Relationship Building from the First Call: How we're changing the way we approach Sales.

This quarter, we are rethinking the sales meeting. Here are the goals we are working towards:

• Turn the itch into a valuable experience for the client, with a deliverable (which they get whether or not they decide to move forward with Kunai)
• Qualify clients more quickly (and therefore, disqualify bad fits more quickly)
• Make our sales meeting a part of our service offering, rather than something distinct. 

When you work with a consulting company, most sales meetings are fairly predictable. Pleasantries are exchanged, a pitch deck is presented, and a brief discussion about the project or product takes place. This is more or less how we have been doing business for years as well. 

There are multiple issues with the standard sales meeting that we are trying to address at Kunai this year. These are all highly specific to our business, but I’m sharing our thought process in case there is value for you in the way we are thinking about making improvements: 

• If there’s a bad fit, the client is left with no value beyond learning about Kunai (and therefore, they don’t remember Kunai helping them in any way, which is the main thing we want to be remembered for doing!)
• It often takes multiple meetings to determine whether there is a good fit or not, which wastes everyone’s time. 
• Because the first few meetings are all about ‘making the sale’, there is often a bumpy handoff to our delivery or talent team once the sale is made. 

Our solution to these issues is to turn the sales meeting into a light workshop that accomplishes a tangible result for our potential client. This result should be useful regardless of whether the client ends up working with Kunai - that may sound like a selfless thing to do, but it’s much more than that. If we can show our clients value in the first meeting, they will have a positive memory of our company and be much more likely to work with us months or even years down the road. 

But what you can you realistically accomplish in 30-60 minutes? Our answer is to help the client figure out what it is they are actually trying to do - to frame their problem more completely, and to be able to explain it more quickly as a result of speaking to us. Almost all of our clients need help in this area; they begin talking to consultancies and internal groups before the scope of their problem is comprehensive and clear…or at least before it has been documented in a way that can be easily shared with other firms, partners, or internal stakeholders. 

We achieve this result in the simplest way possible, by asking a carefully curated set of questions, taking copious notes, and listening carefully. Our notes are taken live, meaning we share the document where we are writing things down, so that the client can make sure they agree with the way we are interpreting their answers. 

This process takes twenty to forty minutes, and if there are a few minutes left over, we share a little bit about Kunai, our services, and a few case studies, all of which will be sent to the client after the meeting is over for further review.

Want a sneak peek of our new Sales Meeting Deck for a more detailed view of our approach? Comment for a Link!