Be yourself, forget yourself, Focus on your customer!
I’ve been in sales, or around sales for quite a long time and one of the things which is so painful to watch is the nervous salesperson. Ugh…we’ve all met this person. Maybe we’ve been this person..it happens occasionally to everyone.
I find this comes from an uncomfortable “I-don’t-know-what-to-expect-out-of-this-meeting” OR “I-am-not-confident-that-I-can-‘sell’-this-client”. Okay, first things first, number one, be yourself and forget about yourself.
In this day and age, customers want several major things from their sales reps. The first thing they want is someone who will try to relate to them, to understand them-in a business sense. It’s great to have personal things in common, but your customers are busy. They need you to get in there and be a professional consultant for them. They need to know that when the two of you sit down, you are going to really find out how and even IF you can help them. Lose the agenda. In these first meetings, your whole job is to QUALIFY this prospect. You don’t even know if this person IS a real prospect. The only way to find out is to be their advocate.
How is this nervousness alleviated?
Learn about the person across from you. Learn everything about the business. Yes, you have to actually be interested.
Start by asking lots and lots of open ended questions. (This means no “yes” or “no” questions-those come later.) What is your company? What do you do here? What do you like about the way you do business? What would you change if you could? What is your role with the company? A thorough list of initial questions will follow later. The point is that both you and your prospect need to learn about each other.
Are you even a fit? Once, when selling for a very major copier company, I learned my prospect really needed a robust printer. At the time, the best product for them was from a competitor. I knew this. I told the client what we had to offer and did suggest they investigate my competitor as well. My integrity with them was secure. They never hesitated to call me in the future, or to let others know about me.
Sales are rarely closed in the first meeting. In fact, I am often wary of the “slam dunk” unless I have pre-qualified my client at least in phone and e-mail. Those can come back to hurt because the client didn’t feel thoroughly educated, I didn’t really know my client, and our relationship suffered as a result.
I know you have a quota, a deadline, and probably a sales manager looking over your shoulder. However, I have found that if I really take the time to learn everything I can about my client, I can answer all those questions my sales manager has, I can close the sale when I promise and I’m usually left alone to do what I do best – sell.
