Sales tips, leadership communication skills insight and more from Steve Giglio, sales training professional for more than 25 years.
Often clients request training on their “Pitch Decks,” meaning their business’s value proposition that illustrates their product offering/recommendation.
But here’s the “rub” with this. Client Representatives fall in love with their pitch deck to such a degree that they believe it’s the cure-all/silver bullet for any client meeting.
Have you thoroughly planned your moves before your next client meeting? You must! It is critical that YOU know why you are having the meeting and can anticipate what is important to your client. What are you trying to accomplish? With a solid client plan you can be flexible but also focused and clever enough to relationally steer the call.
Rainmakers, aka Heroes, have been neglected as potential coaches. The rainmaker is the person the entire company looks up to as the leader of new business. He’s the “cool guy.” The guy who’s impervious to any client pressure or threat. The guy whose sales stories you can’t wait to listen to and learn from. He’s also an essential resource salespeople can learn from and emulate, but…
…no one ever explained to him how important it is to care and coach. Every company needs more internal coaches, whether they be sales managers or rainmakers breaking their actions down into transferable steps. He needs to be converted into a Champion.
Fast Company just published this article where I explain further what I mean:
Ahhh…our Hero. Always there to come in and save the day. He is the one by which all others are measured. He gets the results and doesn’t need anyone else. He is Super Executive!
But a Hero is not what companies need.
Client follow up and persistence are great skills leaders can pass along to their associates. For those who know me, it will be no surprise that for effective client follow up I always recommend a systematic approach. I also recommend chanelling the Rolling Stones and Columbo.
Client research has been my theme the last few weeks. In my last post, I listed 10 cricital things to know about your client before entering into a meeting or negotiation. Did you find them out? I promised to dive deeper into a few of the recommendations so this week, we’ll do just that.
Last week, I gave you some basic considerations when preparing for a client meeting. It takes a good amount of preparation and thought, yes?
As promised, this week I’ll list what I have found to be some useful required information that you must know before going into the meeting. Know all of this and you’ll be set for a very successful, productive meeting.
One of great opportunities in negotiating during a meeting is determining who sits at the “second” table from the current table at which you are sitting. You know that eventually you need a sales meeting with the decision maker. But do you know who it is and what their issues are? Getting to the second table is not that difficult if you know how to position yourself with your day to day contact. The solution lies in probing.
My leadership development clients are often in position to make recommendations. I tell them that delivering a client recommendation is all about taking a stand and presenting your idea declaratively, no matter what.
Some executives feel that being too declarative is arrogant. I disagree.
Clients often ask me how to establish control of a client meeting to preempt the meeting from turning into Meet The Press or the Spanish Inquisition. I say take a breath, smile and then try this.
At the start of the meeting, after one piece of small talk, present the three to four points to your agenda for the meeting. Then articulate the two to three benefits of the meeting from this agenda that your client will realize. Close the conversation by stating what time it is now and when you’ll finish up.
It might sound like this:
Insipration comes from many sources. I recently returned from a magnificent and humbling East African safari. I was deeply moved by two inspiring people: our safari trackers Ray and Marlon from the Serengeti Game Reserves. Their genuine personal connection to every animal I was photographing was astounding. When each man spoke, providing great motivational stories, they fixated on our subject, never moving their eyes but all the while putting into context for me what I was shooting. I learned from and was inspired by the greatness of nature and its natural selection from their heartfelt involvement.
Fast forward to us. Motivating your employees as a leader is about being authentic and communicating in the moment what your beliefs are and what you care about in a way that uniquely frames who you are. Say what you truly care about and watch people follow. We did with Ray and Marlon.
