Building Your Platform To Make Selling Easy(ier)

Last week, I got called by a CPA firm who wanted training for their people. This you must know: CPAs are not very good at selling. It’s not that they don’t have the expertise. That’s not it at all.

It’s that selling spooks them. It’s not in their comfort zone.

So, when I get a call from a professional services firm (or any company), I always start with one simple question: Do you have a platform?

After the weird looks they give me, I go on to educate them to what a “Platform” is.

Platform: definition, A position in the market that you occupy where people look to you for expertise.

Physical Platform

Just as you would speak at a conference from a podium (platform) the same thing applies here. In the physical world, it is you speaking from the stage, on a topic that you have some degree of expertise in, where all eyes are on you.

There, you don’t have to fight for attention. You ARE the show.

In the sales & marketing world, your platform could be a variety of things. LinkedIN is a platform. Any kind of social media could be a platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Your email list is a platform. A podcast is a platform.

Simply, it is a place where you command attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

Your platform is a positioning tool that raises you above the din of competition and market confusion.

You Have One Right Now, But You May Not Know It

Yes, you already have a platform. You have email addresses of people who you’ve connected with over the years. That’s where I would begin.

TIP: Assemble the email addresses in an email software program. Mail Chimp is a good one (free for less than 2000 names). Find a simple template (in Mail Chimp) that suits you. Put those names and  addresses into Mail Chimp. And then, monthly, send out an email of a Frequently Asked Question that you get in your business.

Here’s how that might sound:

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Hi (first name),

Hope all is well with you!

The purpose of my email today is to share with you a common question I get when I meet with people interested in (x). Then, I’ll share my answer.

“How do I reconcile the high start up cost of this product?”

This is an awesome question and one that certainly has an answer. When people ask me that, I suggest they look at the “economics” of such a purchase – rather than merely the purchase price.

You should consider implementation cost, cost of the original problem you’re hoping to solve, financial benefit if you solve it and it remains solved for the next 5 years, and the opportunity cost if you were to use that money to solve another problem.

After you do that, you will have a better sense of whether the ROI is there for this purchase. It may be. or, it may not be. But either way, you will be looking intelligently at the entire picture, rather than just purchase price.

Hope that helps! If you have a question about this product that I can answer in my monthly emails, shoot them my way.

Or, if you just want to call me, I can be reached at 444.444.4444.

Regards,

Sales Person.

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So, there you have it. I’ve written the first email that will go toward nourishing your current platform (email connections.) You take it from here!