Top 5 Rules for Effective Prospect Meetings

We know the story:

You or an SDR from your team finally cracked into that target account. The meeting is Wednesday morning with someone who, at least on paper, looks to be a core decision-maker. You’re jazzed! You understand their industry, perceived use case of what your product will enable them to do, and you even doubled up on coffee to make sure you bring the heat for this one. Hell, this is the deal that’s going to get you to the top of your leaderboard. It’s a strategic win not just for you, but for the company — a logo that you’ll proudly display on your website that will lead to even more wins.

But then…. The meeting falls flat.

Ouch.

There’s no silver bullet for having the perfect meeting with prospects. But there are some core tenets that will allow you to make more of them good (if not great), and less of them, well, suck.

For goodness sake, be on time. Especially when you’re working with senior folks, time is valuable. Have your processes down to the second when it comes to getting to the meeting on time. Create buffers in between meetings to ensure this.

Moreover, manage time effectively on the call/video conference. We say rather frequently that time is our most scarce resource, and it needs to be treated as such. Keep your eye on the clock, and be sure that you’re leaving enough time at the end to wrap up, summarize, and establish clear next steps.

Do your homework.

The internet is a rather beautiful place when you use it wisely. Spend the requisite time doing your research prior to the call. Done correctly, this will give you ample ability to add context to the questions you are bound to ask during the meeting itself.

Look at the company, any recent news articles, their careers page to gather this valuable intel. Additionally, research the person as well. Their recent posts on LinkedIn might provide some key insights into who they are, what their priorities might be, as well as interests. This is a (not so) secret and low-leverage way to be able to build rapport and credibility from the outset.

Don’t thank them for their time… yet.

It’s a major pet peeve — and most likely a waste of time — to thank someone for their time before you’ve even started.

If it ends up being a great meeting, then go for it. But start to value yourself on an equal plane as your prospect. Your time is valuable too, and there’s a subtle impact of doing this from the outset that puts you at a disadvantage, swaying the pendulum of influence even further in your prospect’s favor.

Have a clear goal, a plan, communicate them, then execute.

In a traditional sense, this is the age old “Agenda” that sales trainers and managers have spoken about for years. We think of this in terms of intentions.

Your intention for this initial meeting is likely to qualify the prospect. Can we help them?

Your plan is to ask questions that allow you to gather the right information to clearly determine whether or not this is the case.

Tell your prospect! This is a lot like providing context to questions; in doing so, you’re much more likely to glean the insights you seek rather than it feeling like an interrogation.

If the prospect agrees to your plan, then there’s a shared understanding of what’s about to transpire. But you're also likely to get feedback in the form of a course correction should they want to focus the conversation elsewhere — which isn’t entirely a bad thing.

Get painstakingly good at taking notes.

A superpower for salespeople, no doubt. Capturing thorough, descriptive notes, using their words is a critical ingredient to not just a singular meeting, but the entirety of the sales cycle.

Note that we made special mention of using their words. Why is this so important?

When it comes to making decisions — and notably buying decisions — people are very likely to follow through on things that they say aloud. Think of a scenario where someone says something to you that elicits a problem for which your product/service is a solution. If, at a later day/time that prospect says no, you’ll have the ammunition (again, in their words) to politely and professionally tell them why “no” is incorrect.

Will you change their mind 100% of the time? Absolutely not. But you certainly stack the deck in your favor.

More broadly speaking about notetaking, the best way to get “good” at this? Practice! All salespeople operate differently, but it’s about setting up a structured environment by which you’re able to capture the right information that is complete, and ultimately get it into your CRM.

This is a core function of your role and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.