Presentation scheduled for 7 p.m. today. You received the address and information necessary to research the property online and prepare a competitive market analysis. The homeowner also agreed to allow you to present first and come 30 minutes early to tour the property.
Now you have enough to adapt your listing presentation to meet your prospect’s needs and gain a competitive advantage. Based on what you uncovered, you know to focus your presentation on the benefits of going with an agent who has a proven track record and the pain of delay that improper pricing and marketing can result in.
Getting the Information You Need
Gathering information is similar to the way you process leads in your sales funnel. Just like every lead doesn’t result in a client, every piece of information you uncover doesn’t necessarily end up in your presentation. Figure 2-1 shows you how a presentation funnel works. You fill your funnel with the information you gather in this section. After you have the information, you use it to develop your value proposition, which you can read about in Chapter 3, and help you build a persuasive case, as I cover in Chapter 4.
Illustration by 24Slides
Figure 2-1: A presentation funnel: how the information you gather helps you construct your presentation.
Fortunately, information is easier to come by than ever before. That also means your competitors can easily access it as well so dig a little deeper to stay in the lead. Here are some places to search and what to look for:
All sorts of information about your prospect and her organization is available to you on a company’s website. The company history, key executives, products or services, and marketing messaging are some of the things you want to check out, but also look for the following:
✔ Company goals and strategic initiatives: Most companies have a vision or a corporate objective that it has set for the coming year. For example, “We want to increase market share by 10 percent this year.”
✔ Community involvement: Look for pet projects or sponsorships. Perhaps the company sponsors a local sports team or runs an annual food drive for the homeless.
✔ White papers or case studies. Often organizations produce publications that address issues within their industry or show how they have helped solve problems for their customers. These can provide valuable insight into topical issues and industry trends.
A company’s website isn’t a full picture of your prospect. Finding out what others are saying about your prospect is equally important. Here are some places to look:
✔ Reports by industry analysts: Identify the trends or developments in your prospect’s industry that affect how she views the problem. Most industries have recognized thought-leaders that provide research and whitepapers, for example, Gartner.com and Techrepublic.com for technology, and Jdpower.com for many other products and brands.
✔ Business data sites. Several companies provide competitive information and statistics. Hoovers.com and Data.com provide you access and reports for a fee, while Owler.com is a free crowd-sourced company sharing site for competitive information.
✔ Google advanced search. If you master a few tricks on Google, you can find all data published on other sites about your prospect’s organization. For example:
● Allintext: By entering “allintext: company name,” you get a list of sites where your company is mentioned.
● Phrase search: Enclosing the exact keywords you want to search in quotation marks results in only sites that have that specific information, for example, “ABC Organization U.S.”
● Time and date search: If you’re looking for information from a specific time period, enter “daterange: company 2014-2015” to see results confined to that time period.
✔ Social media: A wealth of information on your prospects is available through sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. This information is helpful in getting to know the people you’ll be presenting to. Furthermore, you can also use it to listen to what other customers, employees, competitors, or vendors who have experience working with your prospect are saying about the company through several free social monitoring sites, including:
● SocialMention: Simply plug in the name of your prospect and Socialmention.com searches 100+ social media properties for mentions of the company.
● Hootsuite: Monitor in real time what people are saying about your prospect on social networks, like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, and Wordpress with Hootsuite.com.
In a more complex B2B (business-to-business) sale, the stakes and the competition are high, and a consensus usually is required to make a decision. In this case a more thorough discovery process involving speaking to key individuals within the propect’s organization is necessary to help you develop a focused, tight case and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
A discovery conversation is a one-on-one meeting or phone call with someone in your prospect’s organization who can provide insight or shed light on the challenge you’re addressing in your presentation. Don’t be shy about asking for input. It’s a fair and reasonable request that benefits not only you, but also the prospect. Gaining a better understanding of your prospect’s needs shortens your presentation and allows you to provide a more accurate and precise recommendation. The following steps help you secure a meeting with key individuals within your prospect’s organization:
1. Ask your primary contact for three or four names of key people to speak with.
These names may be people who will be attending the presentation, key influencers, or those who work behind the scenes and who are able to provide insight on the problem or challenge.
2. Send a short, to-the-point email requesting a call or meeting with each individual.
Use one or two sentences to describe why you want to speak and how much
