Give your customers the BO treatment

This week, Paver Smith sponsored ProManchester's Business Booster event which was held at one of Manchester's most popular venues: Bem Brazil. It was my privilege to host the event, which headlined Andy Bounds, recently named Britain's Sales Trainer of the Year at the British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards (BESMA).

Andy was on great form, dishing out valuable sales tips such as: sell the 'afters' first and give your customers the 'BO' treatment.

"Give your customers the BO treatment?" asks a confused delegate.

"What do you mean? Surely you're not suggesting I….you know, waft an armpit in the direction of the person I've just spent the last hour charming the pants off?"

"BO" explains Andy "stands for BENEFIT OPTIONS".

"Tell me more…"

"Well, it's like this. Take my nine-year-old son. He doesn't like going to bed when he'd rather be playing footy in the back garden long into the night. If I say: "OK son, that's enough, will you please go to bed now?" He will either say yes or no - to be honest it would always be a NO!

"But if I say to him: "Listen son, it's getting late now. We need to get up bright and early for footy tomorrow and you'll need to be in bed soon to get plenty of energy sleep. When do you want to call it a day? How does 7.30 sound or would you prefer to go up at 8 o'clock?"

"Result! The kid's up at eight and everyone's a winner."

Andy's suggesting we use the same sales' psychology with our customers and give them benefit options when we invite them to buy from us, instead of the usual 'take it or leave it' standard platter. So if you're talking about price, avoid giving them a single flat rate, give them choices which they will find appealing…I'll let you work up your own examples.

"Ok thanks Andy, I get the BO treatment, can you go back to the 'selling the afters first' thingy? What's all that about"

Selling the afters first is one of Andy's great gifts; and it's pretty obvious really, but how many of us remember to do this routinely? I'll let Andy explain:

"Selling the afters first is a simple, yet oft overlooked, idea. When a customer asks why she should buy from you, don't bore her with your amazing accreditations, slick business systems and long client list. Impressive as those may be, these are not what she's buying. Tell her, at the outset, what she will be left with once she's worked with you - that's what you're selling: the afters."

So from a PR perspective, this means selling the fact that clients will get valuable media coverage, exposing their brand to loads of potential new customers which, in turn, may result in lots of new sales leads and, ultimately, new business... simple.

And if by chance you are reading this as a potential client, this is what our PR agency is really good at: generating great media coverage; if you want to see the proof click here.

Give your customers the BO treatment

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