You want to get a business agreement with your target rapidly, but you don’t know how.
If you want to get your business agreement rapidly, a well crafted business communication process can make all the difference.
That’s why I put together this blog post series on :
- Successful Business Communication – 3 Steps to Get Decision-Makers on the Phone Rapidly
- Successful Business Communication – 3 Steps to Getting Agreement Rapidly
In this post you’ll discover:
A proven Business Communication Model for getting the contract rapidly
My 3 step process to get your business agreeement with the target rapidly:
1. Setting up a Strategy Session
2. Holding the Strategy Session
3. Getting Agreement Rapidly
A strategy session is value added sales call where you and the decison-maker work on his specific problem, outlining options for solving the problem and creating an action plan for getting started rapidly.
You’ll discuss how you might be able to help them further by working together in a paid capacity.
1. Setting up a Strategy Session
First you’ll choose a compelling name for the session e.g. “Breakthrough Profitable Growth Strategy Session”. This will make your target read the name and think” that could be really valuable for me”.
Make sure your that in your material you’ve sent to the client, you describe the outcomes and benefits your potential client, employer will get from the session.
” We’ll work to clarify your vision for profitable business growth, identify the specific growth drivers that will work for your business and develop a roadmap for you to get there!”
2. Holding the Strategy Session
If you want to hold an effective strategy session you need to have the right mindset. Go in to the session thinking: ” it’s my job to provide good advice and figure out if it would be right for us to work together”.
If you go in with a selling mindset your potential client will feel it. He won’t open up and answer your questions completely truthfully, especially the ones homing in on really critical issues, because they’ll feel that you’re going to try to push them into buying from you.
So on the assumption that you’ve done some research on the business or individual beforehand and you know the basics about them; and you’ve asked qualified questions so you know what problem or challenge he wants to focus on, then you hold your strategy session. Here’s is a checklist of the basic format:
- Restate the Problem – Make sure you haven’t misunderstood what he wants to focus on
- Establish the Vision – Ask them what they’d like to achieve in the next quarter and this year
- Understand the Current Situation – Understand the situation, the problem and the impact on the area he wants to improve
- Flesh Out the Barriers – Find out the barriers standing in the way of your client reaching their goal as time constraints , resource shortages etc.
- Understand the Value – Now it’s time to finding out the value e.g. losses last year, sales decline last 3 yrs etc.
- Give Recommendations – Now you give him a roadmap for achieving his goal next quarter and this year.
Having achieved that stage, you’ll pause . Give him a chance to reflect on what you’ve said. Don’t push him into the next phase otherwise he’ll feel manipulated. Let him progress at his own pace. Leave at least a few seconds. Usually he’ll says something or ask questions, if he doesn’t: ask him how he would like to proceed.
3. Getting Agreement Rapidly
Eventually, he’ll ask you what the price is. Don’t just blurt out the price: restate the value he’ll be getting first to put it into context. For example:
“ For the program we’re talking about where you’ll get better at growing your business in CEE by $ 2m sales growth in 6 month, we talked about, the investment will be $ 200 tsd. ” Usually I charge 10% of the total savings or sales increase . Payable in 6 installments.
That sets the price right next to the benefit they’ll be getting.
Again after telling the price PAUSE . He needs to think. Filling the silence is a mistake. Leave him longer than feels comfortable, but if he doesn’t answer, ask him: how would you like to proceed?”
At this stage he’s going to give you a definite yes or no.
If he questions the price then I typically say that’s ok, and remind him that one of the goals of the meeting was to find out if we were good fit working together and if the price is outside their budget then we may well not be.
I would continue saying ” typically what many of my clients have found is that when they compare investment to the value they get in terms of know-how and cost savings, they’ve decided it’s a good return on investment and they’ve gone for it. But its completely up to you, and then PAUSE
Usually this reminder of value delivered is enough to get him to realise it’s worth investing. But sometimes it’s not and I don’t push it. I certainly don’t get into discounting. I adjust rather the program than discounting the price.
Make sure you agree a deadline when he’s going to get back to you and agree a time to get on a call together to discuss.
If they ask for a proposal, ask if it is ok if you do a quick summary of the main points we discussed, my recommendations , options and the fee – and then we get on a quick call to discuss in a couple of days to make sure I’ve got everything right.
If they’re unwilling to get on a call with you to discuss then they’re never going to buy – so just ask them to call you when they’d be ready to discuss and you’ll do the proposal then. Otherwise you’re going to waste a ton of time writing proposals that no one really wants.
Conclusion
In this short post we’ve learn how lead a strategy meeting with a decision-maker successfully. Now it’s your turn. Wish You All Success!
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