The skilled business owner asks himself "How can I sell, how can I explain the benefits and use of my services if I don't understand the prospect's needs?" The answer is, "You can't!" And, armed with that knowledge, the skilled and up to date business owner mentally and physically leaves his or her business brochure back in their car on the initial Business Building Call.

That sea change in marketing philosophy and practice will also create changes in who you will hire as a marketing representative. And, if you hope to position yourself properly on a new Business Building Call, you better walk in that door with antennae focused, fully extended, your receiver turned way up, and your grey matter totally customer focused.

The science of Business Building, and the skill of Rainmaking, has rightly come around 180 degrees. You'll find there are many good and many not so good business builders.

There may be any number of components of the Business Building Call, but for our purposes, let's divide the selling activity into four steps:

Step 1 - Identifying the prospects needs
Step 2 - Problem solving to satisfy those needs
Step 3 - Detail the application of your services in the solving of those needs, and
Step 4 - The close

The "not so good" business builder types unfortunately average only about five percent of the marketing call attempting to isolate the prospects needs. Most, really, are not interested in the prospects problem, and when they do attempt to discover prospect needs, more often than not, they feel that the prospects needs are for one or more of their services.

Naturally, spending only 5% of a Business Building Call in a prospect focused posture severely limits the amount of meeting time a business builder can devote to step two of the business building process, problem solving. What problems can they solve if they're not a ware of any of the prospects needs from the prospects point of view? The result then, is that the "not so good" business builder most often spends about 10 percent of the call in the important and vital activity of problem solving. That's a fact.

Well, if you haven't spent the necessary time to discover the prospects needs, and if you can't detail a prospect focused solution to those problems, what does the poor performing business owner talk about for the rest of the allotted time? Their business, of course!

That business owner is a "verbal" business brochure and nothing more. It that's your business building technique, you lose.

This is where the "not so good" business builder starts the arm twisting, offers the price deals and the concessions. The weak business builders will find themselves spending over half, over 50% of the entire Business Building Call trying to close the sale and get the business.

That's not only dumb, that's asinine. Get this set in your mind. The psychology of business building today, and very definitely when making cold Business Building Calls is a prospect focused posture, where the greater part of the marketing presentation demonstrates a clear emphasis on and empathy for the prospect, a very definite expertise in problem solving skills relative to your prospects problems.

And if that's true, it dictates a complete reversal of the selling psychology of the "not so good" business builder. Todays business builders, the exceptionally productive Rainmakers, consciously reverse the portion of the Business Building Call they're spending in each of the four components of the practice building process.

They will devote or at least spend as much as 35% of the contact in a problem solving posture, and rarely more than 1% of the call on detailing the features of their services. Now do you see how the process has been totally reversed?

You must begin by disciplining yourself so that you are your own coach. First, on your next Business Building Call, as you pull to the curb and shut off the car's engine, you simply ask yourself "What is the objective of this call?"

"What is the objective of this call?" If the answer that comes to mind is to sign a new client, market your services, or anything like that, then you have positioned yourself incorrectly and you're not client or prospect focused.

The prospect is not going to pour out his guts to some stranger about his business problems. You see, you need a list of probing inquiries that dig data out, and good business developers don't make Business Building Calls without such a list.

Now, while you're still sitting in your car, you've got to ask yourself "What do I know about this prospect's industry or business?" You've also got to ask yourself what tools you plan to use on the call. Selling with your verbal skills alone does not present a competitive package, and the best business developers use a hundred different types of selling tools to effectively build their businesses.

But, more than what tools, you should note that you're still not even thinking about your services. You're thinking customer or prospect.

You must understand your customer's mission, you've got to understand your customer's opportunities and potentials as well as you know your own. Then you will be limited and only able to committ ten to fifteen percent of the call discussing your services and signing the contract.

Just remember that the call format and focus is not a mere technique, or even a selling idea. Your edge when making the Business Building Call is having a system. A system made of key components