Most people are not comfortable promoting themselves. That’s bad news if you’re an entrepreneur because you’re the person who’s in charge of marketing. It’s your job to convey your credibility to your potential clients.
I don’t know about you, but as a little girl I was taught that’s it was really bad to talk about myself. In fact it was downright rude to draw attention to myself. Now I own my own business and I have to completely shift away from what was ingrained from an early age. Sound familiar?
The first key to promoting yourself without looking or feeling arrogant is to shift it to your client’s perspective. Ask yourself your #1 marketing question:
#1: How does the information I’m providing about myself or my company benefit my client?
First we’ll put you in the position of a client so you see how to use your credibility and then we’ll talk about the importance to your personal story in increasing sales.
Pretend You’re the Client
Let’s say, for example, you’re looking for a new accountant for your business and one office you walk into has stories from magazines and newspapers on the wall, awards of excellence, community work awards, etc. and another office is just nicely decorated, which office has more credibility? You want to convey that same credibility to your clients. If you are meeting outside your office, you will have credibility pieces in your presentation book.
For company credibility you should have written material. If people are coming to your office, you will have credibility walls where you can show plaques, stories from magazines and newspapers, awards of excellence, community work awards, etc. If you are meeting outside your office, you will have credibility pieces in your presentation book or on a brochure or website. Many presentations are already being done by showing videos on the iPad!
For company credibility you absolutely want to show written material along with audio & video if you can. Since people aren’t coming to the home office if you’re a network, you will have credibility pictures where you can show plaques, stories from magazines and newspapers, awards of excellence, community work awards, etc.
It’s important to give prospects a complete picture of who your company is and what it’s all about. The prospect wants to feel like they are a part of the family when they get involved with you and your product. This is a subconscious motivation. If they feel like a part of the family, they have an allegiance to you and they will refer other prospects to you.
You want to go over the history of the company so the prospect can see how long you have been in business. You want to have a piece on the principle people involved in the business. People want to know who is running the company and what their background is.
8 points to cover for company credibility:
1. How big is the company?
2. How have they grown over the years and at what pace?
3. What are their projections for the future?
4. What products did they start with?
5. What was their first success?
6. What kind of innovative track record to do they?
7. What makes this company unique?
8. What makes it better than the competition?
The Importance of Your Personal Story
It is up to you to establish credibility for your company in contrast to competitors. Tell them why they want to be involved with you.
The more they know you and like you the more likely they will say YES. This is an especially important component to your personal story if the relationship will be one with a close working relationship such as long-term partnership. They want to feel like you will understand their point of view, so the more commonality you can create, the better.
There’s an action step for you to take in your blueprint creator on this entire section to create the point exclusive to you in these areas.
Why Buy this Product or Service?
Why should a prospect say YES to your company? Can’t they get similar products somewhere else that do the same thing or take care of the problem they have in a different way?
This is where your USP (unique selling proposition) comes in. The material you put together as part of your credibility will answer all these questions.
Why Buy from You?
The final piece of the credibility portion of your presentation is why they should buy from you? What makes you special? What extra benefit do they get from being your client? The answers to these questions will help with the client deciding they don’t need to shop around and make them feel more comfortable about saying YES now instead of later.
*This week’s article comes from the program, “Getting to YES Without Selling Quick Start Formula 2.0” available at http://LynnPierce.com
Until next week, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just comment on this post below.
If you would like personal mentoring, send me an email detailing what you would like help with. As your mentor I hold a bigger vision for you than you hold for yourself. When you have faith and a team that believes in you, it gives you courage. When you don’t have to do it all yourself, all things are possible for you. Commit today to go for your dream 100%.
With 32 years in sales and marketing, along with 38 years studying human behavior, Lynn Pierce, “The Success Architect,” mentors entrepreneurs and information marketers to reach the pinnacle of success. Tell Lynn what the life of your dreams looks like, and she’ll create the blueprints to get you there, along with the sales system to fund it. Author of, “Breakthrough to Success; 19 Keys to Mastering Every Area of Your Life”, Lynn Pierce’s personal growth and business acceleration systems help her clients get three times the results in half the time with one tenth of the effort. Claim your free special report, “What Do You Stand For; A No B.S. Guide to Creating Your Own Personal Manifesto” at http://LynnPierce.com
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