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5-Minute Sales Meetings

July 6, 2011 By

by Jill Konrath

Want to capture the attention of today’s crazy-busy prospects? Propose an initial meeting that’s only five minutes long. Suggest a short phone call or a quick online conference that will give them an opportunity to determine if it’s worth continuing the conversation.

Follow these steps to create an irresistible 5-minute sales meeting.

Goal: At the end of five minutes, you want your prospect to say, “Oh. That’s interesting. I’d like to learn more.”

1) Focus on Challenges

Your prospects only care about their challenges, not your products or services. Begin your mini meeting by sharing your understanding of the key issues that prevent them from achieving their business objectives.

“Virtually ever VP of Sales we work with these days is concerned about new customer acquisition. Their salespeople are struggling to set up meetings with key decision makers.”

2) Share Outcomes

Give examples of similar customers that you’ve worked with in the past. Make sure you tell about how they were doing things before they did business with you and then the results they achieved.

“For example, we recently worked with Generic Systems. Their reps couldn’t reach decision makers in their key targeted accounts. All they ever got was voicemail. After working with them, 87% of the salespeople set up meetings in just 2 months.”

3) Engage in Conversation

Plan your questions ahead of time because it’s impossible to thing of good ones on the spot. Make them provocative so that your prospect has to do a little thinking.

“How big of an issue is new customer acquisition for you? What initiatives are currently underway in this area? How satisfied are you that they’ll get you where you want to go.”

4) Suggest Next Steps

Make sure to recommend a logical follow-up to this initial conversation.

“Since this is clearly a concern, let’s set up a meeting to discuss this in more depth. Let’s also get the VP of Marketing involved right away because it’s an issue that spans both organizations.”

Author of Selling to Big Companies, Jill Konrath is a highly recognized sales strategist in the competitive business-to-business market. A popular speaker at sales meetings, she helps her clients crack into corporate accounts, speed up their sales cycle and generate demand for their offering.

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About David Ford

As a professional Recruiter, David focuses on the recruitment of highly skilled Sales, Management, IT and Admin talent. The majority of his time is spent working with clients in Toronto and all points South and West of the GTA, including Mississauga, Burlington, Hamilton, KW and the Niagara peninsula, but also recruits for Sales & Admin in Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal.

David has more than 17 years of Sales and Senior Management experience and prior to recruiting, David managed large inside and outside sales teams all across the country with some of the largest financial institutions in Canada. David also held a Director level role in one of Canada's largest independent Tax and SR&ED Recovery firms.

David has many years of experience recruiting & training from an actual Sales Manager's seat and understands the challenges faced by all levels of Sales, HR and Management.