Hellooo McFly!!

1.21 gigawatts, a failed car experiment and a bad hair-do was all you needed.

“Well... we are considering other proposals and we’ll get back to you”

These statements make all of us salespeople wish we had a time machine.

Hellooo McFly … If you had just run this simple test of your branding, sales tactics and presentations before driving off, you would have had a better chance at success.

It’s called the pre-meeting “no one can tell us were not” test.

No one can tell us we’re not:

1. Providing the best (service) in this town, for this one reason.

• A one line value statement, that everyone in your company believes in.

• My company’s one liner is simple “We help our clients make more money and go home early.”

2. A company with solid client results that are measurable against others in our market segment.

• Are you prepared to talk about your turn-around times on delivery, service levels, accuracy percentages, low number of product defects, No. of repeat users every month?

3. Providing customer surveys with results that prove we are in the top 5 percent of our segment.

• What does your press kit look like?

4. Able to show references from clients who are loyal to us.

• Satisfied is a bad word. If you boast that your clients are satisfied and are yourself satisfied with that, Biff will stab you with a pencil.

• Satisfied clients move around, LOYAL clients stay with you as your successes are tied together.

5. Taking market actions that put us above our competitors.

• Have you rolled out unique offerings this year despite the trouble?

• Do you offer assistance to non-profits? Look at your client’s website, do they do charity work? Business partners coordinate efforts on more than just “oh pay my invoice” activities.

6. Bringing care packages/hand written thank you notes with 100 percent loop closing.

• Are you good at knocking on doors but fail when they let you in? It’s not laziness, immaturity or lack of ability, it’s fear of success and the pressure that brings with it.

7. Coming to our clients meetings prepared with a wicked show of force.

• Do you ever bring a back-office accountant, HR or legal person in with you for client services presentations?

• When the client sees a back-office staff meishi and you tell them, “everyone at our company is here to help you, we want everyone to know who pays their salary.” You are but one color after that, GOLD.

The rad thing about selling is that you can make second first impressions despite failures.

So jump back in your DeLorean, reset your flux-capacitor for next time, again.

Just be prepared for the re-entry, it can be a bit bumpy.