22 It’s About Time

Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give

it significance.

—Leo Buscaglia

Time is a wonderful and terrible thing. Everybody wants to

spend more of it doing things they enjoy and less of it doing

things they dislike. Busy people always want more of it, period,

just so they can get everything done. Deadlines are always

too close. Delays are always frustrating. People (including

prospects) also have different personal orientations

toward time.

Time can be used in many ways to help you sell. There are

three tools that are particularly useful in the middle of a cold

call to keep prospects talking to you about things that they

want to talk about:

_ Time dimension

_ Time direction

_ Time demo

Time Dimension

Everyone has a time dimension—a basic orientation toward

time. Some of us live “in time.” The rest live “through time.”

“Time-in” people live in the present. They have relatively

little concern for yesterday or tomorrow. These are the people

who get to work on a Monday, look at their calendar, and ask,

 “How did my schedule for today get so busy?” When they are

house hunting, they look for a home in move-in condition.

A “time-through” person sees events and ideas in the context

of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. When asked to schedule

an appointment, a time-through person couldn’t imagine

looking at a day in their PDA without knowing what was going

on at least the day before and the day after—if not the

month before and after. When house hunting, time-through

people are less concerned with what the place looks like right

now than with what the house will look like when it’s occupied

or when they throw their first party.

Eighty percent of humans are time-through people. But

we have a tendency to sell as if everyone was a time-in person:

_ “What this does for you . . . .”

_ “If you want this right now . . . .”

_ “Currently, we are offering . . . .”

_ “Today, if you can . . . .”

To communicate effectively with a time-through person,

we should use phrases such as:

_ “Last time you tried something like this . . . .”

_ “Over the next few weeks, you will see . . . .”

_ “And by this time next month . . . .”

How do you tell which time dimension a prospect has?

Listen to how they talk with you. A time-in person is interested

in the here and now, period. A time-through person is

interested in history (yours and theirs) and in the present situation

and whether you are going to be around tomorrow.

How Do You Know Which Time Dimension

You Have?

Close your eyes. Think of your last birthday. Where do you see

your last birthday? Point somewhere in space. Where do you

see your next birthday? Go ahead, point to it in space. Where is your last wedding anniversary? Point to it. Where do you

see your next anniversary? Point.

Do that before reading further.

To time-in people, what’s behind them is behind them,

and what’s ahead is ahead. They will point behind themselves

to past events and directly forward to future events.

Time-through people will tend to point from left to right,

or right to left, rather than forward and behind themselves. Because

time is a continuum and needs to be controlled, past,

present, and future are all essentially in front of a timethrough

person. But yesterday is to my right, today is in front

of me, and tomorrow is to my left (or vice versa). Everything

moves through time, of course, but nothing is behind me, out

of control, or out of mind.

Time Direction

A second time element that can help you in the middle of a

cold call is time direction. Time has three directions—past,

present, and future. Every prospect’s key needs relate to one of

them. We mentioned this in Chapter 10, but here’s a slightly

different look.

_ Past: Restorative. Something has gone wrong, and

they want to put things back to the way they were.

“We spent $2.2 million on that sales-automation system,

and it takes longer to book an order. I would pay

money just to get our response time back to where it

was.”

_ Present: Opportunistic. They have a current need.

Something is knocking on their door right now, and it

is pressing. “If I don’t get a solution in place in the

next few days, it will be my head!”

_ Future: Preventative. They will spend money now to

avoid pain in the future. Putting money in an IRA or a

college fund is a preventative decision. “I’d better

start saving now or my kid might not be able to go to

college.”

Figure out where the prospect is by asking time-sensitive

questions, such as:

_ Is this an immediate need? Why?

_ What has happened, or what goal are you trying to

achieve?

_ What’s going on that makes this a top priority?

Odds are, the needs revealed by the answers will break

down in terms of time direction like this:

Past – 20 percent

Present – 60 percent

Future – 20 percent

These percentages hold true except with vice presidents

(Russians) and top-level executives (Greeks) (see Chapter 9).

They live in the future, or they get called in to fix something.

So their percentages are:

Past – 30 percent

Present – 20 percent

Future – 50 percent

Play the percentages when you are cold calling, whether

by letter, e-mail, voicemail, or face-to-face.

Time Demo

A time demo is a tool to help prospects envision a solution to

a problem or need (hopefully your solution) and to induce

transfer of ownership. It works like this:

First, discuss today’s reality. Describe the problem or the

situation as the prospect has explained it to you. This lets you

check your understanding of the prospect’s position and ensures

you both see the current reality in the same terms.

Then, discuss what tomorrow’s reality should be. What

would their life be like if they already had your product and it

solved the problem for them? Ask how they would feel?

We call these Polaroid or snapshot answers. You will hear

answers such as:

“I’d feel great.”

“It would be super.”

Many salespeople know how to get this far, but then they

stop, happy with their progress. Heck, they just got the

prospect to agree that it would feel great to own the product

they’re trying to peddle. What could be better than that? Well,

there’s hopes, dreams, and desires, there’s what’s next,. and

there’s future benefits.

Ask the prospect, “Once this problem was solved, what

would you do next?” In other words, discuss the possibilities

that would open up for the prospect if tomorrow’s reality were

already here and your product had solved their current

problem.

“Well, if my current need were solved, I would be

able to get involved in that other project I have been

trying to find the time for.”

“I’d be spending weekends at home rather than

working most Saturdays and Sundays.”

“Now that you mention it, if I used your widget to get

the elephant out of the room, I could . . . . “

When prospects start talking about their hopes, dreams,

and desires, your have arrived in a wonderful place (Figure

22-1). At this point, you shut up. They’ll figure out on their

own that if they want to realize their hopes and dreams, they’ll

have to go to tomorrow’s reality. To get there, they’ll have to

buy a widget from somebody. Since you’re the one who led

them through the time demo, it probably will be you.

Typical Future Benefits Comments

Once a prospect’s attention shifts from today’s reality through

tomorrow’s reality on to future benefits, here are some things

you might hear:

“If I had this TV in my living room right now? Well,

I wouldn’t have to fight my kids over what I want to

watch. I’d be able to go to the other room and watch

what I want for a change.”

“If this project were implemented, the return on investment

would fuel our product development team

and give them about a three-month head start. My

president would be really happy about that.”

Those future benefits are now part of your proposal.

Maybe the prospect could achieve them by buying from a different

supplier, but because you were the one who had this

discussion with them, they will anchor the benefits to your solution.

Remember: Prospects are going to have this future benefits

conversation with somebody. Why not you?

To keep prospects engaged in the middle of a cold call,

play with time. Make time your ally, and you’ll knock their

socks off.

Figure 22-1. Time demo sample.

Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give

it significance.

—Leo Buscaglia

Time is a wonderful and terrible thing. Everybody wants to

spend more of it doing things they enjoy and less of it doing

things they dislike. Busy people always want more of it, period,

just so they can get everything done. Deadlines are always

too close. Delays are always frustrating. People (including

prospects) also have different personal orientations

toward time.

Time can be used in many ways to help you sell. There are

three tools that are particularly useful in the middle of a cold

call to keep prospects talking to you about things that they

want to talk about:

_ Time dimension

_ Time direction

_ Time demo

Time Dimension

Everyone has a time dimension—a basic orientation toward

time. Some of us live “in time.” The rest live “through time.”

“Time-in” people live in the present. They have relatively

little concern for yesterday or tomorrow. These are the people

who get to work on a Monday, look at their calendar, and ask,

 “How did my schedule for today get so busy?” When they are

house hunting, they look for a home in move-in condition.

A “time-through” person sees events and ideas in the context

of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. When asked to schedule

an appointment, a time-through person couldn’t imagine

looking at a day in their PDA without knowing what was going

on at least the day before and the day after—if not the

month before and after. When house hunting, time-through

people are less concerned with what the place looks like right

now than with what the house will look like when it’s occupied

or when they throw their first party.

Eighty percent of humans are time-through people. But

we have a tendency to sell as if everyone was a time-in person:

_ “What this does for you . . . .”

_ “If you want this right now . . . .”

_ “Currently, we are offering . . . .”

_ “Today, if you can . . . .”

To communicate effectively with a time-through person,

we should use phrases such as:

_ “Last time you tried something like this . . . .”

_ “Over the next few weeks, you will see . . . .”

_ “And by this time next month . . . .”

How do you tell which time dimension a prospect has?

Listen to how they talk with you. A time-in person is interested

in the here and now, period. A time-through person is

interested in history (yours and theirs) and in the present situation

and whether you are going to be around tomorrow.

How Do You Know Which Time Dimension

You Have?

Close your eyes. Think of your last birthday. Where do you see

your last birthday? Point somewhere in space. Where do you

see your next birthday? Go ahead, point to it in space. Where is your last wedding anniversary? Point to it. Where do you

see your next anniversary? Point.

Do that before reading further.

To time-in people, what’s behind them is behind them,

and what’s ahead is ahead. They will point behind themselves

to past events and directly forward to future events.

Time-through people will tend to point from left to right,

or right to left, rather than forward and behind themselves. Because

time is a continuum and needs to be controlled, past,

present, and future are all essentially in front of a timethrough

person. But yesterday is to my right, today is in front

of me, and tomorrow is to my left (or vice versa). Everything

moves through time, of course, but nothing is behind me, out

of control, or out of mind.

Time Direction

A second time element that can help you in the middle of a

cold call is time direction. Time has three directions—past,

present, and future. Every prospect’s key needs relate to one of

them. We mentioned this in Chapter 10, but here’s a slightly

different look.

_ Past: Restorative. Something has gone wrong, and

they want to put things back to the way they were.

“We spent $2.2 million on that sales-automation system,

and it takes longer to book an order. I would pay

money just to get our response time back to where it

was.”

_ Present: Opportunistic. They have a current need.

Something is knocking on their door right now, and it

is pressing. “If I don’t get a solution in place in the

next few days, it will be my head!”

_ Future: Preventative. They will spend money now to

avoid pain in the future. Putting money in an IRA or a

college fund is a preventative decision. “I’d better

start saving now or my kid might not be able to go to

college.”

Figure out where the prospect is by asking time-sensitive

questions, such as:

_ Is this an immediate need? Why?

_ What has happened, or what goal are you trying to

achieve?

_ What’s going on that makes this a top priority?

Odds are, the needs revealed by the answers will break

down in terms of time direction like this:

Past – 20 percent

Present – 60 percent

Future – 20 percent

These percentages hold true except with vice presidents

(Russians) and top-level executives (Greeks) (see Chapter 9).

They live in the future, or they get called in to fix something.

So their percentages are:

Past – 30 percent

Present – 20 percent

Future – 50 percent

Play the percentages when you are cold calling, whether

by letter, e-mail, voicemail, or face-to-face.

Time Demo

A time demo is a tool to help prospects envision a solution to

a problem or need (hopefully your solution) and to induce

transfer of ownership. It works like this:

First, discuss today’s reality. Describe the problem or the

situation as the prospect has explained it to you. This lets you

check your understanding of the prospect’s position and ensures

you both see the current reality in the same terms.

Then, discuss what tomorrow’s reality should be. What

would their life be like if they already had your product and it

solved the problem for them? Ask how they would feel?

We call these Polaroid or snapshot answers. You will hear

answers such as:

“I’d feel great.”

“It would be super.”

Many salespeople know how to get this far, but then they

stop, happy with their progress. Heck, they just got the

prospect to agree that it would feel great to own the product

they’re trying to peddle. What could be better than that? Well,

there’s hopes, dreams, and desires, there’s what’s next,. and

there’s future benefits.

Ask the prospect, “Once this problem was solved, what

would you do next?” In other words, discuss the possibilities

that would open up for the prospect if tomorrow’s reality were

already here and your product had solved their current

problem.

“Well, if my current need were solved, I would be

able to get involved in that other project I have been

trying to find the time for.”

“I’d be spending weekends at home rather than

working most Saturdays and Sundays.”

“Now that you mention it, if I used your widget to get

the elephant out of the room, I could . . . . “

When prospects start talking about their hopes, dreams,

and desires, your have arrived in a wonderful place (Figure

22-1). At this point, you shut up. They’ll figure out on their

own that if they want to realize their hopes and dreams, they’ll

have to go to tomorrow’s reality. To get there, they’ll have to

buy a widget from somebody. Since you’re the one who led

them through the time demo, it probably will be you.

Typical Future Benefits Comments

Once a prospect’s attention shifts from today’s reality through

tomorrow’s reality on to future benefits, here are some things

you might hear:

“If I had this TV in my living room right now? Well,

I wouldn’t have to fight my kids over what I want to

watch. I’d be able to go to the other room and watch

what I want for a change.”

“If this project were implemented, the return on investment

would fuel our product development team

and give them about a three-month head start. My

president would be really happy about that.”

Those future benefits are now part of your proposal.

Maybe the prospect could achieve them by buying from a different

supplier, but because you were the one who had this

discussion with them, they will anchor the benefits to your solution.

Remember: Prospects are going to have this future benefits

conversation with somebody. Why not you?

To keep prospects engaged in the middle of a cold call,

play with time. Make time your ally, and you’ll knock their

socks off.

Figure 22-1. Time demo sample.