EnTrends

rainmakers have no such problem. Effective rainmakers know,
specifically and precisely, exactly what they do and who
benefits from their services and they are ready with powerful
statements about their skills and talents.

You cannot be effective in developing your business unless
you have mastered service knowledge. You need to know the
features of your products or services so that you can tailor the
benefits to the prospective customer's needs. Be sure you
know the difference between features and benefits. If you're
selling bar stools, a feature of the stool is that it has three legs.
The benefit is that sitting on it will stop you hitting the floor.
Remember: features tell, benefits sell.

Now, once you've identified the features and benefits of your
product or service, develop a fifteen second commercial that
you can trot out on cue whenever someone asks you, "So what
do you do?". Most people are unprepared to answer a
question like this effectively and so it is a golden opportunity
to set yourself apart. Your fifteen second commercial will help
you seize the moment and put your best foot forward. Use your
fifteen second commercial to let each person you meet know
exactly what you do and why you and your business are

so special.

A fifteen second commercial for our web site optimization
service might go something like this:

Prospect: "So, what do you do?"

You: "I run my own business, "Web Site Optimization". I tweak
clients' web pages to optimize them for the various search
engines. By creating a web page that appears in the first thirty
search results for a particular search term, the client gets a
huge increase in traffic to their web site and their sales go
through the roof."

When should you use your fifteen second commercial? Each
and every time you are introduced to someone new. Get in the
habit of delivering your fifteen second commercial to as many
people as possible. The more times you deliver it the more
chances you have to create rain.

You also need to develop a uniqueness statement to respond
to

the question, "What's different about your service compared to
your competition?". Use a three step format for your
uniqueness statement. Step one is to briefly overview the three
features and benefits that you will elaborate on in step two.
Step two is to use three tailored features and benefits to explain
your uniqueness to the potential customer. Select one about
your business's services/ products, one about something your
business has accomplished, and one about you personally. In
step three, summarize what you've just told the prospect.

Here's an example of a uniqueness statement for our web site

optimization service:

Prospect: "So what's different about your service compared to
your competition?".

You: "I'm glad you asked. What's different about "Web Site

Optimization" is the depth of our service, our results and our

people.

"Unlike most of our competitors, we don't just create one web
page for all of the search engines. Each search engine has
different criteria for pages to rank well. We create a different
version of each page specifically designed for each main
search engine. For example, one of our clients' rankings on
Alta Vista increased from the 75th position to 15th in less than
a month. He's experienced a 500% increase in traffic and sales
as a result. I have a background in software engineering for
Yahoo so I have access to inside information about how the
search engines work that most of my competitors just

can't get.

"So, in answer to your question, what's different about us is
the depth of our service, our results and the unique
experience of our people."

It will take many rehearsals until you have your fifteen second

commercial and uniqueness statement down cold. At first it
will feel unnatural to you to give people a rehearsed speech
but over time it will feel less awkward and you'll be able to
deliver it with an ease and assurance that will sound perfectly
natural.

PLANTING SEEDS

"A network is an organized collection of your personal
contacts and your personal contacts' own networks.
Networking is finding fast whom you need to get what you
need in any given situation and helping others do the same."
Harvey Mackay

=> Your Existing Network

Now that you know what to say, you have to find people to
say it to. To establish your network, start with who you know.
These are your existing personal and business contacts ... the
people who will always take your call and who can help you
reach your goals. Consider people such as your attorney,
accountant, doctor, agents, sales people, family, colleagues,
friends and vendors.

Schedule a meeting with who you know for the express
purpose of exploring ways you can help each other expand
your respective networks. If there's a fit, create ways to
support each other. You are not looking to sell the other
person on your product or service.

Instead, you are establishing a genuine relationship with this
person. It doesn't matter that although you may be able to
help this person directly, he or she may never be in a position
to