[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/08\/expert-tips-selling-sales\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/08\/expert-tips-selling-sales\/","headline":"5 things salespeople should do before every customer meeting","name":"5 things salespeople should do before every customer meeting","description":"Here are five expert tips salespeople can use to get the best results from every customer meeting.","datePublished":"2015-10-08","dateModified":"2022-07-13","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/lisa-gschwandtner\/#Person","name":"Lisa Gschwandtner","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/lisa-gschwandtner\/","identifier":139,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e754f0914f909e1c3b1b0e3bdb6011cffd50a604f4c9a52086176a4d2a1ca2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e754f0914f909e1c3b1b0e3bdb6011cffd50a604f4c9a52086176a4d2a1ca2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/sales-meeting.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/sales-meeting.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/08\/expert-tips-selling-sales\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/","name":"Sales","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sales","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q194189"]},"Sales Success"],"wordCount":839,"keywords":["Customer Engagement","Sales","Sales Reps","Sales Tips"],"articleBody":"Every meeting with a customer is a chance to grow that relationship. Don\u2019t waste it! Here are five pre-meeting tips to help you show up feeling confident, prepared, and ready for success.1) Create a meeting agenda. Be honest: how many times have you left a meeting with a customer and realized you forgot to discuss a critical item? As in, \u201cOops, I totally forgot to let her know about our revised payment terms!\u201d Don\u2019t wing it. Prepare your own written checklist or a formal agenda to make sure you make the most of everyone\u2019s time.2) Power up your gadgets. If you\u2019re going to need any of your mobile devices during the meeting, don\u2019t walk in with your battery in the red zone. Remember to bring power cords or charge boosters. And don\u2019t rely on charging your device in a conference room. Your customer might want to shift the meeting location at the last minute.3) Check any order history and customer service issues. There\u2019s nothing worse than walking into a meeting with a customer who\u2019s steamed about some aspect of your product or service and has been looking forward to your meeting as an opportunity to unload a litany of complaints. Do you want to be helpful and responsive when a customer is unhappy? Of course. But you don\u2019t want those issues to take the place of your meeting agenda.Remember, sales opportunities are made\u2014not born\u2014in customer meetings.Investigate any outstanding issues before the meeting. If you want to use some of your meeting time to address those issues, let the customer know you\u2019re willing to discuss them. And, if that\u2019s the case, come prepared with a list of ways you\u2019re ready to support the customer to alleviate his or her concerns. Is this more work for you? Yes. Will this make you look good in the eyes of the customer? Absolutely. Even if your efforts don\u2019t seem to be appreciated in the moment, at least it will clear some space and leave room for you to move the relationship forward at another time.4) Find out what\u2019s happening in that customer\u2019s company and industry. When salespeople go into a meeting, they\u2019re normally very focused on themselves. As in, \u201cI want this deal,\u201d or, \u201cI want this customer to buy more from us.\u201d Guess what? The customer doesn\u2019t care about your sales pipeline. The customer wants to know what value you\u2019re bringing to the table. It can seem counterintuitive to set aside your own needs; but focusing on the customer actually puts you in a much stronger position.Take some time before every customer meeting to research the customer and his or her company online. Find out what\u2019s happening at the company (or business unit) and in their industry. You never know what you might uncover. Sometimes, it\u2019s the little things. Maybe your customer celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and you never would have known if you hadn\u2019t checked her Facebook and Twitter feeds. Other times, that research has bigger implications. Did one of their executives just get promoted? Was a new industry ruling just announced? Did they just lose one of their key customers to a competitor? Have they just launched a new product? Any one of these developments might represent a business opportunity for you.5) Center yourself. Most of us accumulate the weight of negative experiences as we go about our day. Maybe you got stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic on your way to meet this customer. Maybe you just read an email conveying bad news about a major deal you\u2019ve been working on. Don\u2019t carry your feelings about those experiences into the meeting. The customer will sense your energy and feel your presence as heavy and negative.You should look at every meeting with a customer as a chance to create joy for that person. Before you walk into the meeting, center yourself. You can do this in very simple ways. Find a quiet space and close your eyes. Relax your stomach muscles and let your arms hang loosely at your sides. Roll your neck a few times if your shoulders feel tight. Inhale through your nose and fill your lungs to capacity. Then, release that air in a single breath. Repeat that three times.If you\u2019re feeling a bit off balance and nervous before the meeting, take two minutes to stand in the kind of \u201cpower pose\u201d social psychologist Ann Cuddy described in her popular TED talk. Just stand with your feel shoulder width apart and place your hands on your hips, Superman\/woman style. This stance raises our levels of testosterone (confidence hormones) and lowers levels of cortisol (stress hormones).Business is about developing mutually beneficial relationships. If you put more positivity into your customer meetings, you\u2019ll get more positive results out of them.Resources, best practices, and self-care pointers for these trying times can be found HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2015","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"08","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/10\/\/08\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"5 things salespeople should do before every customer meeting","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/08\/expert-tips-selling-sales\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]