Summary of previous episodes:
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Table of Contents
*** 1. The Contact: Lead Generation ***
The ’90s. Paolo, a colleague of mine, contacts me at the coffee machine asking if I was interested in earning more. He has a project to tell me about.
Intrigued, I ask the classic “what is it about?”.
But he doesn’t want to go too far. He says that if I want to know something more, he can give me an envelope with information, recommending that I bring it back the next day.
I accept. So, I become a “lead”.
But how interested am I really? How potential am I right now for the project?
The task of finding out is up to the envelope that he has just given me.
*** 2. The envelope: lead conversion with marketing automation ***
The envelope contains an audiocassette and a small brochure. The contents leverage on dissatisfactions and desires for improvement, and paint the scenario of WHAT I could achieve, without revealing HOW.
In short, the envelope is the tool to automatically skim the leads, without the need of Paolo’s presence: it eliminates curious leads and converts the most interested into “qualified leads”.
The next day, when I give back the envelope to Paolo, I tell him that the material is interesting, but I still don’t understand what it is. I want to know more.
Bingo!
The envelope worked: it converted me from a simple lead to a “qualified lead”.
Now it’s up to Paolo to tell me about the project: he will have to pass from lead generation to the sale.
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Today, the whiteboard: from lead generation to sales
– “I can’t talk about it on the spot. Meet me at your or my house and I’ll tell you everything. It’ll take an hour.”
We set it.
Paolo comes to my house the next day. He even has a portable blackboard. He starts talking me about the idea. But once again it doesn’t immediately get to the heart of the project itself: he first asks me if I have a wish, or even a big dream to realize.
He wants to shift my attention to the benefits that the product can give me.
Once I’ve written my needs/objectives/dreams on one corner of the board, the rest of the presentation takes up the contents of the envelope and develops them: it talks about concepts like economic independence, automatic income, royalty income instead of linear income, and how much you can earn in 2 to 5 years..
The product/project is not yet visible: just the application of the product and the benefits it can bring.
The presentation follows a script, but it has been prepared in detail and is carried out with the utmost naturalness, fitting it gradually on the key point: what I can get.
How many markers can prepare such an effective script for sales?
I remember that Paolo was also a software designer, a technician. Good at programming, but you certainly didn’t expect it as a salesman. And yet…
How many salesmen today are so methodical in preparing their sales meetings?
How many of them are able to tailor an invisible dress to the potential customer?
In the end, however, the product/project arrives.
And it’s a real surprise.
Hold on tight.
Yes, because Paolo begins to draw dots on dots on dots on the blackboard, writes numbers and percentages, and tells me that the project behind all this…
… is an opportunity for…
…multilevel marketing campaign with Amway!
Whaaaaaaat?
Paolo, upright software designer, are you asking me to enter a multilevel to sell detergents?
Will I have accepted or not to enter the project?
See you tomorrow for the answer and for the myriad of teachings behind the case history. Now I have to recover from the shock and metabolize…
P.S.:
In the case history there are strategies for positioning, target identification, lead generation, conversion and sales. All automated with a simple procedure. These are the 5 pillars of the system that we have developed for SMEs that want to sell effortlessly like Paolo.
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