Last week we examined how an effective ICP can help you identify who will be open to a conversation. That conversation starts by trying to help the potential customer identify a reason to do something—to change from their current solution.
Many people will say that at this stage you are looking to discover a pain/need, and one phrase that keeps cropping up is “What would be the impact…?”
Guess what? As someone who is trying to sell with a buyer’s perspective, I see a potential issue with this phrase. Rather than try and explain, I thought I would try and get you, the reader, to discover for yourself by rewriting a famous song. So here goes…
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑛𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒
𝑁𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑢𝑠
𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑢𝑠, 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑘𝑦
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒
𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦
𝐴ℎ
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 i𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠
𝐼𝑡 𝑚𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠
𝑁𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑡𝑜𝑜
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒
𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛’ 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑒
𝑌𝑜𝑢
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝐼’𝑚 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑟
𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝐼’𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛𝑒
𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑙𝑙 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛 𝑢𝑠
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒.
I hope you saw what I have done, I have depersonalised John Lennon’s famous song. John Lennon realised that if you want to maximise the impact of words you have to find a personal connection and one of the strongest ways to do that is to get people to IMAGINE.
The minute you imagine you walk in the shoes of someone experiencing the outcome. If we are selling with a buyer’s perspective, we are constantly striving to create a connection between ‘the need to change’ and ‘changing’. What better way to do this than getting someone to imagine what their world looks like after the change?
Whilst I may not have the ability to write words that evoke such emotion as Imagine, I do know that asking someone to imagine how they will feel if they did not have to worry about the risk hanging over them is far more powerful than having an academic discussion about the impact of that risk.
So here is my sales version of Imagine:
𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑡
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑟𝑦
𝑁𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑟𝑦
𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑢𝑦𝑒𝑟
𝐺𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦
𝐴ℎ
𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑
𝐼𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜
𝑁𝑜 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥 𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑑𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑜
𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒
𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝
𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛 𝑢𝑠
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑢𝑦𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒.
Be brave, revisit your messaging and imagine that you sell with a buyer’s perspective.
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