Selling in a Crisis

20Message Matters

Getting prospects to meet with you in volatile times is your biggest sales challenge. They're going to be stressed out, overwhelmed, focused on survival, feeling poor, and working overtime just to stay above water. The last thing they're thinking about is meeting with a salesperson.

It is a real challenge to craft a sequence of messages to use over multiple prospecting touches. It's hard work and time consuming. This is exactly why most salespeople don't take the time and put in the effort to develop effective prospecting messages.

In a crisis, you can't afford for your message to fall flat. If your message comes across like a cheesy, generic marketing script, you are dead in the water. No one will engage and you won't get meetings. When you choose to shortcut messaging, you are making an intentional choice to fail.

Message matters! When you interrupt a prospect in a crisis, you will not be welcomed with open arms. You'll have just seconds to say something that will convince them to give up their most precious resource–time–to meet with you before they hang up, slam the door in your face, delete your message, or block you.

“So, what do I say?” is the most common question from sales professionals about messaging. Everyone wants magic words. There aren't any.

To craft relevant messages, simply stand in your prospect's shoes. Consider how you might feel in their situation. Consider their emotions. Connect to how they are feeling. When I teach messaging, I start ...