Many MSPs obsess too much over what they should say or do during sales appointments that they often forget about one of the most significant steps of the sales process — the preflight checklist.
What you do before your sales meeting is more important than what you do during it. As Chinese military general Sun Tzu highlighted in “The Art of War,” “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.”
Before your next sales meeting, go through your preflight checklist to ensure you’re ready to tackle what prospects may throw at you.
Do you prepare for your sales appointments?
Many MSPs set themselves up for failure without even knowing it. You may ask: How is that even possible? Well, these MSPs simply neglect the basics. For example, they forget to conduct research before their sales meetings. Before speaking with a company, visit its website to learn more about it. Find out who the key players are and investigate their backgrounds. Do you recognize anybody? Do you have any shared LinkedIn connections with any of the company’s executives? What about the industry the company competes in? What do you know about it? How about the company’s competitors? There’s so much information available at our fingertips. Use it to your advantage whenever possible, especially when sitting down with a prospect. When you show up prepared for your sales appointments, your prospects notice.
Do you have goals for your appointments?
Your goal should be to sell your services to prospects during your sales appointments, right? Wrong! When meeting with prospects, find out how they’re operating their businesses. How far along are they when it comes to technology? Can you add value? You should try to discover as much as you can about your prospects during sales appointments. Use these discussions to uncover potential business opportunities.
What about your attitude?
You immediately give away information by how you present yourself to prospects. As soon as the meeting starts, your prospect is judging you based on things like your attitude and personality. Life happens, but whatever upset you the morning of your meeting with a prospect, don’t let it affect your presentation.
What are the next steps?
Always plan ahead when you can. If the meeting goes well, what are the next steps? You should always know. The prospect is more than likely going to ask you. When you can provide the answer immediately, you score points by showing that you’re in control.
Have you checked in with your belief system?
How tangible are your results? Are your processes satisfying the needs of your customers? For you to sell effectively and consistently, your belief system must be intact. You must believe in the service you’re selling. If you don’t, your confidence level may suffer as a result. Prospects can recognize when there’s something wrong. Keep your foundation solid. Adjust whenever there are issues. It’s not enough to just know your business.
While knowing how to act and what to do during a sales appointment is of course key to the sales process, it’s what you do ahead of time that puts you ahead of your competitors.
