The Right Questions

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Right Questions

From Art Sobczak:

This Week's Tip:
How to Cut Their Costs and
Raise Your Sales

Greetings!

An entire special section in the Wall Street
Journal focused on businesses cutting costs.

A USA Today article discussed how
more people are opting for credit cards that
just don't give airline or other travel points,
both those that can cut mortgage payments,
or reduce their monthly interest expenses.

And as you likely have experienced, buyers
everywhere have been instructed to squeeze
their suppliers for the best deal.

Yes, a hot issue today is cutting costs.

And, any biz school student can tell you that
to increase profits, you can increase revenues,
or, you guessed it, cut costs.

Is that something you can affect?

How do you help companies or individuals
control or cut costs? (Which, in turn, increases
profits.)

How are you doing it?

Of course, before you go crazy with the
idea, it's important to understand whether
your market is interested in cutting costs.
If so, capitalize on it.

Here are some specific ways to do so.

During Conversations With People Other
Than Your Decision Maker
As I always preach, get information from
anyone and everyone before speaking with
your decision maker. So, ask questions
of admin assistants, others in your buyer's
department, or anyone for that matter:

"What are the initiatives in your division/
group/department? Cutting costs? Increasing
productivity?"

"Has there been an emphasis on cutting
spending lately?"

Then, if you learn, or know, that cost
cutting and expense control is important,
you can work that into your call strategy.
Here are ways to do so.

In Your Opening Statements
Based on what you know about your prospects
and customers, you could use words and phrases
like these. Think of how you could customize
these to to fit in what you sell and what you
could do for them.

For example, you could say,

"Ms. Prospect we help companies to ..."

...cuts the costs of...

...reduce expenses on...

...trim the fat from...

...lower the payments on...

...lessen the...

...control the costs of...

...reduce interest rates on ...

...eliminate the waste of...

...minimize the number of ...

...prevent increases in ...

...pay less for...

...get discounts on...

...increase the amount of ____ they get,
for the same price they're paying now.

...reduce spending on...

...delay increases in...

...consolidate the bills for...

...take advantage of credits for...

...reduce their debt...

Of course, there are many other ways to
communicate how you can help control costs.
Saving time is another major area. Think of
ways you can include that as well.

Questioning
In your questioning, it's important to help
understand where they're bleeding.

Then, open the wound wider.

"What's that costing you?"

"What other costs are you incurring?"

"How is that affecting overall profits?"

The language of cost is universal. It touches
a nerve. If you can affect it, and it's something
that is important to them, that's a recipe for
your sales success.

Go and Have Your Best Week Ever!

Art