Sales Managers, do your salespeople meet regularly with brand new prospects? If so, train them to do one simple things that will take little more than a minute at the beginning of every sales call. Get them to propose an agenda to their prospect. An agenda for what? The meeting that?s about to follow.
There are two great reasons why your salespeople need to start doing this. First, proposing a brief agenda sets expectations for the sales meeting. Second, it keeps your salesperson in control of the meeting, something even veteran salespeople admit having difficulty doing.
I?ve been on both sides of sales meetings. I?ve been the one selling, and I?ve been the one the salesperson is trying to sell to. As the prospect, I?ve been in dozens upon dozens of meetings during which the salesperson did the obligatory breaking of the ice, then went in one of two directions; either they launched into telling me about their product or service (big mistake!) or they began asking me questions. The salespeople who began asking me questions were on the right track, but I often times felt neither they nor I had an idea where these questions were leading.
Introducing an agenda into your sales meeting works wonders. When I was on the front lines selling and began doing this, I found that sales opportunities began magically opening up for me. To be sure, I had a purpose I wanted to accomplish within the agenda. But most importantly, the agenda instantly put my prospect and I on the same page so that, moving forward, I was able to accomplish my purpose while giving the prospect the sense that they had the control.
Here?s how I used the agenda:
Once I walked into my prospect?s office, shook hands, and made small talk about a picture on the desk or trophy bass on the wall, I settled into my chair, pulled out a notepad and said the following almost the exact same way every time (with genuineness and enthusiasm):
?Dave, I know you?re very busy so I want to thank you for taking twenty minutes to meet with me. I want to be respectful of your time so I would like to propose an agenda for this meeting. First, I would like to ask you several questions about your business so that I gain a better understanding of your company and what your unique needs and challenges are. If there?s anything I ask that you aren?t comfortable answering, just let me know and we?ll move on to the next question. Once I?ve gained a strong understanding, I?m going to summarize your answers just to make sure I understood you correctly. And by the way, feel free at that point to correct me or expand on something that helps my understanding. Then, I?m going to tell you about my product (or service) and see if it matches up with your needs or challenges. If I don?t think I can help you, I?ll be honest up front and let you know that. But If I think I can, I?ll let you know that as well. If you agree with me that what I provide would help you with your needs or challenges, we can talk about what our next steps will be to accomplish that. Does that agenda work for you??
At that point I typically get a very enthusiastic, ?Sure!? Trust me when I say that I?ve never had a single prospect respond no to that question. I remember one prospect even asking with a laugh, ?Have you ever had anyone answer no to that question??
At that point I do what I said and begin asking questions while doing my best to fill every square inch of my notepad with my prospect?s answers.
In my next article, I?ll break down this simple agenda and what?s going on behind the scenes during it. But for now, let?s focus on the introduction of the agenda itself.
First off, read aloud what I wrote above and see how long it takes you to say it. If you say it in a casual, conversational manner, it should take you around a minute. Maybe a minute and 10 seconds at the most.
Considering my sales strategy, the minute it takes me to propose a sales agenda is one of the best investments in time I?ll make during my sales call. Again, the reason is because it establishes expectations and creates a framework that is keeping me in control of the meeting.
Now, I wonder if you noticed one of the things I did during my proposal. It came in the very first sentence. What did I do? I thanked the prospect for taking twenty minutes to meet with me. The reason this time stamp is important up front is because every sales call is filled with barriers. One of those barriers is my prospect?s time. Speaking from experience, most prospects don?t want to spend a lot of time with a salesperson so for me to let them know up front how much time they can expect to be spending with me almost instantly brings down a barrier.
Now you may be thinking, twenty minutes? How the heck are my salespeople going to get through a sales meeting in twenty minutes? Believe me, they can if they have a well-purposed agenda. But so often we?re conditioned to believe that meetings should go an entire hour that that?s what we plan for. We?ll dive deeper into that in the next article as well.
Something else worth pointing out is the expectation I put on the prospect while explaining the agenda. I communicated that they will be answering my questions but I also put them at ease by explaining that I recognize some questions might border on disclosing confidential information. This is a courtesy that most prospects will recognize as a courtesy. I?ve just lowered another barrier.
At the end of my agenda proposal, I?ve explained that there?s a chance I can?t meet their needs and that I would let them know if I?m not able to. The reality is that 99% of the time I?m? able to meet a prospect?s needs. I know this because of the research I?ve done on the company beforehand. If I weren?t confident I could meet their needs, I wouldn?t be wasting my own time being there in the first place. But this assurance does a little thing that makes a big difference to a prospect. It communicates that I?m not there to sell them. I?m there to help them. There?s a reason consultative selling is becoming more and more popular as a sales model. The reason is that most people don?t like to be sold to. By adding this to my proposed agenda I?ve just lowered another barrier.
Finally, my agenda concludes by communicating an expectation that if my prospect and I agree that I can meet their needs or lessen their challenges, I expect that he or she will do business with me in order to accomplish that goal.
When I conclude this agenda proposal, have I sold my prospect anything? You bet I have! I?ve sold them an agenda that they?ve bought into. Did it cost them anything? Not a penny. What an easy sell!
And this will be the last thing I sell them. Anything my prospect purchases from me after this point is simply me meeting a need by providing value to my customer.
At this point I want to acknowledge that at least half of my sales meetings ran well over the twenty minutes I proposed. Was it because I wasn?t committed to sticking to the time I promised? Not at all. It was usually because I had lowered so many barriers that I couldn?t get my prospect to stop talking about their needs! What salesperson wouldn?t welcome having that problem.
In every single instance I?ve apologized for going over the twenty minutes they committed to and at least three-quarters gladly admit that they were the reason we exceeded our time. There?s nothing wrong with exceeding the time expectation so long as it?s the prospect?s fault and not yours and so long as your meeting is quickly headed in the direction of the close.
If your salespeople aren?t setting up their meetings with an agenda, encourage them to start. The trick is to deliver it with boldness, sincerity and enthusiasm. Once they do, they?ll discover the structure and control an agenda gives them will get them many steps closer to that ever elusive close.
Happy selling!
With a 25-year background in both training and sales, Bob Kennedy recognized early on that helping salespeople experience a higher level of success through sharpening their skills was the key to increasing business revenues. As a lifelong entrepreneur and the head of a sales training department for a Fortune 200? View?full?profile
Source: http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/a-sales-proposal-they-cant-refuse-0376969
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