If you want to be successful selling to big companies, establish a meeting plan prior to your
call. Good meetings are focused around your prospective customers and what’s important to
them – not your product or service.

Good sales meetings generally follow a simple, proven process. However, unless sellers stick
to it, it’s really easy to get off track.

Note: The time frames below assume a one-hour meeting with your prospective client.

I. Getting Started (10 minutes)

Customers from big companies don’t have a lot of time for meaningless chitchat and relationship building. Be cordial and friendly, but business-focused at all times.

A. Introductions

• Meet everyone who’s there
• Learn what they do, why they’re at the meeting.

B. Confirm times and agenda
Before you get started, double check to see if times have changed since you set up the meeting. If your customer has to run to an urgent meeting in 30 minutes, you’ll need to adjust your game plan or come back later. Reconfirm the purpose of the meeting to ensure there are no misunderstandings.
 
C. Share a small success story
Customers need more grounding about what your company does than the very brief description given above. This is an opportune time to give a brief overview of the results a specific client achieved with your product or service. Explain the challenge the customer faced before they used your products, how you helped them, and the results they achieved.

D. Move into questions
As quickly as you can, transition into questions. Shift the focus to the customer - where it belongs. You can say, “But enough about what we do. We’re here to talk about your company today .” Then launch into your questions.

 
II. Focusing on the Customer (35-40 minutes)

This is where you ask the Top Ten questions you’ve developed. Have them out, available to look at. If you want, show the agent how you’ve prepared for the meeting – they’ll be impressed.  And it’s professional.

But don’t give them the list of questions. If your list is in front of them, they’ll just rattle off the answers. You won’t be developing any rapport, establishing a relationship or demonstrating your competence.

Ask your questions in a conversational manner to accomplish these things – not like a schoolteacher giving an oral test.

Remember, this is a discussion – not a sales pitch. Listen to their answers. Be interested. Learn as much as you can.

Don’t ever pitch. Ask your questions. Listen. Ask second and third level questions to explore your customer’s answers.

III. Sharing Your Knowledge/Expertise/Offering (5-10 minutes)

Before your meeting, decide what and how much you want to share with your customer. Remember, they’re really not interested in your product or service. They’re only interested in how or what you do can help them.

Customers also realize that in one meeting, you can’t possibly offer them a well thought out solution. They don’t expect one. What customers do appreciate and value is learning more about:

• How you’ve worked with similar customers with similar problems.
• What your process was in working with them.
• How they benefited from using your product or service.

When you share a “success story”, it is not imperative to reveal the name of the company.  Sometimes it can help you; other times it can hurt you. If you don’t share the customer's name, you can still share their demographics.

IV. Advancing to the Logical Next Step (5 minutes)

At the end of the meeting, make sure you summarize what you learned about the key challenges facing the company as related to your product or service. Check with the customer to ensure you heard him or her correctly.

Then, without making a big deal of it at all, simply say something like this:

“Usually when I work with companies on product introductions or increasing their sales, the next step is to set up a meeting with the product and/or marketing manager right away to get a better understanding of the launch plans and where gaps might exist.

Can we get a meeting set up in the next couple weeks with this person ?”