Most sales people fear thinking about this question the same way people fear their first-date. What would I say? Should I start with talking about myself first? Would it be rude if I ask her to speak first? I hope I don’t say something stupid! Should I drop her till the door?
To make matters worse, the sales rep is pushed into a psychological neg-zone wherein failure in the first meeting will definitely mean a step-back in terms of accounts prospecting, market-share, revenues and a huge dent in one’s confidence.
So is there a way to prepare for “first-meetings”?
Here is how it should be done:
* Always define the first meeting as a part of your Sales prospecting phase
So for e.g. if you define the Phase 1 objective as – “To establish points of improvements and define the scope; and to establish important measurability parameters for online marketing. Promise and map out training program for the internal teams affected by this buying decision,” then you know that for the first meeting, you will need to discuss – current status-quo, – its understanding of online marketing, its measurements, – how they have measured such things over the past 2-3 yrs, – how they link such measurements to their overall revenues (contribution) – how they intend to improve effectiveness and contributions this year – how they intend to lessen pain points through such initiatives It is easy. Do NOT Sell anything.
*Go prepared with data and analysis that make sense
How will you know if it makes sense? Obviously its connected to their pain-points and priorities. Who likes to discuss established and boring stuff like – “We know that you are having this issue”? Well, I know you know but what next? Sometimes, priorities are urgent and are power-base specific, which means that they can either be priorities of the person at a technical level. People worry about what they missed last year, shouldn’t repeat this year. Go prepared with data and showcase this data as a part of making a specific point.
* Always remind yourself that the “other side” is also an emotional human being
People on the other side also seem to have the same fear as you do. Same kind of questions (“Will I look like a fool,” “I don’t want to commit”, etc) are plaguing the other side as much these do for you. Emotional beings always seek some sort of refuge in logic and credibility.
Every buyer is either aware or are asked by their colleagues to practice caution and measure every word spoken by the sales rep. However, it is human instinct and mostly sub-conscious dopamine driven urge to be Right and revel in that feeling of achievement.
Why be bad when you can actually get everything right by just being cognizant of the design and requirements in each conversation! Start practicing better activity planning and see the results for yourself.