Sales Blog: Creating Effective Sales Meetings

As a Sandler Sales Trainer and Sales Professional myself, I get asked all the time, how do I run more effective meetings and end with Specific Next Steps.

The answer is to Start the Meeting Better using an Up-Front Contract.

An Up-Front Contract creates Clarity, Focus, Equal Business Stature and ensures the meeting will end with a Specific Decision.

Here is what an Up-Front Contract includes:

Appreciation. Say something along the lines of, "Thank you for inviting me in this morning/afternoon" or "Thank you for coming in this morning/afternoon".

Time. Layout a clear start and end "time to chat" in your meeting. Perhaps try, "How much time did you set aside for us to talk today? Even though you sent a meeting invite that clearly stated 1 hour, just confirm that nothing has changed."

Prospect’s Agenda. Eliminate the guessing. Find out their planned agenda by asking questions. What do they want to learn? "What were you wanting to discuss today to make this a good use of your time? What did you want to See, Hear or Experience to know if we are a good fit or not?"

Sales Person’s Agenda. Bring up your own, personal agenda. "Since we have not worked together, I will need to ask you some questions, are you o.k. if we dig into your situation so I clearly know what is happening today vs what you want to occur?"

Outcome. Before you start, make sure you know your targeted destination, end the meeting with clear direction. "At the end of the meeting if you don’t think we are a fit, please tell me we don’t need another discussion. If I don’t think we can help you I will tell you that. If we both feel there could be a fit, then our next step would likely be...fill in the blank."

If you want to have more productive meetings, then you need to set the stage at the beginning of the meeting. No guessing by either side. No Mutual Mystification.

Happy Selling. To learn more visit www.wall.sandler.com