My goal is pretty much the same on every first visit. It’s to get the other person to say, “Wow, this is great, what can I do to help?” Tom embedded this simple goal early on – and it’s stuck.
If you can get the other person to say – in effect – “I’m in!”, then it’s not about cultivation, a series of complicated chess moves or backroom meetings about ‘timing’. It is about answering the question: What can I do to help?
You can get there in two years or twenty minutes. It often comes down to your message or how long it takes you to do discovery and make a connection to your message. To get to this goal means:
* Clearly communicating the CAUSE.
* Laying out a tight CASE. (Think of CASE as a solution or address to the CAUSE.)
* You’ve created ENGAGEMENT. In all likelihood, you’ve listened your tail off to do so.
* Bonus: Brought a level of PASSION to the first visit.
Funny thing is, while this is my goal and while I and others often ‘close’ on the first visit, I can’t remember anyone saying to me, exactly, “Wow, this is great, what can I do to help?” Sometimes I get to the goal with some dialogue:
* “My goal today was to share [XYZ IMPACT], to do some discovery and to ask you if this is something you would like to help with. “If not yes, then the answer is often “very interested in learning more”.
* “Would it be okay to follow-up with a conversation about how you might be able to help?” This is asking for permission to move to the goal.
* Note: Even if you don’t get a straight up ‘yes’ to the above questions, they create productive dialogue to advance the conversation. For example, yesterday one prospect said to me, “Well, Nick, first I would want to see the program in action.” PERFECT! OF COURSE! But now he’s committing to coming to our place to see the program AND we have a common understanding that we are going to talk about ways to help financially!
