You may use this image in your ezine or website if you choose to publish my article. Click here to see the picture full-sized.--- Alan Rigg

Recently I received a prospecting voice mail message from a 
salesperson. The salesperson explained his company was "the 
leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions" and he encouraged 
me to visit his company's website. That was it - that was the 
"meat" of the voice mail message.

If you received that salesperson’s voice mail message, what would 
go through your mind? Do you think it might it be a question 
like, "What the heck is a Microsoft hosted Exchange solution?" Do 
you think the voice mail message would inspire you to call the 
salesperson back?

Why did the salesperson's voice mail message fail to accomplish 
the desired end result? Because it focused on a SOLUTION rather 
than a PROBLEM.

If your prospecting calls and related voice mail messages talk 
about a solution, in effect you are assuming that your prospects 
are already aware of the problems that your solution can solve 
for them. If your prospects are not able to relate your solution 
back to their own specific problems, your message will probably 
just "bounce off".

If you use industry-specific jargon to describe your solution, 
you are making the additional assumption that your prospects are 
familiar with the jargon that you are using. If they aren't, it 
further reduces your chances of attracting their attention!

How could this salesperson restructure his voice mail message to 
be more effective? Instead of talking about his solution, he 
could talk about one or more of the problems that can be solved 
by using a hosted Exchange service. A revised voice mail message 
might sound something like this:

   "We help small companies look like big companies to their 
   prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all 
   sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core 
   businesses, which accelerates growth and profitability. If 
   you'd like learn how we do this, please give me a call."

This salesperson could further enhance his message by including 
a specific QUANTIFIED IMPACT that his company's services have 
produced for customers. Here is what it might sound like if we 
add a quantified impact to the previously revised voice mail 
message:

   "We help small companies look like big companies to their 
   prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all 
   sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core 
   businesses. This has helped some of our customers reduce 
   their operating costs by as much as 30% in just six months. 
   If you'd like learn how they were able to achieve these 
   results, please give me a call."

Do you see the difference between the revised messages and, "We 
are the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions; please 
visit our website"? Do you agree that the revised messages are 
likely to capture more prospects' attention and produce more 
returned phone calls?

There are other advantages to focusing your prospecting messages 
on problems rather than solutions. If you talk about a solution, 
your message will have the most appeal for prospects that are 
already actively looking for that specific solution. But, do you 
think those (few) prospects are just sitting around waiting for 
you to call? Or, do you think they might be doing some proactive 
research? In fact, isn't it possible they might already have some 
price quotes in hand? If they are that far along in the buying 
process, how does it impact your chances of winning their 
business? If you do manage to win their business, how profitable 
is it likely to be? Wouldn't you agree that in this situation 
your solution is more likely to be perceived as a commodity, and 
the business is likely to go to a low bidder?

Contrast this scenario to a properly managed, problem-based 
prospecting approach. If you are successful in attracting a 
prospect's interest by talking about the business problems that 
you can solve and the quantified impacts that your company has 
delivered to customers, the natural next step is to ask the 
prospect to identify which specific problems pertain to their 
business. Once the prospect prioritizes their problems, you can 
ask more questions to help them quantify the impact of these 
problems on their business. If the quantified impacts are 
substantial enough, it becomes quite easy to justify a very 
profitable price for your solution.

If you want to improve your prospecting effectiveness, stop 
leading with solutions in your prospecting calls and voice mail 
messages. Instead, lead with the problems that you can help 
prospects solve, and (ideally) one or more of the quantified 
impacts that your company has produced for customers. This type 
of problem-focused prospecting approach will attract the interest 
of a larger percentage of your prospects, produce higher close 
rates, and generate more profitable sales.
 

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat 
the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform 
and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, 
helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by 
implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing 
sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales 
management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.