Can Your Prospects Feel The Benefit?

I met Rod at a Chamber of Commerce function in 1998. While everyone else took turns introducing themselves to the other business owners at the table telling them about their business, Rod was massaging my neck and shoulders. By the end of the morning I was asking him for his phone number. Now before your mind races too far ahead, let me tell you that Rod owned a business providing Shiatsu massage.

And he didn’t just massage my shoulders – he worked his way around from one person to another during introductions. While we hawked our businesses nervously putting on our best sales pitch, Rod enabled us to FEEL the value of his service.

What did it cost him? Nothing. Now, we don’t all have the luxury of being able to let prospects sample our services so easily, but if we’re creative we can help prospects FEEL the benefit of working with us.

Most of us work so hard developing our sales pitch, creating and refining it numerous times over the first couple of years as we obtain a sharper focus of exactly what we want to do in our business. But, ultimately, all of this hard work results in the same type of pitch – “Hi, my name is Kimberly and I’m a Business Coach. I work with business owners to help them increase their sales, profits, and rate of success.”

Okay, that sounds fine. Quick and to the point. But, what did you really get from it? You know who my target customers are – business owners. You know the results they will achieve by working with me – increased sales, profits, and rate of success. But, what’s missing? Do you know what it’s going to feel like when your sales increase? Do you know how exhilarating it will be when your business is growing faster? No.

You hear what I say, but it’s still a gamble for you. These days, coaches are everywhere promising all sorts of things from helping you find your spiritual center to helping businesses to deal with the impact of the economic downturn on their staff. So how do I enable business owners to FEEL the benefit of working with me as a Business Coach?

I offer them an opportunity to participate in a free 4-week MiniSeries of my FastTrack MBO (Mastering Business Ownership) Program. I invite them to experience exactly how business coaching and a structured learning program will increase their sales, profits and overall rate of success. This is my offering of a trial or sample. This is how I give them an opportunity to FEEL the benefit of the service I offer.

There are a million examples of this concept at work all around us everyday. My local Starbucks tempts me with a tray of cut-up cookies and muffins on the counter. Several photo studios sent me freebie coupons to capture the image of my beautiful new baby last year. A month ago, I saw a salon offering free haircuts at an outdoor fair. A virtual assistant I met offered prospects two free hours of work to help them feel the true relief that comes with delegating administrative tasks.

This has been going on forever. I remember the story I was told when I was first hired by the corporate offices of Circuit City. Sam Wurtzel started the company in 1949 when he saw the first television tower being constructed in Richmond, VA. Television was just being introduced in many cities. He would go door-to-door to offer families the free use of a television for a week. During that visit, he would have a nice chat with the family making sure to find out what show was their favorite. If they accepted the offer to keep the television for a week, he would wheel it into their living room right there on the spot. Now, these were times when most families had never seen a television, so this was big news. The family would start telling all of their friends and neighbors about this wonderful new television they got to use for a week for free with no strings attached. They would invite family and friends over to watch their favorite show all together. It was an event.

But guess who showed up right before the show came on? That’s right – Sam. From there, it went something like this … “Well, I’m here to pick up your television. I hope you enjoyed it this week. Oh, your favorite show is just coming on? I’m really sorry, but I have to take the television back now.” You get it. He approached them exactly when their interest was at its peak. They knew how it felt to watch television, and they liked it!

What can you take from Sam’s story to apply to your business? What could you do to enable prospects to FEEL the benefit of your business? Provide a limited-time trial? Offer a product sample? Give them a free hour of service? Be creative. Brainstorm with other business colleagues to come up with ideas for each of your businesses.

Just remember - you can TELL prospects all you want about yourself and your business. It’s when they FEEL the benefit that they’ll start calling you.