Sales Calls are Meetings too

Wondering why you’re not closing more sales? Consider every sales call, telephone call and client contact as a meeting and begin to discover more ways to make progress in closing sales. Here’s the strategy.

First, every client contact has a purpose. Are you searching for more information? Hoping to schedule a meeting? Focused on a contract signing? Seeking to secure a re-order? Calling to service the account after the sale? All of these are reasons or purposes for being in contact with a client.

After defining the purpose of your contact, consider what your agenda is. In other words, what are the questions you will ask in order to achieve your purpose? What information will you share with the client so that you can help him or her make a decision? Consider these agenda elements for sales meetings.

Sales Call Agenda Template:
Time: Start and End times. Consider keeping the meeting to one hour. Purpose: List what you are expecting to accomplish. Agenda items:
1. Thank you and introductions.
2. State the purpose of the meeting.
3. Overview the information you plan to share or state the questions you are here to answer.
4. Explore and discuss with the client.
5. Reach agreement on what the next steps will be.
6. Summarize what has been agreed to.
7. Thank the attendee(s) for their time.

Location of the meeting matters. Choose a meeting location that helps you to achieve the purpose of your meeting. Each meeting location conveys a message about you, your company and your product or services. A more formal meeting location works well when your company offers formal products. An informal location can work when you are selling fun, entertainment, media or related services.

Restaurants can work for or against you. The informality of most restaurants allows for friendliness and getting acquainted. However, who might overhear your presentation? Does privacy for the meeting matter? If so, consider a private meeting room within the restaurant. Also, select a restaurant whose menu will be acceptable to those whom you’ve invited to the meeting. And as the selling company, you pick up the bill. Unless of course you’re working with a governmental entity, then you’ll want to ask about the proper way to handle the bill.

Other location options for sales meetings include: their conference room, your conference room, your office, the prospect or client’s office. A conference room works well when more than two people will be in the meeting and/or visual presentations requiring space and/or equipment are needed. Opt for your conference room when you want to help the client understand your company, offer a tour or demonstrate a product that can be moved to the client’s site. Choose the client’s conference room or office when you want to save the client time and can make your presentation happen just as successfully at their site.

For one-on-one meetings an office setting can work well. Access to the information needed to make decisions is at hand.

Finally, before the meeting ends be sure to again thank the person for the time spent. Summarize what next actions you’ll be taking and how the client will benefit from your actions. Confirm the right time to call again. And begin the sales meeting cycle again.

Meetings are for accomplishing work – and in this case meetings are for closing and keeping sales.

About the Author

Jana M. Kemp, founder of Meeting & Management Essentials, facilitates meetings and speaks across the country on meeting management, time management and communication skills. Boise Police Detective Mike Barker contributed to this article. Detective Barker provides the Lessons from the Force segment on Jana's Momentum™ weekly business-news-talk radio show, every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. on KBOI 670am. Reach Jana via her website janakemp.com.

jana@janakemp.com
http://www.janakemp.com