The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [37]
I call this the science of setting the market’s buying criteria. Basically it means that every buyer can be taught how to be a better buyer of your type of product or ser vice. Using the carpet cleaning example, the buyer calls in with loose or few buying criteria at all. The salesperson then resets the buying criteria by educating that consumer about the EPA studies on the importance of clean carpets to the quality of the air and life in your home. You can do this for your company with profound results. To further explain, let me introduce you to a powerful concept that really tunes up the strategist in all of us:
The Stadium Pitch
Imagine that I could put you on stage in a giant stadium where the entire audience is composed of your most perfect prospects, giving you the opportunity to present to them all at once.
First question: Are you ready right now? Could you walk out on that stage and present to every one of them and do it perfectly?
I give speeches all over the world where I ask this question. Usually about three to six people raise their hands (out of 1,000 in the audience). When I drill down with the few who raise their hands, I find that they are usually not ready, but sometimes I find someone who is ready. They’ve got a killer stadium pitch and it’s expertly tuned. I compliment them, saying, “Wow, you are really prepared.” The response comes back: “Thank you for the compliment, but I have to thank you because I got one of your training products years ago.”
The audience will laugh, thinking the person has to be working for me, but, boy, does it make a point about the strategist. As you will soon see, a well-prepared stadium pitch will enable you to attract a lot more prospects and close a higher percentage of tire kickers into actual buyers.
The first thing you need to think about and plan is who the ideal person would be in your audience. For example, my client who sells products for manufacturing production lines would work for months to build their case with the production manager—the one on the front line of production—only to have a higher-level executive say no to the increased costs. So I shifted their entire strategy to selling to the owner or CEO of the company. So in their stadium, they would want CEOs. Who is in your stadium, ideally? The challenge is how well you can keep that person in the audience.
Right now, take a few minutes and write your stadium pitch title.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE TITLE OF TODAY’S TALK IS:
Twenty years of research has shown me that there’s always a very small percentage of folks “buying now.” Three percent. I gave a lecture recently in front of 1,200 CEOs and said: “Let me prove this to you. How many people in the audience are in the market for a car right now?” About 30 people raised their hands. “How about tires?” A different 30 raised their hands. “How about furniture?” Thirty hands up. “How about home improvements?” Yet another 30 hands. “Office equipment?” You see my point. About 3 percent of potential buyers at any given time are buying now. Right now. That percentage drives all commerce.
My research further concludes that 7 percent of the population is open to the idea of buying. This is the percentage who may be dissatisfied with their current item or provider and are not opposed to change, but who may not yet be “buying now.” The remaining 90 percent fall into one of three equal categories. The top third are what I call “not thinking about it.” They are not against it, not for it, but just “not thinking about it.” So if you sell office equipment and you ran an ad, this 30 percent would not respond because they’re just not thinking about office equipment right now.
The next third are what I call “think they’re not interested.” So at first pass, they are not neutral like the first third. They would reply, “I don’t think I’m interested in office equipment.” And then the