Never Be Closing by Tim Hurson

Author:Tim Hurson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Conversation, Prologue—the Meeting Before the Meeting

You had me at hello.

—Dorothy (Renée Zellweger) to Jerry (Tom Cruise) in Jerry Maguire

Virgil was coaching Steve on his upcoming meeting with Axel. “Okay, so your prep is as prepped as it can be. You’ve got a handle on the client and his challenges, you’re there because of a good referral, you know your scripts, you have some ideas about how you can help. What’s the first thing you do in the meeting?”

“Well, I thought I’d lead with my capabilities script and get out the . . .”

Virgil interrupts. “No, before that.”

“Before? Oh, well, of course. I introduce myself . . .”

“No, before that.”

“Before that? I don’t get you.”

“Your meeting doesn’t start when you sit down to talk. It doesn’t even start with hello. It starts the minute you walk into the building—the minute you even see the building. So what’s the first thing you do?”

—

We’ve said it several times: the most important moment in the sales process is the sales meeting. And that’s true. But that doesn’t mean the meeting begins with the formal introductions. Just as in any human interaction, there’s usually a prelude to a meaningful conversation.

In a personal relationship, place—the where of a get-together—can be part of the prelude, setting the tone of your conversation. You’ll have a very different energy level, and a very different kind of conversation, if you meet a friend at a sports bar as opposed to an office or a church social. Place matters.

Another form of prelude is the small talk that almost always precedes the heart of a conversation. Those seemingly inconsequential words about the weather or the traffic or the latest doings of your mutual friends are important. They set the stage for the rest of your time together. They give you clues about how the parties involved are feeling and what might energize them. Like place, small talk counts.

The same holds true in sales conversations. Both place and small talk can have an impact on how successful your meeting will be. So it makes sense to pay attention and be deliberate about how you handle them.

In this chapter we’ll discuss two critical sales skills that come into play before the core of the meeting even starts: Becoming a Waiting Room Jedi (how to pick up useful clues from your client’s work environment) and Making Small Talk Big (how to reveal the common ground that can turn a meeting into the beginning of a relationship).

You still have a lot of work to do before hello.

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