If it's your first meeting, as an introduction, we suggest you approach it like a discovery session. Here are a few best practices to make sure you get that meeting done properly;
1. Always check in with the client the day before and the morning of the meeting to confirm it's still on.
2. Research the client history with your organisation and in their industry
3. Practice your value proposition
4. Double-check to make sure you are meeting the right people (decision-makers) if not, ask if they can be invited to the meeting.
5. Have your questions or notes written down for the meeting
6. Have an objective
7. Be on time (Start and end on time)
While there are many other points to note we feel these seven (7) are the most important points to note.
Log your activity, build your pipeline
Earlier we said that understanding your KPI(s) is a key component to your success. Tracking that activity is also important as it helps you understand the areas you are doing well and where you need to improve. Using your CRM helps you and your team lead to identify quick wins and areas of improvement.
While there are many companies that still use traditional platforms like Microsoft Excel to track sales activity, we strongly recommend they change this approach as using Excel is very slow, labour intensive, and inaccurate for both the sales professional and the sales leader.
It also brings no major business analytics or sales intelligence to the organisation without someone having to spend time looking at the data.