I was giving a demo (Socially Booked demo) the other day to a ski resort in California.  It was going well considering the Director of Ski School was a bit skeptical.  He wasn’t a social media user.  He didn’t use Facebook and didn’t spend anytime on LinkedIn. Twitter? That was out of the question.  What he did know was that social media was impacting the world around him, so he conceded to a demo of the Socially Booked platform.

Towards the end of the demo, I was walking him through the instructor feed back page.  The instructor feedback page is where instructors can upload pictures and videos from their client’s lesson and provide them with online feedback.  When the account is created, an email goes out to the guest alerting them their lesson page has been created and they can come check it out. I’m big fan of this feature.  It captures and time stamps every lesson a guest takes providing them with a legacy of lessons they can refer to for the rest of their life.  As I was showing him some of its cool features, the ski school director stopped me and said: “Let’s move past this.  None of my instructors will use this. They don’t have time to stop and take pictures or shoot video.  They’re too busy to pull out a camera or video camera.”

After hearing this, I paused for a moment and agreed with him that, yes this may be true today, HOWEVER more and more instructors and guests are using smartphones with camera’s and video camera’s built right in.  I shared with him how I use my IPhone regularly with clients, taking quick video clips and pictures and texting them to my clients while wer re still on the chair.  I politely suggested the key for him and his ski school isn’t to think about what is happening today, but look to where things are going.  I told him recent data suggested smartphones were going to be ubiquitous in just a few years and that would change things dramatically.  I said, if nothing else, it makes it much easier to take pictures and videos.  I heard a bit of silence on the other line.  When the brief pause broke, he softly agreed with me .

Does this mean he is going to buy the Socially Booked platform?  No.  What it does mean is that I was able to reframe his perspective and by doing so, I was able to get him to look at Socially Booked and how it can help his business a little differently.  When the call was over, it was clear.  He had moved from skepticism to consideration.  You could hear the wheels turning in his head right through the phone.

Many times customers and prospects aren’t saying no because they don’t want your product, but rather because of how they THINK your product doesn’t work in their current environment.  That’s the problem.  You’re product should be doing more than responding to the status quo, it should be creating opportunities for your customers to capitalize on.  Prospects and customers don’t always see where the puck is going.  It’s up to you to help them see.

Help  your prospects and customers see where things are going.  It’s one of the most important things you can do.