Sales preparation

Know your customer

• The customer’s company by visiting its website: mission, values, vision
• Its customers: they are the lifeblood of the company and must be served to the best of their ability.
• Its structure, at least as presented on its website
• Their competitors, which you can easily find on the Internet
• You can also find the person you’re talking to on the website, and discover their career path on LinkedIn. You can also try to discover any shared backgrounds or acquaintances you may have.
• For all these points, you should also ask your colleagues what they can offer you in addition, or even if they can give you references, so you can get in more easily.

Know your sales pitch so you can present it naturally.

• The contact and anchoring you’re going to use based on what you’ve been able to discover in your research. Ideally, you can talk about the same school you went to, or a sports club, or a mutual colleague. Be careful here: this person you know in common may not be your friend. I’ve lost a sale like that, only to find out later that the person I was talking about hated him…
• The discovery questions you ask are the most important part, because they’re the ones that will create the opening and the need to buy. If you’ve bought one of our specific sales courses, that’s where you’ll find them. They’re the result of a selection of the best questions used by top salespeople in the business. Otherwise, it’s up to you to create them and try to create a gap between the customer’s current situation and their long-term dreams or goals.
• Build your sales pitch in advance, or at least choose the type of pitch that’s right for you.
• Prepare yourself for possible objections and the best answers: here too you’ll find them in our specific sales pitches.
• Prepare your pre-closing questions, as well as the closing technique you’re going to use: the direct question, the alternative, the incentive, the buy now with discount.

To increase sales, I always say that the best preparation allows for the best improvisation during the sale itself, and that’s the first step to success. Let’s take a look at what you need to know about B2B (business-to-business) sales.

Preparation doesn’t mean that you’ll use all the techniques or information you’ve prepared, but rather that you’ll have the freedom of mind to choose something else if appropriate, and therefore the freedom to improvise as best you can to succeed.