Potatoes, Eggs, Bacon, Croissant, Orange Juice, Dolphins.
See what I did there?
Your brain started looking for a pattern: Food, Breakfast Foods … then, BAM. Disruption.
Want to get someone’s attention?
Disrupt patterns AND their expectations.
Our brains are, say it with me now, FUTURE PREDICTION MACHINES and we’re constantly surveying and assessing for what will happen next. Our ability to predict the future is what has kept us alive for millions of years.
It’s also what keeps your prospects from answering your calls or responding to your emails.
It’s not exactly that YOU are predictable, it’s that the salespeople that have come before you have been predictable (and not particularly good) at doing their jobs of being valuable, helpful, and NOT wasting a buyer’s time.
We “pay for the sins” of the sellers that have gone before us.
And, knowing that the opinion of salespeople is generally “unimpressive” we have a tough battle to get buyers to answer our calls, return our emails, and respond to our messages.
We can disrupt the pattern of poor selling by showing up with –
- Better effort in our messages, outreach, and preparation
- Clearly demonstrating the value we offer and why we believe we can help customers
- Persistent integrity – showing up consistently with no gimmicks or manipulation
Take a look at your Go To Market process and ask yourself a few questions:
- Would this get MY attention?
- Do I sound like everyone else who might be reaching out to my future customers?
- Does my outreach reflect my interest, my value, some creativity, and that I did my homework?
- Am I doing enough to truly EARN this prospect’s time?
Notice I didn’t suggest sending dancing monkeys with balloons that spell out your prospect’s name.
Disrupting their expectations of what a salesperson will do is about being a better salesperson. Gimmicks and manipulation or crazy antics are one-time stunts. How do you follow up those plays?
Set the tone and “Preview” what it’s like to work with you by disrupting their negative or neutral expectations.
Until next time, stop hoping and start selling.
-sks
PS – Find out how we arm sales teams with the skills to EARN buyers’ attention and engage them in a phenomenal experience – click here!
