As salespeople, we spend a significant amount of our time in sales meetings – getting together with prospects and clients is a key part of the job.
When was the last time you reviewed your sales meeting technique?
As the landscape of sales and business development changes, our Ethical Sales Academy members requested up to date training on holding successful sales meetings. So, let’s bring in the experts!
Jack Thompson is Head of Client Success at software development company Ghyston, while Chris Watts is our Senior Business Development Consultant here at Ethical Sales. These industry experts share their strategies and tactics with us.
During a one-hour members-only masterclass, Jack and Chris explore the current sales landscape and looked at key areas of sales meetings, including preparation, questioning, discovery and agreeing next steps.
Read on for an expert overview on how to successfully navigate your next sales meeting towards a positive outcome. To find out more about our Ethical Sales Academy training and membership opportunities, join the waitlist today.
How sales meetings have evolved
In a community poll, we asked our membership of like-minded salespeople how they felt meetings had changed in recent years. 60% reported they now need an increased number of meetings to close a deal, while others noted that more stakeholders are also involved in the process. What might have previously been agreed after one or two meetings now can take much longer, and requires sign-off from people higher up in the decision-making chain.
As a result, salespeople are having to re-present offerings multiple times to close the deal, as well as confidently guiding inexperienced buyers through the sales process.
More people involved in the decision making process increases the challenges of salespeople liaising with those who are inexperienced buyers. This can elongate the decision-making process as these buyers need more information, support and guidance to help them make a decision.
Another huge shift post-pandemic is that video calls are now the default option for previously face-to-face meetings. Jack Thompson believes this has fundamentally altered how sales meetings work, as it’s much harder to pick up on body language and build rapport.
“Video calls have changed how we handle meetings due to the extra effort we have to put in to build rapport. Getting a vibe from people in the room and reading body language have completely changed.”
Jack Thompson Tweet
With all these shifts, now is a good time to review your sales meeting processes and consider whether anything needs altering to fit with the new normal.
Watch Jack’s review on the changing landscape of sales meetings:
A framework for ensuring positive sales meeting outcomes
So how can we make sure we get the most from our sales meetings? This framework offers a simple yet highly effective way to structure your meetings:
- Do the prep: Setting up the meeting in advance provides the roadmap to a successful close. Going in without preparation and a detailed understanding of the client’s needs makes it much harder to reach a successful close.
This will involve researching prospects in detail, from the basics of the company website to doing a deeper dive on LinkedIn and other social media to find out any personal interests that may help build a rapport.
- Consider a pre-meeting call: If a client has approached you out of the blue to book a demo, it may be worth setting up a short pre-meeting or discovery call prior to this to help understand their needs more, as well as building a relationship. This will also help gauge whether this prospect is the decision-maker or if another colleague/s will need to be involved.
It may be that your client is time-pressured and prefers not to take up the offer, but position it so they know you’re trying to ensure they get the most value out of the demo.
““It’s all about trying to frame the discovery call around creating the most valuable meeting and most valuable use of the client’s time, and showing respect for that..I find people are much more willing to engage with discovery before the sales meeting if you frame it that way.”
Chris Watts Tweet
- Set a meeting agenda: Sending an agenda in advance will help keep the meeting on track, as well as setting out the direction you want the meeting to go in at the start of the session. Don’t forget to do some basic housekeeping at the start of the meeting, too, such as introductions to everyone in the room, and setting any roles required such as a timekeeper or note taker.
- Build rapport from the start: While this will depend on the relationship you already have with your client, it’s vital to build rapport. Be curious, be open, be authentic, and share your personal story if it’s appropriate. With this in place, there’s more licence to be upfront about asking the client what they want from the meeting and soft closing throughout – see more on that below.
- Seek to really understand your prospect’s needs: We all know the benefits of our product or service, but it’s crucial to show how it solves a client’s specific problem. Understand what this is, why they’ve called the meeting, and what they’re looking for from the product or service. Once you know this, structure the meeting to answer these questions. Sometimes simply asking “Where would you like to get to by the end of this meeting?” can really help a prospective customer be upfront about what they want, and in turn help with structuring the meeting.
- Use soft closing throughout the meeting: By checking in with your buyer and asking questions such as “has this answered your query?” or “have I shown you how this would help you with X?”, you can then move onto the next part of the meeting. Understand their real-world scenarios and apply your product to these needs, demonstrating what they’ve been asking for.
Us salespeople can all be guilty of talking too much and not listening enough, especially when we’re not clear on what the client wants, which is why soft closing is so important.
“You can think your job is about telling and convincing people, but you can get the client to do most of the selling themselves if you get them to tell you their problems and then let them see the benefits of your product,” states Chris Watts.
At the end of the meeting, asking the question: ‘has this shown you everything you wanted to know?’ will give you a clear indicator as to whether it’s time to move to the close.”
Watch Chris share his tips to successfully closing a sales meeting:
Questions to ask to close a sales meeting
If you set up the meeting properly, clearly demonstrated how your product or service fulfils the client’s needs and have been soft closing throughout, this gives licence to move onto the next step – closing the deal.
Don’t be afraid of asking direct questions to cut to the chase. Sometimes a simple “When can we start?” or “can I send you a contract?” will clearly show whether the client is ready to close.
Set some timelines and actions for each side to do (ie: “I’ll send a proposal by Friday, then you talk to the board members on Tuesday”), building in contingency as things can get delayed. This also gives a licence to go back and follow up if everything then goes silent.
If this sales meeting is earlier in the process and you know there are a few more to come, close the meeting with concrete next steps for both sides to take. Get that commitment from them – it’s how you know they’re definitely interested.
Watch our experts discuss this process in more detail during our masterclass:
Benefit from more sales wins, more often
If you’ve not looked at your sales meeting strategy for a while, these insights from our Ethical Sales Academy will help refine it in the context of the changed sales landscape.
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