Thought the Customer meeting went well? wtf went wrong!

You thought the customer meeting went well. But the customer is not responding to your calls? What happened you wonder!

First a reality check

Not all customers enjoy meeting salespeople and it’s good to know the reasons

When asked, this is what they said

• 44% said because salespeople have their own agenda and I can feel pressured
• 25% said because salespeople only care about themselves and making the sale
• 23% said it's uncomfortable for me to say no to them
• 8% said because they’re different from me and not the type of people I typically associate with

To make sure the meeting goes well, and you are invited back again here are some suggestions

1. Make sure to go in with a clear goal and personal outcome for the meeting.
2. Customers are wary of salespeople, they have met some who are friendly, and some who have not lived up to their promises. Think through an opening statement that will make them feel at ease and break the predictable pattern? Think of something that engages the mind, appeals to the imagination, and gain credibility. 
3. Every meeting should take you closer to being their trusted advisor. To get there you need to provide better value to your customer than your competition. You need to be able to demonstrate a very good understanding of customer's challenges and be able to flawlessly articulate how your solution would solve the problem, worded in business language.

4.    Know and have answers to the following questions before stepping into the meeting:

• What solution positioning will I use? How will I structure my presentation? What is the most difficult question do I expect the customer to ask and how will I handle it? What customer success stories do I plan to share? What leading questions do I plan to ask?
• Am I prepared to speak the customer's technical specification language, or do I need to bring along a product specialist and other SMEs?

5.    Building rapport early on with the customer is very important and it helps to share in areas of your customer's interest that are outside of the business.

6.    Know your primary closing strategy and fallback position.

7.    Think through how you would measure your sales call success.