In sales, we definitely need a Credibility Statement. Buyers are always worried about buying what they don’t need or paying too much for what they do buy. The subterranean vibe is one of distrust toward salespeople. So we have to work hard to overcome that fundamental doubt. Salespeople without a solid sales process won’t have this valuable persuasion tool at their disposal. In fact, they will be like lemmings leaping off a cliff, running headlong into the explanation of the features of their solution. We need to create an atmosphere of trust, before we start asking questions to understand buyer needs.
We may love our solution, we may know about it in-depth and we may know we are a great company, but the buyer doesn’t have a clue about any of this. They are sceptical, uncertain, doubtful, cautious and basically afraid of being conned. Early in the sales conversation, we need to put all of that to rest and set up for permission to ask questions.
The Credibility Statement is needed when we make the first contact with the client and this may be in person, by email, phone call, Zoom call etc. It is sometimes called our Elevator Pitch because it has to be concise, clear and attractive.
How do you start when you introduce yourself? What can you say about your company in one sentence, so that the buyer is very clear what you do? Do you have a set formula for this to build trust with the client or are you winging it every time? When you have a well thought through structure, it takes a lot of stress off the sales process. How does this work in reality?
In my case, I would say, “Hi my name is Greg Story. I am the President of Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo. We are global soft skills training experts and masters of delivery and sustainment. Do you have a moment to talk”.
This tells the client who I am and gives them some insight into the intention of the call by telling them what I do. Next we need a strong hook to grab their interest. We need something that will strike a nerve with them, something that will grab their attention and tell them it is worthwhile continuing this conversation with us.
“We have heard from our clients that salespeople are really struggling with virtual selling and getting through to their buyers. Have you found the same thing?”. This is currently a very common problem for sales teams, so the listener can immediately relate to this being an issue. Because the solution is so difficult, there is also a strong probability they have not been able to solve this issue by themselves, so they will be curious to hear how to fix the problem.
Now we need some evidence of what we have done for other clients which is relevant for this buyer. Ideally, the other client referred to should be as similar as possible to the client we are now discussing business with. “Recently, we worked with a large service provider like yourself and focused on helping their salespeople make the adjustment to selling online. They reported that their appointment rate went up by 25% after the training and their closing rate tripled”. When we quote these numbers and we should quote numbers, they have to real and provable. If the client asks for proof and it becomes obvious we are using spurious data, then the whole trust comes apart and the relationship is dead.
We need to suggest we can help and we do that in a special way. We say, “maybe, we can do the same for you. I am not sure, but if you will allow me to ask a few questions, I will know if we are in a position to help you or not?”. This is a very important bridge, because we want to receive permission before we start digging into all of their problems and strife. As human beings, we normally would never share our troubles with a stranger, so this is a critical step. If they have the time during the call, we will begin asking our quailifying questions right there and then. If not we will ask for the appointment, which could be face to face or it might be a Zoom call. We ask for the appointment in a simple but effective way by offering an alternative of choice.
I would say, “Shall we get together? Is this week fine or how about next week? I see ‘next week’, then how about Wednesday or Friday. I see ‘Thursday is better’. How are you suited at 10.00am in the morning? Great, thank you, I look forward to speaking with you then”.
Salespeople who miss this vital step of the Credibility Statement make life hard for themselves unnecessarily. It is simple and effective. We should all be drawing on its power to set us up for the questioning stage of the salesnmeeting. If you are not asking any questions and just jumping into the features explanation, then we need to talk!!
