How to have an effective Customer meeting

Dear Friends,

Having spent 23 years in the field of sales and worked in all size of companies, renowned large IT companies, startups ,even in different industries like hardware open source services and now working with a digital marketing company, have come across various situations where in the customer meetings have been an integral part of my day to day schedule.

Have a few observations ,which I thought of sharing on this forum.Most of the sales professionals fail in closing sales or I would say at times are slow in closing sales primarily becoz they don't follow the ground rules of doing effective customer meetings.

Every meeting's which we attend as sales professional cum Leaders,we need to be effective . Whether we go as a front end sales guy or as a leader going with a sales team. Have seen specially in the case of Large IT companies, that Leaders go more for a courtesy call or as an assurance on behalf of the company that the customer is important/most important for the company. However, as a leader one has to think beyond that and try to see how he can make things better for the customer and the company. I would suggest that as a leader we should go with much more strategic approach than a sales guy. Prepare a set of questionnaire based on the business landscape of his company and the competition working at the end customer's place. He should have an depth idea about the person whom he is going to meet up. Rather than depending purely on his reportee's inputs, should even do some research himself about the customer and the person he is meeting up. The businesses customer is into and what are the major achievements of the organisation in the recent past and the history of the organisation. This helps in having a better and a more effective communication with the customer. Besides, this approach would also help him look much different from a normal sales guys. If any deal is going on , should have a complete idea about the deal and take up issues /concerns on behalf of the organisation with he customer. Taking up concerns given to him just 10 minutes before the meeting by his team would not help him look impressive and effective, if he does not understand the complete background of the case and the context of the queries he has to ask from the customer.

Besides, with the other information which he may gather before going to any meeting ,like customer business landscape with his company and others, the businesses customer is into , he may be able to suggest few best practises from his side to the customer and could have a better two way communication and make the meeting much more interactive and productive.Better probing always helps. I strongly believe that if the customer meetings are effective, as a leader one can suggest better ways to his team based on the information he gathers during the meeting , his probing and the answers he gets on his queries to close deals even faster or many a times turn a loosing situation into a winning one.

Last but not the least goes the fact that we should setup an agenda for the meeting, make a positive first impression, ask everyone to prepare for the meeting, try not to monopolise the discussion, pace the discussion so that the customer in not overwhelmed , identify the issues customer is facing if any and give him an action plan/next steps for the same from your side, show how you can meet the customer's requirement. Last but not the least, dress up well for the meeting and show up early on time.

These are the basics which many a times we miss on as leaders ourselves. However when we go to the meeting we should be able to inspire the team and they should look at us not just as a face to be used for giving customer's confidence as a company(this is generally true in large companies), but also look at us as a person or a resource who can help them close deals, close faster, even identify new use cases for the company, and at times turn a losing deal into a winning one for them. No sales guy would be unhappy if as a leader we can help them achieve/overachieve their goals faster.