I was recently speaking with someone about doing some training. They shared the story of how one of the people they wanted me to train had blown a half a million dollar deal in just thirty seconds.
I was on the phone with the prospect, and asked a question that I frequently ask people when they're referred to me for training: "Why in the world would you want my help?"
Thirty minutes later, he finally stopped talking. Turns out that his organization had been leaving millions of dollars on the table because they put people in situations that they weren't ready for.
Most of that thirty minutes was him sharing how he worked with individuals on strategy and getting investors. But there was a problem with the investor meetings.
I asked, "So where's the disconnect?"
He said, "It's amazing how many of these people blow an investor meeting in just minutes. And it's because they have no idea how to interface with somebody."
He then shared a specific example. A company he was working with had developed a product that could potentially be useful to every small business on the planet. That's a huge market!
He put the owner of that company in front of a potential investor. This particular investor already knew what the product was, and was basically ready to drop a half a million dollars in their hands.
Thirty seconds into the meeting, the owner had blown it. All because he didn't know how to conduct himself when in a selling situation.
He had the passion, he had the knowledge, he just didn't know the "how" to sell someone on an idea or a product.
It's a great example of how people by HOW you sell long before they buy WHAT you sell. Even if your product or service is great, you can easily disconnect with people if you aren't careful and intentional about the HOW.
And it doesn't matter what it is! If you're not careful, you can blow the opportunities before you really get a chance to talk to them about it. The only way to get better is to seek out knowledge, and then actually apply that knowledge to turn it into a skill and a habit.
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