Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You

by Daniel Priestley

There are some key phases of every sales meeting that are common to most businesses: Rapport – Discover some common ground and an openness to engage in conversation. Discovery – Find out what this person is trying to achieve, what frustrations he/she'd like to solve, preferences and desires along with what about his/her current situation made that person go looking at relevant options. Confirming – Ensure that you have all the relevant information correct, you understand the prospect's situation clearly and you're in a good position to make a recommendation. Advising – Share insights, methods and solutions for addressing the needs of the prospect. Put forward the key features, advantages and benefits that meet the customer's desires. Discussing – Find whether the proposed solution meets the prospect's needs and wants, tailoring the solution or negotiating on any flexible aspects of the sale. Completing – Confirm the sale and do the administrational activity required or update the CRM system with next steps and relevant information. Plan out how you want your sales meetings to run and rehearse the script. Identify the part of your sales meeting structure that's weakest and try to find ways to deliver it more powerfully. Don't fool yourself into thinking an unstructured chat will perform anywhere near as well as a planned presentation – you'll waste hundreds of hours of your life and the time of your prospects engaging in these interactions that mostly go nowhere.