The opening of a Sales Meeting whether it be over Zoom or Face to Face can be a little awkward. How long should one spend on the nicities? I honestly believe not very long at all. Customers are used to Sales People blantently building rapport with them simply for a sale. I think you should start the interaction professionally and slowly build rapport towards the end, even after having achieved the sale, want them coming back for more. So, where do you start?

“How are you?”

Look there is nothing wrong with asking how they are I mean usually they will answer by telling you how they are Good or Bad and then giving you some information about how they have been doing last few weeks in the business. You might use their pain, triumph, frustration further down in the conversation when explaining how your solution can solve what they are facing. Even if they say they are busy… You might mention that your solution “Does all the work for them, so they can focus on their highest and best use in the business, running the business.”

“How is business?”

This is better than “How are you?” Let’s get straight to the point and see what they say here. Usually though business owners are ego driven and know how to sell and they will often say how great the business is going, even if that is not the case. So then move to asking them directly about their interest in the product you sell. “So, Gary, how long have you been looking for/thinking about the product?” From this they will admit to being the market most of the time which is a great outcome, also they usually will explain from this question why they are in the market. Essentially killing two birds with one stone.

“What projects do you have on at the moment?”

Be careful asking this as sometimes the prospect will waffle on for a very long time about all their projects in a proud fashion. It kind of loses control of the conversation and when opening you really want to be strong and grab control of the structure of the meeting and how it’s going to go. That’s why if I ask this question I will last “What is your major project going on at the moment?” I suppose this question might assist you in finding out if they are busy, and have the money or need to spend on your solution.

“What triggered you to be interested in SOLUTION now?”

Get to the reason as to why they accepted the meeting. Why do they need your solution and why do they need it now? What pain point caused the issue. This question is going to uncover painpoints and when they give you their pain points I want you to delve deeper into them. “So, Gary, you want to win work with that CLIENT, why is that?” “So, you want to grow the business, why do you have such a goal right now?” “Ok so you want to step away from the business and do other things… I understand that… How will you feel in TIME PERIOD if you didn’t do my SOLUTION?””What if I told you I can do X, Y and Z, would you be happy for me and the team to handle this for you?” “Ok, good so what I’ll ask you some discovery questions, introduce my business, our 3 key pillars for our service delivery and see if this resonates with you, then ensure you are 100% clear is to what exactly is required from you. If I’m happy and your happy, who know’s maybe we can do business, is that fair enough with you?” So, what I’m saying is you can use this question to structure the meeting, control the meeting and soft close. Preparing them to buy.