A story without proof is just a story.
A story with proof becomes a convincing arguement. How do you prove what you said is true? You can use facts and numbers to substantiate your claims. You can let others testify how your product, service, or point-of-view has helped them. You could also use a demonstration; seeing is believing!
Five tips on proving your point:
Buying brings both emotion and logic into play. The decision to commit is ultimately an emotional one. However, the discovery and deciding process that precedes it is a logical course of events. Back up your story. Can you present both qualitative (perceptive) and quantitative (hard numbers and facts) evidence to substantiate what you’re asking your buyer to believe?
Think of being on trial in a court of law. Can you present your case and back it up so there is no reasonable doubt in the mind of your buyer? A witness may be credible (or not). While “facts never lie”, you can “make the numbers fit the answer.” Sigh… Stay ethical. Look for the facts and numbers that will convince every member of your jury – but above all – be honest.
Seeing is believing. Show me, make it real. As an engineer I took physics classes in college. Sometimes the book just didn’t make any sense. Luckily our professor was a bit of a showman. He had contraptions that demonstrated everything. He would even stand up on the lab bench if he had to. When I passed physics I didn’t look back – except to remember all those great demos.
A good demonstration is wonderful, but a bad demonstration is a really BAD thing. Remember “A bad demo is worse than no demo at all.” Don’t use smoke and mirrors trickery. Don’t wait until the last minute as your buyer walks in the room to get it working. Plan and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. As Jean-Louis_Gassée used to say at Apple “Demo fairies can be mean spirited.”
As your buyer, how can I “buy” it if YOU don’t “buy” it. You can make this statement both actually – as in “Do you as the seller really use your own product or service?” – and metaphorically – as in “If you don’t believe in yourself then how can anyone else believe in you.” (A favorite quote of the late NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano.)
Companies in Silicon Valley used to say “We eat our own dogfood.” Do you use what you sell? In the early days at Cisco Systems, the internal network relied on new, beta-release products. When Cisco introduced Voice Over IP telephones, ALL the regular phones were removed. If a buyer sees you trust it enough to run your business on it, you can get instant credibility.
Sometimes you need more than facts, figures, and promises; you need actual proof that what you’re selling really, really works. The best proof you as a seller can give a potential buyer doesn’t come from you, it comes from a satisfied and productive customer who bought your product, service, or point-of-view and is in LOVE with it. SMART buyers are your best sales people.
When you hear a great success story you can’t help but think “I want to be like them.” It’s a natural, human tendency that we want to be successful. We also identify with someone who tells a success story; their experience becomes a personal experience that we can both share. You understand their pain, the obstacles they overcame, and how they are now much happier.
Great convincers have the passion and skills to get others believing in their stories as much as they do. Alfred C. Fuller, the Fuller brush man promised he would “Make it work, make it last, and guarantee it no matter what.” Billy Graham has preached to several hundred million people around the world. Gerry Spence, the winning trial lawyer who could admit to the jury “I’m scared.”
One great convincer stands out – Bill Porter. Born with cerebral palsy, Bill started a job as a door-to-door salesman in 1955 for the Watkins Company. For the next 40 years, Bill walked eight to ten miles per day plying his trade, winning one “salesman of the year” award after another. Watch the 2002 made for TV movie Door to Door … it will change your life.
. . . . .
Toolbox page, Plan, Story, Proof, Experience, Guarantee posts
Comments on this entry are closed.