Mastering the Art of Success
So you definitely need to have a system. I call it the Four S’s.
For example, in a half-hour discovery meeting, you need time to devote
to each part of the four components of the discovery meeting.
The first part is when you walk in, you have Small talk. You thank
the person for his or her time, there are pleasantrie s; you are breaking
the ice. That should be one to three minutes max.
The next step after that is Showing off—what y ou know about your
prospect, the company, and so forth. You must show off both verbally
and v isually. It can be as simple as going to the prospect’s company’s
Web site and making color photocopies of their “about us section” or
th eir front landing page (home page). You’re showing the prospect that
you have actually done your due diligence in learning about his or her
company. You want to highlight areas on that page you print off—it
could be a president’s message, “about us,” or a page about the
company’s products. You don’t talk about it—you put it out there and
you show that y ou have done your due diligence. That again is about
one to three minutes.
After that, go back to Stating Your Unique Selling Proposition.
Even though you informed the prospect on the phone about your
unique selling proposition, you want to tell it again. For example, “I
am Mark Bernard from Bernard Training Solutions—” then state your
unique selling proposition—who you are, what you do, h ow you do
it with outcomes for the client. This is one to three minut es.
We’ve just gone through three phases and if we use the maximum
time, that’s nine minutes—three minutes for small talk, three minut es
for showing off, and three minutes for stating your unique selling
proposition. There are another twenty-one minutes left. The fourth S is is
Start Asking Questions. If you’re looking for joint ventures or you’re
looking at whatever busi ness you are in, you need to ask proper
questions rather than going into a discovery meeting with your own
agenda. That is the number one mistake—going in with an agenda.
Some of the questions might include: Are you happy with the close
ratio of your team? I notice you are using such and such product. How
is that going for you? How do you feel about outside vendors? When
was the last time you actually brought in an outside vendor? How do
you like this particular product compared to this product? Get the