How Prepared Are You?

By Kent Howell
 

When you walk into a sales call with a prospect, particularly the first meeting, do you know exactly what you want to do and how you plan to do it? Or do you go in without a plan and just wing it assuming that youll let the flow of the conversation dictate what you do?

Unfortunately, the majority of salespeople go into most, if not all, of their sales calls with no specific plan in mind. Top performing salespeople dont do it that way. They go in to every call, especially the first call on a new prospect, with a definite objective of what they want to accomplish during that call and how they want to achieve that objective.

If you are going on calls with no specific plan you are drastically reducing your chances of a positive outcome at the end of the meeting. Now it goes without saying that all of us would like to be able to close every sale we make in one appointment. But we all know that realistically its going to talk us at least two calls and more likely four, or possibly more. More complex sales and those that involve very large expenditures for the prospect can take several months and ten or more calls.

So, then, what should your plan be for each call you make? For purposes of this discussion Im going to focus on your first appointment with a prospect.

1. Once youve moved beyond the small talk and rapport building (which should not be more than five minutes at most) you need to present a brief 1 to 2 minute commercial about your company and its products and/or services. This is a verbal commercial only no brochures or visuals of any kind. This is so the prospect focuses on you and is not distracted by looking at something else. This is not the time to product dump and tell the prospect everything you know about everything you have to offer. The key thing to remember here is that this is BRIEF. There is going to be plenty of time later to go into specific details of your offerings once you know exactly what the best fit for the prospect is.

2. Know the first two questions you plan to ask after you complete your commercial. When you finish your commercial do not pause to wait for a response from the prospect. Immediately transition to your first question. It should go something like this: "thats a brief summary of XYZ Company and what we do. So, Mr. Smith, let me ask you. . ." Its a smooth, very conversational transition to the question. From here its very easy to move on to your second question. At this point you can move into of the other questions you need to ask at the appropriate place in the conversation.

3. Have a specific next step to ask the prospect at the conclusion of the meeting. This next step is an agreement that the prospect has to give you and it lets you know if he is willing to continue to move forward with you in the sales process. Lets say you've met with your prospect for 30 minutes (which was all that was allotted) and you know you still need additional information before you can prepare any kind of outline of a solution, or ideas and suggestions of how your products or services can benefit them. At the end of the meeting you could say something like "Mr. Smith, this is good information and a great start for me to be able to put together a plan for you. But before I can do that I still have additional information I'll need. Lets get together again next Monday at 10 a.m. for about an hour". If the prospect agrees then you know hes at least somewhat interested and will move forward with you. On the other hand, if he says let me get back with you then you have a clear sign of disinterest or an objection of some sort which you need to draw out with further questions.

4. Have a backup plan. If the prospect wont agree to the next step you are after you need to have a second step to use as a fallback. If you're attempting to set a second face to face meeting and the prospect just won't agree to it what are you going to do? One idea is to ask for a specific time to talk on the telephone. Even better is to make this a conference call where you offer to include your manager or one of your technical experts to help answer questions you might not be able to answer. This call needs to have a specific date and time just like it would be if you were meeting in person.

These are just a few of the things you can do to be better prepared for your sales calls. The important point to remember is that to give yourself the best chance of a successful sales call is that you have to know what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Plan ahead and be prepared and youll make more sales in less time.