Identify a Dream Customer with just four questions

The only thing worse than having no customer is having the wrong customer. The wrong customer takes more of your time and resources because they don’t have a clear view of what successful delivery looks like. They demand unrealistic requirements because they don’t know what they’re asking for. The wrong customers anger quickly because they know they aren’t getting value but can’t put their finger on why.

How do we identify the right customer or what I call a Dream Customer?

Need – Can your customer describe how your offering addresses their need? Seems simple but I’ve seen many situations where the customer wants what you’re selling because it’s a hot product or because everyone else is doing it. The problem is they can’t describe why they need it. When this happens the customer often lacks the will necessary to help you help them. We’re much better off when they know their needs.

Experience – Is the customer able to assess your performance? The customer must have experiences that enable them to assess our delivery. If they don’t have previous experiences it’s a very powerful sales tool for us to help educate them and we need to. By doing so we become the trusted advisor who helped them truly grade us. Unless the customer can assess us and offer feedback that helps us be at our best, they belong higher in the funnel until we can educate them. Blog: Three paths to earning customer credibility

Success – Are competitors aggressively pursuing this customer’s business? Successful customers have many suitors and they make good advocates. When we have no competition, it’s too good to be true. In this occasion we need to be honest with ourselves about whether it warrants our company’s resources and personal time, to sell to a customer that nobody else wants. This happens more than we think. These are usually companies in decline or those who are so short-sighted that they don’t care about the success of their suppliers.

Time – Is there time to succeed? One of the most common reasons for project failure is when the customer and supplier don’t have time to succeed. Results are demanded before the project can realistically be done and ROI requirements are based on that short timeline. Time really is money and if the customer is giving us two weeks to deliver something that takes five, we’re asking for failure. It’s up to the salesperson to help the customer develop realistic time expectations but if we exhaust our ability to do so, we must evaluate the viability of this business.

We don’t always get to sell to ideal customers but it’s helpful to know what a dream customer looks like so this can be part of our qualification and selling process. The only thing worse than no customer is the wrong customer. By using these four questions we can quickly understand if we’re pursuing the wrong customer.

©2015 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

 

 

The Buzz: Creator, Contributor or Consumer – Sell no matter what

Company leaders strive to create positive noise about their offering. They strive to be the topic of positive conversations. They want to create “buzz” for their company and offerings, resulting in heightened visibility and credibility. It’s a bonus when we get to sell for the buzz creators but the best salespeople also know how to sell when we aren’t the hot topic. There are three stages of what I call the “buzz spectrum” and salespeople must be able to execute The Five Abilities® (VISABILITY, CREDABILITY, VIABILITY, CAPABILITY, & RELIABILITY) in all stages.

Stage 1: Creator – It’s beneficial to sell for a company that is creating positive buzz. (I’ll save the problem of negative buzz for another article.) With this fortunate circumstance we have to be ready to use this added visibility to see more customers and win more business. Customers will want in-depth information on our innovations that created the buzz and we have to be credible representatives so that we avoid turning buzz into doubt.

In the late 1980s, HP ran a set of “What if…” commercials. The message was that HP sales and service people were consultative problem-solvers. It was great visibility for those selling for HP but if we didn’t engage with a consultative approach, we lost the benefit of the buzz. If our focus was pitching versus problem-solving the customers would think, ‘Where’s the person in the commercial?’

Stage 2: Contributor – In the real world, we most often sell without the benefit of buzz created by our company and products. Many salespeople have never had the fortune of working for a buzz creator. Fortunately, creators need contributors. They need others, often channel partners, to amplify the buzz. When in the contributor role we must demonstrate our credibility with direct knowledge of the buzz and we must present ourselves as capable and reliable deliverers of products creating the buzz.

Windows 95 was one of the most anticipated product launches in the PC industry. Microsoft was creating so much buzz you couldn’t find a trade publication without an article on “Chicago” – the product’s code name. It was critical that our channel partners were credible experts on the product, that they were seen as viable Microsoft partners such that they had access to information not publicly available and that they were capable of helping customers succeed with the new product. Microsoft had to ensure that channel partners had access to information but it was ultimately up to the partner to become credible and viable experts so they could contribute to the buzz.

Stage 3: Consumer – Veteran salespeople know that there are many times when we aren’t creating or contributing to the buzz – we are simply consumers of information. Importantly, this doesn’t mean we’re irrelevant to our customers but we must help them understand how this new buzz will advance their business. We must learn enough to know how to help or we’ll be behind and become a hindrance.

When I sold checks for American Bank Stationery, in the early 1980s, the banking industry was just introducing the Automated Teller Machine (ATM). ATMs and credit cards, were creating buzz as the future of how people would get cash and how they’d make purchases. Part of that buzz was that people wouldn’t need checks anymore. No need for a checkbook, simply use a little plastic card. Certainly, we had to tout the continued benefits of checks but we also had to acknowledge where the industry was moving. When we did sales training for new accounts representatives, we helped them develop benefit statements for the bank’s ATMs and credit cards. We still represented checks as necessary in certain cases but we changed our approach to adapt to the industry and to ensure we were helping – not hindering. We remained consultative and kept selling checks even though we weren’t creating any buzz.

Know where you are on the buzz spectrum (creator, contributor or consumer) and adjust your sales approach to ensure you remain consultative and beneficial to your customers.

©2015 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

How to Qualify and Close with One Question

At Microsoft, in early 2001, we were preparing for the launch of the next version of Windows. The job of our sales team was to get top target companies to install and use our software six months prior to launch. This was so they could give us feedback and so we could reference their success as part of our launch messaging. We called this an early adoption program.

Roger and Jennifer were two of our newest salespeople. Roger had the responsibility for convincing his major customer in California to join the early adoption program, while Jennifer was assigned to a key opportunity in Texas.

Roger got right on his task and, after one meeting in California, he got an emphatic yes from his customer. His contact, a Procurement Director in the IT organization, said they would be excited to join our early adoption program. Roger proudly logged the win in our CRM tool.

Jennifer also immediately scheduled meetings in Texas. Over a period of two months, she was told no by four different customer contacts. However, in each meeting she learned about different concerns held by multiple influential people. After each meeting Jennifer worked with our product teams to get answers to the customer’s questions and, on her fifth trip to Texas, she got a yes from their VP of Marketing.

Fast-forward three months when the early adoption program was expected to be fully operational. Roger’s customer had not yet completed the implementation of our products – the same people were still asking basic questions and Roger had not found other influencers or decision-makers. Jennifer’s customer was fully implemented. She was working with dozens of people from disciplines ranging from engineering to public-relations, and they had uncovered many areas where the program and product needed improvement.

Roger failed where Jennifer succeeded.

What was the issue? – Yes is not always yes. The instant “yes” that Roger got was made before the customer had enough information to know if this was a viable action. That and he got the yes from a person who was not a decision-maker. In Roger’s case, yes was an intention not a decision. Jennifer’s multiple meetings ending in “no” required her to address the customer’s concerns, to ensure this was a viable action for both companies. She got buy-off from key influencers and decision-makers. Their eventual yes was a decision not an intention.

Why did this happen? – Roger didn’t fully qualify his customer. He failed to assess the decision-making ability of the people he was working with and thus didn’t help the right people understand what it meant to be part of the program. Jennifer asked one simple question of her multiple contacts to both assess their decision-making capability and to determine whether her customer was a viable candidate for our early adoption program.

What was Jennifer’s one simple question to qualify and close?

If you tell me yes today, what will we do tomorrow?

Jennifer may not have used these exact words each time, but at the end of each of those five discussions she wanted to know the best next actions should the customer start this program tomorrow. In the first four meetings she got answers like: 

  • “Well, we’d have to make sure our VP of Marketing is on-board.”
  • “You’d have to give me a few weeks to get the division heads in line.”
  • “I’d need you to present the program to our VP of Operations in order for us to get the funding.”
  • “Oh, we couldn’t start tomorrow. There’s way more things we’d need to know before we could start implementation.”

Each of those meetings led Jennifer to a new set of people to gather information from, which she did. That series of meetings and questions also led her to the real decision-maker. At the end of the fifth meeting she asked the question again to the VP of Marketing and the answer was definitive.

  • “You’ll meet with the program team as soon as your engineers can get here. I’ll introduce you to our PR team today so you can start working on press releases. They all know you’re coming.”

This isn’t a stereotypical closing question, nor is it a tricky one. It’s simply a good selling practice that tells you where the customer is in the decision-making process. From this one question you learn if you’re talking to decision-makers who can influence others and you learn about issues that might otherwise go unsaid. Most importantly you ensure that yes is a decision, not an intention.

Again, like Jennifer, who went on to become a Director, and other successful salespeople, there are different ways of asking this question, but the best have this in their toolkit because each time you ask it, you get one step closer to yes.

©2015 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

Five things people buy that are not on the invoice

What it says on the invoice is different than what customers really buy when they choose our products or services. Customers certainly want products that work and services that deliver expected results, and that’s what they pay for. However, when choosing to buy from us versus our competitors the customer’s considerations are much more personal than features, functions and things that show up on balance sheets and income statements. People making the final decisions are considering more than products and services. ​

Until you uncover customer’s personal wins you’re only skimming the surface when selling them on you, your company and your product. They’re making a commitment on behalf of their company and even if they’re the owner it’s important that we understand all that they expect from us. The personal motivation for buying (PMFB) is what we need to uncover through selling engagements and they fall in five categories: safety, simplicity, reward, recognition and revolution. Decision makers won’t often articulate their PMFB but they will always display it. It’s up to us to recognize it. ​

Safety – Some people are buying with the main intent of reducing the risk of something bad happening to them. These are people who hate surprises, and who want things to go exactly as planned. You could argue that all of us want safety when making a big purchase but this isn’t the main driver for all people. Indicators when we have someone looking for safety are requests for guarantees, deeper understanding of past work, references and they tend to ask a lot of ‘what if’ and ‘how do you know’ questions. ​

Simplicity – Some people are buying just to make their life easier. They want to off load work so they can get to the gym or have dinner with the family, at a decent hour. They want to hand off a project with confidence it will get done. These people sometimes don’t care how we get the job done but just want to make sure we deliver the desired results on time. This means we sometimes don’t get any more detail than what the final result looks like. Things to look for are people who get antsy if they need to answer many questions for you. These people will lay out the deliverable then expect you to figure out the details. ​

Reward – These are people expecting something good to happen for them should our product or service succeed. Bonuses, raises, promotions or new jobs are typical targets for these people. These people want to be very involved while our company delivers products or services. Things to look for are people who are clearly on a timeline. Whatever it is that we are selling has to be delivered by a certain date in order for them to get their reward. The catch with people in this category is that they might be the first to abandon us if something goes wrong. ​

Recognition – Some might ask, “Isn’t this the same as reward?” It is not. People in this category simply get satisfaction from recognition that they have contributed. Their motivation is to be the strongest contributor to a company or team. Some in this category will be senior enough that they just know when the work is good and others will be looking for affirmation from superiors. Unlike those working for the reward, these people just want to be valued. Things to look for are people who others go to for coaching or help. They will typically be very open with information because they just want everyone performing well.

Revolution – These people want to lead significant change. They are the ones who aren’t fully satisfied by just solving a problem but want to create a legacy. They are talking to us because they think our product or service can help them achieve that. These people want their rewards and recognition but what really drives them is the opportunity to do something never done before. Things to look for are people who aren’t satisfied with incremental improvement. These people will use words like create, innovate, and change.. ​

A very important part of selling is to determine quickly which PMFB is driving decision makers and influencers. Understanding the five things people buy, along with features and benefits, allows us to present the totality of what your customer is looking to “buy” versus just what they “pay” for.

This post is an update of a previous entry – addressing a topic which needs to be revisited often.

©2013 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities™ LLC

 

Handling objections via consultative selling; Four simple steps

In almost all of my presentations and workshops, I get questions about handling objections. It’s a part of selling that is uncomfortable for many sales people. Since it comes up so often, I thought I’d blog my answer, which goes something like this…

  • An objection is not a barrier. It’s communication from your customer.
  • An objection is a sale waiting to happen.
  • The more heated the objection the more important the issue is to the customer.
  • The more important it is to the customer, the more customers rely on our problem solving abilities.
  • Solving problems is what incredibly successful sales people do.

There are four steps to turning objections into problem solving and consultative selling actions. I call it What-Why-What-Go.

Step 1: Learn WHAT the problem is. What symptoms are you seeing? Where does it hurt? In most cases, the customer is objecting to something you’ve proposed because it doesn’t clearly address their problem. Before you can begin to address the objection, you first need to understand the problem. Most customers who articulate objections will also understand what their problems are but sometimes you have to figure it out together.

Step 2: Learn WHY the problem exists. Diagnose the symptoms. Why does it hurt? This is the most important step in consultative selling. Without you and your customer agreeing on WHY the problem exists, you are guessing at solutions. Guessing relies on luck to find the right answer, and luck isn’t reliable.

Step 3: Identify WHAT options exist to address WHY the problem exists. Getting agreement on WHY a problem exists allows you to develop remedies or proposals that address the WHY rather than guessing and reacting to WHAT is happening. Do you need Tylenol or something stronger? Addressing the WHY is reliable.

Step 4: Select the best next action and GO DO IT. During the selling process, the best next action is to adapt your proposal so that it addresses the customer’s objection in the best possible way. Rarely will your action eliminate the objection entirely, but by problem solving with your customer you’ve helped them accept the imperfect proposal as the best, and to see that you’re the best to deliver it.

In many parts of Asia, it’s hard to get customers to pay for intellectual property, especially digital products like music, movies, software, etc. What was the problem? People were not willing to pay for software, music and movies.

Why wouldn’t they pay? It was easy to assume that the problem was price because there is much poverty in Asia. With that assumption, many companies reduced prices. Sales would increase for a bit, but then would decline to previous levels. The only difference was that we got less for products that people paid for.

So what was the real reason WHY people wouldn’t pay? We learned it was two difficult issues. One cultural reason was the belief that people were stupid if they bought something they could get free. Compounding this was the newly educated youth who considered it a badge of honor to break our code. Now that we’re more educated on WHY customers don’t want to pay, we’re better able to build plans that address the WHY rather than guessing and reacting to the WHAT.

What-Why-What-Go. Handle objections in the same way you handle business problems.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

Consultative, collaborative sales closes – 3 reliable methods

In previous blogs, I’ve written that the best sales people rarely close. This is because when working collaboratively with the customer decision-makers; everyone knows when it’s time to move forward. See more at Great Closers Rarely Close

This doesn’t mean that customers don’t occasionally need a friendly nudge. Whether the customer’s company is a privately held family business or a Fortune 500 enterprise, buying decisions are hard. We’re asking an individual to take accountability for a decision that affects their company, co-workers, external stakeholders and their personal performance. Often times the easiest path is not to make a decision and that is a very common reason for delays.

When we get into these situations, where decision-makers have all the information but are having a hard time moving forward, it’s our responsibility to help them work through this difficult, personal process. Since a lot of the concern is about how decisions affect others, the best way to help customers is to direct the conversation towards the impacts they’ve already agreed to. Three decision points that help customers are:

Timeline – During the sales process, it’s a good discipline to build a basic project timeline with the customer. This calls out key milestones and critical paths that show everyone what it looks like to be on the right road to success. Most importantly, a jointly created project plan that includes the purchase decision represents steps towards success that the customer agrees with along the way. Calling out milestones that they’ve already agreed upon is a natural part of the discussion that helps move decision-makers forward. This is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

Readiness – Part of a comprehensive project plan is company readiness. Decision delays result in less time for the company to prepare. Readiness comes in many categories. There may be required employee training. There may be things that other suppliers need to complete before work can begin. There may be community communication that cannot happen until the decision happens. Helping the customer acknowledge this is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

Primary stakeholders – We’ve talked about stakeholders, in general. Unfortunately, when the customer is in the tense moments of reviewing timelines and readiness factors, they sometimes lose focus on the most important stakeholders – their customers. In order for our customer to benefit from whatever we’re selling, they have to sell and/or save more. The foundation of the customer’s purchase motivation is in their desire to address their customer’s needs better. Understanding and emphasizing this is part of a consultative, collaborative sales close.

When decision-makers are having difficulty, lead the discussion to tangible things that they’ve already agreed to during the sales process. Turning the discussion to timeline, readiness and the impact on their primary stakeholders, is a key part of the consultative, collaborative close that helps customers move forward.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

Three steps that earn business VIABILITY with customers

In simple business terms, an investment proposal that forecasts profits is part of proving business VIABILITY. This is true whether it’s an internal proposal or a proposal from a sales person. However, given that it’s still just an idea that forecasts a profit, we still have to validate the proposal and build confidence via analysis and validation.

The typical language of business VIABLITY is financial calculations such as return on investment (ROI), internal rate of return (IRR), payback, etc. These are standard formulas for forecasting and reporting on the health of an investment. When in the sales mode, by definition, you are estimating what numbers go into the algebraic formulas with the goal of forecasting a result that makes your customers confident with your predictions.

Calculating the numbers may or may not be the role of the sales person depending on the business you’re in but making the customer confident about the results is absolutely what incredibly successful sales people do. To construct the customer message that earns business VIABILITY, I use a simple problem solving methodology that I call What-Why-What-Go. www.go

What is the opportunity or the problem that requires a solution?

Sales people must have enough knowledge to describe the customer’s problem in the customer’s language.

When I was trying to get radio stations and record stores to carry my children’s album, I knew there was a movement in the industry to evolve the music to be more appealing to the parents who were spending the money and choosing the radio stations. I built my pitch around the proposition that parents would have as much fun listening to the music as their kids thus making them more likely to buy them. I also put myself in the position to take advantage of some luck when the likes of Kenny Loggins, Nicolette Larson and Carly Simon decided to produce ‘children’s music that parents would like too.’

Why is your proposal the best? Why should the customer trust your calculations?

Knowing “why” is the most important part of the value proposition. Explaining “why” leads you to assemble the logic that allows the customer to put the pieces together for themselves.

When selling my album, I used industry information that was in major publications, like Billboard and USA Today, which suggested the need for children’s music to evolve to appeal to parents. I used this information with radio stations and music stores to show “why” they needed more of this content to offer to listeners and buyers.

What are the steps forward?

To confirm business VIABILITY, you must show the customer how they achieve the results you have proposed. Part of this is you and your company’s ability to deliver what you promise. A bigger part is the customer’s ability to manage what you’ve proposed.

Continuing with the story of my music pursuits, I was able to help some of the stores and radio stations with their marketing of children’s music overall and specifically how to market the children’s music that appealed to parents. So they didn’t just buy my music, they also got a marketing plan that helped them sell more of my CDs along with those from other artists in the same music genre.

I have many examples of this related to Microsoft and HP but I wanted to emphasize that the same steps are needed, in all sales situations, to prove business VIABILITY. Your delivery might be more formal and complex in big-ticket situations, but “what-why-what-go” still applies.

Lastly, proving business VIABILITY can be the most rewarding part of selling when done well. It’s the time when you learn the most about your customer. If they’re leaning towards choosing you, it’s in their interest to have you present the most viable proposal. When you’re helping each other, you’re building the core of a relationship that can result in a customer for life.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

Great closers rarely close

I was asked recently, “Where do you cover “closing” in The Five Abilities™ methodology? The whole reason for selling is to close sales, so shouldn’t there be a ‘CloseABILITY’ section?” My answer? Great sales people rarely close because when selling is done well, the customer just knows when buying is the best next step. In my 32+ years of selling I can count the number of times I’ve had to do a hard close and all of them were to help the customer make their own deadline.
​

The hard close is something we see often in transactional or retail settings where getting the customer to buy before they walk out the door is a necessity because you may never see them again. There is no relationship development in most retail settings and, other than with high-end luxury goods, it’s rare that customers buy from the same retail sales person again. So asking for the order, handling objections, asking for the order again and then waiting in silence to turn up the pressure, are absolutely necessary skills for transactional sales people.
​

Conversely, relying on the hard close is a guaranteed way of failing in the world of B2B, relationship oriented selling. The big ticket, relationship nature of B2B selling, along with the number of people involved, means decisions cannot be made in a day and a hard close means hard closed doors the next time we knock.
​

In reality, great B2B sales people are always closing but because their motivation is to help, customers do not recognize it as closing or even selling. In B2B relationships where repeat business is critical, closing is about constantly moving the decision process forward with helpful information and consistently supporting decisions that have been made. In this environment closing takes many different forms.
​

  • Incredibly successful sales people recognize the nervous decision maker and will proactively share information to strengthen the buyer’s resolve regarding the VIABILITY of a product or service. That’s closing.
  • Incredibly successful sales people will be the first to tell customers when we have made a mistake which earns us CREDABILITY and RELIABILITY. That’s closing.
  • Incredibly successful sales people will know the purchasing process as well as the decision maker and will show CAPABILITY by helping them through the steps. That’s closing.
  • Incredibly successful sales people will know the customer’s internal politics as well as decision makers and will help guide them to decisions that result in personal wins. That’s closing.
  • Incredibly successful sales people will be there to help the decision maker address objections by detractors, even after the sale is transacted. That’s closing.

Great sales people instinctively recognize things that keep the sales process from moving forward. With this knowledge they proactively execute to help themselves and their decision making customers, over the hurdles. Such hurdles can take the shape of conflicting opinions, fears and uncertainty, so each act of getting over a hurdle is, by itself, a close. Yes, this is like the popular carnival game Whack-A-Mole, and while we should always avoid violence with customers, there are a lot of similarities between selling and whacking mechanical moles.
​

How do sales people become instinctive and proactive? Business and sales experience are equally important because we need to be increasingly consultative. Planning without over analyzing is also a key trait of great sales people. Sometimes the planning is formal, which typically happens in very large companies, but it is often the small adjustments with teams and customers that are most meaningful. The latter is much more applicable with today’s speed of business.

​
Having a methodology such as The Five Abilities™, which guides people to quickly focus on areas they aren’t making necessary progress is helpful in identifying where the objections and detractors are going to be. The instinctive behavior of great sales people becomes a thoughtful, helpful response versus a knee-jerk reaction.

​
The Five Abilities™ methodology facilitates immediate and instinctive focus on the helpful closes that need to be done today and in the future, in the areas of VISABILITY, CREDABILITY, VIABILITY, CAPABILITY and RELIABILITY.

©2013 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities™ LLC

The BEST sales people sell GROWTH – Three reasons why

Some sales people lead with value propositions that focus on reducing things. Cost reductions, risk avoidance, and other things that emphasize what we do not want to happen. The best sales people focus on helping customers grow things. Enhancing revenue, increasing productivity, and growing profitability are a few areas from which growth propositions are built.

When we focus our value propositions on growth rather than reductions that is when we get the best appointments, the best engagements and the best customers. Certainly, managing costs and eliminating waste are important things to all business leaders however these things are not typically the primary focus of key decision-makers within growing organizations.

Best Appointments – We all know that there are many who can say ‘no’ but few who can say ‘yes’. This is the nature of business. It does not take much influence and authority to say ‘no’ but it takes a lot of influence and authority to say ‘yes’ especially when it pertains to new ways to advance business. People with final decision-making authority are the kinds of leaders who like to create new ways to grow revenue, enhance customer satisfaction, increase productivity, etc. Things that lead to growth make decision-making movers-and-shakers excited to talk to us. 

Best Engagement – The discussions with these decision-making leaders tends to focus on how we can make things work. They want to know how we can jointly deliver the results that we propose. The engagement typically results in us getting deep knowledge of the customer’s operations and challenges. This allows us to make proposals more precise and profitable. When we are not talking to key decision-makers we often find discussions that focus more on risk reduction rather than the rewards. These are people who either cannot or do not want to take accountability for any chance of failure. They see risk as the door to potential disaster while the leaders striving for growth see risk as the door to greater opportunity.

Best Customers – When we build our growth proposals with decision-making leaders we end up winning customers who become teammates. They look forward to the personal and business wins they get when we are successful, together. They win when we win. They stand with us when the unexpected occurs and, of course, they stand with us when we achieve the growth goals that we proposed and sharpened with their help. We have a loyal customer who will help us find more business both in their own organization and in other organizations. 

When I was at HP, over 20 years ago, we won a large manufacturing project with the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group (BCAG). This is compelling because it was something we were not supposed to win. BCAG was replacing a system that was deployed almost a decade earlier by our key competitor. It was assumed that the incumbent would win the business. Their key value proposition was that they were the least risky choice. The mantra that spread among the risk-averse evaluators was that nobody would get fired for choosing the incumbent.

The decision-making leaders spanned many business disciplines which included manufacturing, IT and procurement. All of them had to say yes in order for us to get the business and we were fortunate enough that the leaders in all organizations were movers and shakers focused on the growth and innovation this modernization would bring. They were specifically not excited about the less risky path.  

We were working with people who could say yes, and they did. We worked as teammates through development and implementation, which led to our shared success. That win led to even bigger opportunities at Boeing. It also led to long-term relationships that carry on to this day. All of this shared success started with the best appointments, the best engagements and it resulted in the best customers.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC

What is the goal of the first sales meeting?

The minimum acceptable outcome of any sales meeting is to get closer to winning a sale. Sure, eventually we want to close the sale but in B2B sales, it’s rare if ever when we close a major sale on the first call. Yet so many sales people go into that first meeting with a stack of PowerPoints that includes every piece of data and clever quips to get the customer to say yes in that one meeting. The mistaken belief is that customers make decisions based on product and service information alone. Not true.

Whether your first meeting comes from a cold-call, or a referral, the goal of the first sales meeting is to earn the second sales meeting.

  • You want to create enough interest and respect to get an invitation to come back.
  • You want to leave the right VISABILITY and earn enough CREDABILITY to get that next meeting.
  • The customer ends the meeting wanting and needing to know more.
  • They believe you have the right knowledge and experience.
  • This is the minimum acceptable goal of any sales call but particularly the first.

In reality, there is little difference between referral selling and cold calling, when it comes to how you conduct that first sales meeting.

Referrals – Many sales people and leaders feel that referrals are the only way to success. A CEO recently said to me that reference selling is “the only way to sell.” Referrals are certainly a benefit and if you earn them yourself through great execution, even better.  

Let’s explore what a referral is. At the simplest level, a referral is an introduction accompanied with positive statements about you, your company and your product. It’s a suggestion by a customer, business acquaintance or friend, for someone who doesn’t know you to agree to a meeting with you. At best, the person is introducing you because they feel you can help their friend or associate. Often, the person is simply asking a friend for a favor. All that referral gets you is the first meeting. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very valuable step but it’s just the first meeting.

Again, success in that first meeting is all about generating enough interest and trust to earn the second meeting. Being seen in the right way, by the right people, at the right time, (VISABILITY) combined with the right balance of listening and educating (CREDABILITY), is the way to earn that second meeting.

Cold Calls – This is simply the act of convincing someone who doesn’t know you, to offer his/her valuable time to learn about you, your company and your offering. It’s simply a different path to that first meeting. The art of cold calling is a subject in and of itself but in my experience being able to create interest in 30 seconds or less is the key to a successful cold-call. Within 30 seconds, you want the customer to ask for more information. Once they’ve asked you go from the annoying person on the phone to someone engaged in a conversation.

At the end of this cold calling path is the first meeting where you have to generate enough interest and trust to earn the second meeting. Therefore, whether you get time with the customer based on a referral or a cold-call, the goal of the meeting is the same. Earn the second meeting.

Starting that first meeting with this simple mind-set will get you more second meetings and more wins.

©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities®, LLC

rick.wong@fiveabilities.com

(480) 977-8298

Scottsdale, AZ

About  /  The Book  / Contact Us  /  Blog

Privacy Policy  /  Terms and Conditions / Locations

Get 2 Free Workbooks to Help You Win Lifelong Customers

Enter your information below to get your FREE workbooks.

© Copyright 2025 All Rights reserved. The Five Abilities.