Member Article

Preparation is everything or is it?

Preparation is everything or is it?

As you will know from my sales tips and my training courses I am a big believer in the importation of preparing for a sales call.

A recent attendee told me how before every first meeting with a new prospect he prepared for everything. He prepared what he was going to talk about. He prepared what he was going to say. He prepared what he was going to show. He prepared what he was going to demonstrate. He prepared what questions he thought the prospect would ask and he prepared what his answers would be.

To sum it up he prepared he really prepared but by his own admission he didn’t get many real opportunities from his first meetings with new prospects. He couldn’t understand it as he prepared everything. He was getting some great meetings with potential customers that on the phone sounded as though they would be ideal clients as they appeared to need his services and solutions.

His problem was obvious to me as he was focussing on preparing for every eventuality but wasn’t focussing on the most important activity for a meeting with a new prospect.

Sometimes preparation can hurt you and cause you to focus on the wrong actions.

Let’s think about it for a few seconds if you are preparing as in the list above you need to think again. What exactly are you preparing for on your first sales meeting?

Your objective for your first sales call is to find out if you have an opportunity to sell something to your prospect or not. The truth is that whether or not you have a chance to sell depends solely on your prospect, not on your preparation, not on your demonstration, not on you.

When you attend the first meeting your strategy is to ask great questions. Questions that find out if they have any issues that need resolved, find out if they are prepared to resolve any issues and find out if you can really help them. You have to find a compelling reason why they should buy and why they should buy off you.

The answers to your great questions and the response your prospect makes to those questions dictates your next action. To find out if they have a real need is the objective for your first call.

You still need to prepare for the first meeting however find out what types of problems your existing customers and prospects typically have so that you can ask questions about these. The key is good questioning skills and good questions on their potential issues so that you can work off their responses to your great questions.

As I have said many times before it is all about them not how good you are at presenting.

You can learn new sales skills and we are here to help you by offering three options to gain new knowledge.

Option One - Take a look at our book of the week by clicking here

Option Two - Our Free 7 Ways to Increase Performance, Profits and Sales next session is on Friday 10th August for more information click here

Offer Three - ‘10 Sales and Marketing Activities that are free to implement’ mini sales course delivered direct to your inbox. To register click here

If I can help you with any of your current sales issues please contact me to see if I can help you. Call me on 0191-2267366 or email me michael@arrowsales.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michael McMeekin .