How To Crush Any Sales Meeting
This guest article was written by Chris Bullick. Chris is a Principal Consultant who is the Creator of the Sales Diagnostic Questionnaire (“SDQ”), he provides analysis and strategy for go to market strategies, corporate messaging, pipeline metrics, relationship building and winning presentations.
I was speaking with a wildly successful colleague recently and she relayed the story of her latest accomplishment. The company she was selling to was not necessarily in buying mode. They reached out to a few vendors to conduct general capabilities presentations. She had never met the buyer.
My friend’s presentation blew the doors off the buyer. The buyer immediately put the wheels in motion to contract with my friend’s company to provide services to his and they never talked price until the actual closing.
When I asked my friend what did the trick, she said her team prepared as if it was biggest and most important finalist presentation they had ever participated in.
Best Practice: Treat every meeting like a finalist presentation. Learn how to prepare for the big day.
She brought the team who would service the account, the potential account manager, a regional executive and a video from her company’s CEO imbedded into her PowerPoint that was customized for the prospect. She noted that her biggest competitor was presenting right after her. They sent one person and she learned later that their presentation was a generic one-page marketing piece.
Best Practice: Bring the team. It’s great practice for those who are not in front of customers every day. If you don’t win, you still may be setting the table for the future with that prospect. Learn how to get your whole team comfortable presenting.
Imagine that! Allocating resources full bore on a deal with a low probability of success. Do other organizations do that? The answer is not many. A lot of organizations handicap themselves out of deals. They look in their CRM and see that they have tried to sell to that buyer in the past without success. They think the buyer is just kicking tires or leveraging them on price. Another great excuse is they haven’t met the buyer yet. They place a low percentage of winning in the CRM.
The organizations that handicap themselves will not allocate resources on a low percentage deal. They will tell their sales people not to spend so much time on a deal like that, don’t burden marketing, don’t take anyone important and use generic marketing materials. In doing so, they take the passion, urgency, energy and enthusiasm out of the deal. They have set themselves up to fail.
Best Practice: Don’t skimp on preparation and resources. Learn how to prepare the right way and bring the right resources to every meeting.
Winning companies tell their sales people to jump in with both feet. It’s alright to drop everything, muster your resources, and prepare with a mindset that you are winning the business right then and there. When you present with conviction and purpose it reveals your company’s attention to detail, planning and execution.
