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MAY 2006
Set the Stage for a Great Meeting!
If you didn't read last month's letter, you should go back and take a look (Click Here). If you did this right, you are already opening new doors for meetings with buyers and key influencers - but what do you say when you finally get in the board room? Most agree that you only have a few seconds to make an impression. If you blow this chance, you don't get another one. Its time to evaluate how effective your meetings are!.
1. Meetings that don't go well
It should be obvious, but not every sales person recognizes a bad meeting. Many years ago, while working for a major national bank, I recall being on the other side of the table. I was the person being sold to. A representative of a major networking company was calling on me to take a look at changing my network operating system. I had prepared several pointed questions for the meeting, but when the rep showed up, they insisted on showing me 30 minutes of slides. I had only allotted 30 minutes and requested that we spend the time talking through the questions; however, the rep assured me that the slides would give me everything I needed. I am not sure if they realised how poorly this meeting went, but none of my questions were ever addressed, and of course the sale never happened. Bad outcomes that are obvious include; no invitation to continue, no interest on the prospects side, and no further introductions up the ladder...and of course no sale. But these are not the only indicators...read on.
2. Meetings that look good, but aren't
The more difficult meeting to deal with is the meeting that looks good but isn't. These meetings may have some outcome, but not ones that necessarily lead to business. Delegation to the lower levels of the organization is one that often looks ok, but is it really? The sales person does not maintain a peer relationship with the buyer, so control of the sales process is lost. In the weeks to follow, you will spend hours on demos, proposals, evals, etc. Trying to get back in to see the economic buyer is a challenge, often leaving the deal at a perpetual 50% probability.
Another meeting might lead to requests for information or even a quote. Here again, you may find yourself throwing a proposal over the wall and losing control. This results when the buyer doesnt really know what they want to do, but offers this request for information and pricing simply to bring closure to the meeting without conflict. The deal stays on your forecast, potentially higher than 50%, but never comes to closure. Eventually you give up.
3. Meetings that go well
Lets look at meetings with strong outcomes. Meetings that do go well are spent collaborating. "Dialogue vs. discussion", I call it. Dialogue is an open exchange of ideas where discussion is more one sided, trying to make a point. You have given your value proposition, the prospect has found it compelling, and the remainder of the meeting is spent exchanging ideas on how to solve specific issues. At the end of the meeting there is either an invitation to continue the dialogue, sponsorship up, or further dialogue with the buyer's peers.
Another good sign is an agreement to get your respective technical people together to address specific technical challenges. This outcomes leaves you with a peer relationship with the buyer, while delegating the technical fact finding to the IT organization. Both are good outcomes, but it starts with how you set up the meeting.
4. Conclusion
Last month we said, "Make every introduction count". Once you have delivered your short positioning statement and have been invited to share your ideas, you must have a compelling story to tell, and a process to move toward open dialogue with the people you are meeting. Do you have it? Evaluate the past 5 or 6 meetings and ask yourself, where did these meetings go? Just a request for information, perhaps delegation to the technical team, or perhaps an invitation to continue the dialogue. How can you make this the rule rather than the exception? Next month I will address setting up these meetings for success.
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