One hour before a scheduled face-to-face sales meeting with a new prospect, spring the following questions on a high performing all-star sales rep. Chances are, they won’t know:
1) What technology is available at the meeting site?
Company headquarters may be adorned with the finest in technology, with personal tablets installed into the table and big screens installed in the walls of the in-house meeting room. Beware: some venues won’t have a screen at all. Reps must be aware of the hardware they’ll be working with. Is their multimedia sales presentation compatible with the available screens?
If not, what’s Plan B? Ensure that all presentations run on all mobile devices, including Smartphones of all kinds. For larger meetings, equip reps with tablets and other mobile devices with large screens.
2) What insights will be leveraged?
The prospect is going to know a lot about the product when they step into the meeting. What has the rep uncovered about the prospect? Reps ought to be equipped with an idea of the prospects’ pain points. Then, they ought to speak directly those points in their pitch.
Anyone can sift through social media postings and other publicly available information. The best performing reps gather and leverage information with the help of engagement analytics. This offers private insights into the prospect’s real interests and needs.
3) What are the burning questions?
Some information isn’t available through social media or engagement analytics. What burning questions does the rep have for the prospect?
Thoughtful questions will help shift the role from hungry salesman to trusted advisor - a framework that prospects of today prefer. This is one skill that a sales enablement platform won’t cover.
Today, prospects spend more time prepping for a sales meeting than the reps. Have you considered bringing on a multi-faceted sales enablement platform to help out?
