One of my pet peeves is hearing a sales person say, “I had a good meeting today with [insert the name your top prospect].” As my blood begins to boil, I inquire "Why?" What follows is much hand waving and a detailed account of what was discussed, but little in the way of next steps. Every time it happens, I’m reminded of my former boss, Mike Boich, the founder and CEO of Radius, and his favorite lament, "When all was said and done, more was said than done".
I recall unloading on a Senior Director of Business Development one day, after he told me how "good" his meeting was with a strategic partner. He had little to report other than a lengthy discourse on our supposed alignment with the partner's strategy. After I peeled myself off the ceiling, I sat him down and outlined the essential characteristics of a highly productive sales call.
The stage for a highly productive sales call is set well in advance of the actual meeting. Every encounter with a prospect or business partner must be well thought out. You need to validate the value of your time and theirs prior to agreeing to meet.
Once they decide to meet, some sales people are notorious for "winging it." And, guess what, it shows. So, how do you avoid that? Know exactly what you want to accomplish BEFORE the meeting. Do you want to present the concept of a pilot program? Gain an introduction to a newly identified decision maker? Whatever it is, you need to develop a plan. Below is Sandler’s 5-step Up-Front Contract method that I use:
- Be crystal clear on the purpose for every meeting. What do you and your prospect need and expect to learn from one another to determine if and how you’ll move forward together.
- Determine how much time you’ll need. Then, ask for that much time. If your prospect won’t commit the time required, don’t put pressure on yourself to cram 60 minutes of discussion into a 30-minute window because you’ll fail. Rather, take a moment to reflect. Is this a red flag? Are you expecting too much from the meeting at this stage? Or, is your prospect not as committed to moving forward as you had thought? Or, is it simply a scheduling issue and you need ask for a better date and time to meet?
- Know exactly what your prospect wants to get from the meeting. What’s their agenda? After all, sales is all about making sure your customer gets their needs met.
- Having said that, you have needs too. So, think through what else you need to know before you can move the deal to the next stage. What’s your agenda? Prepare your questions; and prepare responses to the questions you expect your prospect will ask. Think through what else you want to communicate, perhaps with relevant proof points or third-party stories. Every interaction with an influencer or decision maker is an opportunity to prove your value. Take advantage of it!
- Be prepared to discuss at the BEGINNING of the meeting outcomes, potential action items and/or next steps that both parties will agree to at the END of the meeting. You don’t need to go into detail, the important point is that by agreeing up front on the decisions you want to make at the end, you and your prospect will be on the same page. Your discussions will be more focused. And you’ll both be assured that the time spent in the meeting will not be wasted. At the end of the meeting, if the agreed next step is to initiate a pilot program, you’ll need to identify the key participants and receive their contact information; decide the start date of the pilot; assign responsibilities and due dates; and confirm that you and your prospect agree on the details. Or, at the very least, that you agree to have the details ready by the next time you meet – the date and time of which you agree to before you leave.
Finally, throughout the sales call, continue to ask questions to learn as much about your prospect and their business as you can. The information you gather related to their challenges, the impact of those challenges, their ability to invest to overcome them, and the decision making process they’ll go through to decide on a solution and a provider, will help you when the time comes to close the deal to present the right solution, at the right price, to the right people.
So, do yourself and your boss a favor. Expunge the term "good sales call" from your company lexicon and from your consciousness. Focus instead on using Up-Front Contracts to prepare for and add value to every meeting you have. This will ensure you and your prospects get your needs met –either qualify them out of your pipeline or advance the deal to the next stage. When you do this, you will be not only highly productive but you will close more sales.
If you are interested in learning more about Up-Front Contracts or other Sandler® methods and techniques, Silicon Valley Sales Group is ready to help. Our expertise is helping companies accelerate revenue growth by building high performance sales teams and developing their talent with Sandler training. For more information, feel free to contact us.
