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Member Resources | What Do I Say?

The 30-Second Personal Commercial

When you go to a trade show, business meeting, or are networking, you are on the lookout for contacts and prospects. Your commercial is your opportunity to provide information that creates interest and response from prospects. It is the preclude -- and the gateway to a sale.

How effective is your commercial? Do you even have one?

Let's say you're out with a customer networking at her trade association meeting, and she introduces you to a prospect. The prospect says "What do you do?" If you're in the temporary staffing industry and you say - "I'm in the temporary staffing industry," you should be shot.

Your reply should be "We provide quality emergency and temporary employees for businesses like yours so that when one of your own employees is sick, absent or on vacation - there is no loss of productivity or reduction of service to your customers." You deliver a line like that and the prospect can't help but be impressed.

Now you have the prospect's attention. You ask your Power Question(s) to find out how qualified the prospect is. "How many employees do you have?" you ask, "Do you give them one or two weeks vacation?" "How do you ensure that the level of service to your customers isn't reduced during these vacation times?" Make the prospect think.

Want to prepare or revise your commercial? Here's how:

Your objective is to have 30-seconds of information that;

• States who you are.
• who your company is.
• Creatively tells what you do (in terms of the prospect).
• Asks one or a series of Power Questions.
• Makes a Power Statement that shows how you can help others.
• Ends with why the prospect should act now. A call to action.

After you creatively say what you do, you ask a Power Question or a series of questions that makes the prospect think and respond in a way that gives you needed information.

This information allows you to formulate an impact response to show how you can help, and lets you know how qualified the prospect may be. The questions must be open ended. (A question that gets the prospect thinking and talking. Not just saying yes or no.)

There is no reason to tell a prospect how you can help until you have uncovered what kind of help he or she needs!

The Power Question is the most critical part of the process because it qualifies the prospect and sets up your impact (power) response. When formulating the Power Questions for your commercial, ask yourself these five questions...

1. What information do I want to get as a result of the question?
2. Can I qualify my prospect as a result of the question?
3. Does it take more than one question to find out the information I need?
4. Do my questions make the prospect think?
5. Can I ask a question that separates me from my competitor?

Here's an example of a personal commercial:

• Name... Hi, (hey) my name is Richard Herd.
• Company Name... My company is (I'm the president of) Continental Advertising
• Creatively say what you do... We impact your image, create sales and ensure repeat business by providing innovative advertising specialties that keeps your name in front of your customers and prospects.
• Insert your Power Question... How are you currently using ad specialties? (variations- What are you doing to keep your name in front of your customers every day? How often do you contact your present customers? What are you doing to ensure your name is in front of your customers more than your competitors?)
• Insert you Power Statement (How you help)...(may be modified based on answers to Power Questions). I think we can help you. We have creative brainstorming sessions with our clients where we bring together a small team of our people and yours. We place various items on the table that relate to your business and the customers you serve. This process creates dialog that always leads to the innovative products that compliments your marketing plan and impacts your customers image of you. Not only is it productive, it's fun.
• Why the Prospect Should Act Now... Would you like to schedule a brainstorming session, or have lunch first and preview a few items to get a better feel for what I mean?

Use this example to help you write your own commercial. After you write it, rehearse it. Then go try it out and adjust it for the real world. Then really practice it (more than 25 times in real situations) until you own it.

Here are some lead-ins to Power Questions that will expose areas of need...

What do you look for...
What have you found...
How do you propose...
What has been your experience...
How have you successfully used...
How do you determine...
Why is that a deciding factor...
What makes you choose...
What do you like about...
What is the one thing you would improve about...
What would you change about...(do not say "what don't you like about")
Are there other factors...
What does your competitor do about...
How do your customers react to...
How are you currently...
What are you doing to keep...
How often do you contact...
What are you doing to ensure...

*Author unknown. If you are the author and would like credit, please contact us.