Everyone sells, even you. Learn a simple, easy way to sell by thinking like a buyer, not a seller. Every sales cycle has four phases, but learn why the second one – educating your buyer – can make or break the deal. I’ll teach you the 5 step CM!(tm) process, set you up with a toolbox full of ideas, and get you started on how to become a convincing expert. For audio and slides, go to http://theideamechanic.com/convince-me-indieconf-2010-soundslides

1. I’m not a sales guy, I’m more like a sales engineer: I help people sell. I started out as a machinist, got a degree in Mechanical Engineering, then went to work for
John Deere. At Deere I started working with the “Internet” in 1984. DNS came online, MILNET split off from ARPANET to become the Defense Data Network
(DDN) ... which eventually became the Internet. I’ve been involved with IP & network apps ever since. Before I went independent I worked at Cisco for about 10
years.

2. This presentation and performance is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. Additional permissions may
be requested at http://theideamechanic.com/contact.

3. Notice the progress meter at the bottom of the presentation.

4. An interesting statistic: 6.7 billion people sell something every day.

5. Everyone sells, even you. Everyone – that means you. Even if you try, you can’t NOT sell ...

6. Only (3) things can be sold: a product, a service, or a point-of-view.

7. Convince Me! (CM!) is simple.

8. CM! looks at selling differently.

9. CM! just works.

10. This is the CM! process. It’s not rocket science, but it works! It really does HELP PEOPLE SELL by giving them a simple, easy way to understand selling.

11. That’s all you need. The rest of the session is just tips and insights!

12. Let’s talk first about thinking and selling before we focus on convincing.

13. Burn this into your brain and never forget it: Don’t think like a seller. Think like a buyer.

14. Why should I buy what you’re selling? Do I need it? Do I want it? Do I know I need/want it? Steve Jobs knows how to push the “I GOTTA have that” button.

15. Think like a buyer. What’s in it for me? What’s the most listened to radio station in town? WII-FM.

16. I buy to satisfy a need or a want. Money? Time? Leverage? Security?

17. You must know: my industry, my business, my pain. Why should I trust you if you really don’t know me ... ?

18. Let’s talk about selling.

19. How do you sell? There’s a ton of different models for selling. Do you have one in mind? No? This one (CM!) is simple.

20. Look at selling as (4) phases: FIND, EDUCATE, CLOSE, and FOSTER.

21. The first phase: find prospects. How? Talk, hang out, network, subscribe, get social. It’s all about reach and awareness.

22. A few good tips: Talk (like today), hang out (at the watering holes), network(I belong to Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA), subscribe (RSS feeds,
email lists), get social (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ...).

23. The second (and most important) phase of selling: educate your customer.

24. Educating has 5 steps. We’ll go in to those in a few minutes.

25. Closing is controversial? Well, I don’t think so. Pull – don’t push – your buyer into buying. Deciding is logical. Buying is emotional. I’ll convince me. No buyer’s
remorse. Don’t badger.

26. Speaking of badgers ... If you have’t seen these videos, check them out (Johnson Automotive). They are exactly what you DON’T want to do.

27. The 3rd step in the sales cycle: build (Foster) a relationship with your buyer. Ask. Listen. FYI them. Deliver. Fix. A good sales person spends most of their time
here. Selling is not a one time experience. You want repeat customers, not one-time hits.

28. A few good tips: Ask (don’t assume). Listen (more than you talk). FYI them (keep thinking of me). Deliver (it’s all about expectations). Fix (things will go wrong).

29. Let’s talk about convincing in more detail, the fist step is to PLAN the trip.

30. You need a plan. I love this quote from Yogi Berra: “If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else.”

31. Until you know me we’re not going anywhere. Know me, know my story, know my backstory.

32. The most valuable tools in your toolbox – Rudyard Kipling’s helpers: How/why, when, where, how much, who/what. Know more than the story, know the
backstory too.

33. The first step of convincing: Plan the trip. I’m the buyer, I’m at my point A. You’re the seller, you’re at point B. How are you going to get ME from my point A to
your point B?

34. Think back to WII-FM ... why should I get in the car with you?

35. Think of points on the route. What will I (the buyer) see? You know my “points of interest”, right? Do you know my hot buttons: features, functionality, value, ... ?

36. Who else is along for the ride? Who’s in the car? Techs, managers, CIO, decision makers, project managers?

37. I only have so much money and so much time _I_ can spend. My willingness to buy depends on investment and risk: I’ll spend more (time and money) when the
stakes are higher (e.g. buying a $5M item vs. a $5 item).

38. Are we going down the street or around the world? Set my expectations, match the time and money I can spend.

39. Scenarios are powerful planning tools. A scenario is not to predict the future, only to be prepared for possible alternate futures.

40. This is a great book: “The Art of the Long View” by Peter Schwartz. It gets you thinking.

41. Plan alternate routes for roadblocks, shortcuts ... . Scenarios help you prepare for the unexpected.

42. The second step: TELL your story. It’s my favorite part of convincing.

43. Short stories that Sell™. There is WAY too much about stories and storytelling to cover it today. I teach a separate class on just that topic.

44. Our brains are wired for stories (and pictures). We think, talk, and remember in stories. “Mommy, Daddy ... tell me a story.”

45. Dan Roam’s book “back of the Napkin” is excellent. In it he describes how our brains are wired for stories. Bottom up – We “think” from low brain (who/what) to
high brain (why).

46. Tell me a story, tell me YOUR story. Let me tell you about how a friend of mine – Bob – who I thought was going to help me get a job when I was out of work,
absolutely trashed my resume. But it was the best lesson I ever learned.

47. Your story should be unlike any other. It should be unique, different. It should be YOUR story.

48. So you know MY story, what’s your story? Better yet, what’s OUR story? Our story is like a Venn diagram of overlapping circles (I expect your story to match
mine perfectly). I listed these from the bottom up for a purpose. I’ll show you why in a couple more slides.

49. Fit the story to the location and situation. Use short stories that sell. But do you need 5 words, 5 sentences, or 5 minutes? You might enjoy this article: http://
theideamechanic.com/short-stories-that-sell-so-what-do-you-do/.

50. Elevator pitch? Short stories? Chat? Seminar? Meeting? Write the story independent of how you tell it. Tell it based on your time and place.

51. My story? I help people sell. http://theideamechanic.com

52. The story of our business: We help people sell. http://theideamechanics.com

53. Elements of a good story (length, width, depth, memorable). A good story invokes emotion. Emotional stories are memorable stories.

54. I always thought real-ware from vapor-ware should be clearly distinguished. Is the story you’re telling me an idea ... or does it work NOW? Always, always tell
the truth.

55. How a geek looks at storytelling: the 7 layers of how to tell a story.

56. The 7 layer OSI model for storytelling: Application (purpose, conversation), Session (media, audio, video), Transport (is delivery best effort or guaranteed?),
Network (payload, message), Link (1:many, 1:few, 1:1), and Physical (location, medium connect location, topology).

57. Your goal is to start a conversation. A good story should lead to one or several conversations.

58. Conversations are threaded with interactive stories. Think back to RSS feeds, email lists, blogs – they’re a way to subscribe to a stream of stories (and comment).

59. Here’s a good story: I was a consulting sales engineer at Cisco. One Sunday morning I helped sell 160,000 phones to Bank of America in 10 minutes.

60. The 3rd step in convincing is to SHOW proof. Great story, but why should I believe it?

61. Great story, why should I believe it?

62. Careful, maybe I’m (really) smarter than you. You’re only an expert in some thing to some point. Don’t make me (the buyer) dumb to make you (the seller) feel
smart.

63. 3 Stages of ACCEPTING PROOF – #1 “Now I get it!” ... how it works, what’s under the hood, to what degree. The lightbulb goes on.

64. 3 Stages of ACCEPTING PROOF – #2 – So far what you’ve always told me checks out.

65. 3 Stages of ACCEPTING PROOF – #3 – You have become my trusted advisor. Think back to the “Foster” phase of selling, you need that trust level to shrink the
sales cycle time.

66. Persuade me with a quantitative, logical, rational argument. Don’t badger me. I’ll convince myself.

67. Nothing proves the truth like a convincing demonstration. See is believing. No smoke & mirrors. Is it real or just an idea?

68. Customer success stories are great.1st hand is best, 2nd hand is good. Make it viral? Susan Boyle on YouTube went viral.

69. The 4th step of convincing: TRY it (you might like it Mikey).

70. If seeing is believing, the trying is buying.Human nature: we have to touch things. “Tell a person there’s wet paint on the park bench ...”

71. It’s an experience. Make it sensory, emotional. An event you can smell, touch, taste, hear, see, feel.

72. Make it an engaging experience (dance, don’t watch). Heck, everyone test drives a car before they buy.

73. Make it Real. Make it a WOW!™ The trouble with education is often the subject doesn’t seem real to students. At an SE appreciation event at Cisco, we DROVE
NASCAR cars. Wow!

74. Good: A crowd experience (random gathering). A corner street performer – like in Italy. Can you think of one?

75. Better: A community of interest experience, like fans at a Rascal Flatts concert at Walnut Creek.

76. Best: a personal experience. Back to driving – not watching – NASCAR.

77. At Cisco I did a Voice over IP demonstration for the Navy. They experienced Quality of Service (QOS) first hand. An experience, not slides, closed the deal.

78. The 5th and last step in convincing: SATISFY. It’s the tipping point for the deal.

79. Questions are good: good conversations have questions, even tough ones.No questions is not (well, rarely) good.

80. If as a buyer I have concerns, that’s great: I’m sharing, not hiding them. If I ask I’m interested. If I’m concerned, I’m probably trying to figure out the
implementation details.

81. I need more. Where/how can I learn more? ALWAYS leave them with a way they can learn more. They may decide later, not now.

82. Ask me. Listen to me. Respond directly. Don’t treat me like I’m not here.

83. How do you (I) measure success? You don’t need 2 hours surveys ...

84. You only need two questions: 1) Did I buy? 2) Would I buy again?

85. What if I’m not satisfied? Put your guarantee in writing. Don’t be scared, don’t you believe in what you’re saying?

86. Sometimes you can’t win. Know when to politely move on to the next prospec

87. This is really your goal: a SMART buyer: Satisfied, Motivated; an Advocate who is Remorseless and Trusting.

88. A SMART buyer is your best seller. You can’t afford to NOT hire them.

89. That’s a wrap.

90. So, this graphic of Convince Me! is the only thing you need to remember from today. Make sure you grab a card from up front.

91. Remember, I said always give them a way they can learn more ...

92. Go to http://theideamechanic.com and subscribe

94. Both the slides and a slidecast of the presentation today will be on Slideshare at http://slideshare.net/theideamechanic

95. Thanks! You can contact me at Doug Foster, phone 919-373-4311, email doug@theideamechanics.com. I’m also on Skype and Twitter as theideamechanic. Or
just stop by our shop at 1773 NW Maynard Road in Cary NC. To learn more about our company, visit http://theideamechanics.com.