Are You Using a Pre-Mortem?

We’ve all had a prospect meeting that got off track, was cut short or ended abruptly without a next step.

Any of one of these problems can catch even the most experienced salesperson off guard, frustrated and feeling defeated.

I’d like to suggest that there’s a simple solution to prevent common meeting complications.

And that solution is called a pre-mortem.?What’s a pre-mortem you ask?

It’s a brainstorm of all the things that could derail your meeting before the meeting ever happens. If you’ve had prior meetings with this prospect, then you already have a head start.

Pre-mortem’s are part of your pre-call prep and they work like a charm.

Here are a few roadblocks you might run into as you conduct your pre-mortem – We’ll talk about how to address each one in a minute.

A common issue is that the decision maker can’t make the meeting but doesn’t let anyone know in advance.

Another Issue is that you only have 45 minutes allocated for the meeting, yet the prospect’s team uses the first 15 minutes getting settled.

The last example of a roadblock is if your key contact adds several attendees at the last minute who you haven’t met, and one turns out to be a dissenter.

Now, for each issue on your list, brainstorm what you can do to prevent the issue or at least address it. For example:

Issue: The decision maker can’t make the meeting without letting anyone know.

a.??????Prevent that by: Asking the decision maker in advance if he/she is willing to have a role on the agenda such as sharing the top priorities for the department. People are much less likely to miss a meeting when they’re speaking.

Issue: You only have 45 minutes allocated for the meeting, yet the prospect’s team uses the first 15 minutes getting settled.

b.??????Prevent that by: Adding 15 minutes to the meeting time. Or ask your key contact to let everyone know that the meeting will start on time and to arrive or log on early to get settled.

c.??????You could also address this issue by: Preparing a strong, attention-getting opener to reduce the time settling in.

Issue: Your key contact adds several attendees at the last minute who you haven’t met, and one turns out to be a dissenter.

d.??????Prevent that by: Confirming all the attendees and their disposition with your key contact a day or two before the meeting to avoid any surprises.

e.??????Or address it by: Pulling the dissenter into the conversation early to neutralize.

Your anticipated issues and strategies will be 100% unique to each prospect meeting.

So it’s time well-spent to take a few minutes running through a pre-mortem before every meeting.

And if you’re working with a selling team, brainstorm potential issues together.?Especially if some members of your account team will be part of the meeting.

Ring the Bell!!!

Plan on ‘Ringing the Bell’ much more frequently by committing to pre-call prep before every prospect meeting.

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Check out my new LinkedIn Learning course which follows the 100% Confidence Call Sheet for simple, yet powerful, pre-call prep. https://linkedin-learning.pxf.io/LIcreator