Beware of What You Send Before a Meeting

Sales trainers Jim Dunn and John Schumann recently relayed an interesting story in their weekly Whetstone Group newsletter. A rep secured an appointment with a prospect that would be a good fit for their products. When the prospect asked for some info before the meeting, Richard, the rep, sent over a thorough package with product spec sheets, a partial client list, company history, recent press releases, and more. Two days before the appointment the prospect called and said he had looked over the materials and didn't feel a meeting would be necessary, it wasn't a good fit.

Has this ever happened to you? If it has, read on for Dunn and Schumann's advice on how you can avoid this time-wasting situation.

"You may find this hard to believe, but often prospects are looking for a way not to meet with you," explain Dunn and Schumann. "We've all had meetings with salespeople that have proven to be disappointing and afterward said to ourselves, well, that was a waste of time. Wish I'd qualified them better before I let them come in. So, they want to see something first and often they're using what you send to disqualify you. Does this mean that they'll always find something they don't like? Of course not, but think of what Richard sent: specification sheets on products that might not be a fit; a client list that might not contain similar type companies or companies that were too small or a company history that someone could interpret as not having a good enough track record. You never can tell."

"Beware of what you send to prospects before you meet," Dunn and Schumann continue. "The ideal situation is not to send anything, to let your skills in asking questions and probing for the prospect's pain give them the desire to see you. But if you must send something, ask them what they want to see and find out why that's important. And, send a very minimum amount of information. In this case, less is better."

"Finally, tell them that you know they'll undoubtedly find something in the information that may not apply to their situation and that you hope they won't use that as a reason to have second thoughts about seeing you. You'll find that simple statement will make them think twice about finding something to disagree with."

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