Becoming a brilliant strategist

What is the difference between a tactician and a strategist? A tactician is one who uses a method or technique to achieve a short term goal or objective which will have an immediate gain while a strategist is one who has a detailed plan of achieving a long term goal with future gains.

In becoming a brilliant strategist you must learn the art of defining objectives, laying out detailed and result oriented plans while still focusing on how to attract customers or clients. In meeting a client, you should determine what your specific objective is. Mostly when you ask salespeople what their core objective is, they will answer clearly that they want to make the sale. Well, is the sale really important when the client really does not understand what you are selling?

Research shows that only 3% of your potential buyers are buying now while 7% of your potential buyers are not yet buying now. The rest are divided equally each amounting to 30% of potential buyers who are either thinking about it (are very neutral; not for it and not against it), are not interested or are definitely not interested at all. So in every sales pitch that one makes, we have to identify what will capture the attention of all these individuals.

Chet Holmes, a legendary business growth strategist advises that we should take the “Stadium Pitch Approach.” Envision yourself in a stadium full of potential buyers of your product or service. You have been given an opportunity to make pitch. What would you say? Remember that your audience is free to leave if they feel like. They have no obligation to listen to what you have to say.

Well most salespeople would generally try to sell their product or service there and then. But do you remember what target you will be achieving? Only the 3%. For a strategist, he will try and connect with the audience by ensuring that he says things that will be relevant to everyone. A strategist always encourages education of the customers which will later guide them into making a purchase. This is an effective strategy that they use and which guarantees a lot more than hard sale pitching.

What is buyer education?

Buyer education is helping the buyer have full information about a specific area that you would want them purchasing a product from. For example when you educate a buyer on the benefits of healthy sleeping, it is easier for the customer to come to you to buy a mattress. This is because when you educate a buyer, it shows that you are an expert on the market not necessarily an expert of the product. Why is this so? This is gotten from the mere fact that most buyers are generally not experts in the product. So if you offer educative insights to your client, they will view you as an expert and this will transform into a trust. We tend to trust someone who has valid and true information. This may even translate into brand loyalty where customers will prefer your brand because they offer knowledge into issue that affect them and tend to buy your products.

So how do you grab the attention of your customer?

This is your “stadium pitch title.”  You should always be aware of what the title of your pitch describes. Does it describe what you want to sale? Does it describe a certain problem that your potential clients go through? A good sales pitch that captures the attention of your potential client should always offer insights rather than the sale. Such an approach guarantees you to have a pitch that is both interesting and informative. Which one captures your attention?

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The first one tries to sell you the product while the second one tries to be informative and educative. For the people who are buying now (3%), they are likely to be attracted with the first pitch title but for the rest of the potential buyers, they would be more interested in the second pitch because it educates them on something.

What really causes businesses to fail is bad customer relationship and a good strategist ensure that his salespeople do not work hard but work smart. This is through them trying to educate the potential clients instead of making the hard sale.

An effective strategist know the art of educative marketing. Educative marketing helps build rapport with a client which leads to trust. Trust then created brand loyalty which even makes it easier for salespeople to push for appointments. Once a salesperson establishes themselves as an expert, they will appear credible and a client will always appreciate the value the salesperson gives them through the information provided. A good strategist will always align his salespeople to educate their clients instead of making a hard sale.