By controlling three key moments in every sales meeting, you can launch yourself from amateur to professional and close more work.
In my experience, the difference between an amateur salesperson and a professional is their ability to nail the key moments in every sales meeting. Unfortunately, most salespeople are messy and push too hard, which results in bad sales meetings and, more importantly, no sale.
The good news is it’s possible to sell work even when running bad sales meetings because the construction industry is so behind when it comes to professional sales skills. The great news is that by controlling three key moments in every one of your sales meetings, you can launch yourself from amateur to professional and close even more work. Which, if you don’t know already, will make you more valuable to your company and put more money in your pocket.
If you want those kinds of results, then don’t worry, it’s easy. Let’s talk about how you can do it.
Mindset. Before talking about nailing your sales meetings, I want one thing to be clear: probably the greatest difference between an amateur salesperson and a professional is that professionals never sell. Instead, they listen and make recommendations based on what they’ve heard. As a result, they are hardly ever pushy. If they are, it’s because they are so confident in their recommendation that they truly believe their client needs to take action.
So, as a starting point, you must adopt the mindset of a great salesperson:
- Genuinely listen.
- Genuinely try to help.
- Genuinely think whether you are the best service provider.
Start here, and the rest gets easier.
Now, here are the three key moments you need to nail in every sales meeting:
1. The introduction (setting clear expectations for the meeting). The start of the meeting may be the most critical part, and you can control the rest of the meeting if you start the meeting right.
Amateur salespeople jump right into the meeting and start talking about themselves. Professionals know that nailing the introduction comes down to setting clear expectations for the meeting.
The most important expectations to set are:
- Your agenda.
- The prospect’s agenda.
- The role you will play in the meeting.
- The potential outcomes of the meeting.
Basically, this should sound something like:
“Well, I’m very excited to meet. If I understand this right, the purpose of today is for us to get to know each other and see if there is a fit for us to work together.” (Your agenda.) “With that said, is that what you were expecting too? Do you have anything else to add to the agenda that you are expecting to cover today?” (Their agenda.)
[Wait for their reply]
“Great! We can cover that too. I know I have a bunch of questions I will be asking, but I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have along the way too.” (Your role.) “And with all that said, I’m figuring at the end of the meeting – based on how it goes – we’ll be talking about whether it makes sense to pursue projects together in the future. Does that sound right to you too?” (Potential outcomes.)
And that’s it! You’re just trying to start the meeting off on the right foot and make sure both sides are clear on where you’re headed. If you do this step alone, you’ll be shocked at how the quality of your sales meetings increases.
2. The climax (making a recommendation). Now, as crazy as it may seem, you should spend the majority of the meeting listening and asking questions. A good rule of thumb you’ll see in a lot of books about sales is to listen 70 percent of the time and talk the remaining 30 percent. This means you are asking tons of questions, gathering tons of data, and resisting the temptation to talk about how great your company is the whole time.
If you do this for the meeting, then it sets you up perfectly to nail key moment No. 2, which is when you take all that data you’ve collected and you make a recommendation. Typical recommendations may include:
- Pursuing work together.
- Setting up another meeting with more decision-makers.
- Passing on opportunities to work together because there is not a fit.
- Providing design-assist services on their next project to prove your capabilities.
- Bidding the next project that is in your sweet spot.
- And many more.
The point is, instead of selling your services regardless, you are actually listening and then recommending the appropriate next step based on what you’ve learned throughout the meeting. This transforms you from a salesperson into a consultant. And, as I said earlier, consultants make genuine recommendations where salespeople push their product no matter what.
So, don’t spend the whole time talking – aka selling. Instead, listen, ask questions, and then nail your recommendation. If you do, you will set yourself up perfectly for moment No. 3.
3. The resolution (scheduling next steps). If the recommendation is the climax of your sales meeting, then moment No. 3 is the resolution. It’s after the dust has settled and the recommendation has been made. At this point, the prospect should know exactly the right next step to take together – based on your recommendation – and now you just need to lock in that next step.
So, before the meeting ends, make sure you are taking two minutes to schedule the next steps.
- If your recommendation is a meeting with decision makers, schedule that meeting right then and there.
- If your recommendation is a design-assist proposal, schedule a proposal review right there.
- If your recommendation is to get to know each other, schedule the happy hour right there.
Get your calendar out, pick a date, ask if the prospect is available, and get it scheduled right there!
Why is this so important? Because getting sales meetings is hard. And getting people to respond to emails is hard. So, every time you are leaving a meeting saying, “Let’s shoot back and forth some emails after this to find a time for our next steps,” you are reducing your chances of actually getting those next steps!
Amateurs do that, and sometimes it works out, but professionals always schedule their next steps then and there to remove any doubt, and increase their chances of closing the deal.
Final advice: Get tons of meetings. It may go without saying, but in my experience you can never say it enough: the easiest way to be confident and nail sales meetings is to have a ton of them on your calendar. This gives you a ton of practice at nailing the three moments above. Without practice, you’ll struggle every time. It’s a lot easier to be confident when you have tons of meetings – and therefore tons of sales opportunities. It also empowers you to stop feeling so pressured to sell every deal and start feeling confident in a good “no.” It’s an absolute gamechanger.
Matt Verderamo, MS is a consultant at Well Built Construction Consulting. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
