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Showing up to the prospect meeting is the easy part, but what are you doing before and after to make sure its successful?

By Aaron Hart, BDR

M Sales Growth Advisors

As salespeople, we often spend a significant amount of time contemplating how future meetings with prospects will go. While a majority of selling comes down to the success of that meeting, there are extra opportunities to take advantage of, both before and after the actual meeting that can deepen the relationship with the prospect and thus improve the chances of landing them as a client.

Before the meeting

You wouldn't go into a meeting cold, at least I hope you wouldn’t, however your prospective client may. Often referred to as “cold buyers,” these prospective clients are sometimes known to show up unprepared, which doesn’t typically make for an effective conversation. With that, it is your responsibility to ensure they are prepared going into the meeting, just as much as you are.

Something that can help prepare a prospective client is sending them a pre-read or informative prep email. By doing so you can better equip your prospective client with information regarding the upcoming meeting that is relevant to your company as well as the product/service you ultimately want them to buy. It’s like giving them the tools they need to better understand your business and the value you can bring.

Another tip is to always have a “discovery call” before any pitch meeting as it does two things: 1) it establishes a better understanding of how your product/service may align with their needs and 2) it allows you to provide valuable background and establish rapport that will better position you for a win.

Furthermore, these discovery calls can also help avoid wasted time because on them you can qualify the prospective client against your ICP (Ideal Client Profile) to determine actual “fit”. Similarly, having information on their business and its challenges can give the critical insight needed to demonstrate how your product/service can help them solve a problem or accomplish a stated objective.

After the meeting

Now that you’ve completed your meeting, it’s time to send the follow-up email to the prospective client. This email should be sent within 2 hours of the meeting, as well as be highly personalized. If you send out a generic email or stick with an impersonal template, you'll likely not get many productive responses back.

When sending a personalized email, there are a few key things you may want to include. The first is to call out something important that the prospective client said during the meeting or mention a piece of information you found interesting when talking with them. Then, be sure to recap the meeting and highlight any key takeaways in bulleted-format. And always make sure to define any next steps needed from yourself and the prospective client to keep both parties accountable.

Additionally, if you’re going to include attachments such as a case study, pick the best example that will resonate with them and call-out how it relates to their business and situation. You may even want to include a one or two-line synopsis to entice them to actually read the case study. Bogging down your email with multiple attachments will likely lead to none of them getting read, so just stick with one. Lastly, and this often goes without saying, double-check your email before sending to make sure formatting and spelling is correct.

Following these tips can improve the chances of your meeting being successful. Which of these tips will you be trying?

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