Pre-Call Sales Planning Meeting Questions Matter
The varied amount and inconsistent quality of pre-call sales planning creates a wonderful opportunity for hungry sales teams to outperform their peers. Why? Because solution selling sales reps who prepare by knowing the answers to critical pre-call sales planning meeting questions are more likely to add value, handle sales objections, and secure the next steps required to move the sale forward.
Buyers Expect More from Sales People
According to Forester Research, executive level buyers report that less than 25% of salespeople meet their expectations, create value, or get agreement for a next step during their sales meetings. Much of the poor track record comes down to a lack of sales preparation. Sadly, executive buyers report that:
The Top 7 Pre-Call Sales Planning Meeting Questions
Assuming that you have a clear definition of your target clients and can express your unique value proposition, you must, at a minimum, know answers to the following seven pre-call sales planning questions before meeting with any potential client. Most of this can be learned from minimal research and by networking both internally and externally.
If a sales professional does not properly prepare for a sales call, how can they (and their company) be trusted by the customer to invest what is required to deliver an effective, and often complex, solution.
Most buyers, especially executive-level buyers will not tolerate irrelevant or “junior-level” questions. Make sure you prepare using recent and accurate information.
Your success stories should be clear, recent, interesting, and relevant to who you are speaking with. In this area, it is important that you bring specificity to the call.
Do not start a sales call or begin to prep for a sales call until you are clear about what you are trying to accomplish.
Sales managers know these seven pre-call sales planning questions are the ticket to play the game. You should not get on any client call unless you have clear answers to each question.
The Temptation to Avoid at All Costs — Winging It
We believe that less than 30% of sales people meet a buyer’s expectations on sales calls because they repeat the same mistake over and over again. They wing it. This forces them to focus on their company, their products, and their solutions instead of their customer and their customer’s customer.
The Bottom Line
Sales reps who prepare outperform those who wing it. Pre-call sales planning allows you to anticipate, add value, demonstrate competency, gain credibility and show respect. Unless you thoroughly prepare, you may never get the chance to move to the next stage in the sales cycle.
To take pre-call sales planning meeting questions to the next level, download The 30 Most Effective Sales Questions to Get Right
Explore real world results for clients like you striving to create higher performance