“Pre-planning is more than just information gathering. An effective pre-plan should also give us a roadmap for the conversation.” – Derek Roberts in today’s Tip 1721
Do we understand how to appropriately and effectively pre-plan?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Derek Roberts. Derek is co-author of the new book, Listen to Sell: How Your Mindset, Skillset, and Human Connections Unlock Sales Performance. He has built, trained, and coached sales teams for three decades. Derek is an executive partner with the sales training firm Integrity Solutions and owns Roberts Business Group. Here he is:
Derek Roberts: Let’s face it, making headway with new prospects and sales isn’t all that easy. So when you do finally get someone to sit down with you and share their needs, or answer questions about what their issues are, how do you make the most of that? Well, one of the first and most powerful things we need to do is pre-plan.
What do we know about them already? What do we need to find out?
In this age of information and technology, there’s no excuse for us not to at least find out the most basic of information about a prospect or a customer before we engage them. But pre-planning is more than just information gathering. An effective pre-plan should also give us a roadmap for the conversation.
For example, much of what we learn in our pre-call research and planning can give us direction on what the customer’s issues are, the prospect’s needs, the areas that we need to engage, perhaps even the behavior styles of the individual that we’re engaging so that when we approach them, we have the strongest and most concise way to engage them in an effective conversation from the beginning.
Likewise, a strong pre plan can often direct an interview stage in a very specific and powerful way. We may ask questions that penetrate into deeper needs than the customer may have even considered for themselves, and those questions can then drive the kinds of solutions that may ultimately demonstrate our value to the customer. But a pre-call plan allows you to structure those questions ahead of time, rather than trying to scramble for them in the middle of the conversation.
Also, behavior styles can factor powerfully into your pre-call plan. A little bit of advanced research, just talking to someone in the organization, perhaps even a receptionist, about how someone likes to communicate, the way in which they engage other people can tell you a lot about the best way to approach that individual, the way that you may even structure your questions, whether it’s an outcome based question or a more relationship based question, even the interview kinds of discussions that you have and the ways in which you offer solutions to them. Do they need lots of data, facts, and figures, or are they more interested in examples or experiences?
But pre-call planning is also not just for prospects. We find effective pre-call plans really influence an existing customer engagement as well. And so, taking a few minutes in advance to figure out, do we find ourselves more as a simple supplier or a value added partner, someone who really goes beyond just the transaction and understanding that can really influence how we structure our approach to the conversation with them.
And at this point, most salespeople are going to nod their head and say yes, of course, we believe that pre planning is important, and some may even say that they make it a priority. But the truth is that for most salespeople, it’s not.
So that makes the question, why is it not? If we know that it absolutely influences the conversation and prepares our mind and gives us a track to run on and can influence the kind and quality of engagements that we have. Why don’t we do it? Why don’t we take the simple amount of time on the front end to do the research and structure our conversation for the highest level of effectiveness?
First, when you look at commitment activities. Do we understand and believe that this activity drives an effective outcome? If not, then we have a low commitment to activities and as a result, a low follow through on our pre-call planning.
Second, it may be our view of abilities. Do we really understand how to appropriately and effectively pre-plan, and do we believe that if we do that, that we’re still able to leverage that in an effective way in the conversation? And if we don’t believe that, then the chances are we won’t do that, or we’ve not had experience doing that, and therefore, we don’t believe that it will actually work for us when we do.
But beyond this, I find one more area that probably influences precall planning, and I want to challenge you to consider this. And that’s the area of overconfidence. Unfortunately, many salespeople actually do pre-call planning, especially early in their career. And I think that’s what happens to many salespeople is they believe that they’ve sort of got it, that they don’t take the time to engage because they think they can do it in their head.
And that’s where the danger creeps in, because skipping the discipline of actually writing it down and working through the scenario, even just for a few moments, of what are the right kinds of questions that I need to ask? What do I know or not know about this particular prospect and how do I prepare even those first few moments to get off on the right foot and engage them in the most effective way. And when I take the time to just do those basic things in a pre-call plan and utilize the form, utilize the structure, utilize those things that I know and discipline myself to do that, those are the things that then yield a much stronger and more powerful outcome for me and for the prospect that I’m trying to engage.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Derek and to buy his new book, Listen to Sell: How Your Mindset, Skillset, and Human Connections Unlock Sales Performance, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1721. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!