Why The “Meredith Method” Works
I am going to give you the system I was taught (and modified) that you can use in any sales situation.
Understand that this works GREAT for coaches, trainers or anyone who needs to close over Skype or in person.
And my method?
Well it’s called ‘The Meredith Method’ as in homage to Big Papa Nige (aka my dad) who taught me a lots of my sales skills,but then this became a thing after I spent several years as a headhunter –it’s broken down into 4 parts:
• P = probe
• M = match
• C = confirm
• C = close
I have made a FORTUNE using this, and I’m going to break it down for you now.
Probe…
You need to be asking lots of questions that use the following six words in them:
. who
. where
. what
. when
. why
. oh and one h – how
The goal is to gather as MUCH info as possible to make the close seamless. Make sure that you write the responses down (you will need them later!)
Next,we go on to…
Match…
Now this NEEDS to sound natural (have those notes to hand if you can).
You want to act like a scalpel, not a Swiss army knife, during this.
But what the hell does this mean, you might wonder?
Well, as you go along with the conversation you match THEIR needs to your skills, ensuring you get client agreement as you go along.
For example, let’s say you are a business coach, and your client says that they struggle staying organised, you then ‘match’ that to the part of your skills how you have organised other people like them.
Of COURSE you can do lots more than that, but you want to pair up the client’s needs to the solutions that you offer.
Let the questions and answers come naturally, and match when only appropriate.
The goal is to have a normal conversation where the client is giving you their problems, and by matching your skills/service offering ONLY to the points they reference, it makes you look like the perfect fit! #Boom
Make sense?
Next we go onto….
Confirm…
Now this is the point where you get the client buying into you fully -think of this like a summary. You want to recap what they want,confirm that they understand HOW you can solve their needs/problems and get them to saying yes.
Basically,you want them to get on a ‘yes train’. The more ‘yes’s’ you get? The more they are ‘in’.
If they disagree to a point you have previously agreed on, go back through your notes -re-probe, re-match, then re-confirm.
This should be a relatively short and lead to…
Close…
Now,this is where a lot of people screw up.
They have gone to the effort of diving into a client’s problems, tailored their solution to the client’s needs, built rapport and got buyin then they fail to ask for the money!
So I’m going to give you one VERY simple close -yes there are more (and if you have any creative ones I’m always learning -let me know!)
‘The alternative close’
Simply present the client with two possible options for you service. Now keeping it simple, you want to use
variants of time, speed, exclusivity and cost.
E.g.‘3 sessions a week will get you to your goal in 6 months, 2 sessions a week will get you to your goal in 9 months.’
‘You can pay in full now for $1000 or over 3 payments of $500’
‘You can join our gold plan which has X, or our platinum plan which also has X, but includes Y as well’
^^^ these are all MEGA simple, but I hope you get the idea?
Give it a try –let me know what happens.