Sales Call 101

How to Find Good Advertising Prospects, Conduct a First Meeting, and Position Yourself to Win

Photo by elnariz/dpc

If You Don’t Have a Plan, Stay In The Car
— Mack Hanan

Most salespeople show up without a plan. They have a media kit, a ranker, and the station’s latest Fire Sale Package, and they hope that’ll be enough.

They’re wrong.

Top sellers know that a great sales call begins long before the meeting starts. It starts with choosing their prospects wisely, learning crucial details about them in advance, asking the right questions, and not “selling” until they know what the customer wants and needs to buy.

A great sales call starts with a plan.

Getting Started: Your Approach Makes All The Difference

Getting in the door requires a carefully-thought-out approach. How do you give yourself your best chance to get in the door? You’ll find some great tips in Why Don’t Your Prospects Want to Meet With You?

With all the shiny digital objects out there, what’s the best tool for persuading a client to take a meeting? A Sales Prospecting Parable: Phone Beats Keyboard

Another old-school technique that works wonders: The Most Powerful Confirmation Tool You’ve Never Tried

Getting Started: How to Prepare for a Sales Call The Right Way

The wing-it days are over. — Jim Doyle

At the first meeting, the client is sizing you up, and deciding whether to give you a chance to present your solution. Get the first meeting right, and the money starts heading for your bank account. Get it wrong and you may never have another chance.

Good pre-call preparation consists of three steps:

Fixing the meeting on your prospect’s calendar. Because getting stood up sucks.
Pre-meeting research: because busy customers hate to have to tell you things should already know.
A final, crucial day-of-meeting step.

I’ve written a free, short e-book on sales preparation, called Fifteen Minutes to READY. The e-book details eight easy steps a salesperson can take in fifteen minutes or less… steps that will prepare you to walk into the meeting prepared to impress the client and blow the competition out of the water.

In the short time it’s been out, Fifteen Minutes to READY has been downloaded hundreds of times by radio and television salespeople and sales managers all over the United States and Canada — and one guy in the United Arab Emerates. You can get your copy for free just by signing up for my blog — click on the button below and get yours now.

Grab Your Free E-Book Here