“First Meeting” Skills for Outside Sales. Earn a Real “Next Step.”
Setting more sales appointments is often a necessary first step to new account generation. Yet, sales and revenue increases may not materialize without adjusting your sales process. When you substantially increase your rate of access to targeted companies, your expectations and sales approach must adjust to avoid serious disappointment. Enhancing 1) “first meeting” skills and […]
How to win more close sales decisions at closing time
Trainee who doesn’t use scripts as she wants to have a natural conversation and not appear salesy tell me a story. Great high-value prospect takes a meeting as the current rep is AWOL, hard to reach and communication is poor. So non-salesy rep and her boss wine and dine (her words) multiple times over the […]
Tell your prospects where to go
Consultative sales rep or order taker? Do you have a point of view? Or are you a trained seal, trying to please every moment to get what you want? In major sales situations, prospects respect and pay attention to those that have a point of view and communicate it. If you are not willing to […]
30 sales questions that lead to more closed accounts
How’s this for being put on the spot? I’m speaking to an annual meeting of a large international manufacturing organization. Top management and salespeople from around the world in front of me. The CEO of the company impolitely interrupts my remarks to demand an immediate answer to a question. No warning. No notice. No thinking […]
Strategic Questions For Outside Sales First Meetings. Avoid Prospect Vaporization.
WHAT ARE THE BEST QUESTIONS TO ASK AT A FIRST MEETING THAT ADVANCE A SALE? First meetings that lay a solid foundation for a sale are not the result of accident, your witty repartee or your shining personality (nobody cares). You will advance or make a sale at a first meeting as a result of […]
12 Core Discovery Call Keys To Get The Close
Here are some core concepts to execute a discovery call so as to maximize closing ratios. For many years all I did was help companies SELL THE MEETING and schedule qualified discovery calls and first sales appointments. Eventually companies asked for help in choreographing (my words) the first meeting/discovery call to get more leads deeper […]
Discovery calls: How to maintain a conversation in motion
Discovery calls are about capturing money in motion. To capture money in motion, you must maintain a conversation in motion. That requires continuity, credibility and closing. CONTINUITY: In order for a phone call or email to turn into a discovery call which flows to more conversations, continuity is required. CREDIBILITY: There is no value found […]
First Sales Conversations, Discovery Calls, Demos and Meetings: Do You Qualify, Close or Runaway?
There is a first substantive interaction to every multi-step sales process. Whether you label it a first sales meeting, discovery call or demo, the first interaction may be the biggest influence on whether you close a deal or not. That’s right; it’s not the magic words you try to come up with when a deal […]
Basic Roadmap and Strategic Focus to Conduct Effective First Meetings with Sales Prospects
1. How long does a typical first sales meeting of discovery call last? Probably 30-60 minutes. As a general rule we have certain objectives to accomplish and we only have a certain amount of time. It is probably reasonable to assume that we will only have 40 minutes to accomplish our objectives. Plan and pace […]
10 Sales Pitch, Discovery Call and First Prospecting Meeting Tips
1. Very easy to rush through beginning phases of a sales call. 2. Very easy to talk about what we want to talk about. 3. Difference between sales efficiency vs sales effectiveness. Sales efficiency: getting in front of the right prospect at the right cost at the right cost. And spending the right amount of […]