“Leave that to marketing” said my hack of a sales manager as he awkwardly gave me a pat on the back.
It was like he’d read a management book in the 80’s and that what it told him to do when someone needed reassuring.
He flipped up the collar on his over coat, turned to me and as he left the buildings front exit he stated “You’re here to close deals. Nothing more, nothing less”.
I mentally gave him my middle finger, uttered some profanity under my breath and went along with my plan regardless.
I wanted to create an offer so irresistible that I didn’t have to sell.
An offer so good that it would do all the work for me…
Ignore that sales manager
He didn’t last long in management anyway.
Not in the company I was working for. If you didn’t perform you were out the door faster than a buyer can say ‘what’s your best price’.
As the world gets noisier it’s increasingly down to individual sales professionals rather than marketing to start carving out and then refining their own messaging to stand out amongst the competition.
It’s not just your own industry you’re competing with, it’s all of them.
The prospects you’re attempting to sell to have their attention pulled from emails on their phone one minute, to social media then Netflix the next.
Really they just want to be watching viral Youtube videos on loop.
If you’ve ever gotten caught up in a 5 hour Youtube binge you’ll understand how easy it is to start your way down the rabbit hole and how little you get done.
If you are going to break through your sales email, phone call, big eyed face to face pitch can’t be just ‘interesting’.
‘Interesting’ is everywhere.
It’s in abundance.
It’s free.
Your offer can’t be anything but irresistible.
If the prospect doesn’t take you up on it there and then, they likely never will.
You’ll be forgotten in an instant.
3 seconds is all you have
If your offer takes more than 3 seconds for me to read, listen or watch then I’m going to ignore it.
You are not important to me (at this point).
I’d rather click on that next Youtube video with the women in little bikini on the cover image and the alluring title of “World’s fastest XYZ” or “Best XYZ compilation of 2015”.
Never underestimate the power of a bikini to side-track a bloke’s thoughts and actions.
According to the book ‘The Irresistible Offer – How to sell your product or service in 3 seconds or less’ we have to answer the following 4x questions near instantly on connecting with a prospect if they are going to pay us any attention –
1) What are you trying to selling me?
2) How much?
3) Why should I believe you?
4) What’s really in it for me?
I guarantee your usual pitch is missing out on at least one of these…
THE most important step in selling
“The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.” Zig Ziglar
You have to appreciate the gravity of the situation.
Your product is great.
Your service is great.
You’re a frigging great guy.
Your customers love you. Women love you. Your dog thinks you’re Jesus on earth!
Your prospect doesn’t care.
They’re more interested in the random reality TV star that they’re currently stalking on Instagram.
“Hey look, Marie Fitzgerald just had a boob job only 3 months after having a baby and releasing a sex tape”
That is what you’re competing with.
If your pitch doesn’t grab the prospect’s attention the rest of your sales funnel is redundant. You don’t get to close.
Your initial offer must be so enchanting that the prospect –
- Understands it
- HAS to act on it, right now
These are the 9 steps to making that happen.
A) What are you trying to sell me?
You must explain what your product or service is in very simple terms.
B) How much is it?
You must explain how much the item costs.
It must instantly seem fair to the buyer otherwise things do not compute and you will be ignored.
£1 is a fair offer for a bottle of water.
£30,000 is a fair offer for a new car.
If the price doesn’t match up with your product on first glance then you need to really rethink how you can spin this so it does.
C) Why should I believe you?
You are a nobody.
(Not really, I like you. You’re reading my blog)
But to the prospect, at first, you are nothing to them.
You must either –
- Explain why the prospect should trust you
- Mitigate all the risk from the offer
D) What’s in it for me?
“Sure that product would be good for the company I work for but I don’t really like my job. How are you going to make my life easier or make me more money?”
That is what the prospect is thinking when you pitch them.
This isn’t a case of ‘sell the benefits not the features’. It goes deeper than that.
In your 3 second offer you need to explain how your product is going to –
- Make them more money
- Give them more free time
- Get them laid
People will say otherwise. I’m sure you guys will comment below on this post to tell me otherwise.
But to 99% of people, nothing else matters.
E) Must be high ROI
There are so many average offers being flung around.
So many half price sales and buy one get 6 free deals to be had.
Your irresistible offer must offer a genuinely high ROI. It must be an essential purchase.
There is no sales trickery here. If you’re offer isn’t of high ROI you need to either –
- Find a new job or product to sell
- ADD VALUE as a sales professional to make it high ROI
F) Keep it short
Are you in a hurry to close more deals this month?
The prospect is in a hurry to do their job, get home, eat, play with their kids and then spend time with their partner.
You must respect their time when you make your initial offer.
Keep it short.
G) Be immediate
How many times have you bookmarked a website and never gone back?
Your offer must give immediate value and have a clear cut off point at which point the prospect loses out.
H) Increase believability
“I’m going to give you £5,000 for every £5 you can give me right now.”
That is an amazing offer right?
It’s short, I know how much it is, I know what’s in it for me …
The issue is I don’t know what is in it for you.
It feels like a scam.
Generally if an offer seems too good to be true most people will ignore it on a subconscious level and not even register it in their conscious brain.
Sure bargains are great when we do find them but that happens when we’re activity searching for something.
If you are pitching a prospect who hasn’t before shown interest in your products or services then it’s more effective to give them a more believable offer that seems fair on first glance (you can wow them afterwards).
There are a number of things you can do to make your offer seem more believable –
- Give proof – Who else has seen a good ROI from your offer?
- Personal credibility – Who can you use as a referral of your levels of authority/trust
- Qualifications – Both from the company and yourself
- Awards – There are industry awards for pretty much everything
- Logic – Explain why your price is low or high. Show them that it’s win-win and you’re not out to rip them off.
I) The end result
This is key.
our prospect doesn’t want a new CRM, they want to save time when they’re sick of looking through pieces of paper and post it notes when they want to contact John who rang in next week.
Your offer must give the final result.
Some irresistible examples
From a high level perspective these are some of the most irresistible offers ever created.
How many of the points above can you see in each of them? –
- Domino’s – Get your pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free
- FEDEX – When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
- Safeway – Everything you want from a store, and a little bit more.
- Duracell – No ordinary battery looks like it or last like it.
From a sales person perspective your irresistible offer might look something more like –
- I’m certified by Microsoft to offer you their award winning CRM package that will guarantee to save you 4 hours per week or your money back.
- It takes a 3 minute phone call to place an advert in our industry leading magazine, I take care of everything for you.
- Our patented recruitment software will secure you a sales professional with a proven track record. I don’t get paid until they have hit target.
My personal pitch
I worked in medical device sales when that manager gave me the short-sighted pat on the back.
I took a morning off that week and racked my brains as to a high ROI, believable and clear pitch I could offer to my prospects when I first met them.
This happened long before we’d shared coffee dates to narrow down their unique problems, built rapport and all that other good stuff.
It was designed to get me through the door.
“You already know we sell the industries safest surgical technology. But I’m the rep that will drive over and spend time with you any day of the week, rain, wind or snow”
The main risk for a hospital wasn’t that the equipment wouldn’t work (it’s all very strictly regulated for safety) it was the reliability of the sales professional themselves which is why I took that angle.
Why not sure your irresistible offer in the comments below?
