The first impression is often the right one.

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Many of the concepts in the article you're about to read are inspired by The 5 Pillars of Selling, which many of you have already read.

Here are 3 tips for taking care of the first few minutes of your sales meetings.

Unfortunately, none of them is like a magic wand, and each will require you to prepare in advance.

Let's stop rushing into our meetings and take the time to prepare.

What appointments do you have today?

If you can't sum up the result you want in one sentence, you know you have to change something.

I have a follow-up call with Total today:

I meet the IT director and the legal director.

We're at the end of the sales cycle, and the 2 want to inspect our tool more closely and measure the impact on their IT security.

They'll ask me such and such a question. I'm ready to answer.

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3 minutes of Small Talk

No more. No less.

3 minutes with Total's legal director can be a long time if I have nothing to say.

Neither does he. Unlike me, he has nothing to gain directly from the sale.

Don't rely on him to make you feel comfortable and relaxed.

To "break the ice" with anyone, I recommend checking out their Linkedin profile.

I'm not going to break down an open door. Please, take a look.

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What did he do before joining Total? How long has he worked for Total? Do you have any common relations? Has he always done the same job?

"The important thing in life is that people love you." - Vincent Bollore.

100% trust. Just after saying "Hello

"While preparing for our meeting, I came across your Linkedin profile"

"I see you've spent almost your entire career at Total, that's incredible!"

" Do you remember when you started? You must know everyone?"

It's time to become an expert chatterbox.

Selling is both a science and an art.

This is where those who have mastered the "art of putting people at ease" get good results.

The ones where you say "I don't really know what else he does, but he's got stuff...".

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Announce the plan

The value of small talk is well understood. We've also learned not to overdo it.

To avoid losing credibility, don't linger too long and get down to business.

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" Thank you for making yourselves available for this exchange "

" I propose that we tackle two subjects together today, namely xx and yy "

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Show your prospect how well you've prepared before arriving at the meeting. Show them that in addition to being very nice, you're also very thorough.

The more rigorous you are, the more people will take you for what you are: a professional.

The more professional you are, the more trustworthy you will be.

The more people trust you, the more you can convince them.

And to sell, it's essential to convince.

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We've never before produced a graph showing such a marked difference.

If that's not convincing enough, I'd be happy to tell you about it.

Intensity

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"Finally, if we can get along, we can move on to the next steps, which will be..."

Here's a little homemade advice.

Easily applicable.

Since you've read this article, you know how important it is to have a systematic next step for your sales appointments.

So don't hesitate to talk about it from the outset.

Some might say:

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"Oh yes, I do it all the time".

And yet...

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Finally

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You know this because it's often repeated, but few of us are capable of adopting this state of mind.

The "learning" or "wanting to progress" mindset.

As we write these lines, we know that we still have thousands of things to learn.

Sometimes we still don't close all our sales.

Even Rafael Nadal doesn't win all his matches.

Good luck 💪

Paul

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