A sales call or pre-arranged face-to-face meetings between a salesperson and prospect with the goal of making a sale.
Like everyone else who has ever held a purchasing position, I experience varying degrees of annoyance at getting requests for meetings without a compelling reason.
For most business people, sales calls are interruptive, annoying, and distracting.
Here are a few things that could help open the gateway to the rest of the conversation.
1. Pre-call research. If every salesperson followed this suggestion, this would force the salesperson to pre-qualify themselves, rather than you having that responsibility.
2. Adopt a Criteria to accept or decline requests for appointments. If the salesperson doesn’t specify how they will help you solve a problem or achieve an objective, they don’t get the appointment. Period.
3. Create Categories. If you do adopt some type of criteria for whether or not to grant an appointment, you also have to consider the category of products or services being presented. You have your goals and strategies for a given year. If sourcing for a certain category does not fit within your strategy, you have to decline the appointment, irrespective of how well the salesperson presents their value proposition. Maybe their solution is for next year’s problem. Don’t lose focus. You have limited resources, so don’t scatter yourself.
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Recommended Reading
- Championship-Caliber Negotiation Preparation
- Creative Negotiation for Buyers
- Incorporating Value-Driven Procurement Into Negotiations
- Making the Right Negotiation First Impression
- Negotiation Checklist
- Negotiation No-No’s
- Powerful Negotiation for Successful Buying
- Using Collaboration In Negotiation: 3 Steps
- Funny Negotiation Story
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