Once you’ve secured the appointment, the real work begins. You must decide what your objective for your meeting – whether it’s face to face or on the telephone – actually is and then create questions that lead the conversation to the destination you have in mind. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is for you to PLAN for your meeting BEFORE walking in the door or calling them on the phone. Shooting from hip gets your nowhere, so if you are serious about closing sales, you need to do your homework.

DETERMINE YOUR OBJECTIVE

The first thing you need to do is determine your top 1-2 objectives for your sales meeting. It might be to generate enough interest to secure another meeting or get the purchasing commitment right on the spot. Whatever your goal, you must be very clear what outcome you expect to achieve when you sit down to meet.
KEEP THE MEETING FOCUSED

To keep your meeting on point and focused on your objectives, I recommend that you sit down and plan at least 10 questions that you will ask during that meeting. Think about how you can create them in two ways, just in case the answer to your first question falls flat. For example, if you ask: “How was your most recent quarterly sales performance?” and they say “fine”, you need to be prepared to ask the question another way in order to get more information.

Frame your questions using “how” and “what”. Open ended questions tend to elicit answers that give you more than a simple “yes” or “no”. Preparing questions ahead of time keeps your conversation focused and flowing, and you are far more likely to listen to the answers and learn what you need, when you have considered your questions in advance.

Let’s say you’ve been consistent and persistent and you finally get your prospect on the line. Do you know what you plan to say?

The reality is that 65% of all sales are lost in that opening telephone call. And frankly, this could apply to how you leave voicemails also.

If you think back to my very first blunder, I talked about how most people selling a product or service tend to default to a feature dump. That usually happens in telephone calls too. This is NOT the time to “sell” your prospect something or to be talking about yourself.

Here are the elements to think about before making your call:

• Introduction – A great call starts with this foundation! Clearly introduce yourself – first name, last name, your company – be confident and above all, be articulate. You don’t get a second chance to make that critical first impression, so take it seriously. If you are leaving a phone mail ALWAYS leave your telephone number at the beginning and end of your message.
• Grab their interest – determine what might capture their interest long enough to spend a few minutes talking with you. What economic trends might be affecting their industry? What challenges do your current clients mention to you that might also apply to your prospect? Take the pressure off yourself and them by getting them engaged in a conversation with you.
• Ask for time – Once you’ve captured their attention, ask them for a few more minutes. Then stick to the agreement. If you asked for 10 minutes, end the call in that time or less. Demonstrate that you are a professional who respects their busy schedule. Your goal is to secure a future appointment, so don’t try to sell them in the first call. Get them interested and they’ll be far more likely to want to meet with you.

Don’t just roll into your sales pitch. Take the time to put a framework in place for building a relationship with your prospect. Using this approach, you capture their interest in a way that lets them know you are a professional, that you understand their world. And you’ve gotten them to talk about issues that you know your product or service can help them solve. Now, that’s a great first step!

No matter what business you are in, you’ve got to sell. Developing a sales mindset means you need to understand the sales “process” and then follow it persistently and consistently.

As a sales veteran, I can tell you that the sale rarely happens as a result of a first meeting. On average, it takes 7 “touches” before you will close the deal. That means you’ve got to stick with it long enough for your prospect to become a client. Herbert True, a marketing specialist at the University of Notre Dame studied sales behavior and discovered some interesting things.

• 44% of all people quit trying after the 1^st call.
• 24% quit after the 2^nd call.
• 14% quit after the 3^rd call.
• 12% quit trying to sell their prospect after the 4^th call.

Statistically speaking, people give up pretty easily, even those who call themselves Sales Professionals. Ninety-four percent of the people quit after the 4^th phone call; yet, True’s research found that 60% of all sales were made after the 4^th call.

What would happen if you became one of the 6% who kept going and tapped the 60% of business that comes after four or more calls? So, get going! Look over your prospect list right now…find out with whom you need to reconnect in order to make the sale and do it!

Working with clients, I notice that they often expend too much time and energy focused on opportunities that have little to no potential for actually becoming a bona fide sale. This happens because they have not taken the time to ask the right questions – questions that will help them determine if they should be spending time on this prospect now or following up on in three months from now.

Does this sound familiar?

You met someone at an event and they said they wanted to know more about your service. You called them and scheduled an appointment, met with them and told them all about what you have to offer. They suggest you write a proposal, which you feel pretty good about because you think that means they are really interested. So, you spend several hours putting together that killer proposal and send it over thinking a sale is coming any day. But then when you follow up they say…well, we really don’t have the budget right now, so call me back in 6 months. Excuse me? Even worse is when you realize that all that hard work crafting your proposal was merely a way for them to get their current provider to lower their price! Yup, at some point it has happened to all of us.

Remember that just because someone expresses interest in learning more about your product or service, that doesn’t mean they have the means or the ability to buy right now. Before you spend much time scheduling meetings, crafting presentations or submitting proposals to your prospect, be sure you ask the questions that will help you determine what stage of the buying cycle they are in.

The key is having a healthy sales pipeline is to learn how to balance between closing short-term sales and developing long-term opportunities. Here are some examples of the type of questions you can ask:

• When do you plan to make your purchase?
• Do you have budget now or is this something you are thinking about for next year?
• Are you the only one who is involved in the buying decision?
• How long does it usually take for a buying decision to be made?
• Is there paperwork required for me to complete to be considered as a vendor?

Don’t be shy about asking questions right up front that help you better qualify your potential prospects ability to buy now. You will save yourself time and a lot of aggravation!

People often complain to me that they feel frustrated with their networking efforts. In probing further, I generally figure out that the problem is not that they aren’t attending networking events, but it’s that they are attending them at random, exchanging business cards with everyone they meet and then perplexed when nothing happens. I call these folks “serial networkers”. They confuse a lot of activity with effectiveness and they are not the same thing! Based on 30+ years of selling experience, I can tell you that most people haven’t learned a system for building a network that when worked in a consistent way produces results.

The trick is to think about networking as a process – a journey – rather than an event. Whether you are building a business or looking to secure that next big promotion, the quality and strength of your net is critical. Oh, and by the way, even when you have a job or business is good – you must NEVER stop putting focus on building your network. Do so at your own peril! The time to build a network is not when you need it most – like when you’ve just lost your job.

Ok, so are you noticing a theme here? The process of net building contains several core elements, such as writing down your goals, using a tracking mechanism, choosing activities that match your goals and getting out there on a consistent basis. Think about what you want to accomplish and focus your efforts accordingly. For you, it could be a mix of phone calls, attending events or making contributions on social media sites (yes, it can definitely lead to business!) As you consider your net building activities, think about where your potential client is most likely to be. Simple as it sounds – go there!

Once you have clarified what you want to accomplish, it is time to put a few simple practical steps into place and watch your networking attitude and efforts improve.

• Write down your goals
• Develop a mix of activities and then wisely choose where to place your focus
• Create a database to track your network
• Map your network – determine A, B, C contacts (it will help with scheduling how often you contact them)
• Pay it Forward – make it your goal to COLLECT business cards – not just hand yours out!
• Block time weekly to focus on building the strength of your network

Building strong relationships is the key to closing sales. This one simple truth is the timeless secret to long-term success, so take your networking efforts seriously – get going and start building that powerhouse network today!