Selling face-to-face to customers is never easier, and with the Internet and telephone sales, it’s even harder than ever to get a foot in your potential client’s door. On the other hand, some customers prefer to meet face-to-face to get to personally know you better before giving you their business. Why? They want to make sure you’re the type of person who will deliver on their promises.
Face-to-face selling does not need it to be difficult. In fact, if you walk into a potential client’s office armed with the right tips and strategy, you’ll more than likely have a pleasant experience. To help make your face-to-face selling experiences better, we’d like to share some of our favorite tips with you below.
When all is said and done, you’ll have much more success selling face-to-face when utilizing our tips. Please make the most of your face-to-face sales sessions by using these effective suggestions to make many sales.
Tip #1: Have a Specific Small Goal in Mind When Meeting Face-To-Face
When meeting potential clients in person, the last thing you need is to come off as a pushy salesperson. This will make the meeting an unpleasant experience and everyone involved will feel uncomfortable, including you.
Instead of being really pushy and over-the-top, walk into the meeting with a specific goal in mind and maintain your focus by attempting to achieve it. As an example, if you’re selling custom lapel pins and you were hoping to get an order, attempt to sell a dozen pens at first instead of trying to force your potential customer into buying 1000, 10,000, or more.
By keeping your goal small in the beginning, you can get to know your possible client better without feeling overly pressured to make a large sale. At this point, you can be charming, funny, polite, and helpful. The ultimate goal of your first meeting should focus more on the initial meet and greet as opposed to making a big score. If you can accomplish this without somehow upsetting your client, you’ll have a better chance at making bigger and better sales in the future.
Tip #2: Prepare for Your Meeting Ahead of Time
If you’re going to a sales meeting at a particular company, take time to investigate the business on their website, social media channels, and personal social media pages. By learning about the company, learning their mission, and learning the names and images of the key players, you’ll put yourself at a distinct advantage before you ever step foot in their door.
As an example, by looking up the key players online, you can get to know their image by sight. This is valuable during introductions because you’ll have already put a name to the face and you’ll know exactly who you’re meeting prior to the sales call. You’ll have an easier time remembering their names, which goes a long way in a sales meeting. Remember, people love to hear others speak their name – they absolutely eat it up – so make every effort to learn the names and faces of your potential clients before the big day.
By preparing ahead, you also have a chance to learn more about the people working in this company. Find out about their family lives, their hobbies, their biggest business accolades, and anything else you could use to make the meeting go smoother. Only use this information overtly, because you don’t want to look like a cyber stalker! But use it nonetheless and work it into the conversation generically, which will make it seem like you have a lot more in common with your potential customers.
Tip #3: Figure out Ways to Alleviate Their Pain
Every company is dealing with specific pain points that make it tough to run their business. If you think you have the solution to help alleviate their pain, you should make this known during the sales meeting. By sharing this information at the outset of the meeting, you’ll see your potential customer’s eyes light up because they really want you to be the answer to their prayers.
Take some time to figure out how you can really help them best before meeting with them. When you approach your face-to-face sales meeting this way, you can enter the room in the position of being a trusted advisor with a solution to their troubles. Not only will they gladly give you their business, they will happily recommend you to other colleagues in need of your services, as long as you deliver on your promises.
If you fail to live up to the hype, you could kiss this client goodbye and any potential references they may have sent your way. So never oversell your services, because your relationship with this client will most likely end in disaster if you do.
Tip #4: Show up to the Meeting on Time
When you schedule a sales meeting with a new client, you better make every effort to show up on time. Move heaven and earth if need be to get there at the appointed hour. Otherwise you’ll not only look unprofessional, but it will appear like you really don’t care if you impress them or not. This is obviously a terrible way to start off a new business relationship. Work on your time management skills and make sure you’re leaving a good impression by coming on time.
On the other side of the coin, try not to show up to the meeting too early either. It’s okay to be a couple of minutes early, but it’s stressful for those you’re meeting with when you show up 15 minutes, 20 minutes, or even a half an hour early. They now feel rushed because they don’t want to leave you waiting in the lobby. This sets a negative tone for your upcoming meeting and it’s the last thing you want to do when getting to know impending clients.
Ideally, it’s best to show up five minutes early to a business meeting, and this is especially true when there’s a sales aspect involved. By showing up at this time, it shows that you care about your reputation, you’re eager to meet with your soon-to-be clients, and you respect their time as well.
Conclusion
As you can see, meeting face-to-face for a sales call doesn’t need to be stressful or overly difficult. Please use the suggestions shared today and your next face-to-face business meeting should go off without a hitch.
