Sales Tip 1815: 1:1 Meeting Machine

“Your job is to make some human connections.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1815

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. I was recently asked by somebody starting a brand new sales role what they can do to set themselves up for success. My advice was really simple. Become a one on one meeting machine. Take the opportunity when you’re new, to meet with individuals across the organizations. One of the ways I view the job of sales, especially more complex sales, is to wield the organization and all of its resources on behalf of your clients and future customers. To do that, you need to know how to get a ton of different things done. And it’s always people who will help you figure out those things.

So start with your executives, be brave and connect with senior execs in your new company who could potentially help you. Since it can get a little more difficult to get their attention over time, suggest a cadence conversation with them during your first meeting. Ask if you can come together once a quarter or whatever interval makes sense as you continue to learn the company and your customers and one of the things you can offer them is insights from across the organization as you meet with others. Beyond those execs, think broadly across the org about all the other different teams whose help you might need. This should include solution, engineering, customer success, sales development, marketing, product finance, legal, and one of my personal favorites, the top performers on the sales team. Your job is to make some human connections.

Learn about them, learn about their roles, what do they like best about their job, what frustrates them, who are their favorite sales reps to work with and why? And if you can find little ways, you can help them make some relationship deposits. You want to build up a solid balance across all of these people so that their door is always open to you in the future when you need to figure something out that they or their team can help make happen for you. This process happens naturally over time as you work with a company, but if you let it happen organically the way most people do, it will likely take you a couple of years to really get great at navigating things internally. If you’re intentional about it and become this one on one meeting machine as soon as you join the organization, you can probably do it in three to six months and set yourself up for a super start and build a foundation for long term success.

The reality is it’s never too late to do this. It’s just a lot easier when you can play the newbie card. So get your hands on that org chart and start mapping out your internal relationship strategy today. Then tomorrow be sure to come back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening.