Engaged to help with sales, I'm simply stunned when I find how many people struggle to get first meetings. To that end, it's amazing how executives invest in the wrong tools. How is a trade show or feature and benefits brochure supposed to work when 90% of sales people don't make them irresistible? And nearly every time I ask sales people to show me their introductory email, voicemail script, marketing collateral or elevator pitch it goes something like this:

• Introduce yourself
• Elevator pitch
• Can you meet, briefly
• I want to see if I can meet, uncover a problem and sell you on my wonderful features and benefits
• Do you want to meet? Do ya? Do ya? I know I can help!

Clearly, there are varying degrees of this message, but the one constant is that there is very little being done to create value for a prospect that is not self-serving or doesn't require a reciprocal action from the person we'd like to purchase our product or service.

irresistible |ˌiriˈzistəbəl|
adjective
- too attractive and tempting to be resisted : he found the delicious-looking cakes irresistible.
- too powerful or convincing to be resisted : she felt an irresistible urge to object.

3 Tips for Being Irresistible to Prospects and Enabling Your Sales People:

• Provide relevant information that will help their business, even if they don't pick you. This information can range from a how to video on your website, answering questions online, conducting surveys and publishing information for prospects.
• Make sure you add value in their currency, not yours. Furthermore, use empathy maps and personas to insure you understand what prospect value and areas you might help them in to get unstuck. In other words, make sure you are speaking their language and speaking to the things they care about most!
• Leverage SMarketing, social media, SEO and other tools to learn more about what keeps your prospects awake at night, and use that information to establish yourself as an industry resource.

And the .5

Do it like you mean it, with passion and gusto. If you really care about your customers this shouldn't be a sales or marketing burden. You should be energized to help existing and prospective customers succeed.

What are you doing to be irresistible or enable your sales staff to be irresistible?