Sell once or sell twice, you decide

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You can’t be all things to all people.

Regardless of how broad the appeal of your product or service seems to you to be, you’ve got to pinpoint who you set appointments with to sell to, or be prepared to sell at least twice.

By “selling twice,” here’s what I mean. With people or companies who are not currently spending any money on what you offer (”non-users”), you’ve got to first convince them to start spending the money, to free up funds from a budget. I call this asking people to spend “new money.” Then, you’ve got to convince them to spend it with you over any other options that exist. Depending on how complex the decision-making process or your solution is, you may have any even longer path to follow, if multiple presentations are necessary. In short, unless what you’re selling is monumentally innovative and simplifies a process or clearly reduces costs, you are in for a much longer sales cycle.

Or, you could spend your time with people who are already buying some version of your product or service (”users”). Then help them discover how your approach is more streamlined, cost effective, personally satisfying, risk avoiding, or revenue producing. You are now asking a person or company to simply shift where they send their money, instead of asking them to generate money for your solution. You’re simply changing their focus from doing things their way, to doing things your way.

Where this becomes most important is in prospecting. Regardless of what you’re selling, people are in one of these camps: user or non-user. Your sales efforts should be adjusted according to which camp they’re in — one key message and set of foundation questions for non-users, and a separate key message and set of questions for users.

[tags]pinpointing, targeted+selling[/tags]