The Three Key Elements of the Perfect Sales Call

Every Professional Salesperson dreams of the perfect sales call. We coach our sales training clients to learn what’s required to experience one. One of the Salespeople we’re working with hit the proverbial ball out of the park recently and we wanted to share it with you. Here’s what you need to do to attempt the perfect sales call.

Let me set the stage for this call. Brendan is a Salesperson for a high-quality food supply company in Toronto. Prior to the sales call we’re going to reference, he had met with the buyer who also happens to be the owner of the company. The buyer is currently purchasing a very niche product, and not purchasing very much of it. Brendan identified a potential interest in a different product line, one with a lot more volume potential. He reached out and a future appointment was scheduled for discussion. 

Here are the 3 Key Elements of The Perfect Sales Call

Pre-Call Preparation: Brendan invested three hours preparing and planning for the perfect sales call. It’s common for smart food supply company Salespeople to bring product samples to their meetings, however, he decided to cook the samples and bring them to the meeting fully prepared and ready for tasting. Chefs have drawers full of unused product samples because they don’t have the time or inclination to cook a sample from a supplier. After all, why should a buyer have to prepare a product that a Salesperson is trying to sell them? Who knows the best method of preparation other than the company representing it?

When four prepared and finished dishes were presented at the start of the call, the buyer’s Chef was immediately called into the meeting. Buyers need the support of key stakeholders and influencers to make the right decisions. Who wants to be the buyer who negotiated a great deal on a product that doesn’t have support internally? That’s just a bad investment.

Investing the time to prepare the dishes was smart thinking. It was intuitive and allowed for the client to experience the product fully – all in front of Brendan the Salesperson.

Asking Key People on both sides of the table to be in the Call. Brendan had asked the Buyer/Owner to be in the meeting as well as the Office Manager who is also involved in key menu decisions. As you know, coming into the call with fully prepared dishes resulted in the corporate Chef attending.

He decided to go two steps further. He asked his Sales Manager, who happens to be a Chef, to attend. He also asked the Sales Manager of the U.S. company who manufactures the product prepared to attend. He was in Toronto at the time and was happy to go on the call.

This resulted in 6 people on the call – 3 from each side of the desk. Notice the corresponding representation in roles from each perspective. The number of people a client has in a sales call is always a great indicator of their sincerity in consideration.

Being the Captain of the Call without Dominating It. Brendan navigated his way through the call, allowing everyone to have their opportunity to ask questions and provide insight. He leveraged the expertise of the two Sales Managers supporting him and ensured that the client still did most of the talking. In multi-person calls, it is very easy for the Salesperson and supporting people to make the mistake of pitching the client because everyone wants to say something and contribute.

This often results in the buyers from the client-side looking like they’re watching a game of tennis as their heads turn from side to side listening to everyone’s discussion points. In these situations, the Salespeople need to be brief allowing each of the buyers to speak.

Picture yourself as the client. So, here we have a Salesperson who has done hours of food preparation and brought his Sales Manager/Chef as well as the US Sales Manager of the company who manufacturers the dishes sampled.  Gee, do you feel like you’re a priority?

Brendan also came equipped with product information and presented the benefits of his dishes very well, which no doubt impressed the two Sales Managers.

Final Result – The Perfect Sales Call

Given everything that was done, it was very hard for the client not to be impressed. How could they not? Take away the reasons for not buying and your customer has no choice but to purchase. The client asked Brendan for a supplier catalog to quote “start ordering product immediately” while wanting to also focus on other long-term strategies that would fit into their wheelhouse.

My Takeaway

Yes, it was the perfect sales call. Everything aligned magically. The right people were in the sales call on both sides of the table. Will this happen every time? I’ll put it this way.  It only has the chance of happening when you follow the Three Elements of the Perfect Sales Call and make a commitment to hard work and leveraging your resources.  

Build Your Sales Skills

Do you want to learn how to have better sales calls?  Check out the free trial of our online course The Sales Skills Incubator for $199 CAD including tax. We’re also in the final stages of producing our latest online sales training course, Negotiating 2 Party Payoffs. Every great Salesperson wants to learn the skills of being a great negotiator. If you wish to be notified when the course is being launched or future sales ensure that you are signed up to receive the PROSALESGUY BLOG by email. If you prefer reading, check out our book SHUT UP! Stop Talking and Start Making Money available on Amazon.

If you are a Sales Manager interested in investigating Group or Individual Sales Training on-site for your Canadian location, please give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to talk to you.

Thanks!

 Dave Warawa – PROSALESGUY