|
|
|
|
|
|
A true story from our files…………………….. A sales person visited my colleague at our offices to discuss the purchase of a colour printer/fax/scanner. I was on a potentially long telephone call when he arrived and I encouraged them to begin the meeting without me. I joined within only two to three minutes of the meeting having started. By this time, the sales person had already (within seconds I believe) begun gesticulating frantically at the fabulous pictures in the glossy brochure exclaiming 'How great is that?' I made my apologies for joining late and sat down. No effort was
made to quickly recap (fair enough, it was me that was late) but
when I asked him to repeat his company name - "Why do you want
to know my company name?" came the response. For those of you
who aren't cringing as you read this - give up now, there is no
helping you. However, if you can see that the opening of this meeting
could have been leagues better, read on and I'll tell you how…………………………… The very first impression your contact makes of you happens now. Stand up straight, smile, ensure your mobile phone is switched off and greet your contact warmly, using their name with a firm, but not vice-like handshake. If you are not comfortable making 'small talk', practise some for this part of your meeting to avoid any awkward silences in the lift. Don't over do it though - small talk is for this point only. Get down to the meeting agenda as promptly as you can. Exchange business cards & check names
We're doing business in the 21st century now so there should be no need to call someone by their surname but if you feel it is required, ensure you know whether ladies are Miss, Mrs or Ms. You never know if your Miss Jones has just been jilted at the altar - you calling her 'Mrs' may be just the excuse she needs to tell you the sorry tale over a box of Kleenex! Time check
Thumbnail sketch "What do you already know about ABC Ltd? Would you like a couple of minutes on who we are and what we do?" This should be a fairly standard (across the organisation) 2 minutes on what you/your company does, why and how, to whom and what that means to your customers. It's a good idea to brainstorm this with colleagues until you come up with something that hits all the right marks. Two thumbnail sketches will never be identical as each person adds their own personal style but the message your contact receives should be consistent no matter who they meet. The Quantum thumbnail as an example: "Quantum is an integrated sales improvement consultancy with a very hands-on, implementation-biased approach. We work specifically in the business-to-business arena helping to improve the sales performance and productivity of companies' selling operations. I used the word 'integrated' because from top to bottom, we can address most of what's required to improve the performance of a selling operation. We work in three distinct sectors: Professional Services: Helping those who, traditionally haven't been required to sell, but are now seeing this activity as key to their progress and indeed, and are capable of doing so effectively when given support and a structured sales process Mainstream B2B: Helping sales people from more traditional sales operations who sometimes fall into bad habits, often feel that time / experience is the main ingredient to successful selling and hide away safely in their comfort zone. Start-ups: Helping people who don't know if they can sell but recognise the need to climb the sales curve very quickly and to ensure the Quantity, Direction and Quality of their sales effort is right first time. At the top of the pyramid we ensure that
we understand the true marketing objectives of the business which
enables us to identify any gaps in relation to what the company
is trying to achieve in terms of revenue targets, market share,
margins, penetration - then to identify and implement the missing
pieces of the 'sales jigsaw'. This ensures that all our actions
thereafter are positioned and flavoured by this understanding. We
then work to integrate a number of processes and organise the right
critical path for achieving improved sales productivity and profitable
growth. |
|
|
|
|
This may look like a lot of text but when memorized (at least the key points) and spoken, this doesn't take longer than a minute and a half and our contact now has a good idea of what we're about. Be prepared to included relevant examples and if your contact stops you to ask questions (that very probably will be addressed later in the meeting) then confidently explain that you will be answering his questions soon so you can keep your thumbnail as short as possible. The purpose
The DMP (Decision-Making Process) The motivator
You may need to re-motivate your contact during your meeting to remind them that all these questions are for their benefit as well as yours. During Quantum Selling programmes we run sessions where sales people practise their usual opening of the meeting and then practice using the methodology described in this article. It is one of the many times during this development module that attendees see just how consciously incompetent they are (they suddenly realise how much they don't know). The look of wonder on the faces of those who then practice with this methodology and experience the feeling of being in control is something to behold. Feel free to print the opening
steps diagram, learn it, and have it handy in your presenter
for the first few days in case you need a reminder - I'd be interested
to hear how well it works for you.
|