Blow Your Competitors Out of The Water

You’ve heard it before – the bankers who are STILL calling on clients asking hideously inept questions such as, “What kind of things are you looking for in a bank?” or “Tell me about your business,” or “What kind of things are keeping you up at night?”   UGH.

These slick and inept approaches from the 1980s sales training programs were somewhat effective back then, but they really don’t stack up in this competitive market—and they certainly don’t get the attention of small businesses who are running fast and running hard and really don’t have time to chit chat.

If you think today’s small business owner is going to stop and humor your setup line about what keeps him or her up at night—well, you probably haven’t tried it since jelly shoes and stirrup pants were in.

Instead, make sure that every time you start a conversation with a client, you have a list of stacked pains that will blow away the prospect—make them stop everything they are doing and spend time with you because they can’t imagine NOT hearing what you have to say.

“I may be too late because it’s clear you have a good banking relationship. “Tell me, when your bank sits down with you each year in opportunity meetings with their CPA and find ways to increase income and decrease expenses, what have been some of the best financial outcomes from that meeting?

We’re just twenty seconds in—and who on EARTH is going to hang up on that?

That’s a good start. They know their bank doesn’t do that. Great. But don’t stop there. You then want to have about 5-6 more of these—each one uncovering hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of economic impact.

The point is this: You have one minute to massively disrupt the monologue playing in the small business owner’s head—something like I am too busy to talk to you. Know that the old sales training model is dead and that those using it are easily knocked out of the water by those using these far more formidable and sophisticated strategies.

Be formidable, be of profound service—and watch the competition choke on your dust.

Roxanne Emmerich