Selling Skills Training | How to Prepare For a Successful Sales Call?
Every top sales people wants to be successful in sales. But there are certain things they need to prepare themselves before they can call for meeting with the prospects.
Every top sales performers treat preparation differently. They are always preparing—before and after each customer meeting.
How do you prepare? Do you think to yourself—what does my customer need, what can I position that will make it easy for my customer to say yes? Do you let ideas pass through in your mind so you can be creative and proactive?
Having a preparation strategy will shorten your preparation time and increase the impact. As you prepare, follow these three steps:
Begin with strategic preparation. Think about your longer-term relationship objectives and then set your short-term immediate objective for the call. Make sure your objective is measurable, is achievable, and has a time frame so you can maintain momentum, assess the outcome of your call, and accelerate your close. Visualize the flow of your call and build in time for the customer to talk.
Next, do customer preparation. Think about your customer’s objectives, situation, needs, and decision criteria.
Finally, focus on your product/technical preparation. Use your range of products and capabilities to meet your customer’s needs. Plan the questions you will ask, anticipate objections, and customize your materials.
Most salespeople prepare backwards. They start with product/technical preparation. Beginning with strategic preparation will help you save time by letting you target your efforts and remain customer-focused.
To help you in your preparation, stay up to date on industry and company news. Leverage your team for ideas. Review your customer files so that you can build on any information you already have and avoid unnecessary repetition. Prepare the materials you think you will need and tailor whatever you plan to give to the customer to make sure it applies to the customer.
As you visualize your agenda for the call, make sure you remain customer-focused. Prior to the call, whenever possible, get customer input on your agenda. But even when you get input, always check your agenda to get the feedback you need to get buy-in, make adjustments, and go forward.
In preparing any successful sales call, put first thing first. Start with your objective.
