In which we discuss (at some length) the importance of resonating with your prospects pain points when you’re approaching to begin conversation.

This is a story about a prospecting approach – a printing company approaching Clarity.

Imagine you’re me. (And, I’m not responsible for any psychological trauma that comes as a result of your imagining.) You run a consulting and training business, working with clients in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. Frequently, you deliver documents to your clients in multiple locations. For the “we can plan ahead” printing work, you use a printer with whom you’ve worked for a number of years.

For the “it’s midnight and we need it by breakfast time” work, your firm uses a printer whose locations frequently are close to the sites in which your materials are used. While they’re fast and located close to your client sites, they’re significantly more expensive than your regular guy, they foul up orders from time to time, and their web interface is a bit clunky, you think.

So, one morning, there appears the following email in your in-box:

Herbert Printing, Inc.

April 28, 2010

Dear Nick,

I’m writing with the hope of earning your business.

I am the Sales Manager at Herbert Printing and Graphics (check out our web site) and would very much like to speak with you to discuss how our company can save you time and money. We are in our 100th year, and are proud to say that our company continues to grow. We think that’s because we work extremely hard to form personal relationships with all our customers, and because we make it easy for you to order printing when and how you need it.

In which we’re reminded of the value of periodically reviewing our clients and accounts.     

[...]

In the old days, West Concord Village was called “the Junction” because four rail lines intersected here. The one remaining line now carries commuter rail traffic from Fitchburg inbound to Boston and from Boston outbound to Fitchburg, stopping at the West Concord station, 100 yards down the tracks that run close behind Clarity’s offices.   
 
Eager for an afternoon stroll and a bite of something tasty from a store on the other side of the tracks, I ambled down the path from our offices toward the rail crossing at the train station, tracks to my immediate left, cell phone to my left ear, talking to a colleague, watching the commuter train from Boston coming toward me into the West Concord station.
 
As commuters poured from the rumbling and now motionless outbound train, I reached the rail crossing. Road and sidewalk barriers were down, stopping automobile and pedestrian traffic, but the train had stopped short of them to my right.  The coast was clear! My goodies awaited me, a mere 30 yards across the tracks.
 
Still engaged in my cell phone conversation, I turned left around the pedestrian barrier to cross the tracks and …. BOOP – BOOP – BOOP … a train horn from my left!! Startled, I snapped my head to my left,  and spotted the inbound train from Fitchburg three heart-beats away, rolling directly at me. My left foot was 3 feet from the tracks.