- November 29, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales Manager: How did the call go?
Salesperson: Really good.
Sales Manager: Excellent.
Isn’t that a lame discussion? The sales manager can improve it by simply asking, “What made it such an excellent call?”
The salesperson might respond with, “They were willing to talk, they seemed to like me and they said they’d be happy to speak with me again.”
Depending on where we are in the sales cycle, our response to that salesperson’s answer should be:
Attempting to schedule a first meeting: Unacceptable
Moving from Suspect to Prospect: Unacceptable.
Moving from Prospect to Qualified: Unacceptable.
Moving from Qualified to Closable: Unacceptable.
Moving from Closable to Closed: Unacceptable.
There must be a win, characterized by meeting defined criteria, not feelings, before one can say a call of any kind was excellent. Yet that hypothetical sales conversation takes place in most offices of most companies on most days. Sales managers should be asking things like, Why were they willing to talk? Why will they talk with you again? What can you help them with? What are they hoping you can do? Why would they want to do business with us? Why didn’t you [insert next desired step here], etc.
