Early birds…
Have you ever tried pulling a worm out of it’s hole in the ground? You may have a bit of it’s head (or tail - I can never work out how they are put together) and you hold on to it so that it doesn’t bury itself underground. Pull too hard and it stretches until the poor thing snaps; you feel bad and the worm is dead. Pull gently and the the worm comes out although fairly reluctantly. However, if you take too long you burn the worm with the heat from your fingers.
Okay, so I had a weird childhood but the point of my little story is that worms are like customers (bear with me on this one). The hard hitting sell doesn’t usually work and the key to success is getting the customer to feel comfortable with you.
Most of the time, you have already won or lost the deal as soon as they look at you. Your customer probably has little or no technical know-how and therefore will probably be someone who just wants to feel comfortable that they are relying on you. Here are a few pointers I’ve picked up along the way which may help you too:
- Don’t blind them with science, cut out the acronymns because if they don’t know they won’t ask.
- If you’re enthused, they will be too. Sell what you use and you’ll make it a lot easier all round.
- If you don’t know, then don’t blag. It’s okay to go away and find the answer.
- You may be a techie, but as long as you are in business, you will be marketing yourself without realising. Understand this and realise that it’s YOU that represents the business to the customer and you’ll think differently about how best to present yourself.
- Don’t spread yourself too thinly. Buying up sizeable databases isn’t the answer; it takes too much effort and money. Networking at local end-user events is a good place to start and it’ll help you understand what makes your potential client ‘tick’ without forcing a sales pitch on them.
- Focus on your key skills and borrow other partners in the community for those which you lack.
If you get these right then you’ll be like the rain that patters on the grass to bring up the worms naturally. That way, there’ll be no chance of pinging worm tails!
Good luck!