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Is Your Solution Intentional?

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I got the proposal via email a week after the sales person and I had talked at length. It was well designed. It was well laid out. And it came with a fabulous letter introducing it. (I presume all from some template that a higly paid consultant had devised).

BUT…..

It didn’t hit the mark because the solution he proposed was a random effort to solve my problem–which, of course, got me thinking (everything gets me thinking).

His solution was random and not intentional. The reason is that it had no direct link to my expressed pain. He never connected the dots for me. Therefore when I looked at the solution he was recommending…and the price…it didn’t “hit the spot.”

What he should have done: He should have crafted a proposal that went down item-by-item through the problems I had and the compelling reasons for changing. Beside each of those, he should have crafted a well-written sentence explaining the benefits of his solution in solving those problems. Then his solution would have become intentional. It would have intended to solve the problem, rather than intended to make the sale.

The paradox? He would have gotten the sale instead of a “let me think this over.”

Be intentional–not random.

The Presentation Step

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When you make a presentation, after you’ve qualified the prospect, you have to give him insight into your thinking. Especially important when you are presenting an enterprise solution (big ticket sale).

Your customer is buying “how you think.” So what better way to express how you think than to demonstrate several things? a) How you approach the solution to the problem he said he has, b) how you will execute the proposal you’re giving him, down to the detail of step-by-step how you will implement,  c) what happens when the unexpected occurs (we keep hoping it won’t, but it always does) and d) how you will measure whether the problem is solved or not.

Many other notions in the presentation step? Of course. But remember my saying: “people don’t have time to connect the dots for you.” You have to do it. And you do it in the presentation step.