6 things to prepare before a sales call

Your sales team might be managing to get appointments with key prospects and clients. But how do they improve their chances of a successful sales call? As with most things it’s all about the preparation. Let us explain.

The key decision-makers they are talking to are remarkably busy people. Their diaries are often too full and as such they want to avoid wasting their time. They need a legitimate reason to talk to salespeople. It must be in THEIR interest. Therefore, your sales team need to consider everything from the customer’s perspective.

Before they set foot in the customer’s offices, they need to do their homework. Investing a little time beforehand can significantly improve the outcome of the meeting.

So, how should your sales team prepare?

1. Research Industry Trends and Their Business

To avoid wasting time during the call, if your salesperson hasn’t visited the customer before or it’s a new prospect, we suggest they research the business beforehand. There is nothing more frustrating for the customer than having to answer poor questions when the answers could have been found earlier. Questions like number of employees etc. Answers to these don’t move you further along the sales process so why bother? A thorough analysis of the customer can uncover potential product or service usage. Keeping a close eye on how the industry is developing can also provide answers to the challenges that your customer may be facing.

2. Review Previous Visit Reports

If the customer has been visited before, your salesperson should review the notes from the previous visits. They should make sure all the action points have been closed out to the customer’s satisfaction and look at opportunities where the customer relationship can be further developed.

3. Analyse Purchase Orders and Outstanding Opportunities

Using CRM (if you have one) they should create an order history report and produce a list of all outstanding quotes and opportunities that you may have. These can be discussed and followed up. This exercise might also highlight lost opportunities where further investigation with the customer could prove helpful. The salesperson may also discover opportunities with legacy products.

4. Set Clear Objectives and Create a Pre-Call Plan

To be effective, clear objectives for the call should be set and they should list what they’d like to achieve. At the very least they should consider what they believe to be the most important objective of the sales call. Prospects and customers have strategic goals and their own motivations. They will also have problems and issues that they need resolving. It is the role of your sales team to uncover what these are and to identify how the customer can be supported. This is where a pre-call plan comes into its own. Make sure your salespeople take the time to list questions that they will be asking, to uncover what these issues might be, as these could be your biggest opportunities. These objectives should be linked to an overall strategic plan that mirrors the customers goals.

5. Agree an Agenda

We would always advise that your sales team agree an agenda with the customer in advance of the call which should reflect the customers priorities. This is prudent because both parties then know what is expected of them. They can then effectively prepare giving the meeting a better chance of success. Having an agenda also helps to keep the discussion on track to ensure all the items are covered.

6. Measure On-Going Progress

Last but not least, your sales team should constantly measure their progress so that it’s both effective and timely, whilst constantly modifying their plan to reflect their interaction with the customer.