Sales call in a box – Phil Bernstein's Advertising, Marketing, and Sales Training Blog

How to Pack Your Briefcase for a First Sales Call

It’s finally time to leave the office and head for that first meeting with a direct prospect. You’ve done your research and confirmed the appointment. What should you bring to the call?

Choose sales materials for your briefcase carefully — Photo by Minerva Studio

There are five things you absolutely must have at the first meeting. And one thing you probably have with you that belongs back at the office.

I’ll start with the thing you should leave at your office: your radio or television station’s Media Kit.

Leave the Media Kit pages on the big shelf. Stick the thing in a drawer. Burn it if you must. But do not bring it to a first meeting with a direct prospect.

Here’s why your Media Kit has no place on a first call: it was written by someone who has never met the client and knows nothing about them.

The Media Kit is about you. The client doesn’t care about you. The client cares about… the client.

That’s what the first meeting needs to be all about.

Leave the packages and the rankers back at the office. You won’t need them today. This is about gathering information and positioning yourself for the presentation.

So only bring things that allow you to focus on the customer. Here are the five essentials

A notepad. You must take notes. It shows respect for the client, and it’s crucial to making sure you remember the most important things you learn. You can have a legal pad, a reporter’s notebook or a Moleskine — whatever makes you comfortable. I take my notes on an iPad with a Brydge external keyboard. When the meeting’s over I upload the notes to Evernote, so that I can access them on my phone or computer. But I always bring paper as a backup in case the device crashes.
A pen. I feel silly mentioning this, but I’ve sat next to enough salespeople who had to ask the client for a pen that I’ll include it here. Frankly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring two, in case you run out of ink.
Business cards. Bring extras — you never know who’ll be in the room with you. And make sure you get cards from everyone you meet.
A list of questions you plan to ask. The list will keep you on track, and will make sure you don’t forget to ask something crucial. You are free to ask questions that aren’t on the list.
Your appointment calendar. You’re going to want to schedule a follow-up meeting at the end of your conversation. The most efficient way to set that appointment is to do it when you’re sitting in the client’s office. They’ll have their calendar, so bring yours.

Finally, write down a a preliminary dollar goal for the account, and an objective for the meeting you’re about to have. In The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales, James Muir calls these the Sales Objective and the Call Objective.

Muir defines the Sales Objective as “the revenue (or outcome) you anticipate generating by closing this particular opportunity with this particular client.”

Muir has this advice on choosing a Sales Objective:

A well defined sales objective includes the following:

It is related to a specific product or service.

It is specific and measurable.

It has a specific target date for completion.

It should be realistic from the client’s perspective.”

A preliminary Sales Objective could be something like, “I plan to have this client agree to invest $48,000 over 12 months on our broadcast and digital tools. My objective is to close the sale within three weeks of today, and have them on the air by April 15.”

Before your first meeting, you’ll be guessing, and you’ll probably make an adjustment after you know more about the customer, their needs and their resources.

You may not have a specific product in mind until the meeting’s over. That’s okay — it’s a starting point, and over time it will be instructive to compare your initial objectives and the final outcomes.

Since it’s unlikely that you’ll close a deal on your first meeting, the second part of the process is to write down a Call Objective — defined by Muir as “an advance or commitment that is the desired outcome of this particular sales encounter with this particular person or group.”

In most cases, the Call Objective for the initial meeting is for the client to give you enough information for you to be able to recommend an advertising strategy, and for the client to agree to a presentation appointment.

Write the objectives down in advance — that’s how you’ll keep yourself accountable.

Put the written objectives in your briefcase with your pre-meeting research, notepad, pen, question list, business cards, and appointment calendar, and you’ll have what you need for a successful first call.

[reminder]What are your best strategies for earning the right to come back for a presentation?[/reminder]

When the Client Just Won’t Make a Decision

When I sold advertising for the New York Mets, my efforts were aided by some built-in urgency: every advertiser wanted their fence sign to be up by Opening Day.

Opening Day was fixed on the calendar, in early April every year. Clients had to have their copy turned in by mid-February.

Before the painter would even start work, we required a signed advertising contract. This hard deadline forced clients to make a decision.

Advertising sales in the “real world” doesn’t generally work that way.

With the exception of some special programs and events like Valentine’s Day or political season, there’s no natural deadline.

Clients can start their radio, television, print, outdoor, or digital campaigns whenever they want. This week, next week, next month, six months from now.

This can make it tough to close business.

A TV sales manager recently wrote to me looking for ideas to create urgency and close business faster.

I replied that this isn’t always possible, or even desirable. Customers will buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell.

As Kevin Davis put it in his book Slow Down, Sell Faster,

Every sales leader wants fast sales; the trouble is, there aren’t many fast buyers…They are unlikely to change their buying process to match your selling process, so your only option is to be the one who switches.”

A further complicating factor is that if there are multiple decision-makers, each one may be at a different point in the sales cycle. Pushing a client faster than they’re ready to go can result in a shut-down of the whole process.

That said, sometimes a client is just about ready to go, but needs a push to take action. Here are some ways to create a little urgency when appropriate:

End every meeting with an agreement to move forward somehow.

Has the client asked you to re-work the creative or the broadcast/digital plan? Set a face-to-face meeting where you can bring the revised plan in person. If the advertiser asks you to email it, ask them to commit to reviewing it by a certain date, and schedule a meeting or at least a phone call to discuss it.
Does the client need to talk with his accountant? Ask when that will happen, and make an appointment for a face-to-face meeting the day after that conversation is to take place. This requires the client to put something on his calendar, which will force him to either talk to his accountant or admit that he hasn’t.
One note: “Why don’t you call me some time next week?” is not an appointment. An appointment has a date, time, and location — recorded in the client’s calendar.

Put an expiration date on every proposal. Nothing fancy — it can be as simple as “Proposal valid through 5pm Friday, December 9.” Not in small print — in big print where the client can’t miss it. What happens on December 10 is up to you, but to protect your credibility the deal needs to change somehow. Rates might rise; sponsorship mentions could be pared back.

A variation on this: for the right piece of business, a “sign by Friday” bonus can be very effective. Extra commercials or sponsorship mentions; free production if you normally charge for it. They only get the bonus if they sign by the deadline.

If the idea’s strong enough, and the client likes it enough, tell them that the idea’s too good to go to waste, and you’re going to have to take it to a competitor if they don’t sign on by a certain date. Then… take it to a competitor.

None of this will work if the client’s just not ready to buy. But if they’re on the edge of doing something and need a push, these things may help.

The key is to have your pipeline full enough with clients in all phases of the sales cycle that you don’t need any one deal to close right now.

How to Turn Sales Opportunity Into Defiance

“I keep trying to tell him how dumb his radio buy is, and he just won’t listen.”

insulting a client chhoice won't make you a sale — Photo by pathdoc

So said a television account executive as we prepared for a sales call with a window retailer. The owner was a long-time radio user, and my job was to convince him to start using TV and digital. The AE had been calling on him for more than a year.

“I’ve shown him all the research from TVB — people just don’t listen to the radio anymore, and he really needs to move over to television.”

“What does he tell you?” I asked.

“He gets defensive, and he tells me his radio’s working fine.”

Whatever medium we work in — television, radio, newspaper, outdoor, digital, — we see “research.” Some of it is independently done, but much of what we see is produced by our industry association. It can be helpful, but it’s designed in part to convince our customers that our medium works better than the other guys.

Television has TVB, the Television Bureau of Advertising. TVB has studies to show advertisers that TV works better than radio.

The radio industry has RAB — the Radio Advertising Bureau. RAB has charts and graphs to show advertisers that radio works better than TV.

When you’re new to the business, and all you see is your own industry’s research, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ve got the only medium, or the only station within that medium, that works. From there, you can leap to the conclusion that anyone who uses the other guys is either misinformed or stupid.

But as Gregg Easterbrook once put it, “Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything.” Advertisers who have seen charts and graphs from competing media reps are inclined to believe none of them.

Trying to use those numbers to convince a prospect that the decision he’s made is a bad one is unlikely to have the desired effect. Even if you’re right, you’re wrong.

Anthony Iannarino, author of The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, puts it this way:

The weakest choice available when trying to create a compelling reason for your dream client to consider leaving their existing supplier (or partner, as the case may be) is to directly attack your competitor. This approach creates resistance, and you cause your prospective client to defend their existing supplier—and their choice.”

A much better approach is to carefully ask a question to see if there might be any doubt in the prospect’s mind already. The question I like to use for an advertiser who’s been using a competitor for a long time is this:

“Is [name of medium] working as well for you as it did five years ago?”

You can then tailor your approach to the answer.

I asked the window retailer that question. He thought about it for a few seconds, and then told me that his radio was still getting results, but there’d been a bit of a drop-off in the past couple of years.

I then asked him which of the four radio stations he was using worked best, and he told me that he thought that two were producing good results and two were not.

I advised him to stay with the two that were working and drop the other two. We came back with a plan to use that money on a television/digital strategy, and he agreed to do it.

Some prospects will insist that their advertising is working just as well as ever. No chart or graph will convince them otherwise, and they’re not going to cancel something they believe is making money for them. It can be very difficult to convince them to change.

But it’s not impossible — sometimes you can persuade them that using your products can open additional doors for them.

In formal PowerPoint presentations, I set aside a slide that commends them for their success. In big red letters, I say this:

You’re doing really well already without me.

Here’s how to make a strong campaign even stronger.

From there, I detail a strategy that either adjusts their messaging slightly, or demonstrate that we can put that message in front of desirable consumers who aren’t seeing it now.

Does this work every time? No. There are plenty of times the client decides not to take action.

But it works much better than a direct attack, which will only alienate the client. Respecting your customer’s decision leaves the door open to further conversations… and business when they’re ready.

The First Sale You Make to a Customer: Are You Blowing It?

The first time you contact a new prospect, that customer has a buying decision to make. The decision doesn’t involve money… it involves time.

For salespeople and customers, time is money — Photo by raduga21

Are We Delivering ROI On Our Customers’ Time?
A Sales Attempt That Failed

Not long ago I was supposed to accompany a television station salesperson to see the owner of a roofing company. The AE had met with the owner several times, had made a presentation that seemed to go well, but hadn’t been able to get a commitment.

The meeting was supposed to be Monday at 10am.

Monday morning the client called to say that something had come up, and asked to reschedule. We rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday morning the AE called to confirm, and the client said he couldn’t meet that day. We rescheduled for Wednesday at 11:30.

Wednesday morning the client sent an email that 11:30 wouldn’t work. The AE tried to return the call, got voice mail, and never heard back.

That’s where the story ended.

The AE and Sales Manager were both frustrated. They felt it was rude and unprofessional of the client to keep bailing out like that.

They were right. But there’s another side to the story.

The client had a finite amount of time each day — and each day he decided that he’d get a better return on his investment by doing something else.

Andy Paul, author of Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Move Customers to Make Fast, Favorable Decisions, puts it this way: “The first thing a customer ever buys from you is time.”

Before you can even sell your product, the customer must purchase your selling time, which is comprised of your own time as well as the information you can provide to help the customer move closer to making a decision.

The currency the customer will use to purchase your selling time is her time… For her investment of time, she has to receive something of value from you in return that is equal to or exceeds her perception of the value of her time. That means that in each instance a customer invests in your selling time, you have to provide value in the form of information that will help move the customer at least one step forward in her buying process…

…If you provide something of value in exchange for the time the customer invests with you, then the customer will reward you with additional time to continue to sell to her.

The roofer we attempted to meet with had met with the AE before. He had an idea in his head of how much return he had previously received on his time investment.

He decided he could get a better return somewhere else.

When you ask a client to spend time with you — for a first meeting, for a presentation, or for anything else — your customer has to decide if the return they’ll get is going to exceed the value of their time.

It starts with the very first call you make. If your opening isn’t compelling enough to separate you from all the peddlers they hear from, you’re not getting the meeting. You can read about creating a more effective call opening here.

If you’re having trouble getting appointments, or getting your calls returned, ask yourself:

If the customer buys your time, how much value will they get?

Sales Advice: How To Get Past The Put-Off

“I’m tired of getting put off — I’d rather they just say no.”

salespeople can't wait for the put-off — Photo by MNStudio/dpc

Jane has been selling broadcast for about a year, and is finding her sales efforts blocked by clients who either can’t or won’t commit. In her post on TV Sales Cafe, she writes

I’ll meet with someone and they’ll ask for a proposal. When I bring it back they usually react well, but they don’t sign. Sometimes they’ll tell me to call them in a week, but when I call a week later they tell me they can’t do anything yet, and I should call in three months. Three months later, same thing. It’s not the right time and I should call back in three months.

This is not an uncommon occurrence in the world of sales. Customers buy when they want to buy — not when we want to sell. And sometimes there are perfectly good reasons why now is just not the right time.

But if you’re hearing the same refrain over and over again, it’s time to take a good look at why this might be happening.

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Before each contact with your customer, you should have a planned objective for the interaction. Ideally, you want to be looking for an advance – defined by Neil Rackham in the classic Spin Selling as an event “either in a call or after it, which moves the sale forward toward a decision.”

An advance can be something like:

Scheduling a follow-up meeting to present requested changes for the proposal
Arranging for you to meet with the committee that will actually make the decision.
Requesting production of a spec ad – and scheduling the meeting for the right people to watch or listen to the commercial.

Each of these advances has potential… as long as you and the client agree on what the result will be.

Anthony Iannarino says that“the first reason deals stall is that the salesperson doesn’t ask for or obtain an advance during the sales call.”

As the process moves forward, you should be asking questions like:

“Once I make the changes you requested to the proposal, will you be ready to go ahead with the plan?” If the answer’s not yes, make sure you understand what else has to happen to get the client ready to buy.

If the committee likes what I present to them, can they sign for it at the meeting?” If not, you should fully understand how the committee comes to a decision… and how long it should take.

“If you like the sample ad we produce, can we formalize the plan and get started?” Spec ads may not be perfect, but they do take a significant amount of work. In return for that work, the client should be willing to make a tentative commitment to move forward.

Sales expert Michael Boyette offers these tips on interpreting a stall:

Prospects who stall are sending you a message. And you will never make the sale unless you figure out what that message is.

Here are some possibilities:

“I don’t really have the authority to say yes … but I like feeling important.”

“You’re not really hitting my hot button … but I’m too polite to say so.”

“There’s something that’s making me hesitate … but if I tell you what it is, I won’t be in a strong negotiating position”

“I’m afraid to make a decision … but I’ll never admit it.”

“If I keep putting you off, you might offer me a better deal.”

There’s one more possibility: a legitimate reason for the delay.

Sometimes there’s a reason why three months from now is better than right now:

A new product will be launched, but they’re not sure exactly when.
A new location is opening, but it’s weeks away.
The new fiscal year starts, and they’re waiting for someone to tell them what their budget will be.
A corporate reorganization is underway, and nobody knows what that means yet.

How do you find out whether “call me in three months” really means they want to talk to you in three months?

Ask.

“Of course, Mr. Client. I’d be happy to call you then… but could I ask you one question? What’s going to be different in three months?”

The answer you get back should tell you whether there’s truly something to talk about.

Finally, if you’re on your second or third “3 months” with the same client, Michael Boyette recommends a very direct approach.

Don’t be afraid to pin buyers down when they keep putting you off: “Gee, Ms. Buyer, we’ve been at this for a while now and we don’t seem to making progress. Can you tell me why?”

That may sound blunt, but if you’ve invested the time and effort, you’ve earned the right to ask. And chances are, a real prospect will respect you for asking.

Should you keep chasing the business, or tear up their business cards? Ask the right questions, and it’ll be much easier to turn your selling time into money.

[reminder]What’s your best tip for jump-starting a stalled sale?[/reminder]

Do You Work In TV Advertising Sales?

If you’re not already signed up for TV Sales Cafe, you’re missing out on a great source of information, sales advice, and connections. Membership is free.

If you’re already a member and haven’t been there in a while, you should take a look — there are a bunch of new discussions by an increasingly active group of Account Executives, Sales Managers, and agency folk.

Go check it out right now by clicking here.