The Anatomy of A Sale.........Almost ;o(

I took a call yesterday from a conference organiser – let’s call him Dave.

Seems his speaker on Social Media at the conference pulled out at the next-to-last minute and they needed a speaker.

Fast.

A 1 hour 45 minute presentation on Social Media on Wednesday.

So it was going to be a bit of a rush to put together a decent presentation in just over a day.

Anyway, we chatted about a price and he mentioned they were speaking with 1 other potential speaker about filling the spot.

Dave’s boss would be making the final decision on the speaker.

20 minutes or so later and Dave called me back.

His boss wanted some info on the sort of social media consulting I’d done, with an idea of the sort of clients we work with and some examples.

No problem – I sent through a detailed email and moved on.

What The Boss Really Wanted

The biggest barrier when buying anything – a pair of shoes, a speech, a banana – is the perceived sense of risk.

What the boss was really asking for was, essentially, to be reassured that I wouldn’t get up and be complete crap and make them look stupid.

So my email detailed information to increase my perception as a credible expert, with associated minimal risk in buying my speech.

“Especially with professional services marketing you need to:

and social media does all this and more.”

All to demonstrate my expertise and establish my credibility.

That’s what making a sale is about – establishing trust, building your credibility and reducing the perceived sense of risk in buying from you.

P.S: And in a bloody poor response to show that what I do worked, Dave called back and said they were going with the other guy!

Cheers