Make the Juice Worth the Squeeze!

Make the Juice Worth the Squeeze!
By Dr. Julie Miller

Consider these scenarios: Your Company is considering "streamlining" your department. Translated: Some folks must leave. Management tasks you with presenting ideas on how to address this issue. Or does this one sound familiar? The senior team wants the 30,000' view of your current project (no minutia, please!) along with recommendations and a timeline for the roll out.

What to do? Answer: Persuade, convince, and guide them towards the desired action you want. In other words, sell to them. As you create a sales letter, deliver a PowerPoint deck or send an email, keep these tips in mind as you think through the best approach for your desired results.

1. The Reader Reigns Supreme. If ever there was a time to get into the readers' head, it occurs when you need to convince them of your point of view. Perhaps you are garnering support for your cause and trying to get the gang on board. Or, you are writing an RFP explaining why you deserve the contract. Maybe you need to write sales copy for your product or service. In each of these instances, the reader reigns supreme.

The reader's position in the company will determine your approach and your word choice. For senior management types keep technical language to a minimum and emphasize market potential of the product or service. Include different approaches as well as costs and results. Alternatively, when presenting to those outside your field, simple, short explanations along with concrete examples seem to go over well. Stories and anecdotes also work. Try to avoid too much theory as eyes begin to glaze over.

2. Everyone Wins. Rather than the old win-lose sales paradigm, construct your topic around the idea that both sides win, thus leading to mutually rewarding results. Using the scenario example above, if you can sell to the team that eliminating jobs is not the answer but rather building a plan for increased efficiencies will gain more market share, they will sit up and listen. Both sides win. Your team keeps their jobs; the company makes more money.

3. It's All About Perception. You have heard it before-benefits sell, not features. However, benefits alone remain meaningless unless they appeal to the reader. It is how they perceive the value. Ask yourself: What will my reader/audience gain by approving my idea, buying our product, or signing up for our services? What direct value will they realize? What they gain must outweigh any costs, considerations, "yes, buts" or "howevers."

Your word choice should focus on creating the benefits your reader values. Guide your reader to conclude that what you are presenting or offering is worth the time, the money, and the resources to make it happen. For example, when you write, "I am sending this email because our department needs new computers," you will probably not get the result you want. However, by focusing on the perceived benefits and writing, "If you purchase new computers, our department projects double the productivity," you will see heightened interest and heads nodding in agreement! Of course, supporting data is important to make your case.


More About "Make the Juice Worth the Squeeze!" By Dr. Julie Miller Below


Accelerated Sales Training enables companies such as yours to:

◦Break into new accounts

◦Reach decision-makers

◦Identify and Qualify opportunities

◦Meet and exceed sales quotas

◦Shorten sales cycles

Examples of Key Results Produced

•Tripled call center lead generation performance while the Inside Sales group doubled its results in setting qualified appointments.

•Added 74 new customers in one quarter.

•Increased sales from $695 million to $1.1 billion over a 5 year period.

•Boosted sales by 19.3% quarterly and increased profit before taxes by 24% for the past fiscal year.

•Completed a $2.8 million in new license revenue at a major insurance company.

•Closed a $208,000 deal that paid for the entire prospecting program.

•Identified over $61 million in software revenues from 1989 to 1997.

Ron S. La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a LIVE cold call/new business development sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. For a complementary sales training needs analysis, call Ron at
1-818-519-3852 or send an email to: analysis@ast-incorp.com.

Over 100 LinkedIn recommendations can be found by clicking here:
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“Ron, brought new insights, ideas and techniques to my inside sales team. His style and class participation was a breath of fresh air and brought real live results into the training.“
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Glenn Wiebe

"Make the Juice Worth the Squeeze!" By Dr. Julie Miller Continued

4. Don't Dance with Me. Overworking a topic will gain you few friends. Tell your reader quickly what is in it for them. Help them understand why it is fair and equally beneficial. Then, guide them to their own conclusion. As a rule of thumb, if you are pitching your idea/product using a PowerPoint deck, dedicate no more than seven minutes to your topic. In an email, 300 words remains the limit.

5. Sharp and Shiny Sentences Sing. If you think you work at warp speed, remember so do your readers! Wordy, disorganized, vague, or slow-to-the-point documents gain few allies. Writing crisply will make your message stand out. That means no wasted words. Pay attention to overusage of these words: of, which, and that. Too many of these words weakens your writing. If your readers have to wade through worn and weary sentences filled with jargon and acronyms, you ask too much. If they have to reread your writing to make sense of it, you are on thin ice. If they work too hard to read those long, drawn out sentences, they will quit.

6. Style Counts! Here is a simple strategy you can use to immediately create more interest and style in your writing. Vary your sentence structure. With thirty-nine different ways to construct a sentence, you have no excuse for falling into the old subject-verb-object trap. By varying the pattern of your sentences, you keep your readers alert. You don't want your writing sounding like the messages on an ATM. For example, this standard style has a familiar ring: The third quarter profits exceeded expectations. However, if you make the sentence into a question: How much did the third-quarter profits exceed expectations? Or use a quotation: The chairman of the board gleefully announced, "The third-quarter profits exceeded my expectations!" you would move towards more interesting, more robust writing.
By using these tips to sell, you will start noticing some exciting changes in your writing. Just imagine getting that promotion, making that sale, or having your project approved and funded! So, to coin an old phrase, the pen is mightier than the sword-consider yourself armed and dangerous!

About the Author
Dr. Julie Miller, founder of Business Writing That Counts!, is a national consultant and trainer who helps professionals reduce their writing time and produce powerful documents. She and her team of certified trainers work with executives who want to hone their writing skills and professionals who want to advance their careers. Learn more about Dr. Julie Miller. http://www.businesswritingthatcounts.com/article2

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Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a LIVE cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the complementary bimonthly Sales Tips and Telesales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling/New Business Development Sales Training please call Ron at
1-818-519-3852.

Make it a great day and a successful week!

Ron S. La Vine, MBA, President and CEO

Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
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Helping you Break into and Qualify New Accounts™
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