When I sold vegetables
at a roadside stand
as a kid,
I would say just about anything
to get prospects to stop
and listen to me.
I knew if they stopped long enough
to listen
to whatever foolishness
I was yammering on about,
I could get them to listen
to my sales pitch.
When writing blurbs for my romance novels,
my first goal is to grab the reader’s attention,
to get her to pause for a moment
and read more.
Cold calling is even more challenging.
But as Sara Blakely,
founder of Spanx,
shares
“Try to make them laugh or smile.
If you can do that,
you always get another 15 seconds.
Spend it saying
why you’re better than the other options.
Differentiation in those first moments
is crucial.
When I invented Spanx
I heard ‘no’ for two years.
It didn’t faze me.
I didn’t have a special ability,
it was sheer drive
and telling myself to keep going.”
An extra 15 seconds
of your prospect’s time
can make a big difference in your sales.
Do what you can to earn it.