The document provides guidance on having effective first appointments with prospects by outlining common mistakes to avoid, such as not preparing or focusing only on selling rather than learning about the prospect, and recommends focusing the first half of appointments on discovery by asking questions to understand the prospect's needs and challenges before discussing solutions. It also provides tips for preparing for, executing, and closing appointments successfully through researching prospects, crafting qualifying questions, sharing value, and setting next steps.
8447779800, Low rate Call girls in Shivaji Enclave Delhi NCR
How to Ace First Appointments
1. How to Have Awesome First
Appointments with Prospects
Michael Halper
SMART Sales Selling System
2. Not So Awesome – Example 1
Salesperson sends
email asking for
meeting
I agree to meet
Salesperson and
manager deliver
presentation
Problems
•They did not know anything about me
•It was all about them
•They did not tailor their message
•It did not make sense to meet
•They wasted valuable time
“Show Up and Throw Up”
3. Not So Awesome – Example 2
Salesperson hires
appointment setter
Appointment setter
schedules
appointment
Salesperson goes
on appointment and
says not a good
lead
Problems
•Assumed that the hard work is done
•Assumed the prospect knows their pain
•Assumed the interest has been built
•Potentially a missed opportunity
“Order Taking Mode”
4. Not So Awesome – Example 3
I set appointments
with current
customers and
warm leads
I go on
appointments
relying on product
knowledge
Half of the meetings
went OK, half were
not productive
Problems
•I did not make a great impression
•There were 0 quality leads produced
•Potentially missed opportunities
“Winging It”
6. Early Sales Process Stages
Stage GoalsInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
7. Early Sales Process Stages
Stage GoalsInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
8. Early Sales Process Stages
Stage GoalsInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
9. Early Sales Process Stages
Alternative Path – Instant AppointmentInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
10. Splitting Initial Contact and Appointment
• It can be common for your first contact to flow into an appointment
• There are benefits from preventing that and having two separate
conversations:
– An appointment at the time of first contact will be rushed
– Scheduling on another day allows you to put time on the prospects calendar
– The break and scheduling of the meeting will allow you and the prospect to be
more prepared for the first call
– You will have more time and attention to work with
• How to prevent:
– “You are asking very good questions. I actually would like to talk with you about
this in more detail and I have called you out of the blue. Do you have another 20
minutes to go through all of this now or should we put some time on the calendar
to get together?”
11. Early Sales Process Stages
Alternate Path – Instant PresentationInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
12. Early Sales Process Stages
Stage GoalsInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
13.
14. Pre-Qualify
Ask a Couple of Questions
Have a couple of questions as the central piece
and purpose of your call.
– Makes call more conversational
– Extracts valuable information
– Pre-qualifies to determine if it makes sense to keep
talking
Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good
Prospects from Bad
15. Pre-Qualify
Building Your Questions
Here is a step-by-step process that you can use
to build an optimum list of questions:
1. Identify the product you ultimately want to sell
2. Identify the benefits it offers the buyer
3. Identify the pain point that the benefit fixes
4. Compose one or two question for each pain point
Full training module on YouTube – Sell More by Screening the Good
Prospects from Bad
16.
17. Early Sales Process Stages
Stage GoalsInitial Contact
Cold Call
Inbound Call
Email
Event
2 to 5 minutes
80% on prospect
20% on you
Appointment
Phone Call
Face-to-Face
Discovery
20 to 30 minutes
50% on prospect
50% on you
Presentation
Discovery
Presentation
Demonstration
1 to 2 hours
20% on prospect
80% on you
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information
Build interest in having conversation
Schedule a First Conversation
Pre-Qualify (Cont.)
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery)
Build interest in meeting
Schedule a First Meeting
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. Appointment Preparation
Research
•Company website
•Yahoo Finance
•Awareness of what the company does
•Awareness of recent news, events, industry
trends
•Research prospect on social media
Prepare Questions
•Qualifying questions
•Discovery questions
23. Appointment Execution
First 50% of meeting focused on prospect
•First 50% of meeting focus on prospect
•Find out what is working/not working
•Current goals/challenges/initiatives
•Gather organizational details
•Hard qualify the prospect
Second 50% focused on you
•Explain what you do
•Connect the value you offer with prospect pain
•Share how you differ
•Tell a client story
•Share ROI details
•Close for the next step in your process
24. Performing Discovery
Current Environment
•What are you using for…?
•How long have you been using that?
•What is working well? What could be working better?
•Is there a current agreement in place?
•What are some of the challenges you are focused on decreasing?
•If you could wave a wand and change one thing, what would that be?
•Pre-qualifying questions
25. Performing Discovery
Goals and Objectives
•What are the key goals that your organization is focused on for this
year?
•What are the key objectives that your success is measured by?
•What are the key critical business issues that your are impacted by?
26. Performing Discovery
Organizational Details
•What is your role in the organization?
•What does your organization look like?
•What other organizations are impacted by this area?
•Who else should I try to connect with regarding this?
27. Performing Discovery
Decision Making Process
•What is the decision making process?
•What are the key factors that a decision will be based on?
•Who is the ultimate decision maker?
•Is there a committee that this type of purchase has to go through?
•Hard qualifying questions
28. Closing for Next Step
• Identify and discuss the different directions to take the conversation
• Identify which direction the prospect would like to go
• Clarify the timing
• Reconcile time with compelling event
• Schedule reminders
• Add to appropriate drip campaign
• Follow-up at agreed timing
29. SMART Sales System
Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services
Sales Training
•Recorded Training Videos
•Live Sales Training (virtual)
•Live Sales Training (in-person)
•Custom Sales Training
30. Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services
• Will help you to build your pitch
• Library of Scripts and Templates
• Library of Scripts and Templates
• CRM Functionality
31. Sales Methodology Software Platform Professional Services
Sales Consulting
•Sales Pitch Development
•Sales Process Mapping
•Script Assessment
Sales Coaching
•One-on-One Sales Coaching
•Weekly coaching
•Coaching Hour Blocks
When a gatekeeper answers your call, he or she is instantly trying to screen you out and determine if you are a friend or a foe. A friend would be someone who is already connected with the company in someway like a current vendor or business partner and a foe would be someone who is an outsider trying to get in, like one of those cold callers that is calling to try to get in and sell something.
What we want to do is try to get the gatekeeper to see us as a friend so they will less likely to screen us out and one very easy way to do that is to use a tactic of name dropping.
For example, we can say something like, I spoke with Tom White in accounting and now I am trying to reach someone in HR. This presents the image that we are already engaged and not a complete outsider and this minor tweak can often be the difference in the gatekeeper letting you in.
And if we have not met with Tom White in accounting, we could still name drop his name by saying something like, I am planning on meeting with Tom White in accounting and before I do that, I would like with someone in HR.” Nothing misleading there as we likely are planning on meeting with Tom at some point and by sharing his name and our plans, we give off the image as we are not a complete outsider.
We can also name drop external clients that we work with to establish some level of credibility. That is not going to be as strong as sharing internal names and is probably only going to really help when talking with more senior gatekeepers like executive assistants.