The sales meeting is at the heart of a business – it is where the revenue-generating opportunities are created. For those organisations for whom sales is still done face-to-face, person-to-person (as opposed to online), the sales meetings with potential customers are the critical conversations that can make the difference between success and failure.
As I was sitting through a sales meeting recently, a few thoughts came on how to increase the effectiveness of such meetings. Some of these ideas are quite basic, but I realised that we were not following them correctly. Adhering to this set can help reduce the time taken to get to closure – the ultimate dream of a sales person.
They can be summarised as a set of 7 Ps: Preparation, Problems, Pitch, Presentation, Props, Post Meeting, Proposal. I will cover each of these.
