Getting a New Sales Person Ready for Meetings

We spend a great amount of time at VA Partners thinking about getting a new sales person ready for meetings. One of our most popular offerings is our part-time/fractional BDR (https://vapartners.ca/part-time-bdr/). Booking discovery calls is the main output for a new salesperson. Getting your new sales person ready for meetings by handling more responsibility can free up an entrepreneur’s time. Here are a few tips to help with getting your new sales person ready for meetings.

Have a Discovery Call Plan

Your new sales person should create a plan for the discovery call. This information can be stored in your CRM. The main components we like to use include a planned agenda, details on who we are talking with (like title and LinkedIn profile), previous conversations, why the prospect wants to talk with us, and any other pertinent information.

Joint Calls

Joint calls are great learning and coaching opportunities for new sales people. At the start the sales leader will run the call with the new sales person mostly observing.  Over time the new sales person can take a larger role with the steps outlined below.  The call becomes more of a coaching opportunity. Have your new sales person stay on the video link after the meeting for some instant feedback. 

Asking Questions

Have your new sales person create questions for the meetings. These can be added to HubSpot to ensure everyone is on the same page.  I like for many of these to be open ended questions. Here are a few examples of these questions.

  • What are you hoping to get out of this meeting?
  • We have had time to review your website, but it would be great if we could get a short overview of your organization.
  • Tell us about your current process for XXXXX. What works well and what are the challenges.

Your Company Overview

The new sales person can deliver the overview of your company.  This can be scripted out and practiced before the meeting. This could include the origin story. It would not likely vary much between prospects. 

Next Steps

There are only so many next steps that can happen after meetings. As part of the planning you can list the probable ones based on the stage the meeting takes place in.  I always like to ask the prospect what they would like to see as a next step first.  This will give you a good idea on where the opportunity is from the prospects perspective.

Handling Objections

I would suggest working on some common objections and having the answers to them scripted out. These can also be useful for cold calls as well.

Practice

The sales person can practice the questions, your company overview, objection handling,  and other aspects of the meeting so they are ready for the calls.  The sales leader should help with role playing.

Aligning your Benefits to the Prospects Problems

The most challenging part of the call is aligning the challenges your customer has with how you can help them. This could mean matching one or some of your services to the client. It could also mean leading with some benefits over others based on their challenges.  You can also share relatable past experiences with the client to show you understand the industry and/or Ideal Customer Profile.

If you need some help getting your new sales person ready for meetings please reach out.

Getting a New Sales Person Ready for Meetings