Making a call to customer or prospect can be a nerve wracking experience! Here are three things you can do today to make it a better experience for you and your customer.
Know your customer
Who will be on the call? What is his/her role in the company? More importantly, are they an influencer, advisor, or a decision-maker? Map out the customer’s team ahead of time, then fill in any gaps through research or make it part of your call. If you don’t know their buying process, e.g. committee review, who writes the check, key times of year for making budget decisions (to name a few) then you can utilize the call to learn more about how it works.
Write out an agenda
It shouldn’t be super wordy, just key thoughts that you want to accomplish on the call. Use the written agenda as a general guidepost for the discussion – one that gives enough structure to achieve outcomes, but is fluid enough to react to customer input. At the beginning of the call review the agenda with the customer, asking them for input. Is there anything they want to add? What are their goals for the meeting? What are yours?
A partnership mindset
Your job on the call isn’t to convince them to buy something! This may sound odd since we called it a sales call. Your goal is to add value to the customer’s day, and determine the best way to move forward with them. Use this opportunity to give them a new insight on their business, to learn from them about what they are experiencing, to develop a deeper relationship built on mutual respect and trust.
Anything else?
What would you add to the list? Do you have any habits or practices that you take into a sales call?
