Why does pitching your business straight away backfire?
When a customer asks you to tell them about your business and you launch straight into it, a defensive wall goes up. You are telling them what you think they need rather than responding to what they actually care about. Greg Allan learned this the hard way when he walked into a room of property managers, answered their questions about price and service area, and was shown the door in under five minutes.
Telling does not sell. Connecting does.
What two questions should you ask before you say anything about your business?
Sit down, and before you talk about yourself, say you would love to learn a little about them first. Then ask:
- What is the most frustrating thing about the tradies you currently use?
- What are some of the things you love about the tradies you have got at the moment?
These two questions change the whole room. People open up about what annoys them, and the conversation becomes collaborative rather than defensive. You are no longer a salesperson; you are someone genuinely interested in their situation.
How do you use their answers to customise your pitch?
Once you know their frustrations and what they love, you have a map. You do not need to guess what matters to them. You can build your pitch around two things: how your business fixes the specific problems they just described, and how you will keep delivering the things they already value.
You are not going to promise things you do not do. But where your business genuinely solves their frustrations, you can speak to that directly and credibly because they told you what those frustrations were in their own words.
How does story-based selling work instead of just listing your features?
Instead of saying "we do X, Y and Z," you tell a short story. Greg's example from the transcript: "Have you ever had a tradie go to a site for an RCD and smoke alarm check, and then a couple of weeks later you get a maintenance request for a powerpoint that was broken? That is two callouts you are paying for, extra time to raise another request, and an inconvenient second visit for the tenant. Imagine if one visit handled all of that."
The story makes the problem real. The customer can picture it because they have probably lived it. That is far more persuasive than a feature list.
Where else can you use story-based selling?
You do not need to be in a formal meeting. Greg is explicit that this approach works:
- On inbound phone calls with a new lead
- In face-to-face meetings
- Standing in front of the customer on site
- With builders, contractors, or any other relationship you are trying to develop
Whenever you want to help someone understand the value of something, think of a story from your own experience. A customer who was in a similar situation, did not act on your recommendation, and then had a bigger problem as a result. That story does the selling for you without you having to lecture.
What is the longer-term benefit of asking these questions consistently?
If you go out to ten, twenty, or fifty businesses and ask the same two questions every time, you start to compile a picture of the frustrations and wishes that come up again and again. That is genuine market research gathered during sales meetings at no extra cost.
Over time those patterns show you exactly where to improve your service, what to lead with in your marketing, and what problems to build systems around. Greg describes how consistent customer feedback led to a specific service offering at his business, because asking questions repeatedly made it clear there was a gap that needed filling. The sales process and the business improvement process become the same thing.
