Ask, ask, ask …

You're in the meeting, now what? It's time to get to know the person in front of you so you can determine how you can help them with your solution.

In sales, these first meetings are very important since they tell a lot about how the next steps will proceed and at which stage the sale cycle is.

How do you discover that? Asking, and creating rapport with the decision-makers and influencers. There is no way around it.

So, be prepared.

Learn more about the customer ahead of time, and find out if they might need any help. Once you've exhausted the public information on the web, you'll know which questions need to be answered to learn if this is a real prospect and if you can help them.

What questions?

Well, as mentioned before these first meetings are like dates so be smooth and not inquisitive, but show interest in knowing better these prospects and these persons. Some tips on which questions would help to break the ice:

Introduce yourself and the company and start asking how things are going with the projects you could have in common.

• Do you use a similar solution?
• I have heard you’re in this project …. As we’re on the same business, how’s it going?
• Do you see you could improve it? How do you envision it?

In the event that you are working with a very specific and niche solution, it would be nice to know ahead of time if you have a technical question that should be answered. If you have technical questions, ask them, but make sure you're talking to the right person.

If the person in front of you doesn't know much or doesn't want to share, understand if there is potential first, then maybe ask if others should be involved in future conversations.

If you’re doing a demo, stop sometimes to make questions:

• Do you see the potential for having this solution?
• Would it help your business?
• How’re you doing it currently?

Time also to train on being a good listener.

Make notes and always update your CRM tools.

I recommend you have scripts of the most common questions defined in a sales process and even after a while, you’ll have all parts of your narrative memorized, be aware of new inputs and new scenarios brought from these first talks with prospects and keep updating your sales processes with new info.

Have a continuation of a good and relaxed month!?