Summary

There are four types of income available to your business. You must be intimately familiar with each type of income and create a strategy to maximize the most beneficial income type for you.

This video is a brief description of each income type and how you can leverage them to make a great living and live a great life®.

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Transcript

Hi. I’m Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and our time together today is going to be spent focusing on the four types of income in your business or professional practice.

Now the type of income that you earn in your professional practice is critically important regardless of whether you’re a doctor or a lawyer or you have a business like a corner store. The reason that it’s important is because you want to build equity in your business or your professional practice so that someday you can sell it.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible even in a solo or small practice law firm or a solo or small practice medical, dental, accounting group. You can build income or you can build equity if you focus on the right types of income.

So let’s talk about the four different types of income that are available to you in any business or professional practice.

Now each of these types of income is dependent upon labor intensity which means the amount of work required to attract the client and relationship need, how much of a relationship do you personally as the owner of your business, as the owner of your professional practice needs to have with the end-user, with the client, with the purchaser.

So we’re going to look at this through the lens of labor intensity and relationship need.

The first type of income is what I call ad hoc income. This is very transactional in nature. A client comes to you. They have an issue. They have a problem. You resolve the issue or problem. The client goes away. If you’re in a corner store setting, a customer comes see you. They buy something. They go away.

This ad hoc income is the least valuable because you only handle one transaction for that person and then they go away and the reason that it’s not as high end value as the other three types of income is because the labor intensity required to not only attract this client but to service this client is very high.

Also the relationship need for this client is very high as well. You have to develop trust from basically nothing. They don’t necessarily know you. They don’t like you. They don’t trust you yet. You have to start from ground zero when it comes to your relationship. So the labor intensity is high and the relationship need is high and that’s called ad hoc income.

Second type of income is called repeat income or income from repeat customers or clients. Now a repeat customer or client is somebody who comes to you for a second time to either buy a different product or partake in a different service.

So the only thing that you have in common from your last experience is you and the client. So the labor intensity is medium because you don’t necessarily have to do as much work because this is work that you’ve done in the past for this client. So the client comes to you and they come to you for repeat work again.

The relationship need is medium as well because they’ve done some stuff with you before. So they trust you a little bit and they’re coming back to you again. So there is a medium relationship need there as well. So repeat income definitely better than ad hoc income.

The third type of income is recurring income and this is the same client coming to you for the same exact thing over and over again. Recurring income is great because the relationship need is low because this client already trusts you. You’ve done this type of work for them in the past. The labor intensity is medium because you’ve done this type of work for this client in the past as well. So labor intensity is medium. Relationship need is low.

The final type of income and I’m going to talk over the people doing the landscaping outside. Final type of income is passive income and this is the best form of income.

The reason is because the labor intensity is low and the relationship need is low. So you don’t have to do any work to attract the client. They come to you automatically and passive income essentially is income that you don’t have to do any marketing to it. It just comes to you. Maybe somebody else on your team brings them in or they come in through an ad or they just show up out of the blue as a result of seeing you at a seminar.

So labor intensity is low. The relationship need is low. They have a relationship with somebody else on your team so you don’t have to actually do the work. You don’t have to actually do any attracting. They have a relationship with someone else who works with you. This could be a referral situation to a really high quality referral. Somebody brings the other person to your office. You sign them up right there.

Passive income is fantastic. No work required, no relationship needed. That’s the ultimate and that’s what builds the most equity in your business.

Now really quickly, why does passive income, recurring income or repeat income build more equity in your business or professional practice than ad hoc income? Because you actually have something to sell.

You have a relationship with these clients. You have a relationship with these customers that you can sell to someone else at some point in the future. With an ad hoc business, all you have is your processes, your systems. It’s all goodwill. You don’t have anything beyond that.

When you have relationships and you have the processes and systems, then you really have some significant equity built up.

I’m Dave Lorenzo and for more great information just like this, you can find me at Valtimax.com. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

Summary

Niche Marketing is a terrific way to grow a business quickly.

Many business owners confuse niche marketing with specialization.

These are two completely different concepts.

Focusing on a niche with your marketing is about targeting your message to an individual group or audience. This is a MARKETING strategy.

Specialization is about organizing your entire business around a specific area of expertise.

For more on this difference, watch our video.

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Transcript

I’m Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and today we’re going to talk about niche marketing and I’m going to discuss one of the really important questions that I get all the time when it comes to focusing on a market niche for your marketing.

The question is, “How does niche marketing differ from specialization?” and this is a great question because when we talk about niche marketing, all we’re talking about is focusing on specific messages for specific target audiences. We’re not talking about limiting your business or your professional practice to one particular area.

So if I said to a lawyer, “We’re going to focus on the target market of affluent individuals who need their wills and their trusts written up and you’re going to target your marketing to that audience even though only half of your practice is made up of trust and estates work and the other half is real estate work,” I’m talking about your marketing. I’m not telling you to abandon your real estate work.

You see, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to match your message to the target audience. So your marketing is niched.

Specialization is something that’s completely different. In Florida for example, lawyers are not allowed to market themselves as specialists unless they have board certification. So we don’t ever use the term “specialist” when it comes to the law.

We use the term “specialist” a lot in the medical field and you can be a specialist in the medical field but I will give you some examples of folks that I’ve met and worked with who have really leveraged the specialization angle while still maintaining a regular practice.

For example a surgeon, a surgeon who doesn’t have a full surgery calendar may choose to be a general practitioner and set up a concierge medical practice where he takes only a few patients every week or every month. That can be very, very effective and it can augment his surgery.

Now, if you’re a surgeon who has a very busy calendar, you’re not going to want to do this but you’re a doctor. You can be a general practitioner as well as a surgeon. If you’re an ear, nose and throat doctor and you also want to see patients on a part-time basis as a general practitioner, you can do that provided you have the office staff to handle it. We’ve helped people set up these types of practices but they’re specialists and they have to do two types of marketing.

The first type of marketing is in their area of specialty. The second type of marketing is in the secondary niche which is their general practice or concierge practice.

So think of it this way. A niche focus or a niche if you’re a fancy person, a niche focus is specific to your marketing. You’re matching your message to your market and it’s always a good idea to do that. Everybody should do that.

Specialization should only be done when we determine that there’s enough demand for the area of expertise that you have and that’s your whole practice or your whole business.

So specialization versus niche marketing, two different things. I want you to make sure that you always match your message to your market when it comes to marketing.

This is Dave Lorenzo. I look forward to speaking with you again soon. If you would like more information just like this, you can visit me at Valtimax.com. Have a great day.

Summary

If you want to improve your marketing results you must make powerful compelling offers to your audience.

Confused about how to create an offer that is irresistible to your prospective clients?

This video provides you with a step-by-step guide to crafting an offer that will take your relationship with your prospect to the next level.

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Transcript

Hi. I’m Dave Lorenzo and today we’re going to talk about Cracker Jack marketing. That’s right. We’re going to talk about the free prize inside Cracker Jack marketing.

I call it Cracker Jack marketing because when I was a kid, I used to get boxes of Cracker Jacks. You open it up and you dig through looking for the prize and that was one of the reasons why you bought the Cracker Jacks.

Well, we’re not doing anything with Cracker Jacks and we don’t have any free prizes and stuff but we do have a two-step marketing program which I’ve discussed in the past and using a prize as a giveaway is a great way to do two-step marketing.

Now it’s not really a prize. It’s educational information. It’s a free report or something that you can use to entice people to give you their contact information. I’m going to explain to you what I mean by that.

Now, on your website, you should have a little opt-in box where people can put their name and their phone number and their email address and perhaps even their physical address in order to get your free report. The report can be something that gives them what they should do in the event that they have a specific type of pain that you can relieve.

So real estate lawyers for example who are working on alleviating home foreclosures can offer a free report, Five Things You Need To Know About Negotiating A Deal With A Bank When Your Home Is In Foreclosure, or you could give a free report away, Five Things You Need To Know In Order To Hire A Real Estate Lawyer, to negotiate your foreclosure settlement with your bank or Five Things You Need To Know Before Engaging A Realtor To Do A Short Sale. You get the idea.

The free report allows them to put in their name and contact information and then it gives you the opportunity to send them the report via email and you get their contact information. You call and follow up and see if they have any questions. They go from being a stranger to being somebody who you now know has an issue, a problem that you can solve.

So what types of tools, what types of free prizes do we give away? Well, I like to use free reports with lawyers. Free reports are great with doctors too. For retailers or other types of businesses, we’ve done everything from free reports to DVDs and videos that educate people on exactly how to use your product or service. Also lawyers and doctors can use DVDs, videos as well. CDs or audio programs are fantastic. I give away CDs all the time.

Books are great. If you’re at a speaking event and you want to give away a book, you can get people’s contact information in exchange for sending them a book later.

What you should never do is you should never offer a free consultation as a giveaway. Free consultations are horrible. I hate them. I know you’re going to tell me in some industries it’s an industry standard, CPAs, lawyers, so on and so forth. I don’t believe in it and you should never give away a free consultation as the “free prize” or incentive to get the contact information.

So, using free reports, DVDs and any type of CD, audio program, books, any type of information product is a phenomenal way to entice people to give you their contact information and to identify themselves as somebody who has a problem you can solve. You can do this when you speak. You can do this on your website. You can do it in a direct mail campaign. You can do it in an email campaign. There are lots of ways to give away information products, educational products in return for contact information that identifies people as prospects for you and your business.

I encourage you to explore the free prize inside, Cracker Jack style of marketing, immediately. You will be glad you did because you will be amazed at how it helps qualify the prospects who walk through your front door.

Summary

One of the best ways to differentiate your business from everyone else who does what you do is through your personality.

It doesn’t matter if you are tall or short, fat or skinny, your personality can make all the difference in how your business is perceived.

This video will help you use the unique style and charisma to attract clients.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo, Chairman of Valtimax Consulting and today we’re going to talk about personality in marketing and I’m going to tell you that you have to be a person of interest. You have to be someone who people find interesting and the reason for that is that there are hundreds and hundreds of businesses out there that do what you do.

I don’t care if you are a pot-bellied pig farmer in Kansas. There are other pot-bellied pig farmers out there and they’re looking to sell their pot-bellied pigs to other people. So you have to be more interesting than the next guy and personality in marketing is a phenomenal way to differentiate you from everybody else.

So why is your personality and the personality of your business important?

Number one, it makes you magnetic to people. Customers and employees, they want to come and hang around with somebody they perceive to be an interesting person. You don’t have to be the most charismatic person in the world. People just have to perceive that you’re warm and approachable and they can develop a relationship with you.

One of the reasons why these videos, the videos that you see me doing, are not super duper edgy and high-production quality like you see on TV is because I feel this is a more personal way to connect with you. I hope that you feel the same way and that someday when we meet, you say to me, “I feel like I’ve known you for 10 years because I’ve been watching your videos.” If I look like a TV anchorman and I’m sitting behind an anchor desk on a fancy set, you might not feel that way about me.

So I want to make sure that my personality comes through in these videos and I don’t have a fancy studio here to distract you from what I believe is great content and our relationship.

Now if you have personality in your marketing, it’s easier for you to close deals because people already trust you. They already feel like they know you and when they come in to see you and they sit down with you, it’s like having coffee with an old friend.

Personality in your marketing differentiates you. Just like every snowflake is different, every person is different. So if you have personality, particularly your personality in your marketing, it makes you different from other people who do what you do. There’s nobody just like you and that’s a good thing and you want that to come through in your marketing.

Also the final topic or tip I will give you when it comes to personality in marketing is that people will look to you as a leader. If people see you out in front passionately promoting your product, passionately promoting your service, they will see you as a leader. You’re leading your business regardless of whether you’re an army of one or you’re a business of 400, 500, 600 people.

They see you out front. They look to you as a leader. People want to follow someone. They want to follow someone strong and powerful and if you’re out in front in your marketing, you appear to be a leader and people want to follow you.

So those are just a few of the reasons why personality, your personality, in marketing is really important. I encourage you to make every effort you can to inject some of your personality into the marketing of your business or professional practice.

I’m Dave Lorenzo and I look forward to seeing you back again at Valtimax.com.

Summary

There is one form of marketing that is completely ethical and effective and it is hardly ever used.

This form of marketing is powerful because it helps the prospective client discover a path that leads to you, your business and the solutions you provide.

Curious?

Watch this video to find out how you can attract clients using a marketing method that has been around since the beginning of time.

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Transcript

I’m Dave Lorenzo, Chairman and Founder of Valtimax.com and I’m going to take you back to school. That’s right. Today we’re going to talk about educational marketing and why it’s so valuable to you regardless of what business you’re in.

I’ve used this with lawyers, with doctors, with CPAs, architects. I’ve used it with every type of client. I’ve even used it with folks who own a corner store type situation, a retail outlet and educational marketing works phenomenally well. I’m going to give you the five reasons why educational marketing is powerful.

Number one, it positions you as an expert. So if you do own a corner retail outlet, let’s say you sell women’s clothing in a corner shop and you’re an independent women’s clothier, you can educate your clientele.

You can do dress-for-success seminars. Whether you do them in big companies or you do them right in your shop, you’re educating people and that’s something that store owners all over the world are not doing. So it positions you as an expert. You can do this as a lawyer. You can give seminars in your area of expertise. You can do this as a doctor, again, giving seminars in your area of expertise. You get the point. Positioning you as an expert is the first and very best reason to use educational marketing.

Second reason and equally as good almost is that it teaches prospects how to hire you. So, as you’re educating people, you’re also teaching them how to select someone who does what you do. You’re teaching them how to hire a CPA. You’re teaching them how to hire a lawyer, how to hire a women’s clothier and you’re educating them on how to buy from you. You’re demonstrating the value you provide.

The third reason to use educational marketing is it provides you with a competitive advantage. As I said at the outset, nobody is doing this. Most people in just about every industry focus on trying to get the business. They focus on 10 reasons why you should hire me instead of here’s ten reasons why you need to resolve the situation now and here’s three ways you can resolve it. Educational marketing provides you with that competitive advantage.

The fourth reason educational marketing is so important is that it keeps you sharp. It keeps you at the top of your game. You can look around our website Valtimax.com. You will find podcasts. You will find articles that are written. You will find videos just like these and I do these every week. Every week you see another video. Every week you see another podcast. Every week you see an article.

That type of marketing is valuable to you because you’re coming here to watch it and then you’re implementing it in your business and it’s creating success for you. But it’s also incredibly valuable for me because the teacher always learns more than the student.

Like for example when I do these videos, I have to do some research, go back through my notes and make sure I get all these points correct and then I have to prepare to stand in front of you and deliver the material. Makes me sharper, so that when I meet with my clients and they ask me a question, for example about educational marketing, I’m prepared because I’ve gone through and done this video.

The fifth reason to use educational marketing is that it’s ethical. It’s beautiful. It’s legal. It’s moral. It’s ethical regardless of your industry. If you’re a lawyer, a highly-regulated industry for advertising, you can educate your clients on business disputes, on litigation, on any topic you want and you can educate them on how to hire the right lawyer to resolve their problems.

You’re providing a service while you’re marketing yourself. It’s fantastic. I encourage you regardless of your business to work educational marketing into your marketing mix somehow because of the five reasons I’ve given you.

It positions you as an expert. It teaches prospects how to hire you. It provides you with a competitive advantage. It keeps you sharp and it’s so ethical that it’s fantastic.

Educational marketing is great. I love it. I use it. I’m a convert of my own system. I encourage you to use it today. Thanks for watching and I hope to speak with you again soon.

Summary

There is one question you can ask any client, any customer, any patient, that will result in a deep conversation and will most likely lead to more work.

This one question is powerful in its simplicity.

Asking this question will clearly differentiate you from your competition.

Watch this video to find out what this question is and how you can use it.

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Transcript

I’m Dave Lorenzo back again with another Valtimax Video and today we’re talking about the ultimate question and this is the ultimate question that’s designed to get you more business.

That question is when you sit across from your client or your patient or your customer and you ask them, “Hey, what’s keeping you up at night?” Now as long as this client, this patient, this customer is your ideal client or patient or customer, you should be able to relate to them.

Obviously they see something in you or your professional practice or your business that resonates with them, that works for them. So when you ask them what’s keeping them up at night and they give you an answer, if you can find a way to resolve that problem, you will have a deep relationship with your customer or clients, if you will.

How do you leverage the answer to that question in your practice? I will give you an example. I have a client who is a lawyer and he is a litigator. What he does is he handles commercial disputes, business disputes and most of the time, his clients hire him to negotiate a way out of a dispute that they have. A small percentage of the time, those disputes go to court.

Well, what happens with this client, with my client, is his clients come to him and when that issue is resolved, when he takes care of that, if he asks this question, “What’s keeping them up at night?” and it’s a legal issue, he can help refer them to somebody else which deepens his relationship. If he gets enough of a specific type of referral, he can hire a lawyer in his practice to handle those issues.

So a great example I will give you is this client that I was discussing with you. He said to me, “I’m getting a lot of folks who are asking me about contracts. They said that that was keeping them up. It’s that they may have exposure in other contracts like the one I just handled, like the dispute I just handled; and they’ve asked me to look at their contracts.” And he says, “I’m not a business lawyer. I don’t typically do that. So I’m going to have to bring somebody in to do that.” And I said to him, I said, “Well, if you have enough need for this, bring the person in and start doing that type of work.” And that’s exactly what he did.

So now his practice has morphed from 100 percent litigation to 75 percent litigation, 25 percent transactional work, 25 percent business law work. And now that he has got somebody in his office, I bet at some point it becomes 50-50.

So for you, whether you’re a business owner, a lawyer or a doctor, I encourage you to sit down and spend a couple of minutes with your clients or patients and ask them, “Hey, what’s keeping you up at night?” and think about what you can do to help relieve that pain or solve that problem for your clients, for your patients, for your customers.

If you can solve that problem for them and there’s a good chance that many of your friends, your customers, your clients will be coming to you with the same issue, you could get into a very lucrative line of business as a secondary or add-on or after-work type of business for your business, for your professional practice, for your consulting work.

My name is Dave Lorenzo and if you would like more great information just like this, you can find me at Valtimax.com. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

Summary

This is the thing everyone thinks about when they think “sales”. They think about closing the deal.

There is no mystique about sales closing. It is simply the end of the beginning of a relationship.

Think about that. Selling is helping people want what they need. The selling process is simply the beginning of that relationship.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo with Valtimax Consulting and we’re at the part of our sales video series where we talk about closing the deal. This is the simplest process if you followed our guidelines up to this point because the deal really closes itself and here’s how it works.

You’ve gotten the person to the point where you’ve identified what their pain is and you’ve shown them how you can relieve them of the pain. You’ve shown them how you can make things better for them or make things better in their current situation.

Now what you want to do is you simply want to ask them how they like to proceed. Here’s how it goes. You’re a realtor. You got them in the house that they like and they’re looking at the house for the second time. You ask them if they can picture themselves around the kitchen table with their family. You take them to the office and you ask them how they can picture themselves working in the office. You look at them and you look at the house and you say, “How would you like to proceed?”

Now at this point, they may have some objections and you’re not going to be able to overcome those objections. What you’re going to have to do is you’re going to have to help them work through those objections themselves and here’s how you do that. If they say to you the garage is too small, you have to say to them, “Hmm, the garage is too small. All right. Tell me what that means.” Well that means that we’re not going to be able to fit both of our cars in there. OK. Well, where do you put both of your cars now? We put them both in a garage now. OK. If we could find a way to help you get on-street parking, would the house be acceptable to you or do we need to look for a house with a two-car garage?

You offer them two options, one of the options being to take the home. The idea is that you help them work through the objection themselves. Let me give you another example.

In the case of an attorney. They’re sitting across from you and they’re saying, “I’m not 100 percent sure if I should go with you because your fee seems really high in order to get rid of that speeding ticket.” You say to them, “My fee seems high. OK. Well what’s the alternative?” And then they say to you, “Well the alternative is to try and represent myself.”

OK, I understand that. If you represent yourself and it doesn’t work out, what happens? Well I get the points and I have to pay a fine. And how much is the fine? Well, it’s $300. And how much is that compared to my fee? Well it’s three times your fee.

You see what happens here is you help people work through the options and you make yourself the obvious choice. That’s how you close the deal and you get past objections. You offer people options and you make yourself the obvious choice.

No one is going to close a deal before the client is ready to close themselves. High pressure tactics never work and forcing people into something they don’t feel good about never works. You simply help them through the thought process and you make yourself the best option.

My name is Dave Lorenzo and if you would like more great tips just like these on business strategy, sales and marketing, productivity improvement and management of your business, you can find me at Valtimax.com.

Summary

Understanding your prospective client/patient/customer’s motivation is critical to addressing his/her needs.

This video outlines how you can make certain you understand the prospect’s motivation and help him/her make a decision in line with his/her desired outcome.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo and I’m the Chairman and Founder of Valtimax Consulting and this is the third video in our sales video series and we’re talking about the third step in really the sales process and that’s when you and your prospective client and your prospective patient are face to face. You’re having a discussion about what’s going on in your client’s life, in their business, in their situations so that you can decide whether or not you can help them and they can decide whether or not you’re a good fit.

The first thing you do when you’re in that situation and you’re face to face besides welcoming them and making some small talk to make them feel comfortable, the first step is to reiterate the rules of engagement. The way I do it is I say, “Hi, Mr. Jones. Thank you so much for coming in. Have a seat. It’s great for you to be here. How is your family?

Remember when we talked yesterday on the phone? We discussed how we’re going to have a meeting today. You’re going to ask me some questions. I was going to ask you some questions and then we were going to decide whether we’re going to take the next step or not. Is that still OK with you?”

Mr. Jones says, “Great.” So then you say to him, “Tell me what’s going on. Tell me what brought you here today and how you think I can help you.” Then they go into their situation. They tell you what’s going on.

Now it’s very important that you spend at least 70 percent of your time listening and 30 percent of the time really asking questions to understand the situation. The person sitting across from you is going to give you the clues you need in order to determine whether or not you want to do business with him. Once you decide you want to do business with him, it’s up to you to take the next step and ask them to ask you for help.

Here’s how you do it. “So Mr. Jones, I understand,” and then you highlight the points of pain. “I understand that you’re looking for a three-bedroom home and you want it to be in this neighborhood and you want it to have these types of features and you need to move in within the next 90 days. Is that correct?”

Mr. Jones says, “Yes.” “Well, I think I can help you. I have several homes that fit that profile. We’re going to take a look at some of the listings and really narrow it down to two or three that we will then go see. If I present you with two or three of those homes and you see one that fits your needs exactly, would you be ready to go and put a deposit down on that home, sign a contract for that home today?”

Mr. Jones says, “Yes.” You’re off to the races. In the case of the lawyer, “Well Mr. Smith, I understand that you were doing 95 miles an hour in a 65-mile an hour zone. That’s a pretty serious offense. That could be a fine of several hundred dollars and several points on your license. It’s not unusual for me to hear of these cases and I probably can help you in some way. But before I do, I need to make certain that if I agree to help you, you’re going to be able to pay my fee. So shall we talk about the fee now?” Mr. Jones says, “Yes.” You tell him what the fee is. You tell him what you will do for that fee. You agree. You’re done.

I mean these conversations are very, very easy to have once you understand that you’re talking about a situation in which the patient or the client has some discomfort and you’re taking that discomfort away.

People are motivated to relieve pain and sometimes, even if it’s a pleasurable experience like buying a car or buying a boat, those items are definitely going to deliver them pleasure over the long term. They have anxiety and by relieving their anxiety, you’re relieving them of the pain.

So what you can say to them is, “Mr. Smith, I know that buying a car is a procedure that makes a lot of people very anxious. I want to tell you that I’m a no-pressure salesperson. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to present you these cars and then we will talk about how much they cost and I will give you the best possible price I can right upfront.

If we agree on that price and you need help with financing, I will introduce you to our finance person and they will give you the best possible deal right upfront. We’re not going to go back and forth. We’re not going to spend a lot of time haggling and negotiating. You can decide whether this makes sense for you or not and there’s not going to be any pressure here today.”

By taking that pain away from them right upfront, you’re helping them get in a buying mood and that makes things a lot easier. So the key component in the sales process at this point is getting them to disclose to you what their discomfort is and then you’re going to highlight that discomfort and show them how you can take that discomfort away from them.

My name is Dave Lorenzo and if you would like more great tips like these on sales and marketing, business strategy, productivity improvement or business management, you can find them at Valtimax.com.

Summary
When it comes to the sales process the clients is not always right.

You must dictate the pace and the tone of the meeting and you must be clear on the outcome. The only way to do this is to treat the client as a peer. He must view you as someone with something of value.

This video will help you discover how you can make sure you control your sales destiny.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo with Valtimax Consulting. I want to welcome you back to our series on sales and selling. Today we’re going to be talking about the rules of engagement when it comes to sales and selling.

Before you ever sit down with a client, with a patient or with a prospective customer, you want to make sure they understand the rules of engagement in dealing with you.

Here’s how I do it. When someone calls on the phone and we discuss what their needs are and they agree that they want to come in and meet with me, I then go over the rules of engagement with them and what I say is simply this. “Mr. Jones, tomorrow you’re going to come to my office and we’re going to meet. We’re going to sit down and talk. You’re going to have a lot of questions you want to ask me and that’s great. I’m going to have some questions I’m going to want to ask you. Once we get through with these questions and answers, we’re going to have to decide if we want to take the next step in our relationship. Are you OK with doing that once we’ve had this discussion?”

Now, that in essence is getting permission to move to the next step in the sales cycle and it’s fantastic. It’s absolutely powerful. So Mr. Jones comes into your office the next day and he knows he’s coming into your office for a meeting and he’s going to have to make a decision after that meeting.

Now sometimes they will say to you, “Well, what does the next step look like?” I always offer them an option to say, “Listen, it depends on what the situation really is. We’ve only talked about you and your business on a very surface level. Once we really get into things, we will be able to better identify what the next step is. The next step may be to move into a working relationship together or it may be to look for more information to really get a thorough understanding of the problem. Either way, once we meet, we both have to agree that we’re going to decide one way or another whether we’re ready to take the next step. Are you willing to do that?”

Key point, you always want to ask for confirmation to make sure they’re ready to make a decision after that initial meeting with you. Let’s go through this again. Before you meet the person, you’re on the phone with them and you’re scheduling the appointment. “OK, Mr. Jones. I’ve got you down for Tuesday at 4:00. Here’s what’s going to happen in this meeting. We’re going to want to have a discussion and get to know one another. I’m sure you will have some questions for me and that’s great. I’m going to have some questions for you so that I can understand you and your business and your situation a little bit better.

Once we’re through with this meeting, we will have to agree as to whether we’re going to take the next step in our relationship or not. What you’re going to do is you’re going to decide if you can work with me and I’m going to decide whether or not I can help you. Are you OK with doing that at the end of our meeting?”

If the person says yes, you know you’re going to have a productive meeting. You’re actually going to have an opportunity to sell that person on your product or your service. If the person says no, then don’t schedule the meeting. The key component here is to get an upfront agreement that you’re going to have a discussion and after that discussion, you will decide whether you’re going to move to the next step or not.

My name is Dave Lorenzo and this has been the second step in our sales video series. I look forward to seeing you in our next video.

Summary
Most people misunderstand the beginning of the sales process. The point of your very first interaction with a prospective client/patient/customer is to get them to invite you into his/her world. Sometimes this invitation is really a request to come to your office and see you and sometimes this invitation is a request to have you visit them. The key is to get an appointment to discuss the client’s situation.

That is step one.

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Transcript

This is Dave Lorenzo with Valtimax Consulting. Today we’re talking about step one in the sales process and step one really is to gain an understanding for what the client, patient or customer is facing and then helping them understand what it is they need in getting them to want what they need.

What does this really mean to you? This means that you just need to get an appointment to sit down with a client, patient or customer face to face and have them tell you what’s going on in their life or in their business. That’s step one.

So many times, I meet professionals and folks in other businesses who want to sell somebody on their service, on their product immediately the first time they meet them. That’s not the best approach in 90 percent of the cases. So I’m going to describe a couple of scenarios for you to help you understand how you can get the sales process started.

If you’re a professional and you are in the business of having people come to you, so you’re in a medical office or you are a lawyer, an accountant, and people come to you generally for initial consultation. Here’s the way to go about this process.

The phone rings and people will usually have a lot of questions when the person on the other end of the phone answers the phone. You absolutely want to answer as many of the questions as you can and then say to them, “How would you like to proceed?” and they will always ask for information as to what the next steps are.

At that point, you invite them in to have a consultation. Now if you’re soliciting the business, if you’re calling on someone, who perhaps doesn’t even know you’re going to be calling, it’s called a cold call. If you’re doing that, the way to approach things is to call up and ask the person if they have a few minutes to discuss what’s going on in their business with you and you explain to them that you’re in the business of solving certain types of problems.

So let’s say you’re in the credit card processing business. You’re in the business of helping people save money on their credit card processing. You have a few minutes for me to come in, take a look at what you’re doing and discuss some ways that we can help you.

We’re in the business of helping people get paid. We have some unique and totally exclusive ways to help merchants get paid. I like to come in and see if any of them could be a benefit to you and then you stay silent and see what they say. Oftentimes, people don’t know what they need and you have to help them understand what their needs are.

I prefer to do this by using consumer-driven data and providing them with some information. So here’s another approach you can take. You can call people up on the phone and say, “Hi. My name is Dave Lorenzo and I’m in the business of helping people just like yourself make more money with the resources that you currently have. I’m going around in the area and doing presentations for all the people who are in your business,” and you name some of the competitors that you’re doing presentations for. “And I’m showing them how they could take advantage of a new trend in consumers using,” and you talk about whatever it is, the service that they provide.

So let’s say you’re calling on pizza shops. “Hi, Mr. Pizza Owner. My name is Dave Lorenzo and I’m calling to invite you to a presentation that we’re giving to all the pizza shop owners in the area. I’m going to Joe’s and I’m going to Luigi’s next week and we’re going to be delivering a presentation on the new demographics in the market and how you can take advantage of them to sell more pizza.

We’ve just done a great study and that study has indicated that there’s an opportunity in the market for you to capture some business that you’re not already getting. Would you have some time next week for me to come in and give this presentation to you?”

Now the demographic study that I’m talking about is simply looking at the area and determining where there are more children and helping them see that they could benefit by delivering pizzas to that area. You can do this in any industry. It’s very simple market research. It gets you an opportunity to get in front of that business owner.

Once you get in front of that business owner and you’ve explained to him how you can improve his business, he’s going to ask what you do and you’re going to get the opportunity to show him and tell him. If he asks on the phone what it is you do, you should always be upfront and tell him exactly what you do.

The key to getting an appointment with anyone at anytime if you’re looking to get an appointment with a business owner is to provide them with some helpful information that can be a benefit to them.

You may only get three appointments out of every 10 people that you call upon but that’s three more appointments than you would have had anyway. In professional services, when people call you, you want to take the opportunity to answer all their questions and then ask them how they would like to proceed.

When they say that they’re not sure or they want to know what the next steps are, you invite them in for a consultation based upon whatever your consultation procedure is. It’s that simple.

The key is to remember that the first step in the sales process is to get an appointment to have a conversation. You’re not selling anything. You’re looking to get an appointment.

My name is Dave Lorenzo and if you would like more great tips just like these on productivity improvement, business strategies, sales and marketing, you can find me at Valtimax.com. Thanks for watching. Have a fantastic day.