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A substantial number of sales reps waste time with people who are not empowered to choose or purchase the goods and services they sell. Meeting with the most appropriate senior managers is one of the best ways to accelerate your time to success with your customers. Therefore, it's essential to be sure that each of these meetings are worthwhile for the executives you meet with.
If you demonstrate that you can help that person/company in one way or another, you will have a much greater probability to quickly identify and close new sales opportunities. Conversely, if your meeting is a total waste of time for that executive, you certainly will prolong and potentially destroy any sales opportunities you had, and it'll likely ruin your chances for a subsequent meeting. The following are the top 10 steps you really should complete before, during, and after your meetings so they are both productive and valuable for your customers:
Know the executive(s) with whom you are meeting. With a little bit of research, you can typically find out a lot of important information about your customer and should understand where they've worked before, the areas of success they've enjoyed, special interests they may have, groups they belong to, and other common contacts they may have with you or others in your company.
Understand their role and responsibilities. The simplest way to get this information is to query others you know within their department/division, or at least, search the internet site for executive profiles, presentations they might have done, or articles they've written. Knowing this can help you to build credibility by referencing it while having your meeting, and ultimately enable you to determine how your product or service would map to their interests and initiatives.
Schedule the right resources to join you and make certain they are briefed and prepared before hand. Make sure that anyone you bring is well aware of the above mentioned items as well as the agenda including their role and any of the topics they are to cover. Role play in advance of the meeting to be certain everybody knows who, when, and exactly how they are expected to participate.
Share your agenda with your customer before hand and confirm who else will attend. By doing so, you can be sure that the topics you want to cover are relevant while soliciting input for other areas or topics they may be interested in. This simple step gives you the chance to change course if your initial agenda missed the mark, and enable you to reach out to any other executives you were not aware were asked to join.
Prepare an executive summary presentation or discussion document to follow during your meeting. Don't just wing it. Having a professional looking document or presentation will demonstrate that you have invested time preparing, will help guide your discussion to be sure very important points are covered, and shall prove that you care and appreciate your customer's time.
Complete proper introductions. Always make sure that everyone introduces themselves, and ask them to describe their role and responsibilities, and convey any particular areas they would like to cover and what they need to get out of the meeting. Be sure you also briefly describe what if any relationship exists, and how and where both organizations have worked together previously. This is usually a easy way to break the ice and build instant credibility for you and also your company. Don't assume the folks in the room have an understanding of any prior relationships or successes.
Review the agenda items in the beginning and confirm how much time you've got for the meeting. Ask your customer to prioritize your topics and figure out any others that need to be covered before jumping in. This ensures you review the most significant items first, and less important ones last or not at all if you used up all your time.
Ask open ended, relevant questions, and listen carefully and take notes. Always make sure your valuable time isn't wasted with you or your team doing the majority of the talking. The simplest way to identify new sales opportunities is to understand your clients challenges and the way your products and solutions may help them. Don't make the mistake of jumping into a hard core sales pitch before you have had a chance to clearly identify the value add you can actually provide. Periodically pause throughout the meeting and ask your customer if the content being reviewed is important and is also resonating with them. If it's not, switch onto another more important subject.
Before the meeting ends, recap the items covered and determine next steps. Set aside time to briefly review and prioritize what you covered along with any action items that were agreed to. You should get concurrence for follow up meetings, and determine the focus areas along with any other individuals that should participate. Solicit feedback from all attendees to determine on the spot if they received the value they expected and covered the topics they were most interested in. Ask for guidance on how you can improve the next time.
Deliver everything you promised. Soon after the meeting, it's critical that you follow through on what you said you would do. Send a thank you note to everyone that attended and document the action items and provide any information you promised. The additional value you can add begins when the meeting ends. It's also advisable to call each of the customers that attended to get their feedback. Many times in an open forum, individuals will not chime in during the meeting and may also have valuable information to talk about in a private setting.
By completing these 10 steps, you will greatly improve your executive sales meetings, and prove to your customers that you are a very valuable resource for them.
If you demonstrate that you can help that person/company in one way or another, you will have a much greater probability to quickly identify and close new sales opportunities. Conversely, if your meeting is a total waste of time for that executive, you certainly will prolong and potentially destroy any sales opportunities you had, and it'll likely ruin your chances for a subsequent meeting. The following are the top 10 steps you really should complete before, during, and after your meetings so they are both productive and valuable for your customers:
Know the executive(s) with whom you are meeting. With a little bit of research, you can typically find out a lot of important information about your customer and should understand where they've worked before, the areas of success they've enjoyed, special interests they may have, groups they belong to, and other common contacts they may have with you or others in your company.
Understand their role and responsibilities. The simplest way to get this information is to query others you know within their department/division, or at least, search the internet site for executive profiles, presentations they might have done, or articles they've written. Knowing this can help you to build credibility by referencing it while having your meeting, and ultimately enable you to determine how your product or service would map to their interests and initiatives.
Schedule the right resources to join you and make certain they are briefed and prepared before hand. Make sure that anyone you bring is well aware of the above mentioned items as well as the agenda including their role and any of the topics they are to cover. Role play in advance of the meeting to be certain everybody knows who, when, and exactly how they are expected to participate.
Share your agenda with your customer before hand and confirm who else will attend. By doing so, you can be sure that the topics you want to cover are relevant while soliciting input for other areas or topics they may be interested in. This simple step gives you the chance to change course if your initial agenda missed the mark, and enable you to reach out to any other executives you were not aware were asked to join.
Prepare an executive summary presentation or discussion document to follow during your meeting. Don't just wing it. Having a professional looking document or presentation will demonstrate that you have invested time preparing, will help guide your discussion to be sure very important points are covered, and shall prove that you care and appreciate your customer's time.
Complete proper introductions. Always make sure that everyone introduces themselves, and ask them to describe their role and responsibilities, and convey any particular areas they would like to cover and what they need to get out of the meeting. Be sure you also briefly describe what if any relationship exists, and how and where both organizations have worked together previously. This is usually a easy way to break the ice and build instant credibility for you and also your company. Don't assume the folks in the room have an understanding of any prior relationships or successes.
Review the agenda items in the beginning and confirm how much time you've got for the meeting. Ask your customer to prioritize your topics and figure out any others that need to be covered before jumping in. This ensures you review the most significant items first, and less important ones last or not at all if you used up all your time.
Ask open ended, relevant questions, and listen carefully and take notes. Always make sure your valuable time isn't wasted with you or your team doing the majority of the talking. The simplest way to identify new sales opportunities is to understand your clients challenges and the way your products and solutions may help them. Don't make the mistake of jumping into a hard core sales pitch before you have had a chance to clearly identify the value add you can actually provide. Periodically pause throughout the meeting and ask your customer if the content being reviewed is important and is also resonating with them. If it's not, switch onto another more important subject.
Before the meeting ends, recap the items covered and determine next steps. Set aside time to briefly review and prioritize what you covered along with any action items that were agreed to. You should get concurrence for follow up meetings, and determine the focus areas along with any other individuals that should participate. Solicit feedback from all attendees to determine on the spot if they received the value they expected and covered the topics they were most interested in. Ask for guidance on how you can improve the next time.
Deliver everything you promised. Soon after the meeting, it's critical that you follow through on what you said you would do. Send a thank you note to everyone that attended and document the action items and provide any information you promised. The additional value you can add begins when the meeting ends. It's also advisable to call each of the customers that attended to get their feedback. Many times in an open forum, individuals will not chime in during the meeting and may also have valuable information to talk about in a private setting.
By completing these 10 steps, you will greatly improve your executive sales meetings, and prove to your customers that you are a very valuable resource for them.
About the Author:
Visit here to find out more about how to Improve Your Sales Meetings as well as learn about The Best Sales Techniques. By Paul M. Balzano
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