Sales and Marketing Training | Pre Approach Sales Prepares Us for the Initial Communication
Many salespeople are inclined to think of pre-approach sales as part of the sales call. But remember, this is one of the three steps leading up to our first interview. At this point, we’ve only identified an opportunity. We have little, if any, information about the prospect’s wants and needs. And we haven’t even determined if and when the person will talk to us.
It’s helpful to view pre-approach sales as a way to improve the chance that our initial communication will be successful. How? If we’ve done our homework, we increase our chances of talking directly to the decision maker, which usually increases our chances for a meeting. What’s more, effective pre-approach sales helps us prepare our initial conversations in a way that gets the prospects attention and sets us apart from the competition.
Look at it this way: We’re telephoning one of our ideal prospects. We finally get her on the line, rather than voice mail, after many attempts. But in the first fifteen seconds of our conversation, we fail to grab her attention. We aren’t clear in the purpose of our call. Even if we are, we aren’t sure what questions to ask because we don’t know much about her company. What happens? We resort to talking about our products and our company, just like virtually every other salesperson.
An effective pre-approach sales before we begin initial communication with a person earns us the right to initiate conversation, as opposed to just calling for the sake of calling.
