Sales Training Series #23

Insights from recent trainings

Welcome back to another Sales Training series!

These posts give you access to some of the key insights I give clients during our trainings.

Note: I intentionally keep the descriptions vague for privacy reasons.

---

What we’re covering in this post:

- 3 ways to start a meeting that was booked from an SDR

- The perils of appearing unsophisticated to your buyers

- Tips for dealing with a buyers “shopping list”

- 2 examples of how a single word can completely derail a good question

---

Starting Strong

How you begin a sales meeting has a large impact on how you finish for 2 key reasons:

1) Inexperienced sellers often lose control in the beginning of a meeting and struggle to regain it later on. It is a lot harder to reign in control of the meeting later on than it is in the first 5 minutes when dynamics are more blank slate.

2) First impressions are sticky. If you don’t take control in the beginning, or at least give the impression that you’re the type of seller who can comfortably be in control, then trying to take control later on or especially in the end (where most sellers frantically attempt to do so with obtaining commitments) will only backfire.

There’s too much contrast between how you behaved at the beginning vs how you’re behaving at the end making it uncomfortable for everyone involved.

You want to stay consistent in terms of Frame and vibes. Consistency signals safety to your buyers.

Now, let’s look at a recent example of how an AE started his meeting with the notes given by an SDR.

The notes the AE was given:

• They are using [current vendor]

• Interested in various [product areas]

• Curious about ABC

Basic.. and all too common in SaaS.

Chad thoughts: Why have SDR’s if that information can be collected with a simple form or the with the AE asking a couple questions?

So, the AE began his meeting like this:

Seller: I definitely got some notes from from my colleague, who, I think, spoke with you, [SDR name]?

Pause.

How does that sound to you if you were the buyer?

Not very confident right?

I’ll breakdown the message even further:

Seller: I definitely got some notes from from my colleague, who, I think, spoke with you, [SDR name]?

“I definitely” = supplicating

“I think” = uncertain and not in control

“[SDR name]?” = more uncertainty giving the impression he is untrustworthy to the buyer

Now, let’s talk about the tips I gave the AE..

When you have limited notes (be that from an SDR, etc) then I suggest starting your meetings in a more open ended way by asking questions such as:

🐲: So what are you hoping to see or hear on this meeting today?

>they explain

🐲: Anything else you want to make sure we cover?

Point here is to ask broad but focused questions in order to get them to give you as much relevant context as possible (make up for the lack of notes)

Now if you were given notes, albeit they were bad / incomplete notes.

Or even if you received great notes prior to your meeting.. how do you kick off the meeting?

I suggest using one of 3 options: