What do you really need to prepare before a first meeting with a customer?

What to prepare before a first date

• On the one hand, you've already wasted too much time preparing for appointments that never took place, because you were up at the last minute.
• On the other hand, you also tried to opt for"talent", just to catch the cursed "we'll get back to you soon" after 6 minutes.

But what is the right attitude to adopt?

Background :

You made an appointment last week. Bingo! The call lasted 2 minutes 10 30-minute appointment booked - prosperity masterclass. Today, it's time for the appointment. You realize that most of the information you have is a LinkedIn profile and a cloud of assumptions.

That said, there are several positive signals. It could be a big fish, but nothing has been proven yet. Given the density of your agenda, you have a choice to make:

Do you need to spend time preparing for this meeting, and if so, how much?

In general, those who seek talent too often can be recognized by the statistics: 32 appointments per week ⇒ 0 offers. On the other hand, if you have virtually no information, you run the risk of preparing yourself... in a vacuum!

So you end up preparing yourself according to your schedule.

If I have the time, why not? If not, no problem!

So, preparation? Or talent? Well, it seems that... we've missed the point! In fact, the teams leading these discussions are leading the wrong debate. I'll tell you why.

I. What is the purpose of an initial meeting with a customer?

Think of all the times someone has come to you with a solution. When I listen to a sales presentation, 80% of the time I wonder who this person is coming to... Worse still! If I let them talk, they could tell me all about their offer without me saying a word!

When I talk to young salespeople about this, they often say something like: "Yes, but if I present the product well, the person will see that it's incredible. Something like: "Yes, but if I present the product well, the person will see that it's incredible".

And... no. In the vast majority of cases, it doesn't work like that. Without information about your prospect, you don't know anything and you can't get their attention. You'll be talking to a wall.

At this stage, yourONLY OBJECTIVE is to identify whether your prospect has a problem that can be solved.

Only talk about your solution if you're sure it can bring value to your prospect. Otherwise, they won't care. This is where you need to start your preparation. To find out if your contact has the potential to become a customer, you need to...

II. Before the meeting, prepare a few key questions

You set out in search of information. Your fishing rod is your open-ended question.

The only thing to prepare is the list of information you need to confirm whether this person is a prospect or not.

Some of these structures work very well:

✅ "If you've agreed to this meeting, it's because you have an idea in mind. What do you like about our service or product? " (+ "Why?")

We love this one. No one accepts an appointment for no reason. Ask your prospect to talk directly about what's important to them.

A concrete example with Modjo:

-Before we get started, I wanted to understand: why did you agree to this meeting? At first glance, what do you like about our service/product?
Yes, indeed, I'm curious.
-Ok, what intrigued you?
-Iunderstand you help sales people with conversational analysis, I'd like to know more.
-Well, and why would you want to know more?
-Ithink it can help my teams progress.

⇒ We haven't started the meeting yet, but we know that team development is an important issue for our contact. We will continue.

✅ "How do you think we can help you? (+ "Why is this important to you?")

In the same spirit as the first question, this one is more direct and allows you to determine the impact your customer is looking for.

💎 Tip: Keep your positioning clear in the prospect's mind: focus only on 1 to 3 problems maximum.

A concrete example with Modjo:

You're telling me, but you mentioned coaching?
-Yes, and before I tell you more, I need to understand what you mean by "coaching"?
Customer - For me, coaching includes training in "classic" sales techniques, but also in techniques specific to our market and our solution.

=> At this point, you understand that your contact wants his team to "perform well", but that it's still too early to present anything.

✅ "How are you currently coping with[the detected problem]? "

It's a step forward. If you have a "serious" prospect, he's bound to have already looked for a way to solve the problem he's been talking about all his life. This will enable you to make a comparison: "Today you're doing this, tomorrow, with us, you'll be able to do it". Before and after technique. The value jumps

A concrete example with Modjo:

How are you managing skill building at the moment?
-Well, I'm running a session a week, but I'm having trouble getting into it...
-Well, what do you mean by "session"? What is the basis of your teaching of "techniques"?

=> You've understood the idea: during this first meeting, you need to refine your understanding of the problems as much as possible, so that you can present your solution in the best possible light.

At Modjo, we've got a little list of questions like this one that make fishing for information a whole lot easier. I summarize it all in the downloadable document at the end of this article;)

III. How to respond to common objections at meetings

The other thing you can prepare for, and which you should have mastered anyway, is how to respond to "classic" objections.

I say classic, because you know them. Depending on your business, the same 3 or 4 objections will come up again and again. Learn to deal with each one independently and in the best possible way.

💎 Tip: Even if you're used to eliminating them quickly, I always advise you to note and reconcile each of your prospect's objections. Each objection should be interpreted as a question, a request for information. Each time, say to yourself:

"Okay, this is important for my prospect."

It's always best to answer an objection with a question, to understand its source:

From this point of view, you can understand why it's essential to go deeper into each objection, to understand why this aspect is important. Getting to the root of the problem:

Customer -Ilike your tool, but I don't think my teams will use it.
Sales -Hum... OK, and why do you think that?
Customer -We've already tried to implement a tool like this, it didn't work.
Sales - Good, and have you identified the causes of this failure?
Customer - I think my staff didn't understand the point... And it was taking too long and the results were too distant.

❌ Objection: " I don't think my teams will use it.".

✅ Understanding ⇒ "How can I encourage my teams to use it?"

Sales -Iunderstand the situation. So, if you were sure your teams would use it, would that be a good idea on your part?
Customer -If I can be sure that my teams will adapt and use the tool on a daily basis, I'd love to!
Sales -Great, then I'll tell you how the adoption went with {existing customer 1}, who had exactly the same apprehension as you...

Then give a concrete example of how your existing customers have handled the situation. Finally, if the person is still hesitating, offer to put them in direct contact with that customer. Ultra-effective.

💎 Tip: there's nothing better than alibrary of the best answers to objections - by Modjo;)

I've used the"no one will use your solution" objection, for example, because it's a classic SaaS sales pitch, but this technique can be applied in many cases.

💎 Tip: If the objection is about something you don't necessarily know, we always advise you to be honest:

"I'm tempted to say yes, but to be honest, I'd rather check this internally before giving you the answer.

Compensate for a slight loss of credibility with a healthy dose of confidence;)

Conclusion of a successful first customer meeting

Take the time you need to prepare your few key questions and answers to the most common objections. Do the job once, then duplicate your sheet for each new first meeting.

To help you, we've summarized everything you need in a single document, which you can keep on your table ;)

Better,

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