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:
Be familiar with the executive(s) with whom you are meeting. With a little bit of research, you can usually learn a good amount of important information regarding your customer and should understand where they've worked before, the areas of success they've enjoyed, special interests they might have, groups they are part of, and other common contacts they might have with you or other people 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 be sure they are briefed and prepared before hand. Make certain that anyone you bring is well aware of the above items along with the agenda including their role and any of the topics they're to cover. Role play in advance of the meeting to be sure everyone knows who, when, and 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. Make sure that everyone introduces themselves, and ask them to describe their role and responsibilities, and convey any particular areas they want to cover and what they want to get out of the meeting. Make sure you also briefly describe what if any relationship exists, and where and how both companies have worked together in the past. This is a great way to break the ice and build instant credibility for you and your company. Don't assume the people in the room are aware of any prior relationships or successes.
Review the agenda items up front and confirm the amount of time you have for the meeting. Ask your customer to prioritize your topics and determine any others that need to be covered before jumping in. This ensures you review the most important items first, and less important ones last or not at all if you run out of 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 all the items covered and figure out next steps. Spend time to briefly review and prioritize everything you covered along with any action items that were agreed to. You ought to get concurrence for subsequent meetings, and determine the focus areas including any other individuals that should participate. Solicit feedback from all of the attendees to determine on the spot if they received the benefit they expected and covered the topics they had been most interested in. Ask for guidance on how you could improve the next time.
Deliver what you promised. After the meeting, it's critical that you follow through on what you said you would do. Send a thank you note to all that attended and document the action items and provide any information you promised. The value you can add begins when the meeting ends. You should also 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 might have valuable information to share in a private setting.
By completing these 10 steps, you will be guaranteed to have successful executive sales meetings, and prove to your customers that you are a valuable and credible 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 Most Effective Ways To Increase Your Sales. By Paul M. Balzano
Food and/or refreshments can also help people stay focused and have something to look forward to during sales meetings. Also, if applicable, give attendees something like a handout or recap of the important points before they leave to help remind them of what was talked about.
ReplyDelete-Jack