Whether we are cold calling, acting on referrals or meeting customers at social events, the minimum acceptable goal of a first meeting is to get the second meeting. Certainly, the ultimate goal of a sales meeting is to win the business however, in B2B selling the close rarely happens in one meeting. Therefore, the minimum acceptable result of any sales meeting is to get another meeting.
The best sellers are inquisitive, listen well and have many interests. As a result they develop deeper and more genuine relationships with customers. People like to work with people with whom they have common experiences. Working in the same industry is one area of commonality but people do not want to spend every minute talking shop. Talking about non-work experiences allows people to know and trust each other better. Here are two stories, from my HP days, to illustrate the benefit of being inquisitive and having many interests.
Prospecting days – Once a quarter the sales and marketing trainees (of which I was one) would canvas a geographic territory on foot. We would be put in pairs, dropped off at 10:00am, picked up at 3:00pm, and would head back to the office to see who got the most leads. The winning team got $100.
My partner and I walked into a manufacturing company in Seattle. We introduced ourselves to the receptionist and asked if we could get five minutes with their president. Before the receptionist could answer, we heard a male voice yell, “Go away! We’re not buying anything!” I looked left to see the angry president sitting at a desk in front of a mounted steelhead that had a fly dangling out of its mouth.
I apologized for bothering him and said we would leave but also asked, “How long did it take you to land that steelhead?” Thirty minutes of fishing talk and a Diet Coke later, we were shaking hands with the owner and setting up time to present our MRP solution. (Note: I really do fly fish and tie flies. I really did want to know how he caught that fish so it was genuine interest.) Faking it does not work.
Dinner with the CIO of Boeing – We were hosting an Open Systems conference at Cambridge Technology Group in Boston, Massachusetts. One of my guests was then the CIO of Boeing, Terry Millholland. We ended the first day with dinner at The Museum of Fine Arts. The evening started with wine and a 30-minute tour of the museum, in which we accompanied our customers. Following the tour we had dinner where I was seated to Terry’s left.
On Terry’s right, there was another sales person who went into pitch mode, with his customer, the minute we sat down. The person had printed slides and was touting the benefits of Open Systems and HP-UX. Anyone could tell that the customer was not comfortable. I could also see Terry cringing when he sat down because I’m sure he thought the same was going to happen to him.
After being seated, I turned to Terry asking, “So, what do you like doing when you’re not working?” Terry smiled and started talking about his love of hiking and travel. The dinner lasted almost 90 minutes and we spent the whole time talking about where we liked to hike and travel. We had big laughs about mistakes I had made while backpacking and snow camping. I also got about 10 minutes of feedback on what he thought about the first day of presentations.
At the end of the dinner, we were supposed to send our customers off to tour the museum by themselves. This was planned time for them to specifically enjoy the museum without their sales person. We got up from the table and Terry shook my hand saying, “Thank you so much for not doing to me what that guy did to his customer.” I replied that I had enjoyed our conversation. He invited me to tour the museum with him during which time we learned more about each other while admiring the art. From that evening on, I was always able to get time with Terry when I needed it. He would also occasionally reach out to me even after I left HP.
Hire inquisitive sales people who have a broad set of interests and experiences. This is a key foundational makeup of incredibly successful sales people.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
