Points of Compelling Relevance

For year's in selling we've talked about USP's or Unique Selling Points by which we could differentiate our offerings and make ourselves stand out to prospective customers from the 'white noise' of competition.

However I would submit that in the current market that it's not USPs but PCR's that we need and by that I mean 'Points of Compelling Relevance'.

A Point of Compelling Relevance is one that makes the prospect want to give us their left/right hand for whatever it is that we are offering them. It makes them want to sign up NOW and commit whatever they have for whatever it is that we are offering.

USP's tend to appeal to the intellect or the reasoning ability of a prospect - it speaks to the surface of the sale - the logical benefits available by considering the offering.

However a PCR speaks directly to the emotions or the feelings of the client where the benefit of the message is so relevant, so emotionally compelling - that they buy now - the rationale is over-ridden in place of the emotion. That emotion can be trust, greed, envy, profit, ambition, status but it is a compelling emotional trigger. For more on emotionally 'smart' selling click here.

Of course, to create Points of Compelling Relevance requires more thought and testing and tend to be unique to a particular prospect or prospect group but the effect is immediate and unconditional. They buy. Now.

Selling Smarter 1

I am scheduled to speak at an entrepreneur's conference in Galway next week and the subject is about Selling Smarter - 6 Keys to Maximising Your Sales Results. Over the next few posts I want to briefly cover what each of these keys are.

The first key covers what selling really is and what we actually sell. No matter where I go in the world no matter what kind of sales audience I am working with - when I ask what is it that they sell, the answers vary between 'myself' to 'solutions' to 'benefits' and so forth. Standard enough responses.

However the real key to understanding what we sell is when we realise that before we offer any of the above - we sell 'good feeling'. We sell a positive feeling that reduces the 'threat level' that new prospects might feel when they meet us for the first time and stimulates the emotions of acceptance and trust.

Dale Carnegie, the great sales trainer, always said that 'human beings are creatures of emotion not of logic'. When we reflect on that and understand that most decisions are emotionally-based - including decisions on price - then we realise that by managing the emotional dynamics of the sale we manage the decisions being made in that meeting.

A large part of the ability to manage those emotions comes from the ability to Connect, Involve and Engage. These skills will be covered more in the new audio CD series R'evolutionary Selling which will be released in May.