Jesse London’s 6 Tips for Sales Call Preparation

Jesse London has 25 years experience in media sales including 20 years selling out of home.  Last week he talked about selling out of home versus publishing Today he talks about sales call preparation.

1  Have an agenda for the meeting, identify what you want to accomplish.  If this is a local advertiser down the road from your board maybe you can close the deal on a first meeting, but if this is a regional advertiser and you are selling a large program then you will need to sell in a second meeting and walk away with a homework assignment.  Be prepared to review the agenda with the customer at your meeting.

2  Prepare for the meeting.

  • First understand who you are seeing by checking LinkedIn.
  • Learn about the business itself by looking at their web site, their social, or find them in the news.  Find out what you can about their current media approach, possible pain points, and also get some understanding about their competition.
  •  Gain a quick background on the industry, find the biggest trends and get comfortable with the industry jargon – be prepared to speak to their industry.
  • Write down a short list of open-ended questions that are specifically aimed at finding the match between your outdoor offering and the client’s problems.  Questions should focus on business challenges, issues media can solve, the competition, buying criteria, timing, budget amount, learnings from previous media, who the decision makers are, and expectations of future media or marketing.

3  Schedule little extra time to really listen.  This is the last best chance to be knowledgeable about the prospect’s business and is often overlooked because we are too concerned with the next question.  Get comfortable with the new acquired material by asking one or two follow up questions to reinforce the learning and establish some credibility.  Be prepared to take notes – they will come in handy.

4  Present something short at the meeting allowing time for questions.  Prepare to present material that highlights your value proposition.  Show what might mean the most to the prospect; show examples of how the competition used outdoor, present a case study that showed results in a similar field, demonstrate proof metrics, or talk to a billboard audience not as impressions but as opportunities to sell the client’s product.

5  Anticipate objections, practice, refine and role play your answers.  Ask fellow sellers and sales manager what objections are most common, and make sure that you can respond to each.  Listen to each objection fully and repeat it if necessary before answering.  After responding, ask for confirmation that you have in fact solved it.  Don’t be afraid of  objections, they are essential and if you don’t flush an objection out then that issue will become a permanent block.

6  Now, go back to #1…. Did you get the order or the homework?

You can reach Jesse at jesselondon1@gmail.com.

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2 Comments

  1. Did you get the order or the homework? haha, love it

  2. Good stuff, Jesse. Davey Crockett, an old Whiteco sales VP had a saying “Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation.”