140 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
‘If we were able to’ questions
Regardless of the objection you could try asking this very simple question
which almost always begins with ‘if we were able to. . .’. For example:
‘If we were able to come up with a better deal, would you be happy to go
ahead?’
‘If we were able to do something about the delivery date, would you be
happy to go ahead?’
‘If we were able to guarantee results, would that make you feel more
comfortable?’
Clearly, you need to tailor the exact question around their objection.
Ask what you would need to do to get the business
Sometimes it can pay to be upfront and ask the following very open ques-
tion: ‘We’d really love to have your business. Would you mind me asking precisely
what we would have to do to make you feel comfortable about going ahead with
us?’ Very often the prospect will tell you and sometimes you will be able to
give them what they are looking for and sometimes not.
Quit after the rst ‘yes’
Now here is a real quirk. I have often experienced sales people carrying
on selling and justifying after they have already got the ‘yes’ they
wanted. They throw more into the pot and end up saying something
that makes the prospect change their mind. Get the ‘yes’ you want and
then shut up.
Writing skills and tips
Business development writing skills are about using the written word to
inuence the reaction or emotion of your customer as they read it. Here are
a few practical commonsense tips.
Numbers have power
If you are trying to write inuential and persuasive copy, bear in mind that
numbers have power. For example, instead of simply saying ‘We have expe-
rience in personal injury claims’, a rm of solicitors might put ‘We have 25
years’ specialist experience in personal injury claims, helped over 61,000
8
Personal performance business development skills 141
people get the compensation they deserve and won over £26 million worth
of compensation every year for the past ve years.’
What is there about your products and services that you can turn into
numbers?
Write conversationally
For some reason, something often happens to people when they sit down
to write promotional or marketing material. They feel compelled to adopt a
formal style and approach. Try to avoid this as much as possible. Write your
material in the chatty and anecdotal way you would speak to someone. You
want your reader to feel comfortable and that you really understand how
they think and feel.
Focus on benets and not just features
Let me explain the difference. A feature is usually some physical attribute of
your goods or services and a benet statement explains what the prospect
will get out of this feature or the problem it solves.
Of course it’s okay to list the features of your offerings, but do make sure
that you include some benets as well, so that it is clear that what you are
selling meets the needs and wants of your prospects.
Use questions in your writing
Would you like to know the 21 magic words and phrases that most inu-
ence people to buy? How would you like to transform your written material
into a cash machine?
If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then the demonstration has
worked. What questions can you come up with in your own copy?
How much time will your readers spend reading your
material?
If you are fortunate enough to get someone to your website or your glossy
brochure into the hands of a prospect, how much time will they spend
reading your material? If you estimate they will only spend 30 seconds,
then why are you giving them 5 minutes worth?
With this in mind, you need to make sure that your key messages can be
read and processed in a realistic time period.
142 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
Understand and try the name change test
Have a look at any promotional material, leaets or indeed your website
copy that has been written. Now cross out or change the name of your
business or brand to that of a competitor’s and read the material again. If it
reads exactly the same and still works as a generic piece of copy, then you
have a problem.
Any written material ought to be specic to your operation and target
market.
Meet AIDA
This is a well-established acronym to help with copywriting. If you haven’t
already met it, then here it is. Check that all elements are present in your
copy in this order:
A = Attention. The heading needs to be attention grabbing to make
the reader stop.
I = Interest. The words that are used should be designed to focus on
the likely problems and concerns that the reader might have. That is
why the question techniques above are so important.
D = Desire. The words need to be chosen to actively make the reader
want you or your products or service.
A = Action. Make sure that before you nish you have told your
readers exactly what action they have to take and give them as few
simple steps as possible.
21 magic copywriting words and phrases
Here are 21 powerful, easy to use and simple to learn, tried and tested phrases
that are 100percent guaranteed to get you the quick results and dramatic differ-
ence you want.
The above sentence may be a little contrived in this context, but the words
and phrases that carry huge inuence include, among others:
1 You
2 Save
3 Improvement
4 Results
5 Condence
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.