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I am “huge” on preparing for sales meetings but I am “tiny” on preparing slides for sales meetings.
Quote of the week from a sales manager friend:
“Our best sales people really don’t take anything to a sales meeting – they just have a conversation with the prospect”
Amen!
Your goal in a sales meeting is to listen. Not to present. You don’t need slides or stacks of brochures to listen. Ask questions and listen. Sure, take some blank paper on which to write notes, so you remember the prospect’s answers to your questions.
Do take time to prepare for the meeting. Spend this time on researching the prospect’s company and the prospect themselves from as many angles as possible (relative to the importance of the prospect). Develop key questions based on your research aimed at further understanding the prospect’s goals, challenges and constraints. Write these questions down on your piece of paper so you remember to ask them when you are actually in the meeting (it’s easy to forget a question, or two, while in a live sales meeting).
So next time you go to a sales meeting don’t spend hours preparing your Powerpoint slides, spend hours understanding your prospect and developing your questions. Put your questions in your pocket and leave your hands free for a pen to write down the prospects answers.