How Memorable Are You?

“How memorable are you?” That was a question that plagued me over the last few days. Who will remember you after the trade event wraps up and the circus moves to the next town. I am coming off of two back-to-back events over the last week. CompTIA in Florida, BTA in Las Vegas. Both events were outstanding and more than met my expectations and goals. The Blue Man Group show was pure icing on the cake and definitely memorable! Thank you, BTA. Each event provided new opportunities, new connections, new educational insights and opportunities to get caught up with old friends. And as these things tend to do, the events provided opportunities to learn from more than just the session presenters. In the spirit of learning, applying and passing along insights, here are a few of my observations from the week:

1. One bad interaction with a guest (customer) can have a far greater impact than a momentarily dissatisfied customer. What starts as a ripple can become a long lasting and powerful wave. Do the right thing and do it immediately. The right thing at the wrong time (delayed) is still the wrong thing.
2. Weather changes, have a plan. Kudos to CompTIA for the rapid venue change when the rain rolled in. Always have a back-up plan. Bring in an alligator, snake and birds if you need to.
3. Screen speakers for content, relevance and presentation ability in advance. Know who is representing your brand and how they will represent it.
4. Peak performance requires fuel and rest. Get both. I know it’s great hanging out late night with your people. After all, everybody is at the bar so that’s where the business gets done. Really? If you miss the opening bell the next morning, you’ll be behind all day. Winners never choose to start from behind.
5. Words matter.

We could discuss each of the first four (and possibly debate number four), but it’s number five that I want to dig into here in an effort to help you increase your sales effectiveness. My contention is that if you can’t get out of the gate, if you can’t engage someone in a conversation that 1) creates opportunity for further discussions and, 2) is memorable or, 3) comes to a clear realization that there is no need for a future discussion in the foreseeable future, the rest really doesn’t matter.

Quick question: have you ever had one of those great conversations at a show or conference and just know, just feel it deep down in your gut that there is an opportunity to do something spectacular with this new prospect only to log 100 follow up attempts to get back in touch even though they suggested you follow up with them?! Why are they suddenly missing in action? You had such a great conversation only the week before. Top sales reps know there are three possibilities for the prospect to go MIA at call back:

1. The prospect has completely forgotten who you are.
2. The prospect has reassessed the relative importance of what you offer.
3. The prospect was never really all that interested in the first place.

While the above three are symptoms, the root cause is likely to be:

1. You weren’t memorable. You talked, sounded and appeared just like everyone else. You suffer from Corporate Marketing Speak.
2. You hit a hot button in the “provide pleasure” category, meaning that they got excited about the pleasure you might bring BUT not enough to overcome the pain of going through the process, making a decision, implementing, and executing. Never underestimate the prospect’s pain avoidance mechanism. Perceived personal pain will often trump corporate pleasure, particularly in the hours and days between your first discussion and your follow up call.
3. They fed off of your passion but you didn’t provide any meat to keep them leaning in after you and your passion moved on.

These three are significant challenges that can be addressed quite effectively by doing a few simple things. And this is where our number five from above, “Words Matter”, comes into play.

If you want to be memorable, if you have even the slightest desire to be remembered in a positive way, words absolutely matter. Now, I don’t mean that every word you choose has to be perfect. On the other hand, choose the wrong one or choose the wrong set of words (message) and it can have a devastating impact. At the earliest prospecting stage, there are a series of words (questions) and a series of words (responses) that are critically important. THEIR question: “So, tell me about you/your company, etc.” YOUR response: do you have words (there are times to be silent but this is not one of them) and are they the right ones?

I know, you think this is a fairly benign question and in the big picture, the answer really isn’t that important. Everybody knows how to answer that question! Right? The importance of the specific words and the message you choose for your response will make or break your follow up conversations. Your follow up conversations are what add quality prospects to your pipeline, which in turn fuels your sales success. Please don’t think this is a light-weight issue or that, “others may struggle with but I sure don’t”. I am willing to bet (I am still in Las Vegas so I probably can bet on this) that if you have ever been asked the question, you have fumbled the response at least once. I know I certainly have! If you run a sales team of say, five, there will be three to six answers to, “Tell me about what you do.” Furthermore, I am also willing to bet that if you asked your three closest business buddies (the ones you are honest with and are honest with you) this question, some of them won’t have a very good answer and they may not be that impressed with yours either. Seriously, go ahead and try it. Give them a call now. You can read the rest of this later. Try it with your sales reps, your friends, and what the heck; try it with your competitors! Get one of their reps on the line and ask them, “So, tell me what you do?” Or if you want to send them crying back to their sales manager, ask, “So, tell me what makes you different than the other 800 companies that do the same thing you do.” It’s not pretty, grown men and women have been known to cry.

Industry events, chamber of commerce mixers, any kind of networking gathering are the perfect places to give this a try. Walk up to someone and say, “Hi Mary, what makes you guys different?” Now, some will have this down. And it usually goes a lot like this, “Well, ummm, we’ve uh, we’ve been in business for 190 years and specialize in uh, well, delivering unique end-to-end solutions to our customers’ most compelling business challenges.” It took Mary a minute, but once she got warmed up, she did better than most and fell back on the corporate training line. Don’t blame Mary; blame her company for not helping her understand that:

1. People care about what you can do for them. It’s human nature and it’s ok. A well-crafted response will help draw in people who are possible prospects and keep you from wasting time with people who simply don’t need what you offer.
2. Prospects have to have some understanding of what you do. Quit trying to be tricky and describe your toilet bowl cleaner as an end-to-end porcelain cleansing system using the latest and most advanced Nano-technology. If you have an amazing toilet cleaner let them know it!
3. Prospects want to know whom you are already helping. This is called “social proof.” Be sure to tell them who enjoys an enriched a life as a customer of yours.
4. Prospects are jaded. Hyperbole and nebulous statements create more MIA calls than just about anything.
5. Leave Ben Stein at home. Show some emotion—no one wants to talk to a boring robot. If you can’t have a conversation, you are not likely to have much selling success.
6. The response should be practiced to the point of perfection. There can be no hesitation.

No matter how wonderfully engaging you were with your answer to their question, there must be a specific reason for the call. Without a compelling reason to have that next follow up action, friends, it just will not happen or if it does, it’s on attempt number 92 and you connected by accident.

I can’t write the exact version of your introductory pitch. I can, however, give you a few words that are guaranteed to help you move from show meeting to follow up call. Ready? Here goes, “John, it sounded like you see some value in what we talked about. What time can we chat next Thursday when we are both back in the office?” Yes, the words that matter the most at this point are 1) your ask and 2) their commitment. If you develop a strong opener that covers some of what you do, whom you do it for, a way to your pain-killer for their discomfort, and why you are really good at it, you will be far ahead of the pack.

One more thing, the next time someone asks you, “Ok, give me your elevator pitch,” say, “Thanks for asking! Let’s go,” and start to walk them to the elevator. You are guaranteed to have a better, a more human and certainly a more memorable conversation than the next person who tells them how they’re the biggest, the best, the oldest, the most innovative, the… you get the picture.