By Todd Duncan

Prospecting is a core part of the sales professional's business, however many salespeople experience call reluctance. If you experience reluctance when it comes to trying to convince people whom you have never met to do business with you, you are not alone. The good news is that a unique value proposition can help you overcome reluctance and gain the business you desire.

Remember, your unique value proposition helps you differentiate yourself from your competition. It is the tool that gets prospects who aren’t using your services to use your services. The more unique your unique value propositions are, the more likely you are to get appointments with the prospects you really want to convert to long-term clients.

As you've learned over the last few weeks, you can be as creative as you want when you are developing your unique value propositions. What you want to offer and how you want to offer your unique value proposition is up to you.

As you take your unique value proposition to the streets, especially in today’s market, you must follow these five steps:

1. Consistently identify the prospects whom you want to pursue.

2. Develop a letter of introduction.

Your letter should include three items:

• The name of the referrer (i.e. the person who referred you)
• Your unique value proposition, described briefly in the second or third paragraph of your letter.
• A commitment that you will follow-up within a specified time frame. Include this commitment in the last paragraph of your letter. As the Law of Response says, “If you don’t follow-up with them, they won’t follow through with you.”

3. Develop a unique delivery tool.

Todd recommends using overnight delivery by either UPS or FedEx. Think of it this way: If you have clients-for-life who will deliver tens of thousands of dollars in commissions to you over time, spending $15 to deliver something in a manner that will cause them to open your package immediately is a worthwhile investment.

4. Mail your letters at a pace of one person per day for five-days-a-week.

Your goal is to get your prospects to commit to having a business discussion with you. If you send one letter a day for five-days-a-week, you will send twenty letters a month or sixty letters over a 90-day period. If one-third of these prospects convert, you will have twenty meetings and potentially twenty deals in the next three months.

Remember: These letters are a relationship-based business building tool, not a transactional-based business building tool.

5. Follow-up with your prospects within 48 hours to secure a business development appointment.

The Law of the Dress Rehearsal From Todd's bestselling book High Trust Selling, states "Practicing your lines elevates your performance."

In closing, If you follow the five-step action plan described this week, you will no longer be afraid of prospecting. The skills you will learn will give you the confidence to take action with passion, belief, and excitement.Taking Your Unique Value Proposition to the Streets

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