BASELINE SELLING WEEKLY TIPS

Having Good Sales Calls

When you have a good meeting with a prospect, how do you feel?  If your prospect was friendly, complimentary, open, and answered all of your questions, would you say that your chances of closing this opportunity are strong?

A strong opportunity will nearly always include a prospect whose behavior resembles my description above.  However, that behavior alone does not mean the opportunity is strong.  It's the same as when you say a beautiful summer day has, as one of its components, a bright blue sky; but a bright blue sky does not mean it is a beautiful summer day.

So how can you tell whether your friendly prospect and the good conversation you just had will lead to a sale?  This is when it is best to be formally debriefed by an exceptional sales manager, one who can maintain objectivity.  If your sales manager asks, "how did it go?" you'll be tempted to say, "oh, it went great!"  Then your sales manager probably says, "awesome" and walks away.

Here's how the dialog might sound if you have an exceptional sales manager:

SM: "How did the call end?" a

You: "Um, I was at second base." 

SM: "OK, and what were the compelling reasons for them to buy?" 

You: "The prospect loved me, was very open and answered all of my questions!" 

SM: "But what about the compelling reasons?"

You: "I don't know if there are any compelling reasons." 

SM: "What about SOB Quality?" 

You: "The prospect was very open with me"

SM: "Did you have SOB Quality?" 

You: No". 

SM: "George, you're only half way to first base.  Without compelling reasons and SOB Quality, all you have is some information and a new friend. You'll have to call your prospect and ask something along the lines of, 'Mary, I was thinking about our meeting today and I appreciate that you shared your plans for expansion, and the equipment you'd like to get.  But all the way back to the office I was just so curious. 

Why are you expanding?
Why were you thinking of this particular equipment?
What's wrong with the equipment you have in the existing building?
When you told ABC Company that you weren't happy with the equipment they provided for the existing building, and they offered to fix the problem in your expansion, what did you tell them?
Did the malfunctioning equipment cause you any more than frustration - Did any of your customers get upset?
Did you lose any of those customers?
How much did that cost?'

And finally Dave, I want you to ask her this question:

'Mary, you've experienced a tremendous amount of frustration, lost two big customers and you're sitting here with a $2 million problem.  What if the equipment you want to install in your expansion doesn't solve the problem?'

Dave, she'll probably ask what you mean and then I want you to say:

'Mary, could it be that because you still want to install a vipperbacker in your backfrontbottom, even with a change of manufacturer, you'll still have the malfunction?'

Dave, then you'll have your SOB Quality and your compelling reasons and then, and not until then, will you be on second base.  Go make that call!

You: "Thanks Bob."

So remember, that friendly, open prospect is one component of a strong opportunity but that alone does not make it a strong opportunity.  You must have compelling reasons and SOB Quality too.

For much, much more on Compelling Reasons and SOB Quality, reread the chapter in Baseline Selling on Getting to 2nd Base. You can also read the many Baseline Selling Tips on Getting to 2nd Base in the archive.