How to Have Awesome First Appointments with Prospects

How to Have Awesome First Appointments with Prospects

Michael HalperSMART Sales Selling System

Not So Awesome – Example 1

Salesperson sends email asking for

meeting

I agree to meet

Salesperson and manager deliver

presentation

Problems

•They did not know anything about me

•It was all about them

•They did not tailor their message

•It did not make sense to meet

•They wasted valuable time

“Show Up and Throw Up”


Salesperson hires appointment setter

Appointment setter schedules

appointment

Salesperson goes on appointment and

says not a good lead

Problems

•Assumed that the hard work is done

•Assumed the prospect knows their pain

•Assumed the interest has been built

•Potentially a missed opportunity

“Order Taking Mode”


I set appointments with current

customers and warm leads

I go on appointments

relying on product knowledge

Half of the meetings went OK, half were

not productive

Problems

•I did not make a great impression

•There were 0 quality leads produced

•Potentially missed opportunities

“Winging It”

The best salesperson is the one that asks the best questions.

Early Sales Process StagesStage GoalsInitial Contact

Cold CallInbound CallEmailEvent

2 to 5 minutes80% on prospect20% on you

Appointment

Phone CallFace-to-FaceDiscovery


Presentation

DiscoveryPresentationDemonstration

1 to 2 hours20% on prospect80% on you

Pre-QualifyGather high-level informationBuild interest in having conversationSchedule a First Conversation

Pre-Qualify (Cont.)Hard QualifyGather detailed Information (Discovery)Build interest in meetingSchedule a First Meeting

Sell ProductMap out Next StepsClose (Sale or agreement to move forward)




Appointment



Presentation









Appointment



Presentation






Early Sales Process StagesAlternative Path – Instant AppointmentInitial Contact



Appointment



Presentation






Splitting Initial Contact and Appointment

• It can be common for your first contact to flow into an appointment

• There are benefits from preventing that and having two separate conversations:

– An appointment at the time of first contact will be rushed– Scheduling on another day allows you to put time on the prospects calendar– The break and scheduling of the meeting will allow you and the prospect to be

more prepared for the first call– You will have more time and attention to work with

• How to prevent:– “You are asking very good questions. I actually would like to talk with you about

this in more detail and I have called you out of the blue. Do you have another 20 minutes to go through all of this now or should we put some time on the calendar to get together?”

Early Sales Process StagesAlternate Path – Instant PresentationInitial Contact



Appointment



Presentation









Appointment



Presentation






Pre-Qualify

Ask a Couple of Questions

Have a couple of questions as the central piece

and purpose of your call.

– Makes call more conversational

– Extracts valuable information

– Pre-qualifies to determine if it makes sense to keep

talking

Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good Prospects from Bad

Pre-Qualify

Building Your Questions

Here is a step-by-step process that you can use

to build an optimum list of questions:

1. Identify the product you ultimately want to sell

2. Identify the benefits it offers the buyer

3. Identify the pain point that the benefit fixes

4. Compose one or two question for each pain point

Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good Prospects from Bad




Appointment



Presentation






Appointment PreparationResearch

•Company website•Yahoo Finance•Awareness of what the company does•Awareness of recent news, events, industry trends•Research prospect on social media

Prepare Questions

•Qualifying questions•Discovery questions

Appointment ExecutionFirst 50% of meeting focused on prospect

•First 50% of meeting focus on prospect•Find out what is working/not working•Current goals/challenges/initiatives•Gather organizational details•Hard qualify the prospect

Second 50% focused on you

•Explain what you do •Connect the value you offer with prospect pain•Share how you differ•Tell a client story•Share ROI details•Close for the next step in your process

Performing DiscoveryCurrent Environment

•What are you using for…?•How long have you been using that?•What is working well? What could be working better?•Is there a current agreement in place?•What are some of the challenges you are focused on decreasing?•If you could wave a wand and change one thing, what would that be?•Pre-qualifying questions

Performing DiscoveryGoals and Objectives

•What are the key goals that your organization is focused on for this year?•What are the key objectives that your success is measured by? •What are the key critical business issues that your are impacted by?

Performing DiscoveryOrganizational Details

•What is your role in the organization?•What does your organization look like?•What other organizations are impacted by this area?•Who else should I try to connect with regarding this?

Performing DiscoveryDecision Making Process

•What is the decision making process?•What are the key factors that a decision will be based on?•Who is the ultimate decision maker?•Is there a committee that this type of purchase has to go through?•Hard qualifying questions

Closing for Next Step

• Identify and discuss the different directions to take the conversation

• Identify which direction the prospect would like to go

• Clarify the timing

• Reconcile time with compelling event

• Schedule reminders

• Add to appropriate drip campaign

• Follow-up at agreed timing

SMART Sales System

Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services

Sales Training

•Recorded Training Videos

•Live Sales Training (virtual)

•Live Sales Training (in-person)

•Custom Sales Training


• Will help you to build your pitch

• Library of Scripts and Templates

• Library of Scripts and Templates

• CRM Functionality


Sales Consulting

•Sales Pitch Development

•Sales Process Mapping

•Script Assessment

Sales Coaching

•One-on-One Sales Coaching

•Weekly coaching

•Coaching Hour Blocks

Contact Us

Michael HalperFounder and CEO

[email protected]

@salesscripter

mailto:[email protected]

How to Have Awesome First Appointments with Prospects

Business