Pre-Call Prep

 Let's talk #PreCallPrep

For those who may not know - Pre Call Prep is the preparation that you do before going into a call.

Let us start off with why do pre-call prep. Simple. You don't want to walk in blind to your conversation. As a #BDR, or #AE, or #AM, you need to know how you are going to position your product or #POV - A Pre-Call prep is how you do this.

There are different levels of preparation depending primarily two main factors:

• What level is the person you are talking to (VP, CEO, Manager, etc)
• What stage are you in the #SalesProcess (First call, first meeting, first presentation, etc)

1. SENIORITY:

In order to know what research to do - it is important to know what is important to the person. A Manager is going to have COMPLETELY different priorities than a VP. As a rule of thumb the more senior the role - the more strategic your thinking needs to be.

• For a manager - they are going to be focusing on the day to day with a 2-3 month look into the future. How is your product going to affect this. Why should they care how your product affects this. Saying this is going to save you time is like saying vegetables are going to help you lose weight. HOW MUCH time. Quantify your findings and give a "because" to make it more impactful
• For a VP level - they are going to be more strategic. Their focus: 6 Months - 18 months down the line. A VP's strategic initiatives are often found in news articles, blog posts, or regular social media posts. Where are they in those strategic initiatives - just starting out? or half way through the project already. Pre-Call prep isn't as simple as doing research before a call. It is engaging in their content in a meaningful way BEFORE reaching out - so that when you do there have already been constructive interactions. Their time is literally money. Let's assume that a VP is making 250k a year - an hour appointment is literally $120 to worth of time to them. Think about that when you are asking for their time on the
• For a CEO - you need to get one level further - they are thinking about what the manager thinks about, the VP thinks and beyond - even up to 5 years into the future. How is your product going to shape the way people see their brand. This is their baby. respect that.

2. STAGE:

You will be doing different prep if you are on the first call compared to the last call of a sales cycle and learning different things. Pre-Call prep doesn't necessarily mean doing research external of the company as you will see here.

• First Conversation: at the very least before reaching out to a company you should know the basics: Time in business, headcount, what they do, company org structure. ANYTHING that you can find online should not be a question you are asking on the first call. Remember - we're not even on the blind date yet - this is approaching a stranger in a bar. Are you going to ask the person what is your hair color? no! they are going to think you're crazy or blind. If you know who you are trying to reach - do some basic digging on their role.
• First Meeting: The Discovery - Do more digging on the role of the person you are speaking with and their background. Are seasoned or more junior. The purpose of a pre-call prep is to determine what is your purpose for that call. What do you consider to be a success and what do you consider to be a failure. In the first call it is very clear cut what is a success. First Meeting not so much. Just getting a yes to go to a presentation isn't enough! I don't care what the KPI's say. If you got nothing out of that call other than buy-in for another meeting you have no idea what to do during your presentation to differentiate. So what is a successful first meeting: One where there is a mutual agreement that your product CAN fit into the companies strategy. You don't have to know how or why but that there is some kind of fit. You enjoy drinking coffee, haven't had one and I sell coffee. BAM. great. But it's not enough to know that there is an alignment - but WHY there is an alignment. Why do they want a coffee. Is it just because they haven't had a coffee today? are they going on a movie marathon and need to stay up all night. why. This will tailor your presentation. So when you are preparing for meetings - this is what you have to have in mind.
• The Presentation: Very simple: Industry specifics, you want to take what you found out in the first meeting and utilize that to drive your research and plan. What is a successful presentation? Similar to the first meeting - but in this case - there is a definitive agreed upon alignment that is mutually agreed upon. At the end of each of my calls throughout stages - I give my prospects "homework" thing I would like for them to ask and find out "how would they go about purchasing something like this, does tech need to get involved, etc. Why on the first meeting? because now when we are going into the presentation at the end - and we bring that "homework" up - they are excited, they are about to run through the wall. They also know what needs to happen and don't have to "call you back" or have a meeting for the sake of a meeting to talk about. This is all about the prep. you have prepared for this meeting drawing on what you know and what you found out. So what is the homework this time? While you are going to talk to other people in the org - they need to find out timelines now. We know why they want to buy - now we need to find out when.
• Post-Presentation: This is where we need to find out OUR implementation timelines. What is our bandwidth, when can we deliver, etc. Then when you have your post meeting. You have all of that process ready to go when it comes to them. They now know what their timelines are - you know your timelines - and a decision on pen to paper can be made.

Stay Classy Sales!