Sales expert,author, and motivational speaker and trainer Ian Altman doesn't doelevator pitches — instead, he imagines elevator rants. It's allpart of his same-side selling philosophy, and here are someexamples of how it works.

NASHVILLE — Be aware as a salesperson, that when you show up,“You're either somebody who's there to sell something or somebodywho's there to solve something,” said Ian Altman, the penultimatespeaker at the 2018 NAPA 401(k) Summit. “Which would you ratherbe?”

The author of Same Side Selling: A Radical Approach to BreakThrough Sales Barriers, Altman offered advice and inspirationto the roomful of over a thousand retirement industryprofessionals.

He mentioned a scenario that many in the room could identifywith. “How many of you have heard somebody make the following phonecall: 'Hey, just calling to check in, want to see if you made adecision yet.' How many of you have actually made that phonecall?”

Many hands in the audience went up.

“If you do that,” Altman said “You are a tin cup and cardboardsign away from begging.”

You can choose your role

It doesn't have to be that way. You just need to change yourfocus, he said. And the role you choose will determine your focus –and whether you get the client. Will you be an order taker, asalesperson, or a subject matter expert?

• Order takers do just that—someone says 'here's the investment Ineed, how much will it cost me?' As you might guess, order takersare being replaced by Amazon.
• Salespeople are there to sell to the client, whether the clientneeds it or not.
• But the subject matter expert is someone the client will pay tomeet, to get their expertise.

“Salesperson or SME, which one are you?” he asked. “If we don'tcome across as a subject matter expert, we're fighting an uphillbattle.”

Your website is a problem

When we go to Google to search for an answer to a problem, whatwords do we use? Generally we describe the problem, not thesolution. But, he said, “On your websites today, do you talk moreabout what solutions you offer or the problems that you solve?”

“We created a page called 'Problems we solve.' It's a boring title for a page.But it's the single most trafficked page on our site. For myclients who create a similar page, it becomes the most traffickedpage on their site.”

It ties into how executives make decisions. He trains them tocreate five questions they need to have answered to make adecision. Then he asks them to narrow it to three. No matter whatcountry he's training people in, the same three questions come up,he said.

Here are the three questions people ask when making adecision:

• What problem does this solve, why do I need it?
• What are the likely results or outcome?
• What are the alternatives?

If you answer the first two properly for a potential client, hesaid, the third question is answered. There are no alternatives –they want you.

The elevator rant

Remember the elevator pitch? It's that fictitious scenario whereyou're on the elevator with a prospective client and you have 15seconds, from the first floor to the tenth floor, to tell themabout your product.

Altman says to imagine instead an “elevator rant.” You get onthe elevator. Two people representing your ideal client get on.Those two people spend the rest of the ride complaining about theirproblems.

What would it sound like in their words?

• Typically, they might express an emotion: I'm sickof…  We're worried about… .
• They might add in an issue: We're trying to get employees toenroll…. We need to recruit new employees… .
• And lastly, they might mention an impact: We're wasting money….We're losing our competitive edge….

You can rate an elevator rant on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms ofpain. If it's a 7 or less, people won't spend money to fix it,Altman said. If it's an 8 or higher, people will spend money.

Figure out what your potential clients would consider an 8 orhigher and you have a better idea of what problem they'd pay you tofix.

Problems and solutions

Altman brought up several scenarios where the propercommunication techniques can turn a less-than successful salessituation around. Maybe you've experienced these scenarios andthought there was no solution. Altman says there is.

Problem: You're talking with a prospect, andthey compare you to someone whom you know shouldn't even bementioned in the same discussion.

Solution: Educate your prospect.

Altman says you tell the prospect about three levels of serviceoffered in your field. The first and second levels are lessinvolved and offer less, but the third level is the “best” and ofcourse that's what you offer.

As an example, he had an attendee he'd met come up on the stage.He asked her about the three levels of competitors in her area. Thefirst level, she said, were firms that operate 3(16) services butdon't take on liability for the sponsor. The second level werefirms that may take on some liability but aren't mentioned in plandocuments. The third level, the level of her firm, takes onfiduciary liability, responsibility and actionability and is namedin the retirement plan documents.

You ask the client what level they are looking for, Altmanexplained.  Is the prospect going to say they want justthe first level, please? No, they're going to want what you'reoffering and now they know how to differentiate you from thecompetition.

Problem: As you interact with your prospect,you tell them some ideas you have. You're trying to show them thatif they hired you, you'd becreative/proactive/useful/knowledgeable.  But rather thanhire you, they take your ideas to their current guy or gal.

Solution: First of all, realize where they'recoming from. “For your prospect to hire you, they have to do twouncomfortable things,” Altman said. “They have to acknowledge theymay have made a mistake in hiring the current person, and they haveto fire that person they liked and thought enough of to hire.”

So obviously, don't give prospects specific ideas about theirplans. Instead, Altman advised, you can tell them “here's whatother clients have run into in the past. We're happy to pick thatapart in your plan when you become a client.”

Problem: You're selling into environments wherethere's an existing vendor. How can you find out more about thecompetition without making the prospect uncomfortable?

Solution: Never trash the competition. Altmanrole-played with an attendee the types of questions he'd ask a plansponsor when they say they're already working with someone:

• “I'd like to get a sense of what other people are doing, canyou tell me some things they're doing for you?”
• “What to you stands out?”
• “If you could change one or two things about them, what wouldyou change?”
• “What else could you change about them?”
• “How does it impact your employees?”
• “If we could tell you some things we could do if you were ourclient, would that help?”

Problem: You have a prospect or client who youknow will never spend what they should for your services.

Solution: Remember this quote from Altman:“Price matters most when the seller believes price mattersmost.”

Altman told a story about when he promised a client a service,then found out from his company that to do that service, they wouldhave to charge a huge amount of money. As the team worriedlyfigured how to lower the price so as not to upset the client, hewent back and talked to the client and found out the impact of theclient's issue. The impact was that the issue was costing theclient much more money than the cost of the service to fix it.

The lesson? “You may learn about the issue from the client. Butit's our job to find out the impact of that issue on theirorganization and its importance.”

Ask about results

People in sales have a racing mindset when looking at the salesprocess, Altman said. You start the race with a contact, assessneeds, create a proposal, and at the finish line you get thecontract.

But the client wouldn't say the finish line is the contract.They'd say the results are the finish line. “If you don't get theresults you're looking for, it doesn't matter the price you paid,”he said.

But how often do sales people ask about results?

“What if you asked, 'How do we measure the outcomes so you knowthis was the right choice to go with us?' Merely by asking thosequestions, it shifts the focus from price to value,” Altman said.Talk about results and how you will be held accountable.

These ideas all aim to put the sales person into the client'sshoes, which, after all, is the oldest technique known to man foreffectively helping people. So get walking.