3 things to do before every virtual or in-person sales meeting

This morning, I thought about the week ahead, and how I can prepare for a meeting I have coming up. So today, I’ll share some tips on the three things to do before a sales call. These tips work for both virtual meetings and for in-person meetings.

Tip #1: Do your research.

In my experience, when anyone is trying to sell to me if they come to a meeting and they don't know what my business does or if they aren't familiar with some of my company’s recent work, I start to question whether they're really serious about what we're meeting about. LinkedIn is a great place to start your research. On LinkedIn, you can look to see where somebody went to college or find more information about things that they share professionally. Also, definitely check out their company's website. When doing this online research, you’re looking to see what they talk about, what they share, do they have a blog, etc. It’s important to know this because when you show up to the meeting, you know more about their professional world. It can sound almost cringey, if you haven’t done this in the past. Back when I was starting out, I felt weird about doing that at first. But I have found that today, it’s pretty much an expectation that you’re using online tools to find out more about a professional’s online footprint.

Tip #2: Define your goal for the meeting

Before you go into a sales meeting, or ANY meeting, really, you should know what the goal is going into it. Even when you’re in a more casual setting - like a coffee. Your goal might be just to get to know that person better, or to build rapport. Or it might be to understand what challenges they’re facing. Often in a discovery call, your goal will be to ask questions so you can get as good an understanding of what their goals and challenges are, so you can have the information you need to create a proposal. Seems pretty simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people need to really learn this tip.

Tip #3: Confirm the meeting (location, too!)

This last tip feels a little silly, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t confirm a meeting. I generally recommend that you confirm a meeting the morning of the meeting - but if the meeting is an early morning meeting, reach out the night before. It takes but a minute to shoot over a quick email to confirm you’re still on. Especially in 2020, things happen last minute. Be sure to include your mobile phone number in your confirmation email.

The other thing to confirm is your location. It has happened to me multiple times where I’ll set a meeting at a local coffee shop, and the coffee shop is either closed that day or for good. Even if you were there last week, double check to make sure it’s open on the day of your meeting.

This goes for virtual meetings too. Before your meeting, make sure that your Zoom link is working, and also make sure that you provide a backup (like your mobile number) in case the other person you’re meeting with is having wifi or connection issues.

Bonus Tip: Be early!

I’m a big believer in being early to pretty much everything. We’re all so busy these days, and our time is the only resource we can’t make more of, so being early and/or on time is a sign of respect. I’ll never forget it - I once met a prospect for lunch and got their 10 minutes early. To my surprise, he was already there. Later, he told me that he always arrives early to see whether the other person does, too, as he sees that as a good sign for working together in the future.

I believe you should be at least 2-3 minutes early for virtual meetings as well. This way, you’re on, ready and can hit the ground running as soon as your other participants join.

Got questions about your company’s sales and marketing process? Let’s get together!

See the original version of this video from my Facebook Live: