Are you Sportscenter or Today Show?
My morning routine for years was slam the alarm clock off, stumble to living room, turn on Sportscenter, make breakfast and then wait for my brain to boot up while watching sports highlights. I knew that every time I turned on the TV to ESPN I was going to get yesterdays top plays, home runs, goals and touchdowns. Unless there was a European tour Tennis event on, I knew what was coming.
My wife watches The Today Show in the morning. It rotates its guests and topics daily, sometimes promoting a hot new movie or book, sometimes examining a news story in depth, sometimes teaching you how to make a new type of pie (mmmmmmm pie…..). It’s a variety show so that you have something new to look forward to each day.
What does my family’s morning TV habits have to do with Sales you ask? Let me tie it up with another story. A few months ago I was traveling to meet with a client when I responded to a post looking for software development. The recruiter who had sent out the post had lined things up with a number of Integrum’s strengths so I reached out and tried to match things up.
The recruiter shot me down pretty quickly due to a perceived scheduling issue – they wanted something to start in a much quicker timeline than would be reasonable. I explained what our real availability was and said that I’d understand if they couldn’t work with that, while also explaining why working with us was the right idea.
Fast forward 2 1/2 months and I get a call from this recruiter’s client. Their search hadn’t proven successful yet, their timeline (which from the original message should be half done with the build at this point) hadn’t started yet, and their recruiter had passed along my info for no other reason than I was the most persistent and the most consistent. The quote I heard was “I know that your timeline didn’t match our original, but your message was the same everytime you spoke to him”.
By continuing to have the same message every time I spoke with him, giving him reasons to go with us without downplaying what was an important piece of his proposal, I showed something valuable to him. He felt that my presence would be reliable – just like morning Sportscenter is etched in stone.
When you’re talking with your prospects, keep the message the same both with them individually and as a group. If you keep yourself predictable and regular, you have a much better chance of people tuning into you again and again.
