, Washington DC, New York, and London.”

  Same Side Pitch 3: “Clients come to us when they have struggled to find efficient, sound legal guidance involving multiple major cities or even countries. Our clients value the fact that they can count on skilled local and global resources to protect their interests and avoid or resolve conflicts.”

  Creating a great Same Side pitch is not easy. It forces sellers to define their value in a very specific manner. This is the power of the pitch, and it’s also the greatest challenge because sellers might think that the pitch itself will turn people away.

  It will. But a pitch that turns people away is not a bad thing; in fact, it’s a strategic necessity that is essential to your success.

  Stay Away from Problems You Don’t Solve

  A puzzle piece is defined by the positive and the negative: where it juts out and where it bends in. Both of these features give it a shape that makes it fit in some places but not others.

  The same is true for what you are selling. At a strategic level, it is just as important to know what your company does NOT do as to define what it does. When the boundaries are defined, they should be embraced, not apologized for. Steve Jobs summed up that idea with the quote
“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

  When Scope Outreaches Expertise

  Unfortunately, when a client or prospect asks a company to do something outside its area of expertise, the default answer is “Yes, we can do that.” Traditional sales training has preached the tenet of selling first and figuring it out later. If a company cannot technically deliver what was requested, then embarrassment and snags ensue. But even when the company can fulfill a request beyond its niche, the expansion in scope tends to weaken the relationship. If you extend into areas beyond your expertise, your client will calculate the average score across each of the categories of service or product you offer. Let’s say you offer to help in four areas: two are your core strength, and two are items you could handle but are not your top areas of expertise. If you score 8 out of 10 or your core areas, and 4 out of 10 on the other two, then your average score would be 6. The client would be happy to hire someone who scores an 8, but perhaps not as excited to hire the company they rate a 6.

  The following story illustrates how the combination of overreaching and under-delivering often plays out:

  A national association was launching a large new training program for their members. The training was a key pillar of their new strategy, which had been shaped by a trusted consulting firm that had advised the non-profit for years. As the association began to search for a training firm to implement the program, the consulting firm asked to be considered for the work. That resulted in a conversation between Abe, the association director, and Carl, the lead consultant:

  Abe: “We didn’t know your firm ran training programs.”

  Carl: “We’ve got great people here, and they know your organization. We can do it.”