Meetings III: The Sell
Jun1
Check out my first post on Meetings, here.
If you’ve read the post above, then you probably have a good read on how I feel about outside meetings. I consider them crucial to your professional success not because they are the way of the future (more and more business is being conducted online. Check out GoToMeeting), but because it’s just so common.
I usually classify my meetings into one of three categories:
1) The Sell (also known as Closing).
2) The Strategy.
3) The Follow-up.
Today , we’re going to go over…
The Sell
This is the most challenging type of meeting. You’re going in after a phone call or an email, and you’ve never met the person. You’ve got a clear goal in mind (Sell High, Buy Cheap, Partner Up, etc) and you’re thinking about your “selling points” and how you’re going to convince the person to buy.
Please, stop right there. It’s painfully obvious and it doesn’t work. Look - YES, you need to know the selling points of your product. In fact, you BETTER know the selling points of your product damn well. But, that’s not how you close a meeting. You have to go into these things with a genuine desire and ability to improve the lives of the person you’re dealing with. That’s why selling Cutco knives to anyone outside of your inner circle of friends and family is near impossible. That is also, to some extent, why print advertising is on its deathbed. If you can’t help your potential customer with your product or service, do NOT sell it to them.
So, I’ve told you what NOT to do. What, then, is recommended? Well, if you’ve been following the earlier advice you: look good, know your material and have established your credentials. The most important thing to do during a first meeting is to build trust. Find commonalities. It doesn’t matter if it’s a common hobby, sport, tv-show or interest. People will naturally trust those who act like them. Research has shown that even subtly mimicking the hand-gestures, posture and speech speed will expedite the “rapport” building process.
So, how the hell do you know what these people like to do? RESARCH. Google, LinkedIN, Jigsaw, Facebook, ZoomInfo, FRIENDS are all super basic staples of your research. It takes 1 hour to prepare using those tools, and you will go in there with a wealth of knowledge. Feel this: If you’re meeting with me, I’ve read all I possibly can about both your business and your interests. Know what that shows? Respect. There’s simply no other way to win.
This is what I recommend you do before your next meeting: Put together a 1 page summary (with picture) of the person you are planning to meet. Study it, and memorize it. Go into your next meeting and broach the subject about one of his or her interests FIRST. Enjoy being welcomed back!
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10:30 pm on June 26th, 2009
Boris,
You make some great points. Knowing your selling points is just one part of a sales pitch. Acting in your customer’s interest, and establishing solid rapport by finding commonalities, are two areas that can’t be ignored in the sell. However, I would like to add my own two cents in how best to hit it off with potential customers.
Two critical elements that should be considered are confidence and the power of laughter. Confidence breeds confidence. If your customers can see you know your product inside and out, they’ll be much more likely to buy in to what you’re saying. It’s certainly a momentum-builder. In regards to laughter, it’s more effective than idle chit-chat with a customer. If you can share a laugh with them, you can form a much stronger connection. As you said in one of your previous posts, the customer is buying “you.”