Great Advice for Anyone In Sales

As an owner of SHOUT Print & Graphic Solutions, I’m constantly selling and working to provide great service. I’m always looking for ways to be better at what I do and came across an amazing video that was really helpful to me, so I wanted to share it with you. The creator of the video, Bernadette McClelland, talks about about how prospects often cancel meetings and sales appointments, something I’ve experienced myself.

When she started talking about this she had my attention right away since canceled meetings are a huge roadblock to closing sales. She makes a good point – many times people open their calendars, see the scheduled appointment and can’t even remember who the person is and what they have to offer.  Sure, people know I provide printing solutions but what does that really mean for them?

There’s a simple way to fix this problem: create an agenda for your prospect.

Let them know ahead of time why you’re coming in, how long you anticipate the meeting will take and outline a clear agenda. That agenda should have nothing to do with you and everything to do with your client. You’re not going in to just show them what you have to offer. Instead you’re there to listen to their problems and then provide a solution.

Creating a compelling agenda that resonates with your prospect will significantly increase the likelihood of them keeping the meeting. This creates anticipation and value for them. They start to look forward to the meeting, seeing that there’s a chance some of their current issues could be resolved.

SHOUT works with companies to assist with their sales and marketing focus. Bernadette’s words are as simple and eloquent as it gets for achieving greater levels of success.

I thought this video was really powerful. It changed my perspective and philosophy on how to handle setting appointments. While my outreach and meetings relate to printing and graphic services, structuring a well-thought out appointment applies to any business so this may be helpful to you as well.

After all, we’re all trying to create impact and make connections with new partners.  Hope you find it has some application in your daily selling efforts!

Happy selling,
Rob Hayes
Director of Client Services