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The Secret to Nailing Your Next Sales Call

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Do you want to know how to easily improve your sales results? Why not consider changing the way you prepare for sales calls? There are a few things you can do that will not only lessen the stress before your next meeting, but will also help you to be more successful, too.

Who's in charge?

It’s your job to control the sales conversation. And that does not mean that you do most or all of the talking. In fact, you should be judging your sales call success by whether your customer is doing most or more of the talking. Why? You can only learn what you don’t know when your customer talks. So how do you control the meeting? Your questions control the sales call.

When you sit down in your prospect’s office, don’t expect to start talking about your products or services. That's even the case if a prospect starts the meeting saying, ”So tell me what you've got.” Do not launch into a sales presentation despite your prospect’s instruction! Instead, your response should be a question that gets the prospect talking about their business.

Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered by yes or no or just a few words. This means asking about sports or the weather is not a suitable transition question. I often refer to these questions as pinball questions because good pinball questions will start a good back-and-forth sales conversation between you and your prospect, much like the ball in a pinball game.

You must plan your pinball questions before your sales call to ensure the meeting will be a success. Also make sure to ask questions that will help you learn more about your prospect’s business. Only talking about your favorite sports team during your time with a prospect is not a successful sales call.

What do you need to know?

The purpose of your sales call is to learn what you don't know about your prospect or customer so you can determine why they should buy from you. Customers buy when they have problems, needs or wants that your products and services can solve. Of course, that's not enough for them to buy. Your customers have to believe that making a change is worth any effort and cost involved—but that's a later strategic step for you to work on. First, you have to uncover the problems, needs, or wants, and you do that with your questions.

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As you prepare, determine what you already know, don't know, and need to know about the prospect. You also should have a general idea of why the prospect should buy from you—and if you don't already know, you have a lot of preparation work ahead. Research the problems, needs, and wants that companies similar to your prospect's might have. Areas to look into might be about operational performance, employee issues, or product performance.

I have one basic rule: The more important the sale, the more sales research you need to do before the sales call. This is especially true if it's your first sales call. Too many salespeople make the mistake of thinking the sales call starts when they are sitting in a chair in front of their prospect. Preparation and research is critical for your sales call to be successful. You will ask better questions when you have done your research, and you will avoid wasting time on questions that you could have found the answers to had you done your research before the sales call.

Also, remember that your prospect is judging you by the questions you ask. By asking better questions, you'll earn their respect and trust, and generally you'll be allowed more time to spend with them.

Do you want your next sales call to be a success? Start preparing well before your meeting so that during the call you can lead the conversation and make a sale.

RELATED: How Your Small Business Can Benefit From ‘Keep it Simple’ Selling

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.