Here are some thoughts from Dan Kennedy’s ‘Your Million Dollar Sales Presentations’:

”Many “modern” sales trainers and experts are very critical of “canned” ie. memorized presentations. I don’t quite understand this.

Personally, I have a “Million Dollar Sales Presentation” (that sells over a million dollars of my products each year from the platform) and I want to deliver it perfectly every time - word for word, inflection for inflection. So I have it memorized AND I practice. To me, it seems it would be stupid not to.

In person to person selling, which I do only a little of anymore; mostly on the phone or in meetings with clients; I have perfectly honed, memorized and practiced “vignettes” of material that can be linked together or used cafeteria style as needed. I have a “pat” way to describe how my fees work. I can’t imagine ad-libbing all that.

So, I am an advocate of the polished, practiced presentation. I believe it gives you confidence, reduces stress and worry, frees you to listen to responses, and, of course, insures that you say what you have to say in the most persuasive and convincing way possible.

Conversely, I really wonder about the person who’s constantly changing his presentation. Does this mean he hasn’t yet gotten it right? The smartest strategy is to deliver the very best, most complete sales presentation possible - every time.”

So how does this apply to you as a marketer of lawn care or landscaping services?

Quite simply, it means you should have a prepared sales message that you deliver EVERYTIME you speak with a prospect. I know it might sound quite silly, but putting together a carefully planned and thoroughly prepared will give you a significant leg up on your competition.

To make this work for you, get out a piece of paper and begin writing out a draft of your sales presentation. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect the first time. Believe me, it won’t be. Just start writing, making sure to list all the reasons why your prospect should hire you to provide their lawn care services. Again, when writing these reasons remember to stress benefits, benefits, and more benefits.

After you have a rough draft of this sales message, go back through and cut out any unnecessary or extraneous material. You want it to be ‘lean and mean’, using convincing language and containing only the most powerful of reasons why they should hire you.

Once you have this rough draft, take what you’ve written out and start practicing it out loud. Yes, that’s right, OUT LOUD. Do it in front of your bathroom mirror. Have your spouse or significant other play the role of Mr. or Mrs. Prospect. It will probably feel awkward at first, but do it anyway.

The more you practice it, the more comfortable you will feel delivering it, and the more effective you will be in presenting it when standing face to face with your next potential client.

Having taking the time to prepare and plan out your sales message ahead of time will give you the confidence you need to make a powerful pitch for business, it frees you to listen to your prospects responses, and finally, it insures that you say what you need to say in the most persuasive and convincing way possible.

Bookmark Me!

Being in business is all about developing some level of trust with customers. In order to sell a product or service, there must exist a small amount of trust or there’s no way in this world anyone would hand over their hard earned money. Given the amount of commercialism and ‘hype’ that most consumers are subjected to today, gaining that trust is a more difficult task than ever before.

Let’s face it, today’s consumer is skeptical. Each and everyday he or she is bombarded with hundreds of flashy ads, screaming commercials, or the next ‘Be All, End All’ special. With everyone proclaiming their product or service to be ‘the best thing since sliced bread’, what can you do to cut through this hype and gain that much needed trust?

The most powerful tool for cutting through the hype is the use of customer testimonials.

You see, everyone expects you to gush about your own lawn care service. They expect you to say that you can make their lawn look like something out of a magazine. If they don’t hear you say how much cheaper, better, and more spectacular than anyone else your service is, they start to question your sanity and sense as a business owner.

However, just because YOU say it doesn’t make it true.

On the other hand, when someone that doesn’t have a vested interest in your business is willing to step forward and say that you can indeed make their front yard look like something out of a magazine, you’ve made a HUGE step toward gaining that all important element of trust.

Testimonials are very powerful. They have the magical power of persuasion. They create credibility with everything you’ve already said about your lawn care or landscaping service. They break down those natural barriers of distrust and skepticism that make acquiring a new customer a difficult task.

So how do you use testimonials to gain that trust?

First of all, you should use them whenever and where ever possible. Anytime you’re interacting with potential customers, you should have customer testimonials available. That means if you’re running an ad in the yellow pages, you should include a customer testimonial. If you have an ad in the newspaper, include a customer testimonial. Do you have a website? Have one entire page dedicated to customer testimonials and put a few on a sidebar on your home page. Handing out flyers or door hangers? Don’t forget to include a few customer testimonials on them.

Imagine this scenario for a moment. You receive a call for a bid from a potential customer and after looking at the property, measuring and figuring all your associated costs, you hand them a bid for a long-term maintenance contract. After looking at the numbers, their eyes get big, they take a deep breath, and say, ‘Wow, that’s a lot more than what I was expecting.’

What do you do? Do you start into your sales pitch about how you always cut in perfectly straight lines, leaving a perfectly manicured lawn? Or about how you personally inspect every square inch of grass to insure the proper cut? Or about how you use only top quality fertilizers and weed killers? While all this might have some impact on the potential customer, it’s a tough spot to be in. Isn’t it?

However, what if along with the bid sheet you handed them 4 or 5 pages of testimonials from customers saying things like, ‘well worth the cost,’ ‘a little more than the competition, but I couldn’t imagine having anyone else do the job,’ ‘I’m so thankful for the beautiful lawn AND time to enjoy it with my family‘, or ‘I’m the envy of the neighborhood and I didn’t even do anything.‘

Now, instead of you having to justify your price, you let your satisfied customers do the selling for you. You let them share with this prospect the reasons why they should choose you to do the job over ‘Joe’s Lawn Care’ from down the street. Their words are so much more powerful than anything you could EVER say.

You’ve also instantly cut through all the hype, double-talk, and chest pounding done by the majority of businesses and given your prospects a reason to instantly trust you.

Again, a third party endorsement is much more believable than someone out tooting their own horn.

Without a doubt, customer testimonials have selling power that could never be matched by even the best paid salesman or copywriter. Get them, use them, and let them make the job of selling your lawn care services much, much easier.

Bookmark Me!