Did you get an inquiry for a project? Well, congrats. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve worked hard to cultivate a lead to reach this point or the prospect fell into your lap with little effort. A sales meeting is a sales meeting.
Let’s create a quick checklist that you need to follow as you meet with the prospect. (There’s another checklist to follow when setting up an in-person meeting, but that’s another article in itself.) It also doesn’t matter if it’s an online meeting, a phone call or an in-person meeting.
After the meeting is finished, you should have checked all these boxes. Yes. All of them. They don’t all have to be in this order. Everything has to be covered, that’s all.
Make sure you have –
- Spoken about yourself and your expertise. Don’t be a name-dropper. Just mention some valuable things you have done.
- Spoken about your company and its values, clients, products, and vision. Don’t spend more than 2 mins on this point. Create a script, memorize it, practice it and say it. Just don’t miss this part.
- Spoken about the advantages of the product (or service) you’re selling from the prospect’s point of view. (Don’t spend too much time harping on the product features. No one cares.)
- Used very little or no jargon of your industry. Used some jargon from the prospect’s industry. (Don’t overdo this second part.)
- Built some rapport with the prospect. Use humor appropriately, share some personal stories, discuss some common hobbies, etc. Do one of them, not all of them. (Again don’t overdo it)
- Discussed the decision-making process. Ask clearly and try to get an unambiguous answer to the steps involved before the first meeting converts into an order. Ask about hierarchies and approval levels. Don’t assume anything.
- Discussed money. Yes. Discuss money in the first meeting. It’s a sales meeting. Money has to be the center of this discussion. Get comfortable talking money.
- Not wimped out and agreed to send a proposal without talking about money across the table. Agree on a range at least, if not the exact amount. A proposal without a verbal agreement is meaningless. Also, if you find out they don’t have the budget, don’t waste your time creating a proposal.
It might look like too much, but missing any of this in the first meeting will just drag the sales cycle longer. And no one wants that.
How many of these points do you already cover in every sales meeting? Anything crucial that I missed? Let me know.
Yours,
Abhilash Purohit