When Do I Tell My Prospects About My Offer?

As you’ve probably heard, our recent worldwide adventures (**cough/Covid!**) have had a VERY interesting effect on “traditional sales techniques.”

There’s a whole lot of stuff that used to work that doesn’t work so well now.

Or as we would say, “2015 called, and it wants its digital marketing and sales copy back.”

Every single day, we meet with founders, marketing experts, and sales team leaders.?

And we work on pretty much just ONE thing for every aspect of the LInkedIn sales cycle:?how to TEACH NOT SELL.

We recommend that you use your LinkedIn profile, content, and supplementary content (like. . . newsletters!) to teach cool things that people keep asking about.?

A)Teach people useful things online.

B) Start one-to-one conversations based on answering your target client's questions (so it's important to know what these are!)

C) Do a first Zoom meeting that is NOT a sales meeting, NOT a discovery meeting.?It’s a meeting where you help this person with something important to them in a one-to-one setting, based on who they are, based on your expertise (We jokingly call this, “The Honey Trap.”)

For example, I offer complimentary LinkedIn Profile Audits for top thought leaders and sales team leaders.?People WANT this help, and I never have to work very hard to get the right people on this kind of Zoom call.?They sign up easily.?Because they want free help with LinkedIn (and I am careful to make this offer only to the RIGHT people).

I have an inherent advantage, of course, because we're on LinkedIn, and I am offering LinkedIn expertise. That's only fair to admit. However, done right, this technique works for other kinds of experts as well.

For example: our colleague and friend David Newman of Do It! Marketing is offering a free Platform Audit to high-fee business speakers.?If you’re someone who WAS making $350K prior to 2020 doing keynote speeches, it’s pretty important to get some real feedback about your digital presence today in 2022.?

David is not just a digital marketing expert, but also a top thought leader in the keynote speaking community in America, so he’s a great resource for this.

When I do this first meeting, the Profile Audit, we spend the entire 30 minutes working on what’s important to the person who’s scheduled this meeting. Often I do not mention my offer, at all, during this first call.?

Here’s what I do instead:

My main goal is to wait for the person to TELL ME they want to hear about the offer, either overtly or indirectly.

Many times the person WILL ask me at the end of the call - either because they are personally interested, or because they “want to share your work with a friend who's looking for help." They often phrase it somewhat obliquely, like this: "How does a person work with you?"

Other times the person won't ask outright, but because they are responding so favorably during the call (smiling, repeating back what I'm saying, asking more and more questions) I will say, "Would you like me to send you some information on the work we do?"?

After this first meeting - the LinkedIn Profile Audit - the person gets an email a few days later letting them know they are WELCOME to come back to another Zoom meeting to discuss what they've done, tried, or learned.?

?You'd think this "two meetings" system would be rife with people scheduling calls to get multiple chances at free coaching.?But weirdly enough, it doesn't seem to.?Basically, they self-select in, or out, which is fine.

My experience??

People will tell you when they are interested.?They will let you know.?Give them a chance to see that you’re the kind of person who doesn’t sit around talking about how much you’ll help.?

Just start helping.

Ultimately, there is only one reason people choose to buy expensive things, and that is because they have come to trust.

The earlier we start earning that trust, the easier it is to convert.

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Thank you for your service to the planet!

Ellen and Mark

Supertight LinkedIn