265: Our Pre-Approach in Sales

<p>What is your pre-approach regimen before you meet the buyer?  We cannot do everything and our time is finite. We should be trying to save our valuable time for meetings with the most qualified clients who can buy.  This might be new clients or existing clients who have more capacity to buy from us. It is always disheartening when you analyse the existing buyer activity and realise we are only selling a small amount, compared to what we could be selling.  It is even worse when you discover, they are buying something you do, but they are now getting it from your competitor.</p> <p> </p> <p>We can research the company, looking at their recent business activity.  Are they expanding, are they doing well financially, have they bought any other companies or have they been bought by someone else?  We can check the company annual report and see what the President has to say about the future direction of the company.  Annual reports are a gold mine really, because they have the direction the company is taking plus a breakdown of the financials.  Unlisted companies are more difficult of course, because we cannot get access to this type of information.</p> <p> </p> <p>We can look for champions within the company. Perhaps we know someone who has moved to this company recently who can supply us with some insights.  We can check their press releases and see what journalists have to say about the company. We can use social media to check out buyers within the company.  Maybe we have some things in common.  Maybe we went to the same university or studied the same subject or have lived in the same location.  It is amazing what we can do today with a few mouse clicks.</p> <p> </p> <p>The person we are selling to has something going on inside their head.  Can we anticipate what the conversation is which is going on in the mind of the prospect?  We may have talked with other companies in the same industry and the chances are high that this company will also share some of the same challenges. When we are thinking about those possib