I was reminded the other day as to the importance of the notion of 'compelling reasons.' I was cold calling a prospect and thought that I knew the compelling reason as to why the prospect would buy the particular service that we were offering. It wasn't the two questions of "why should I buy your service?" and "what's in it for me?" that had me a little nervous because, quite frankly, I was prepared for them; rather it was the numerous "So what!'" comments that seemed to follow my every response that had me squirming over the phone and really tested my understanding of what our 'compelling reason' really was. It was only after my response to the tenth 'So what!' that I finally struck gold and had the compelling reason that satisfied my prospect and which lead to the sale. I was lucky that I had a prospect who was willing to keep on asking the questions. On another day, I could have so easily have lost the prospect after the first question.
It's funny how the mind works, because two days after having had that rather insightful discussion with the prospect (now our client), I found myself standing in a queue at a Starbucks and I began to ask myself, not as a provider of services this time, but as a customer - what was the compelling reason as to why I was prepared to stand there and waste time; waiting to be served by someone who although friendly, had not acknowledged that there were people waiting and getting impatient? You see, I had progressed beyond Maslow's basic need of survival and had ascertained that I needed a coffee (for whatever reason) - but my choice as to where I bought my caffeine fix rested on my interpretation of the 'compelling reason'. In the end, the wonderful friendly environment and large choice of products and cup sizes were not compelling enough to overcome the poor service and so I left sans coffee and purchased my coffee elsewhere.
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