BASELINE SELLING WEEKLY TIPS

A Good Sales Call

What constitutes a good sales call?

I hear salespeople tell me, "it went well!"  When I ask why they think so, I hear things like, "we had a great conversation", "we hit it off", "they're going to spend a lot of money", "they loved what I said", etc.

Bad news.  None of those comments indicate that it was a good sales call, or that the salesperson met the objectives for the call,  knows where in the selling process he/she is, or knows what needs to be done in order to get the business.

I'd prefer to have heard that, "they need what we have, they have some very compelling reasons to buy, there are even more compelling reasons to buy from us, I developed some excellent SOB Quality, they hate who they're buying from now, they been totally underwhelmed by the competition, I have their budget, I'm with the decision maker, the timeline is good and we're meeting again in 10 days to talk about how we can get this done.

That's a good sales call.  Which type of calls do you usually have?

If you answered the second kind, good for you!  If you answered the first kind, there are some simple things you can do to change that around.  First, just follow the selling process outlined in Baseline Selling, making sure to meet the criteria for each base.  Second, develop your ability to ask better questions, using the Infield Why Rule.  And finally, practice every day by role playing these selling situations with your colleagues.