the greatest salesperson
The greatest salesperson I've ever seen is Steve Jobs.
I recently watched Steve's 2001 keynote introducing the iPod.
Steve's iPod keynote got me thinking.
What if Steve Jobs was an SDR making cold calls in 2001 selling the iPod?
A typical "objection" would be, "I already have an MP3 player."
How would Steve respond?
Here's how I think it would go down.
Prospect: "I already have a Diamond Rio PMP300."
Jobs: "Smart move. Rio created the portable music category. Do you run with it?"
Prospect: "I do. Especially on my long weekend runs."
Jobs: "You're not alone. Runners often tell me the RIO is pretty skip resistant."
Prospect:"That's been my experience too."
Jobs: "The Rio was very much ahead of its time."
Jobs: "You're probably aware the PMP300 isn't able to last more than 90 minutes due to its legacy battery technology. If you don't mind me asking, how have you been dealing with that on your long runs?"
Prospect: "That's happened a few times. What do you have?"
Jobs: "With the iPod, you can put 1,000 songs in your pocket and run for 10 hours on a single charge."
Prospect: "How does that work?"
Jobs: "I can show you. Would you be open to seeing a demo later this week?"
"Prospect: "Sure."
Meeting booked.
The takeaway?
No matter what you sell, people have MP3 players.
To loosen your prospect's grip on their MP3 player, you need to know something your prospect doesn't know that can hurt them.
The shift?
Overcoming objections --> Shining a light on what's meaningfully different.
Josh Braun
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