Sales Truth by Mike Weinberg

Author:Mike Weinberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2019-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

Use This “Bridge Line” to Bridge into Your Message

It is pretty rare for someone to come right out and ask us what issues we address for customers and what type of outcomes our solution creates. Further, as we already reviewed, it is easier and more natural to simply begin our story by sharing information about ourselves, our company, and our solutions. That is why the majority of sellers succumb to this inferior practice. It doesn’t take any extra effort. But it takes intentionality to break out of that mold and to break the habit of leading with self-focused messaging.

We need a mechanism to force us out of the legacy way of sharing our story and “bridge” us into talking about the issues we address and outcomes we achieve for customers. That is why I created what I call “The Bridge Line.”

The Bridge Line forcefully prevents us from leading with our offerings or self-focused messaging and instead propels us into listing customer issues and outcomes. In my own story example above, you can see how that first sentence stops me from answering the “What do you do?” question the easy way and instead helps me bridge right into the challenges I help sales leaders and sales teams overcome and the results/outcomes I produce. This one little, very powerful line accomplishes all of that: “Senior executives look to me when . . .” From there, I transition into listing the handful of client issues I address that I feel are most relevant for the particular person with whom I am speaking.

When helping salespeople and sales teams sharpen their story, I promise them that if they start their messaging with any variation of The Bridge Lines below, whatever they say or write next will be good—and powerful.

[Customer Type] turns to [Your Company Name] when/to . . .

or

[Position Type] looks to [Your Solution] when/to . . .

Try it for yourself. Plug in either the type of customer or the position of the person with whom you would be sharing your story.

Here’s an example to help. Assume you sold financing programs to individual orthodontists and larger orthodontic practices, so they could offer patients long-term financing to pay for braces. You might start your messaging with any of these Bridge Lines:

“Orthodontic practices turn to JKL Credit Services when . . .”

or

“Practice Business Managers look to JKL Credit when . . .”

or, this more commonly used phrase that incorporates help

“JKL Credit Services helps Orthodontics Practices who . . .”

Once we have laid down that bridge, the fun begins. Now we bridge into a select handful of talking points that articulate the true value we deliver by listing the issues we address and the outcomes we help clients achieve. The situation and communication vehicle dictate how many of those points we might initially share. During a prospecting call, I might only share two, maybe three short points—taking only ten to fifteen seconds to do that. To position my company and build credibility before asking probing questions during a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.