Experience is a great teacher but the tuition is too high.  Sales managers expect you to get out and “sell something!”.   I don’t know any sales manager who challenged someone to “get out and solve some problems.  On an early sales call I was excited about selling.  I wanted to sell/tell.  I hadn’t considered the prospects needs.  The prospect owned five supermarkets.  A few minutes into the meeting he looked at me with exasperation and said “you really don’t know anything about me or my company, do you?  I think we should end this meeting.”  He basically threw me out.  I was mortified!  I learned a priceless lesson that if a prospect honors you with a meeting you are obligated to make it valuable.  I learned to promise prospects that whether they buy from me or not they will benefit from the meeting.

An aha moment for me early on was seeing this sign in a prospect’s business:

^{NOTICE: IF YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR PRODUCT TO OUR COMPANY BE SURE YOUR PRODUCT IS ACCOMPANIED BY A PLAN WHICH WILL SO HELP OUR BUSINESS THAT WE WILL BE MORE ANXIOUS TO BUY THAN YOU ARE TO SELL.}

This a high bar to achieve the should be your goal.  It is easy to research a company and the person you are meeting.  Don’t ever ask questions that can be answered by doing you homework.  We want to demonstrate our experience and intelligence by what we say.  The truth is, we display our intelligence and experience by what we ask.  Plan your questions and write them down.  Oprah refers to her notes.  It demonstrates competence and preparation.

Next week I will outline some high gain questions you can use in your first meeting.   Here are 5 ways to to plan meeting effectively.  You can find an additional discussion on this in my column 6 Ways to Be Relevant When Selling Out of Home.

• Define the objective of the call.
• Set a specific agenda.  When  you are meet with the client review the agenda and get agreement on what you will be covering.
• Often reps begin meetings with something like “I just wanted to…”  A stronger introduction is: “I specifically wanted to meet today to accomplish X, Y and Z.”  It sounds more focused, direct and professional.
• If you have been pursuing a prospect for a ling time and they finally give you a meeting try to answer the question why now?  If is vital to look at the business from the customer’s point of view by going into their store/show room, surfing their website, understanding the sales channels they use to cain customers and understanding the tone and tenor in which they approach customers.  This also gives you huge insights into the decision maker.
• Investigate which buyer type the client is: driver/type A, analytical, amiable, consensus-building, etc.  Finding out how they came into their position (i.e. founder, heir, buyer) will tell you about their motivation.  These elements are critical in determining how you act during the meeting.

Kevin Gephart spent 35+ years selling advertising including 12 years at Clear Channel Outdoor in Minneapolis. He welcomes your sales questions or comments.  Email  kevinjgephart@gmail.com or use the form below.

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