Get That Second Meeting

Last week, I observed some salespeople preparing their meetings with Prospects and Customers, and something hit me hard and clearly:

Despite the training on modern selling skills [Selling with the Buyer’s Perspective] our Solution-Selling-DNA sits so deep in us engrained, that it is challenging to slow down in first meetings and Sell with the Buyer’s Perspective.

Let me explain: Most of the salespersons I observed prepared very well in terms of what they wanted their respective Stakeholder to discover. For example, “I want the Stakeholder to discover that a higher CX star rating of their company on the internet will drive more new business to their website and repeat business too”. Excellent! This is a great objective for the meeting; it is a business idea that helps their Customers realize that something may need to change (Why Change?) to grow their top-line revenue. Something they had not focused on so much.

The Sellers also prepared research articles that showed that a focus on CX can be a tremendous strategic growth initiative as the source of their business idea. Again, excellent!

However, once they were in the meeting and got their Stakeholder’s attention, how fast did the Sellers start to sell their solutions? It was like speed-lightning, and you could see the Stakeholder switch off. Immediately, the Salesperson was again perceived as someone who wanted to sell their solutions and close the deal asap. The conversation went from an others-oriented focus to a me-oriented focus. The Stakeholder’s engagement level initially went from very high to below zero within five minutes. Needless to say, the Stakeholder did not agree to a second meeting. How could this be done differently?

Audition

To put some context around this, I thought about similar circumstances where you would meet people for the first time, and you have a clear objective for that meeting, but you do not expect to close the deal immediately. My thoughts went back to high school. When you would go for a first audition for a school play (didn’t we all try once?), what is the objective of that audition? Exactly, to move to the next round. What is the objective of the following audition meeting? To get to the next or final round. Auditions work that way. Who gets the main role in a play is rarely decided after the first audition.

So, when Selling, in your first ‘audition’, all you want is that second meeting. Don’t sell your company, your products or solutions until you have the commitment to a second meeting. You slow down as much as you need to allow the Stakeholder to move from Why Change? to Change to What? There, your objective changes into letting them discover WHAT is needed to make your business idea work. You have a collaborative discussion about solution criteria, not your solutions.

UNDERSTAND THE WHY

Changing habits is tough. But when you understand why you need to change, it becomes easier to start and stick to your new behaviour. So, let’s sum these up. Why should your objective at your first meeting be to get a second meeting instead of selling your solutions and closing deals?

• Like in Why Change? you also want to be perceived by Stakeholders in Change to What? as someone who has an interest in making them successful. Let them discover what needs to change rather than telling them what needs to change. Collaborating works better than telling.
• You are a Trusted Advisor. Hence, your Stakeholders need to have discovered what needs to change first before a conversation about who to change to. Stay in your advice role longer.
• Selling is helping. Other-oriented salespeople are more successful than those who have a me-oriented attitude. Selling solutions too quickly puts you into the latter category.
• Decisions are rarely made by one person only; hence, ask who else would have an interest in this conversation (about Why Change? and Change to What?) in a second meeting.
• When selling with the Buyer’s perspective, going slow to go fast later works much better.

Increase your prospecting success rate by viewing them as your First Audition. Get that second meeting!