By Gary Kurtis, Board Vice President

As a sales coach, I’m often asked about the most glaring needs for sales training. As blogs limit my answer, a challenge that impacts most people is the ability to conduct an effective meeting, which includes logical next steps and the ability to close the deal.

Here are some suggestions taken from my long successful career:

• Prepare an agenda that is based on researching your client. Today, research can be conducted via everything on the web, through social media, and networking with those familiar with your customer.
• Always present your offerings as to how they positively impact the mission of your client, as their mission identifies why they are in business and, thus, what is most important to them.
• Then, create great discovery questions based on your research, their mission, and what you bring to the table so your client will clearly see how you help them with their challenges. A great question creates a reaction from the customer, as in “No one ever asked me that before.”
• We often have great meetings that then go nowhere. Always in the meeting have clearly defined next steps for both parties, as the objective is to move the ball forward and avoid the dreaded “silence” after the meeting.
• Those of us who go fishing know the great feeling of getting a fish on the line, offset by the feeling of helplessness when the fish goes free. In sales, if the fish goes free, look in the mirror as it often means the customer was not convinced in their mind that you identified and can solve their problems.
• Share stories of others as customers love to hear how those in a similar situation benefited from your solution and stories always sell.
• Lastly, a successful meeting means the customer is so confident in your offering that they are asking you how to move forward, thus alleviating the need to determine the best “closing technique.”

I hope you find these tips helpful in developing effective sales meetings.