How to create a compelling offer

Creating a compelling sales offer requires understanding the specific problems you solve and who experiences them. The key to successful selling is getting inside your client's head and addressing their fears before they even voice them.

• Sales is fundamentally about helping people solve problems, not pushing products
• Define your avatar by clearly identifying who has the problem you solve
• Use simple language that a teenager would understand to describe your solution
• Create "green light" selling by talking about client problems, not product features
• Address client fears proactively by focusing on what they get, not how it works
• Be honest when your solution isn't right - it builds trust and often leads to referrals
• Qualification should filter out people who don't have the problem you solve
• Each product should have just one specific offer targeting one specific problem

Please remember to like, subscribe, check out the free webinar, or even buy me a coffee. You can also consider purchasing the full training course for more in-depth sales techniques.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Compelling Sales Offers
• 3:08 Defining the Problem You Solve
• 7:11 Getting Inside Your Client's Head
• 10:57 Red vs Green Traffic Light Selling
• 15:39 When to Walk Away from a Sale
• 18:33 Summary and Key Action Steps

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Okay, well, welcome to another podcast. Now this is likely to be quite short. It's also material that I have covered before, but it is absolutely fundamental. And before I start, I'm going to assume that you're here because you're not making the sales that you hoped. Maybe you're struggling a little bit, whether you're an entrepreneur with your own business, or if you're employed by somebody else, things aren't going right. So the idea of these podcasts, and also the training course that I offer, is to really allow you to just step back, get together a collection of techniques, recognize perhaps where you might have an approach that is not working for you and what the alternatives would be. It's really an opportunity to step back. So in this one, I'm going to talk about how to create a compelling offer, and this is really really fundamental. So before I start, please remember to like, subscribe, follow. You can even buy me a coffee if you want to. So what do I mean by a compelling offer? Well, think about what you're doing and something one of the themes that is again very fundamental to how I teach sales is that, as salespeople, our role is to help people. Okay, and this is, I think, different to how most people regard salespeople. I'm going to go to one extreme, and that is that salespeople are there to basically rip people off, and I absolutely don't agree with that. But I'm sure you can resonate with that. I'm sure it's something that may have been said to you at some time or another, or that you've experienced that with some other salespeople that their sole objective seems to be to make as much money as possible out of you with the least possible effort. So that isn't how I do sales. It's not how I teach sales.

Speaker 1: 2:07

The sales is there to solve a problem. Now, that's really important, because solving a problem is what we're all about. So what's the problem that we solve? Let's just turn that around and really I want you to, as you're listening to this, just answer the question. If you can write it down, that's good. If you're driving, don't do that, but do think about it. So what is the problem that you solve? You really need to know that. If you don't know that, this is likely to be, um, a big part of why you're having a problem at the moment and why you're listening to this podcast. So knowing that problem, that starts to define who the people are who have that problem, which is, you know, kind of obvious, pretty much common sense, and the more you think about that person, the clearer they can become. So this is basically defining an avatar. You may well have come across this before. If you have come across it before, I hope you sat down and worked through the process, because it is actually very important.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So who are the people that you are selling to? Who are the people who will buy your solution, your product, whatever it is that you're offering? How old are they? What do they do? Are they married? Are they in a relationship? How do they spend their free time? What are the relevant questions for whatever it is that you are offering?

Speaker 1: 3:36

So if you are selling cars, for example, then what kind of cars Are you selling? The sort of daily drive? Are you selling something that maybe is a bit more specialized? Maybe it's an off-road four-wheel drive, for example? So, whatever it is that you're selling, let's look at that as the solution to a problem that your buyer has, and that's the reason and let's look at it as the only reason that they are coming to talk to you. So what do you do to solve their problems? So you're thinking about the thing that is really keeping them awake at night is another way of thinking about that. So you've got to be able to write that down. You've got to be able to define that very, very clearly. You've got to be able to define it in terms that a 13, a 14 year old would understand. So, use basic language, use very simple language that anyone can understand, and once you've done that, that is the problem you solve. So you need to be able to then tie that back to who are the people with that problem. The compelling offer, which is absolutely fundamental to what you're selling, is essentially stating the problem that you solve. And another way of thinking about this is getting inside your client's head. So an example that I have given elsewhere possibly in a podcast, definitely in a course, I'm pretty sure is one of the things that I would use to create my offer when I was offering.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Behavioral profiling is a service I did with businesses, and the reason for offering that was to allow people to first of all, understand their personality type and also recognize that there are other personality types. I use DISC as a model because there's only four types. That does keep things simple, but the way I would couch that, the way I would describe that, would say something like have you ever been misunderstood at home or at work? Have you ever spent hours tied in your desk when you've got lots and lots of work to do? What difference would it make to you if you could understand what was driving that? What difference would it make to your home life, your working environment, maybe to your business, maybe to your lifestyle? If it meant earning more money by understanding it, then that would have a big impact on your lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 6:09

So what I'm really talking about here, and the example I'm trying to give you, is to present your offer in such a way that you get inside your client's head. It's like you're reading their mind, because maybe they've been kept awake at night for a few days, a few weeks. It might be months, could be years it depends very much on what you're selling. So they know they have this problem and then suddenly you come along and it's like you've dived straight into their head and you've read them and you've pretty much defined to them what the problem is that they're having. Now, if you put yourself in your client's shoes, how would you feel about that person who is talking about that problem directly? Now, this is really important. There's an important distinction here and the way most people sell their products is they talk about the product, they talk about themselves. So this car, for example, has five doors. It's a hatchback. It'll do so many miles to the gallon or so many Ks per 100 litre. It goes so fast. Acceleration, maybe there's battery life, yada, yada, yada, but that's just specs and this is in the course.

Speaker 1: 7:31

I talk about traffic lights, and this is when we think of traffic lights, we think of red to stop, green to go, and sales works in exactly the same way. So when you are talking about yourself, you're actually giving a red traffic light to the buyer because you're not interested in them. You're not talking about them. You're actually giving a red traffic light to the buyer because you're not interested in them. You're not talking about them, you're simply going on about what you have to offer. This is the sort of salesperson who's only interested in selling this thing to their client so they can make a load of money. That's the red traffic light and this is what most salespeople do, what most salespeople do, and in my opinion, this is one of the key areas and one of the key reasons that a lot of salespeople struggle, because they're not getting inside the client's head. So turn that around, start thinking about what this means for the client.

Speaker 1: 8:25

Now, I don't sell electric cars, or any cars actually, so I'm probably going to mess this up but if you do sell and the important point about this example is to try and apply this to whatever you do so rather than talk about the distance it will go or you know how fast it will go or how many people it will carry, start talking about it's got the range where you only have to fill up once a week and then you can go do your weekly shop, drop the kid off to school, even go and see friends, relatives, without having to worry about running out of fuel, running out of charge, whatever it might be. But the important differentiation here is to start talking about the kind of things they will do every day. Now, if you are selling these cars I'm assuming that you would have a much better grasp on what they're doing every day than I do and if you're not sure where to get those, those items, if you're like you're going to talk about, think about where you get objections or what are the questions people ask you when they come in to look at this car or they come in to look at whatever it is you're selling, the kind of questions they are asking. You are basically pointing towards their fears.

Speaker 1: 9:45

People ask questions because they want reassurance. Yeah, they might want to know a particular spec or how fast it goes or how economical it is, but when you go beyond that question, when you go underneath that question, the reason they ask it is because this is one of the things that they are concerned about. You know, will this thing drink lots of fuel and cost me a fortune to keep it running? Will this thing suck up charge, like you wouldn't believe, so that instead of being able to use it each day or go to my parents' home or whatever it is, I'm only going to get halfway and then I've got to recharge it again? Or how long will it take to recharge it and how often do I need to do that? Does it need to be on charge every night because of the way I use my vehicle, and what's that going to cost me? So a lot of it will come back to money, but it's also inconvenience, and so this is where creating the offer and what makes it compelling is the offer needs to address those fears without the client having to ask the question.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So this is where we start talking about a product or solution whatever that might be that you're selling, but we talk about it in terms of what it delivers for the client, not how it delivers it, and that's really important. So, delivers for the client, not how it delivers it, and that's really important. So what does the client get? What creates their sort of ease of mind, what relaxes them, what takes away those fears? They're the things to talk about in the offer. So our new vehicle means that you only have to charge it once a week for most people, and this allows you to do school run, shopping, whatever.

Speaker 1: 11:34

That's pretty weak, but I hope you get the idea, because you need to take this idea, obviously, and convert it into whatever it is you're doing, and that becomes the offer. So why is that relevant to you as a salesperson? Isn't something that the marketing people do? Well, yes, if they're doing the job right, it will be because you'll get more and more people drawn to you. But even when you're talking to people and this is something I pulled salespeople up on when I've been a sales manager a lot of people when they start to present. So remember, I'm primarily concerned with face-to-face sales here. So at some point you've got to present your product. What I've seen so many people do is they'll get out their data sheet or their brochure or whatever it is, and they'll talk through it and the client, if they're lucky, might get a word in.

Speaker 1: 12:22

But this is the absolute wrong way to do it. You want to be having a conversation with your client, and that conversation is about what they want to use the thing for. You know what's their experience of it. Are there any particular things they're looking for it to do for them? All this kind of stuff. The more you have that conversation, first of all, you get a much clearer picture of what it is they want, what's important to them. You understand what their fears are, and these fears are the things that are likely to stop them buying. So this is where objections are born, so you can start to eliminate the chances of those happening, and you'll also be clear on just how good a solution you're able to provide to them. And this is really important, because it may well be that there's a particular model I'm going back to my car analogy again but there's a particular model they're asking about and as you talk to them, you realize that they've actually misunderstood it in some way or that you know that this is not going to deliver what they need, and so it gives you the opportunity to offer something else. Now you may have something that you can offer yourself, which is great, because then you simply start talking through that as something that you might sell to them or that they might buy.

Speaker 1: 13:41

The tricky bit comes when you know there isn't something. You know you've got one solution, and the more you talk to them, you realize this is not going to end well if they go down and buy this, and my honest recommendation to you is to be totally up front with them and say, look, I've, I believe I understand what you're, what you're trying to achieve here, and and maybe even summarize it at that point and say, look, I have to tell you I don't believe we can offer you a good solution. We are going to fall down in these areas for you and rather than have you spend money with us and then be disappointed and frustrated and need a lot of support, which is what this is going to end up in, and also they're likely to give you very bad reviews. They'll badmouth you to clients, friends, whatever. So be upfront. Say look, I don't think we can offer you a good solution, and here's why. And be very open Now.

Speaker 1: 14:42

At that point it becomes their call, their choice, so they may decide. They might. First of all, I think everyone will appreciate your honesty Again, because it's about providing solutions. We're solving problems for people, not creating them. And secondly, they may actually change their requirements to match what you're offering. And the important thing about them doing it at that point is they're knowingly doing it, so you are not mis-selling, you've been totally upfront. They know what the shortcomings are. If they still decide to go ahead, well, that's their choice, that's their responsibility and generally that would work out.

Speaker 1: 15:23

However, if you feel really strongly that it's not going to work, then I do recommend that you are quite firm about that, quite clear about that, because ultimately, what we're trying to do as salespeople is to build long term relationships and if we can't build a relationship with one particular client because we know we can't meet their needs, the chances are that we'll get a referral from them anyway. And asking for referrals is really important Again, it's something I talk about in the course when to do that. But do ask for referrals, and most people that I know, and it's certainly true of myself. I appreciate people who are straight with me. I appreciate people who are honest with me.

Speaker 1: 16:03

So, to summarize, what do we want to do? How do we create a compelling offer? Well, remember, it's one offer per solution. So if that's one vehicle or one online solution that you have, each offer, you only have one offer per product. It needs to be very, very specific to what that particular product does and the particular clients it's targeted at, and those clients are the people with the problem that this product will solve.

Speaker 1: 16:36

So, if you remember what we've gone through, we've spoken about, first of all, understanding what the problem is that you solve and if you don't know that, you really need to get to know that, because this is really important, because you can't go any further without knowing that. Then recognizing who the people are who have that problem. So you start to define your avatar and then creating the offer by talking about your solution in the terms that the client will think that you're mind reading them. So what I mean by that is using the green traffic light, talking about the client's problem, not the features and benefits of your solution, or the features and advantages, benefits only. You can only talk about a benefit when you know how that product is going to be applied by a specific person. So that's, I guess, your homework from the podcast, if you want some homework, to just work through those aspects and get very, very clear.

Speaker 1: 17:37

And then every conversation you have, you're making the offer, but you're making it compelling because you're making it personal to that person by really listening to them and also making sure that your qualification process qualifies out the people who do not have that problem. So one of the things that I've spoken about, particularly in the last few podcasts, is making sure you're spending time with the people who are most likely to buy from you. You can only do that by really knowing who those people are. Okay, I hope you found that useful. Went slightly longer than I was expecting, but please remember to like, subscribe, check out the free webinar, buy a course or buy me a coffee. Okay, I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.