Convert leads into customers in Vendor negotiations

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four things you have to have in place in order to have an effective meeting and if you don't have these four things in place you're gonna have an issue and a problem when I say an issue and a problem I'm talking about the prospect or customer if you're looking to upsell or cross-sell isn't gonna see value in your conversation there's going to be lack of direction the sales cycle is going to be too long you're gonna reach back out to them after the meeting and they're not gonna return your phone call or they're not going to answer your call you're gonna call communicate with them by email and they won't return your emails sound familiar well if it does is probably because you don't have these four things implemented in your meetings okay before we start with the meeting I want to back up a couple steps because you have to in preparation for the meeting than your homework on the individual or individuals the company and you could do that through Facebook Linkedin Google there's a myriad of option two options today if I could talk to do research on who you're meeting with all right that's essential so you can come to the meeting prepared with a tell intelligent information okay now when the meeting starts they've accepted the meeting the invitation so obviously there's a reason they want to meet with you so what you need to do is ask them first and foremost is there anything that you would like to discuss today and this has to do with their agenda so ask them most sales people will miss this and they regurgitate a lot of information and they get down the track where you're just being a pest not bringing value to the conversation and by the way you bring value to the conversation when you ask intelligent questions and then listen listen to understand very important so get their agenda next obviously you come with a plan a goal and you should have some good open-ended questions prepared so you talk about your agenda you talk with the prospect okay this is what I like to discuss today I'm really interested in finding about about a B and C all right so they understand and know this what they said they need to discuss you incorporated it in your agenda and so you have an agreement this gives you direction for your meeting gives clarity and also brings a lot of value and they see you as a true professional just by doing those first two things the third thing you need to have is talk about the duration how long is the meeting going to be you know even if you took discussed before about the meeting make sure you talk about it at the beginning of the meeting John we talked about having an hour for this meeting is that still gonna work for you if you don't do this many things may have changed or many things can change between the time you schedule the meeting in the actual meeting so you want to make sure yes you still have that hour otherwise you can get into a great conversation and really start to uncover good information and then they could turn to you you know Chaz I have a hard stop here in about five minutes we're gonna finish need to finish this another time so don't fall into that trap don't let that happen to you and then forth at the beginning of the conversation let them know now very important when you come to a meeting you know you either need to be the authority not authoritarian but the authority because you are the expert in your field and you understand how to solve their problems but you need to go to a process to help them understand that and you should know the process to go through to help them understand that okay so talk to them upfront about how to end the meeting I had my brain stop for a second but you know John at the end of the meeting could we have an understanding of what we do next the last thing I want to do is leave the meeting and then you know play phone tag I want to be respectful of our time so authority as you're the expert but always an equal I want to be respectful of our time never inferior oh I'm so glad to meet with you okay do you don't want to do that because you are this is a business meeting okay and you're a true professional and so you need to come with that confidence understand that you're the expert the authority but you're also their equal you're not inferior all right so you establish that by asking you know at the end of this conversation is it ok to agree that well you know maybe we may not have or the timing may be bad so we don't take a next step and we could talk maybe further or I may need to do something or you may need to do something in order to save us both time is it okay to have a time and a date for our next discussion so you get that upfront then you go through your meeting you have clarity on what's going to be discussed you ask good open-ended questions and at the end of the meeting you have a time you talk about a time it's a clear future which is a time and a date for what's going to happen next never end a communication a conversation a meeting without getting a clear future that in and of itself is going to reduce your sales cycle dramatically okay so implement those four things in your meetings with prospects and customers and it's amazing what's gonna happen next you're gonna get so much or they're gonna see you as the true authority they're gonna see you as a professional and the expert do this and get results go rock this day