Man, my subject lines are rude this week. Yesterday, I told you to “shut your pie hole,” and I indicated I wanted to cut you open today.
Has Dr. Dee lost it?
Nah…
He wants to make sure you continue reading the mini-course, “The 5 Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make Selling Their Services And How To Avoid Them.”
To review:
Big Mistake #2: Talking too much
The next one brings us to…
Big Mistake #3: Prescribing Before Diagnosing
You: “Hey, Doc. My stomach isn’t feeling quite right. What do you think?”
Doc: “Lie down, and I’ll cut you open and try to figure it out.”
You’d be out of that doctor’s office faster than a greased monkey on skates, wouldn’t you?
Well, that’s what many professional services providers do when meeting with prospective clients. They are so anxious to present their solution, show off how much they know, or teach the prospect, that they don’t spend enough time diagnosing the problem.
That mistake is especially true for seasoned professionals because they’ve met with so many prospects that they think they can diagnose the problem and provide the solution almost instantly.
Even if that’s true, here are the problems.
Unless you ask the prospect questions, let them talk, and carefully listen to how they reply, the prospect will feel like you don’t care about them and that they’re just another client.
Most of your prospects feel that their situation is unique, even if it isn’t. Prospects want you to treat them as individuals. They want you to recognize that they are unique, even if their problems aren’t. They want to feel understood by you.
Next, by jumping too quickly to the prescription phase of the sale, you miss out on eliciting your prospect’s emotions. When the prospect describes their situation, it reminds them of their pain. When they talk about how they would like their future to be, it generates a pleasurable feeling. And, as you’re probably aware, pain and pleasure are two motivating forces. (As a reminder, people will invest in your service based on their feelings and then back up their decision with logic.)
Finally, during the diagnosis phase of your sales presentation, you’ll discover their emotional hot buttons. That’s mission-critical because you need to connect your solution (prescription) to your prospects’ emotional hot buttons if you want to close more sales. (Please read that again because it is a key to turning more prospects into clients.)
Here’s one more “bonus problem” that occurs when you too quickly prescribe the solution to your prospect’s problem:
Your prospect will view what you do as a commodity. A prospect may think, “Heck, s/he came up with the answer to my problem so quickly, it must be super-easy. Ever (fill in your profession) must do that. I’ll talk to some other folks and hire whoever is the cheapest!”
Again, the mistake of too quickly jumping to the prescription is common when you know your stuff. I used to be guilty of that and need to catch myself to this day.
I’d be running an in-person mastermind meeting, and a member would be on the “hot seat” describing a business problem they wanted a solution to. I would often stop them in mid-sentence and give them the solution.
Sure, it made me feel good because I showed how “smart” I was, but it cheated the member out of telling their story. Also, it made the odds of the member following through on my advice less likely because they felt I didn’t understand enough about their particular situation.
When you spend more time asking questions, digging deeper, and getting the prospect to describe their “symptoms” before you prescribe your solution, you’ll close more sales and help more clients.
In part four of our mini-course, I’ll share a mistake that costs sales and leaves professionals in the dark wondering what happened.
Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!
Dave “Not A Real Doctor” Dee
P.S. Do you have an effective marketing campaign you’d like my help on? I’d love to meet with you in my home, where we can map it out and create assets. Please reply to this email with “Private Consulting” if this interests you. Then, I’ll send you the details.
