Welcome to my Sales Blog. I will use this space to share information on Sales Training. I hope to include thoughts of the day, articles, tips and information on how I am doing. It will also be an inside look at my Sandler Franchise and you can follow my behaviors.

"Go For The NO" is a term referring to disqualifying suspects. We need to be comfortable with saying that we can't help a prospect. Saying "NO" will save time and create certainty in your sales process. So while we would all like to get a yes it is OK to move on.

January 23, 2006

Today's posting is about how to start your sales meeting. It is not so much about the words you choose (more on that in the future) but the strategy for setting the meeting agenda.

Inspect What You Expect

By Jeremy Rawitz
Sales Strategy Corp.

Do your expectations and those of your prospects line up? The answer for most salespeople or owners is rarely. We have a separate agenda on a sales call than the prospect. We are like children pulling on either end of a toy hoping to overpower the other and take it to where we want. It becomes a dance with two leads. This can only lead to being at odds and will usually result in losing a sale. So how do we neutralize a fight? The key is to share. Let the prospect know what you want to accomplish together in a sales call and how you typically go about it. It is important that you let them give you some idea of what they want to get done. A sales call is most successful when both the salesperson and the prospect reach an initial agreement about the agenda and what the goals and are and possible outcomes.

This is not an easy thing to accomplish unless you take time in the beginning of your meeting to set up an effect contract with your agenda. Even something as simple as how much time we intend to spend with one another often does not match up. We want an hour they are thinking 15 minutes. The problems arise in the details. As we tell them what our agenda is, we need to be certain we are specific enough that there is not a question about what we mean. If we are going to ask for a yes, define for them what that means in our business. Does that mean they hand us a check or credit card? Does that mean they fill out paperwork? Does a yes mean they will meet with us again at a later date? We cannot assume anything. Take their hand and walk them through the process before the sales call even begins. This prevents them from being shocked or surprised.

Therefore, the problem becomes how we tell them at the beginning of a sales call where we intend to go. We have to be able to answer this question ourselves. It is our responsibility to understand an ideal sales call in our business. Define the objective for the meeting for ourselves then we can pass that along to the prospect. Begin with the end in mind. If we usually have multiple sales calls, set an agenda for each one.

Secondly, we have to script out what our agreement is. Do not wing the meeting and the outcome. You must set it up. Write it out. Have a script. Make sure that your initial agreement at the start of the meeting lets your prospect know what we expect from them. It should be all-inclusive. How much time will we spend together? What do we expect at the end of a meeting. What a no means. What a yes means. It can be any number of things. Make sure that you cover each thoroughly on your own and can explain it so that a child could understand.

When we deliver our expectations to a prospect, we have to get their permission or consent. Setting an Up Front Contract does not do any good if they do not have a say in the outcome. Then we are just overwhelming them with demands. If they have a problem with one of your expectations, explore it. Find out how and if you can compromise. It is better to get their objections out of the way early, rather than at the end where we cannot do anything about it.

If we share our agenda and expectations with the prospect and understand their agenda, we will have a much more productive sales call. Instead of playing tug of war, we can figure out a mutual goal and move in the same direction. When we know where one another stand we can discover if there is a fit or not sooner rather than later.