What do you expect?
Recently, I gave my clients this scenario:
You’re a busy business owner. A sales person is in your lobby and has a meeting scheduled with you. You’re not sure what it’s about.
Then, I posed 3 questions:
1. How much time do you have for the meeting?
Group decided between 5-10 minutes.
2. Who would you hope would do most of the talking?
Group said they wanted the salesperson to do most of the talking.
3. What would an ideal outcome be for this meeting?
That the salesperson would leave their information, including pricing, and get out.
Then I shifted things up .
I told them they were now the salespeople in the same scenario and posed the same questions.
YOU’RE sitting in the lobby, waiting for a first meeting with your ideal prospect.
1. How much time are you hoping you will have with the prospect?
Somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes.
2. Who were you hoping would do most of the talking?
Salespeople thought the prospect should do most of the talking.
3. How were you hoping this meeting would end?
An ideal outcome was the Prospect signing a contract and giving them a check to purchase.
Can you see the problem there?
From the get go, Prospect and Salesperson have mismatched expectations.
Someone told me that 100% of relationships that end badly do so because someone didn’t manage the others expectations. (I think 100% is kinda high, so maybe let’s call it 99.999999%! )
You have the same rights as your prospect.
Among other things, you have the right to walk away, the right to qualify/disqualify , and the right to a yes or no decision at the end of the meeting.
The problem is, you have to let your prospect know this is how you do business.
Unless you negotiate these things at the beginning of your meeting, your prospects rules will apply.
Take the time at the beginning of your meeting to negotiate with your prospect about things like how much time you need for the meeting, what will be discussed at the meeting, and what happens if you both think it’s a good idea to do business together.
Not only will that differentiate you from your competition, it’ll save you a lot of time and help you get your relationship off on the right foot.
Bringing Honesty, Transparency, and Selflessness to Business.
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