“Always remember to start your prospect meetings with an upfront contract” – Daniel Huang in today’s Tip 857
How about you? Do you start your prospect meetings with an upfront contract?
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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 Daniel Huang. Daniel is a top SaaS AE out of Hayward, California, which, turns out is the hometown of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In a past life, Daniel was a competitive powerlifter in USA Powerlifting. He currently spends most of his waking hours selling software for a living. Here he is:
Daniel Huang: If you’ve ever struggled to booked concrete next steps or if you’ve ever had prospect’s ghost you and not respond to follow-ups. Be sure to always, always, always remember to start your prospect meetings with an upfront contract. In upfront contract involves spending a few minutes at the beginning of a call setting expectations for the rest of the call and making sure your prospect agrees to those expectations before anything else happens. This is especially important if you’re meeting with inexperienced buyers but still applies to any early-stage opportunities.
You’ll start off by establishing that you’re expecting a two-way conversation, not a question and answer session. Something like this. “I like to start off my calls by explaining how they work. You’re going to have questions for me and I’ll absolutely do my best to answer your questions. On the other hand, I’ll also have questions for you. That way I can get a better understanding of how to make the most of our time today and also be able to present only information over the next few weeks that will be specific and relevant to what your team is looking for. At the end of today’s call, one of two things will happen. Number one, one of us will see that this won’t be a fit and that it won’t make sense to talk further. If you end up thinking that, would you be comfortable being upfront with me and telling me? That way I don’t end up being that guy who calls you once a week asking about the weather and trying to check-in.” Pause.
By saying this, you’re telling your prospect that ‘No’ is the second-best answer and you’re showing that you’re a professional. Better to save both your time and theirs if there’s zero chance of doing business together. Then to wrap up the upfront contract, you’ll say, “On the other hand, at the end of today’s call, we may mutually agree that it makes sense to keep conversations going. So if that ends up happening, then can we spend the last few minutes setting up a concrete day in time to talk next so we can avoid phone tag?” Done.
95% percent of the time, your prospect will agree to this upfront contract. By executing this upfront contract at the beginning of your calls, you’re guaranteeing that you’ll close lose the opportunity early if it’s not a fit to avoid wasting everyone’s time following up or if the opportunity is qualified, you’re guaranteeing yourself a booked next meeting at the minimum. And of course, at the end of the call, if there’s any pushback to either of these two outcomes, then you can always refer back to the upfront contract that the prospect has already agreed to because people tend to not like going back on their word.
Scott Ingram: Daniel would love to connect with you on LinkedIn. Make that connection, shoot him a DM, and settle in for daily content about sales, lifting, home cooking, and life. We’ve got a link for you at DailySales.Tips/857.
Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!