Determine how your product fits prospect's main priorities

I belong to a professional association where the majority of members are self-employed or owners of small businesses.

Every member provides their clients with some kind of business service. Earlier this year, a member of the group facilitated a couple of interesting discussions about strategies for new business development.

He made a couple of assumptions that were at the heart of his message:

• The first was about how much money members of the group should be aiming to make as they ply their trade.
• The second was that all businesses want to grow.

The facilitator had seen a survey that indicated only a small minority of businesses were growing significantly. He assumed that all businesses want to grow, and that we as service providers who could help with business growth, had a huge well of untapped potential from which to drink.

Growth not wanted

I am sure he's right about the huge well of untapped potential. I'm not sure he's right that all businesses want to grow.

We've all learned that unless a business is growing, it's really shrinking -- that doesn't mean that every business wants to grow, only that it probably should if it is to sustain itself over the long term.

I suspect that we all know business owners who are perfectly content with the size of their business, and who do precisely what they believe they need to do to keep it that size.

As sales professionals, it is easy for us to convince ourselves that what we believe to be very important will be equally as important to our clients and prospective clients.

Not important to client

We have solutions to a myriad of complex and simple business problems. If clients would only listen to what we can do for them, they would be blown away by the improvements they could make to their operations, their manufacturing processes, and their bottom line.

So, why is it so difficult to secure the opportunities to tell the stories of the impact that we can have?

• Maybe it's because what we believe to be vitally important to their business is not even close to the prospect's priorities right now.
• Maybe they would like to make changes but they don't know where to start.
• Maybe they are afraid of the risks involved in making changes.
• Maybe they are worried that one change will lead to another and another and another, and that they will lose control of the situation.
• Maybe their attention is focused in a completely different area of their business or their life.

It is important that you do research before you contact a prospect, to learn about the issues that could be affecting their business or their industry. But don't assume that what you learn is bound to be important to them right now.

Invest your time in understanding the actual priorities of your prospect, and then be creative about how you can connect your products and services to what's truly important to them.

Jacqui Sakowski is president of Sakowski Consulting, a Middleton-based sales coaching, training and consulting company.