My first cold call pitch sounded something like this: "Good morning, my name is Anthony Iannarino with Company Name, and I would like to meet with you to introduce myself and my company. Does 11:30 AM on Tuesday work for you?"
This approach worked at the time, booking hundreds of first meetings. It worked equally well with some of the largest companies in America, and with small companies. Until it didn’t.
A Truth about B2B Sales
Once everyone does the same thing in the same way, it eventually loses its power. This is why the legacy approach to sales continues to fail the true believers, the ones that believe nothing in B2B buying and selling has changed. This is why the cold call script started to become less effective.
Effective No More
At some point, fewer numbers of contacts were interested in meeting me and learning about my company and how we could help them. When something like this happens, you don’t notice right away. When making cold calls, you often hear the word no, so you don’t believe that what you are doing is not working.
Once you figure out that something isn’t working as well as it once did, you need to do something different, as you are already not getting the result you need for your effort. This is how B2B sales evolves to address what B2B buyers need, including what they need to hear to say yes to a first meeting.
Effective Now
Once I had developed the executive briefing, I noticed how it changed the relationship I had with my clients. The accolades from my clients and contacts convinced me I could use it in a first meeting. After some time, I changed my cold calling script, offering the decision maker an executive briefing on the forces and trends they would have to address to succeed in the future.
It would be some time before I would recognize what I was doing. Without knowing it, I was trading something valued by decision makers and leaders in exchange for their time. This shifted me from being a salesperson that needed something from my prospective clients to being the person that could give my client what they needed, the insights that would allow them to see around the corner, courtesy of the executive briefing.
Eventually, I called this approach the Trading Value Rule, extending it to every commitment I asked of my clients. You can find these commitments in The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales.
A Summation of the Trading Value Rule
The trading value requires you to explain the value the client will receive by saying yes to your request. If you fail to help them understand how what you are proposing will help them pursue their goals and initiatives, it’s easy for your contacts to believe you are pursuing your own goals, something buyers and decision makers often complain about.
The Trading Value Rule in Practice
You have had an effective first meeting. Now you need to secure a second meeting. If you didn’t create value in the sales conversation, you may not convert the first meeting to a second meeting. If, however, you created value, you need only describe what your contacts can expect in the way of value in the second meeting to make it easier to get the next meeting.
It might sound like this: “It seems you are already experiencing some of the forces and trends that are harming a lot of companies now. If you are free this same time next week, we can walk you through what is working and what isn’t. Does that work for you?” What is important here is that you explain what value you create in the next meeting, without which, there is no value proposition that would cause your contact to say yes to a meeting request.
The Second Failure
Later, as leaders forced their teams to build consensus around what they buy, holding their teams to execute and produce the better results they needed. But some contacts were not interested in including members of their teams. To coax them into giving access to their stakeholders, you must explain to the reticent contact the reasons to make way.
It might sound like this: “I am afraid that we might not be able to acquire the consensus of your team if they have been left out of this conversation. I want to make sure you get what you want. I’ll make sure you will retain control of this initiative, and everything will go through you.”
You can use the trading value rule to explain why your contact and their team need to collaborate on the solution, ensuring it works, and the team will have what they want. You can use this approach to explain why the contact should discuss the investment, review the proposal, and resolve any concerns their teams are struggling with.
By this point, you understand how the trading value rule works to make it easier for you to lead your client through their buyer’s journey.
Discovering the Trading Value Rule
Of the many strategies I have found helpful, this one is right at the top of the stack. It is an all-purpose strategy you can use from the first cold call to the execution of your solution.
Those who believe in value propositions will find this strategy right in line with what they believe about B2B sales. You still have time to use this approach to control the sales conversation, as few know about this rule, and some that should know better, fail to execute this approach.
Leaving this post, decide what value you will promise, starting with your cold call through the rest of your opportunity stages. For this to work, you must give your contacts what they need. The more you help them understand what they get from taking the next step, the better your results.
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