As a sales man, sales meeting is an indispensable part of your job description. Even if you have not been doing it presently, sooner or later you are going to have such a meeting. That your product and service is being advertised via the mass media does not mean you will generate the needed demand from your prospective clients. Some circumstances may still require that you go to individual organizations to present your case and give them reasons to patronize you. Remember, there is no monopoly over any market in this competitive age.
Whatever your reasons for doing sales meeting, you may need to consider the following tips so that you can record success:
1. Know Your Client
It is crucial that you do the homework of knowing everything you need to know about a client before appearing for a sales meeting. Hence, you have to gather as much as possible background information. That you have been invited for a sales meeting does not mean they don't have options, it can only mean that they want to see if your offer is better.
Getting background information therefore encompasses knowing everything about the reasons the clients has called you. Were they using such service or product from another client before now? Are they just using it for the first time? If they are not first timers, what disappointments did they experience that made them have a change of thought? Arming yourself with such knowledge will be of great help as you carry out your presentation.
2. Update Yourself About Competition
It can be suicidal for you to know everything there is about your product without knowing about that of your competition. Even when it is not a sales meeting, a part of the responsibilities of a sales person is to get to know those he is competing with and ways that he can outshine them in the market. This is especially important for you as a sales person. You can be asked questions that compare your service and product to that of competitions. Since you do not know the angle that the question will come from, it is important you know everything about everyone of your competitors.
It may be of help too for you to survey and update your knowledge about your own product from the market. It is important that you know what people are saying about you and the challenges they go through using your product or service.
3. Put Your Gadgets In Shape
Are you using a laptop for your presentation or you are using a projector? It is important that you ensure that these systems are in shape a day before your appointment. Before setting out, ensure that you have your system charged as your clients may not promise you power supply. If you are using slide projector and you are presenting to a number of people, you must have made provisions for power supply especially by bringing your adapter.
4. Organize Your Materials Properly
Is the material you are presenting in a USB drive? It may be safer if you copy it ahead of time. Some USB drives can disappoint when you least expect. When organizing your materials, ensure that you start with strength. Detail the landmark achievements of the organization you are representing. Blow your trumpet.
5. Be Punctual, Be Present
There is nothing that could be more irritating than a sales person who is late to a sales meeting. Even when there is an earthquake or a thunderstorm, it should not be an excuse for coming late. You are the one seeking for something from your prospective clients, you should be the one waiting for them, not the other way round. Just as it is important not to be late, you will appear too desperate when you are too early. As a sales person, do not appear several hours before the scheduled time. Even if you have nothing to do hours preceding your appointment, take your time to go through your materials in the comfort of your hotel room, not at the venue of the meeting.
If it is irritating to go to your appointment late, it is maddening to be absent. Do not give the excuse that unforeseen events will make you to be absent, foresee such events and avoid it. Irrespective of the event, make plans to be present. When new appointments come up at the time you are supposed to go to the previously scheduled appointment, it is better you delegate it to your colleague.
If your sales meeting has to be rescheduled, let it come from your prospective clients, not from you.
6. Be Extemporaneous
Definitely, your slide presentation is filled with information about your organization and your products. Be careful though and avoid being glued to the screen of your laptops or that of the board while delivering it. When you do this, you only tell your clients that you are not versed with the products you are marketing to them. You are only exhibiting to them that you are not experienced about the products you want them to buy from you.
There is nothing wrong when you consult the notes in your laptops or on the board. These are just notes to remind your of points that you need to develop. They are there so that you do not derail from the sequence you are supposed to follow as you give your speech.
A note of caution: As you try to be extemporaneous, do not be carried away such that you use big vocabularies as an attempt to impress your clients.
7. Do Not Make Offensive Jokes And Speeches
Fine, it is alright for you to flow while delivering your speech. Be careful though not to misuse this quality. While it is okay for you to make your deliveries a colorful one, endeavor to avoid jokes that could be seen as offensive. Jokes that encourage racism and any other form of bias should be done away with at all cost. When your speech is indirectly insulting your clients, the sales contract may be lost.
Avoid words like 'it is insensible to use so so products', 'it is foolish to associate with others'. Your clients are not foolish, they are just exploring opportunities that will suit their businesses. The same way they gave you opportunity is how they give your competitors, respect their viewpoints.
8. Highlight What Is In It For Them
It is important that you highlight and emphasize the things that your clients will benefit when they patronize you. This is not the same as the advantages you have over competition as mentioned in point 2 above, it is emphasis on how they will directly derive benefits. How much money will they save when they buy your products? How much time will they save? What about after sales service? Will they be saved of the headache of having to buy the same thing again because your product durable? When you emphasize the economic and other needs towards the end of your presentation, they will remember it longer.
9. Never Forget To Give Out Your Contacts
Yes, it is part of your presentation to tell your audience how they can get your products. Does your company do direct sales? Do you have channel partners or dealers who sell in bulk? Whatever means you use to supply your product, never forget to leave the contact with your clients. Address and phone numbers should be boldly highlighted so they can get to meet them.
10. Never Run Overtime
Most likely, your clients have set aside time out of their busy schedule so they can listen to you sell your products, do not make the mistake of running overtime. If your presentation has subtopics, time each section so that you do not get carried away. Make use of the clock on the wall or your wrist watch consistently. In the presentation, write out the number of minutes you intend to spend on each section and stick to it. The total time you plan to spend presenting must be communicated to your audience at the beginning of your speech. When you run overtime with your presentation, you may not be trusted in the future.
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