7 years ago
February 21, 2017

5 Steps to Blowing Your Sales Meeting

Blowing your sales meeting is easy, in fact every day many sales people do it by accident.

Claire McConnachie Recruiter
Claire McConnachie

Blowing your sales meeting is easy, in fact every day many sales people do it by accident without even realizing – some of them have even blown their sales meeting before they walk through the door and meet their prospect! If you’re consistently losing out in sales meetings where you thought you had a good chance of making a sale then it might be because you’re making one of the five mistakes we’ve listed below.

Fail to prepare

Turning up to a meeting without putting in any preparation is a surefire way to blow your sales meetings. Failing to prepare can lead to you forgetting your contact’s name or forgetting vital details about their business, something that is sure to put off almost any prospect. You might also be under prepared with regards to your own products and services – if you can’t talk fluidly about what you’re offering then you need to put some further work into your sales pitch behind the scenes before stepping into the sales meeting.

Turn up late, disheveled and without vital items

Not meeting your appointment time or coming severely underdressed for the occasion are other ways you can put your prospect off. If you want your sales meeting to be a success then make sure you arrive early and dress appropriately for your industry – if in doubt it’s better to be too smart than underdressed! Forgetting vital display items or sales materials that you need for your pitch is another great way to communicate to your buyer that your products and services aren’t worth investing in.

Talk non-stop at your potential buyer

Talking non-stop without letting your prospect get a word in is another great way to blow your sales meeting. Why find out more and their business, what issues they have and how you might be able to help when you can bombard them with an endless string of reasons of why they should buy your products and work with your company. If you really want to blow your sales meeting keep talking until way past the scheduled end of the meeting – by which point they’ll be ready to kick you out!

Argue over any objections or concerns they may have

Does your buyer have some objections or concerns about how your product or services will help them? Many sales meetings fail here when the sales person tries to argue about the underlying logic behind a prospect’s concerns rather than acknowledging and understanding their issue and trying to explain how it is unfounded.

Push for a sale even after they’ve repeatedly said no

You’ve got to the end of the sales meeting and everything seems to have gone well so you give your prospect the opportunity to make a purchase. Unfortunately they don’t want to go ahead – what do you do? If you keep asking during the sales meeting you might get a couple of extra sales but generally you will actually lose sales in the long-run by being too pushy. By pushing too much you’ll be putting off customers that would have made a purchase later on if they had been given a bit more time to think about it.

Claire McConnachie Recruiter

Claire McConnachie

Claire has 4+ years of experience in sales and recruitment. As a Director of Client Services, her main objective is to connect great people to great companies by building strong relationships with both top clients and candidates in the sales industry. She specializes in sales roles of all seniority levels for both enterprise and start-up clients North American wide. When Claire isn't networking with top talent, she enjoys being outdoors, traveling and spending time with friends & family.

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